Let's make the great commission great again | Pr Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

I'm going to be starting a little bit more about

talking about the maybe let's just say the horizontal relationship

with one another, okay, in the perspective discipleship, are we okay?

All right? Cool? Let me just start off by this.

You know all of us nowadays have mobile phones. Right.

Imagine this. You get into the office on a Monday morning. Uh,

and then if you get a text from your boss

and the and the text says urgent, all right and

says do this now? What would you do?

What's that?

Your response? Got it? You respond?

Right?

Right? You respond somehow? You know why I have to respond?

Otherwise your boss might get mad or you don't you

know something something, something is not gonna be good after that? Right?

But why why do we respond so quickly to maybe

our earthly bosses, but we're God maybe say it's urgent.

We tend to maybe even not read the text. You

see it, you ignore it for a while, but you

don't respond. And this is where I wanted to start.

Because Jesus gave the last commandment, and you know this

command very well. Two thousand years ago, right that many

of us may not even have opened it. To be frank,

you've seen it. You see the single uh you know

if you use WhatsApp, is the single that tics the

two texts that makes you know it's read rather, it's

delivered rather. But maybe it's not read or executed yet

or responded. So what is that text? The text is

very simple, go make disciples, and this text right, it's

not a specific text to say, you know, a past

this group or a leader's group chat or the group

chat of the eldest. It's to everybody, right, It's to everyone.

So it's direct to you and me everyone. So imagine

this scenario. We all know if in a battle where

they have soldiers and all that, if a soldier receives

a command from the general, someone's in charge. What happens

if the soldier do not listen or obey in the battle,

most likely the person will get killed or cause somebody

else next to him, you know, being in some trouble.

Why do we listen to the commander in chief? It

is because the general perhaps has a better perspective of

how things where things are the wad troops are deployed

et cetera. And we understand that very simply right. But

here again, God, the ultimate commander, chief in general, or

whatever you want to call it. He's issuing a command,

very specific command, but somehow we tend to delay, ignore,

or not even respond. Okay, So this is how I

want to begin. Hopefully this sort of sets the premise

a little bit. The context of how you know the

command is clear, but sometimes we may not. We might

think it's optional. It's another way to put it. Okay,

so far, so the key verse today, if you have

your Bibles, you can go to the famous Matthew twenty

eight where this all comes from. And I think we've

read this multiple times, even in the first few times

I've came up to share about this. This is sometimes

called the Great Commission, all right, so let me just

read it again. Matthew twenty eight, Verse eighteen to twenty.

It say say, then Jesus came to them, sit. All

authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So this shows that he's in control, the general, the commander,

the boss is another way to put it. He's in control.

And what he did say after that, therefore go and

make disciples of all nations. Now, I know a lot

of times we focus on the word goal is definitely

important verb, but the making disciples is the more crucial word.

Because you go and don't do anything, it's still just go. Correct,

So I want to highlight that going is important, but

making disciples is so equally it's important. Okay, Okay, Now

coming back to the next part here, all nations, so everyone, right,

everybody baptizing them? So do we baptize people? Yes, that's good.

So that's part of discipling as well. And we said

that before in the name of the Father, of the

Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them, teaching them

to obey everything. And I've covered obedience in the last

few times. So if you want to catch them tog,

you can go ahead. But it talks about obedience obedience

of what everything, not just selection selective things, selective instructions,

but everything. I've commanded you, and surely I will. I'm

with you always and to the very end of age. Okay,

So we're all way familiar this. Everybody knows what this is, right, right,

So this is called the great commission, not the not

the great suggestion, is what I put it, Okay, And

I wanted to start with that because sometimes we do

not realize that it is actually a commission. A commission

means a set of instructions that you have to follow. True,

it is not just the missions mission of the church.

It is the mission statement for every believer. Here, you

get it. Sometimes you say the church must say ownership

of this mission, but the people you want to follow

follow lah that kind of thing. No, it's not. It's

the mission for every believer. So today, just as an introduction,

I want to encourage you to read that message from God.

Unignorre is another way to put it. Unignore the great

Commission because if not, dude, you're gonna get yourself in trouble.

You're gonna get the next person in trouble, et cetera.

But I know what you're thinking, and I think this

as well. All right, isn't this just for the super

Christians as we call it past as elders, you know,

leaders of the church, et cetera. Most common thing, right,

I actually google all the responses the challenges of discipleship. Okay,

I don't have the gift of teaching. Therefore, I sometimes

they think discipleship is about teaching because it says, then

the word right, it's about teaching. I don't have a

gift teaching, and therefore I don't have disciple others. Right,

what if I I mean a mess, If I mess up,

I don't want to be liable. I don't want to

do this in case I wreck his life. Hey, you know,

we're all parents, some of us our parents. We still

do what we do right, even though we don't not

have everything figured out right? Why so specific and again,

today's message is gonna be very very short. It's mainly

to cover and tackle some of these themes of different

things that hold us from actually, you know, doing the

Great commission, or to be more specific, to disciple. Okay,

let's tackle this on my So I borrowed these words

from the famous US president. Uh, let's let's make the

Great Commission great again. That's why I'm trying to call it.

Get tackle this message. Okay, So today we are going

to be zeroing in on discipleship. What the Bible talks

about it, what's important. Why the church, not just ex church,

but the church at large or the company of believers,

the Body of Christ believes in it and are heavily

invested in it. Of course this year specifically, our church

is so very focused on it. Okay, but let's tackle

the different disciples of questions, the struggles of different ones

those that are here, and also what the disciple and

disciples plea faces. Let me just quickly say, it's not

just for the church. By the way, we also called

the disciple are outside the church. So for example, gave

your sister is also a disciple plea to some extent,

we have you have, you have that access family members,

you know, your workplaces, et cetera. Those are all part

of your group of dic ipers. So I just wanted

to just be very clear about it. But of course

we didn't just setting there's also a set of discipleas

that can happen, all right, But it's all to do

sometimes with relational issues to do struggles, or you're afraid

to do certain things because of hurts. This is the

people problem. It's probably the same the simplest way to

put it. But let's just tackle these questions one by one. Okay. Now,

I actually took the liberty to google some of the

questions or what the challenges are, So I'm going to

flash up some of the questions out here. I wanted

to get some people to read it. Maybe get just

to read it first. Well, here it goes so that

it's not me just talking to myself. Okay. If I

have given more thought, I might haven't have a panel

of people here. But I didn't plan this too well.

But let's just keep past. Okay, maybe maybe you can

go first raining. Okay, since you have the mic. Okay, okay.

So I have a lot of questions, and again these

questions are all looked up Google, typical questions that people

ask that prevents them from discipleship. We go ahead, what

is discipleship? And why do we need discipleship? Yeah, so

the respond to that question. Now you can understand why

they asked. Typically, those questions ask because you don't fully understand.

I wouldn't even to use the word the program, but

you don't understand the purpose of it. Okay, so it's

a fair question. So where do we go? We go

back to Matthew twenty eight right, matt to twind talks

about the Great Commission we should rid earlier. It says,

go make disciples So why what is or why why is?

Because we are told to do? What are we to

do is to make disciples clear right, because it's a mission.

As I mentioned, it's a mission that is given to us,

just like how an instruction is given to us. Wh Now,

let me just quickly take a pause for a while.

What's the difference between mission and vision? Mission and vision,

because sometimes these two are sort of intermixed together. Short term,

long term great big picture, small picture or details aspirational goals.

You know, sometimes I don't know about you guys, but

you know sometimes that the start of the year, we

always start to talk about vision for the next few years. Right,

it's a three year goal versus a you know things

they put your KPI document, right, and it's something like that.

The vision is something that is prolonged. And we know

that even in life, life here on earth is actually

a short term thing. Your eternity is long term. So

the vision obviously is clearer from God's perspective. Correct. Mission

is defines what we do in simplistic sense, but the

vision is a picture of what will happen if you

fulfill that mission doesn't make sense, so if you do

little missions, you know that you're told to do the

vision will fulfilled because the vision is the long term thing.

In other words, you can see the future happening. When

you continue to do the mission, you will continue to

follow the brief essentially. Okay, So now Proverbs twenty nine,

I'm sorry I don't have this up, but Provins twenty

nine eighteen I'll read it out very quickly. It says,

where there is no vision, my micros go. When there's

no vision, people will perish. That's why there is such

importance place on this whole thing about vision. Okay, So

proverts traight nine eighteen. Now, of course we're talking about

mission just now the more specific. But this is a

mission that is vision driven. Does that make sense? A

mission short term thing that you have to do while

on earth for a long term thing that God sees

that you may not fully NDErs tendency. So it is

a mission that is vision focus. Makes sense? Okay, So

why do we make disciples If you don't understand, It's

fine because you don't have to understand the full vision.

But just because Jesus did that, and we are called

to be christ Like followers, or we're called to be

christ Like every day, if he did it, we do

it correct simplest way, because why if you do it,

he did it, we do it. You can't go wrong.

Got it? Now? Of course he's the yardstick. But I

also believe the mission gives us a direction. It gives

us a purpose, right, not just like I said the

soldiers example, not just like aimlessly moving around. There is

a purpose for him to go that direction, go south,

go north, wherever he's told to do. He keeps us focus.

It also attracts commanderie or cooperation between the fellow let's

say people that are for the same cause. And church

or the kingdom is a bit like that. We are

going towards the same goal to some extent, and it's

good to have a mission so that we are focused

and we do it together. Right. And of course the

other thing from a very earthly perspective, just that how

you set targets and goals, it keeps us and allows

us to gauge where we're at. Okay, So actually making

disciples is a gauge to some extent. That's our mission.

And of course, like I said, the bigger vision, the

bigger picture is that it prepares for eternity. Okay, Okay,

So Jesus mission is very vision focused, right, It's not

just like I said, for a mission for this church.

But it's a mission for every believer, clear and simple.

The great commission is to go make disciples. Don't overcomplice,

don't overthink it, just do it. Okay, clear and simple. Now,

Second question, why this x hone in on or exercise

discipleship so much? Why is discipleships important something it's only

for pastors or church leaders? Common question, right, right? Well,

of course to answer specifically, I sort of cover a

little bit of that. Why this year it's not there's

something new, it's something that's two thousand years ago. But

this year we choose to be focused on really discipleship making. Okay,

but uh, one important thing is we want to normalize

discipleship is another way to put it, because discipleships sometimes

if you're not fully understand what it is, then it's

a strange thing some people this is a program, it's

not if it is, it's God's program anyway. But this year,

as pastor shared, we're focused on that because it builds

to this dream waiting or notice right, because she's just

part of that that that that bigger picture thing. She

by the way, waiting or I think what last year

they went through, you know, entire thirty years of history

of where X has gone to see the different seasons

that X has gone through, and then they actually charted

where pastor has downloaded some visions from God. And then

everything is consistent right till this point. So the next uh,

you know three up to twenty thirty. Right, So twenty

twenty thirty is this whole thing about dream, right, and

the dream The first D is discipleship. So the next

day we can focus on revival. Right, So and again,

because revival takes radical thinking, radical approaches. If you do

not have discipleship figured out all normalized, then next year

we'll be ligging behind a little bit. Okay, So that's

why we are so for it this year. Okay, Now

back to the question discipleship is not just for leaders.

Let me just go back to MATI tren eight. If

you can you see this word here? Can you go

back to the worst I think? Yeah? So you see here?

Therefore go make decis all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Fatherest and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey. Now,

who is the them here you think about? Is it

just leaders or is it everybody else? You think about?

It?

Can fily everybody else Why do I say this because

you know, if you know Ephesians, for it talks about

equipping the people, you know in accordance so that they

can you know, make more disciples. Right, So where this

come from comes from, we can take it down Ephicians

for eleven to twelve, he says, says, and he himself

gave some to their apartles, some prophets, some evangelists, and

some passes, and some teachers. Okay, so there is a

part that talks about all those categories that we usually

think is supposed to championese coss but worst your says,

some passes, some teachers for the equipping of the saints.

So they teach to equip the saints. Who are the saints.

Who are the saints, not the elders, not the pastes,

not the not the evangelists, and all that is the

people you and I regular Joe's okay, I mean believers

is probably another way to put it. For the work

of the ministry, for edy find the body of Christ,

so that them he actually refers to everyone everyone. So

back to this, the mission belongs to every follow of Jesus.

The moment you say you're a follow of Jesus, your believer,

you accept Christ as a personal and savor. You are

the them already. The rest of the leaders are just

to equip you so that you can then do the discipling.

But sometimes it's oh, the discipling is only done by

the leaders. That's a common misconception. But hey, it's clear here, right.

The teachers are to equip. Let me give you a

simple a energy. Now, some of you are in education, right,

even just recently Joan Sunway, he's a trained accountant, right,

he is now an accountant lecturer. Correct? What does he do?

He goes there and equipped. When he equips, what happens?

The graduate accountants then account you know what I mean?

They do their accounting work, but he doesn't do it

for them, He just equips. Makes sense. So again, the teachers,

the leaders, the elders, the pastors, they equip, but the

drop of the discipling actually falls on everyone. So discipleships

for everybody. Okay, all right, So to help you all,

I made a simple slide for all the summary that

things are discovered. Okay, using those questions earlier, so it

says the mandate the slide. Sorry, I'm jumping here and there.

When I put this together. It's very messy because, like

I said, I take questions and then try to piece

it together nicely. So here you go. So the men

the mandate. We've all agreed. Discipleship is not negotiable. Right,

This is a command. It's not optional, It's not where

way to put it. Jesus doesn't ask. Jesus commands right

in verse eighteen, and he says, Jesus authority makes this command.

So you know it's not just him saying. It's all

authority given to him, not a suggestion. This remind us again.

Now if we go to Luke, it talks about if

he is lord, we must obey. Where is where's come from?

Luke six forty six? But why do you call me

lord and do not sorry and not do things? Which

I say? So it says in that particular scripture that

if you call Jesus lord and you do not do

the things that you're told to do, then you might

not call him lord at all. Okay, So just tying

it to the commandment that he gave, if you really

call him lord and you do not do as he commands,

then something is not right as well. Okay, So it's

it comes from authority Secondly, it's what every believe. We

recovered that it's not just for pastors some things for

what I use the term professional Christians only. No, it's not,

it's for everyone. It's what everyone, because otherwise you say, oh, no,

I'm not a I'm not a leader, I'm not a pastor.

Therefore it's not for me. Now let me ask you

this simple question. Did Jesus only train twelve disciples in

his lifetime? No, he walked with people, He discipled different

ones as well. There is a select twelve, don't get

me wrong, but discipleship doesn't only end with that twelve.

Those are his higher order people that he's more specifically discipling.

And it's a bit like this as well, right, because

you think about it, he trained everyone, text collectors, la, fishermen,

ornary people. Right. Why do you think this is the

case for Jesus? Why is it not just for a

select few? Why is it important that he actually walk people,

eat people, and teach discipleship. It's because of this simple fact.

Discipleship is actually caught. It cannot be taught. Right. You

see how some of your leaders spend the time to

disciple you you catch it more than you're being told.

So for us as well, the different leaders here that

are entrusted to disciple. Hopefully what we do will also

rub off a little bit loud. And we're doing it

because it's a commandment. We already said that, but hopefully

it can also be modeled, and it's us modeling after

Jesus anyway. Right, So I mentioned about leaders equipping the

saints already. Okay, let me just here for a while.

How many here are first generation believers? The means first

nation Christians? Okay? One anymore? Two? Three behind? Okay? How

many of you are led by only by pastors, elders

and church leaders?

No?

Right, Actually, a lot of non believers that become believers.

They are disciples by the day. In the in the

statement there, that means the people, the believers themselves are

the ones that actually lead people to Christ true discipleship.

So that's God's plan if you look at it from

a stats I love matts. I'm a status person right

from a statistic statistical standpoint. If you only limit this

job scope to pastors, elders and all those professionals, right,

we will never be able to reach everyone. And that's

why God's vision is fantastic right. The church will never

grow if we only rely on that special quote unquote group. Okay,

so last point, it's the heart of the Greek. I mean,

it's heart of God. And you know, Jesus say go

make disciples, not just make converts. Because we sit before

in the other segments it's just the something point to

be a believer, but being a disciple is another level altogether.

So we are caught to not just make the believers,

but make disciples. And why is Discipleship is really leading

people to follow Jesus fully, as simple as that, not

just to believe in him, but follow him fully fully,

not partially. Even baptism, let's just talk of baptism. Some

people's again not not not saying this is a challenge,

but I understand it is a challenge sometimes, but that

is also part of what God tells us do. And

sometimes we wrestle, we forget that baptist is only the

very beginning as well. There's more things in store by

any Way, Let's move on because I don't really focus

on this so much. Let's transition to another question. Okayalky

so far we're getting anything. It's a very practical way

of looking at it. Maybe get somebody else will read

this next one. Okay, if discipleship is so vital, how

do we do it? What is a huddle or discipleship group?

What does it mean? And where do we find this

concept in the Bible?

Yeah?

Great question, Lizzie. Now again these are questions that typically

typically ask. Now, I just wanted to before I answered

the first question. I just want to quickly jump here.

At X we call huddle, relationship or groups. Sorry, let

me just back discipleship groups or relationship huddle just the lingola, okay,

by the same thing as a discipleship group. Just to

be also very clear, discipleship group doesn't mean an entire

compo of people. Okay, two people is already a discipleship group.

Just very clear. Okay. Now coming back to this. So

the response to this, why is it? How do you

do it? We just followed Jesus love, simplest way, simplest answer.

Jesus also modeled in small groups. Right, he started his

ministry choosing the twelve to be very focused. Now, how

did he choose the twelve? Is the question here? Right,

Let's let's look. You know, he went he prayed all

night in the Mountain Luke six twelve to thirteen. He

did spend some time selecting. Not only that after he selected,

he spent the time to train as well walk with them.

And then it's he then of course, you know the

disciples are sent out. How may are glad that the disciples?

And otherwise we won't be here today anyway? Right? But

what did we learn from here? Like I said, the

hoddle is just our lingo, but it's still the discipleshire

groups is very big and alive in all churches around

the world. Now, But what did we learn here? Okay,

about what Jesus did. Jesus saw the importance of selecting,

and it's very careful selection, right, because parends how do

we do it?

Right?

He also built relationship, this association right, And you notice

one thing, it's also the small. He has the big ministry,

big group ministry, but also has a small ministry as well.

Why do we say that this is important? How many

of you grow better in large group settings? Think about it.

Private nurturing is actually more effective. Jesus understood that as well.

That's why I focus on the small, right, That's why

discipling is important, because discipling is really the small coming together.

Like I said, two further is already sufficient. Right, Look

at the after the Pentecost, what happened? We go gether

together three thousand people. Then they broke down the small groups,

right the early Church. Let's look at X two forty

six to two for the X two versus forty six

to forty seven. I don't think I have it up,

so sorry, well I'll just read My version is NLT.

They worship together the temple each day, met in homes

for the lost upper and they shared their meals with

joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying

the good will of all the people and the most

important thing. And each day the Lord added to their

fellowship those who were saved. So again, early Church also

used to meet in temples, big churches, in big groups.

They also met house to house, and the house houses

every day, you know, So for you to do the

disciple thing once a week or once a month is

a few okay, and correct homes is not exactly their

kind of discipleship. It can be, but they're also once

a fortnight also won't kill you. These people used to

do every day, you know, every day, and these are

not their family family. You know, it's like different families

come together in the small what do they do their

meals together? They broke bread together, they shared the word

together the Bible. They encourage each other. So the small

groups what they do, they mutually encourage each other. They

they are accountable to each other as well, and they

are really focusing on growth. That's why the Lord added

to them. Just like how Jesus did that, we are

also doing that as well, and that's why we encourageable too.

Just spend time on me doing things that you'll normally

do anyway. Okay, summary number two the model Jesus made

disciples Let's see how he did it. Again. He did

it in small groups. He invested the twelve the big crowds. Right,

and it's important because discipleship happens when there's intentional relationships.

That's what discipleship is. He did life with them, he

ate with them, he traveled with them and ministered together.

That makes himself together. There's another way of discipling as well. Right,

and again, discipleship is not just a weekly thing. Here,

you do interest just weekly and we can share how

much you can share. It's only that far we hope

you can take it beyond that. Now, let me just

so quickly introduce you to the power of technology these days.

You can also remotely disciple these days more easily than

what they used to have last time. Just a word

of encouragement. Check on you. How are you doing? Brother sister?

I mean a lot of things that Laura shared earlier

is all remote. It's not people coming together right as

in the physical. So you can actually disciple people with

harnessing the power. It's not just to don't just go

wash netflix. I think there's more than what you can

do with the data. Okay, right, so he thought, uh see,

he thought obedience not just knowledge. And again teaching is

one aspect is to obey. It's the main goal here.

Because many people know the Bible, and we've seen a

lot of Pharisees and all that they know the Bible

a living it's a different story together. Gotta be very careful. Okay,

Next question, I work at this format. Just try something new.

No burying white glass.

Now, how does it like apply us to us today?

Does this mean we need more huddles? If so, what

are the qualities of good or effective huddle leader?

Do we have the right leader, yep. Okay, So again

this is just building to those questions before. How does

this work? Do we need to have more discipleship groups,

more discipleship relationships? Right when we see this, can let

me just address the Let's just say we agree we

need to have more. Let's just talk about how to

find effective disciples relationship or disc disciples or people that

focus on disciples discipling. How do we focus on Now

we look back at God. What does God look at

usually heart? Right? What heart, heart that works hard, people

that were hard? All right? He focuses on the heart

of a servant, correct And what even Jesus himself he's

a servant at heart. He didn't have to. He could

have come down God, the Father could have set him

down there he can just like do his own thing

and people will ship him and all that. He didn't.

He still chose to have total surrender. And let's learned

from this. Okay. So Matthew twenty eight, Sorry, Matthew twenty

verse twenty says it Jesus came not to be served,

but to serve. And of course we know he gave

his life. We just had least not too long ago.

He gave his life for ransom of many. Now I've

read about this. I looked this up. There's an acronym

for good disciples. Okay, they call them fat people woke

you up right? Okay, Fat, it's a share acronym being used.

I try to look for the origin. It's been used

for many I think more than a decade. But I

can't find who the originator is. But FAT stands for

the faithful, the available, and the teachable. Okay, we'll have

it up there. Sorry, I may later I'll share I

have it. That's like so faithful. I think it's straightforward.

Faithful are the ones that are dependable, consistent. It's another

way of putting faithful people. Do they follow true things? Hey, Gabe,

can you help me call a guy follow true? He's faithful? Ezra,

can you you know, make sure that the guy you

know you bring you bring the drums tomorrow faithful? He

breaks faithful faithul right. That's important because if not, then

there's nothing you can work with. Dependable. It's actually important.

Second thing available. Even though the person can be faithful, right,

he can also be not available. I know me to say, oh,

you know, no time to me? Busy at whatever homework, right, Zach.

That's why not listening to me anymore. Too busy for

other things. But you know what it is, servant's heart

again had to have some sacrifice one you think Jesus

wasn't busier, right, soailable for availability is really time for others.

Because the last thing here is the teachable part, humility,

willing to learn, teachable. You know some people you you

share teachers, so they like I heard of that before.

Those kind of people is maybe the less teachable kind

of nothing wrong with that, but if you want them,

then you also get frustrated a little bit laer Okay,

So let's just work with people that are more teachable, uh,

and then it's more effective. Okay. So the simplest qualities

that I mentioned earlier is the fat disciples. Again, it's borrowed,

looked it up, but it's fat. But let me add

one more thing to the fat.

Uh.

Let's set the c to it so it becomes fact. Okay,

I know, I butchering it a little bit. But sometimes

chemistry should also be considered because different ones drive different people.

And that's why you do that as well. Right, we

do the practical. We see similar fit, similar interest, similar strengths,

you connect them so the dynamics, you set them up

better for more successful discipleship. So I'm just gonna butcher

this and put the scene between. I call it fact people,

fact people. So it's not so not so strong a sola. Okay, now,

so answers, Yes, we need more disciples relationship. How look

for people that fits fat fact so that they can

be effective where they are. Now, before I go any further,

let's look at the next questions point. Just cockie jump

and read.

What activities can we do together?

In a harder? Oh so cute? Right? So what activities really?

Eat Charlie and be merry? Right, have fun? I mean Jesus,

like I said, it's not all just ministry stuff as well.

He had to walk people, He had to build relationship,

and that's what we do as well, right, But the

discipleship relationship. Doing all that is to build trust, build

a relationship, and then beyond that there also needs to

be some spiritual stuff embedded in there as well, and

that's why we say it's important. So again, the purpose

of building relationship or shared experiences when you serve, you

travel together, you play badminton together, scream and each other's head,

you know, eat together, that's all in the Book of Acts,

is what they do as well. Because the more time

you spend each other, the more you know each other,

the more you are able to hear each other out

as well born, and then it's easier to then go

deeper into the next phase of really growing, right it

is for maybe I can't remember, you know, whenever you

start a job as a graduate, you don't see yourself

retiring at the same uh same space unless you're not

motivated at all. Correct, most people will have some kind

of a natural progression, is what they call it. That's

the physical realm, right. Spiritually, people sometimes can be read

complacent or you know, they start off there, they stay,

they want to retire there as well. And that's what

discipleship actually does. It challenges that that thing. But why

are we okay with the dec discipleship in the physical

but the spiritual side just just saying okay, now, developing

the interaction, of course is the purpose for loving others

to build each other up, helping us as well is

another way to put it. Okay, So what we do

all those things, how minutes to building Okay, So it's

important to get to know each other. So what can

you do really anything as long as it makes you

happy to some extent. But you must always remember the

core purpose is really to grow. If you forget that,

it's only fun and that's quite wrong. That means every

ten activities you do, having jolly, merry and all that

kind of stuff right, be one of it. You got

to focus on the core of why we do discipleship,

otherwise there's no growth. So that's why we sometimes do

Bible study, we pray together. Some homes are doing extra

Bible study every Wednesday, amazing stuff, and that is discipling

as well. And the most important thing, which is going

to be very sensitive here, is to move to this

portion of accountability. Let's read the next question. What is accountability?

How do we define accountability in the huddle? How is

it practiced? So this is one of the major barriers

of disciplesh it relationship because people feel that when I'm accountable,

then problem, I don't want this now. What is accountability?

Simply put it, it is firstly willing to listen to somebody.

If you're a disciple ler, willing to listen first, and

then when you're willing to listen to input. Then you

can also have opportunity to then justify maybe the behavior

right why because let's just even as a example, I

even come up for let's say we are both in

a disciplesh relationship. I come to him, right see, I

won't I think, you know, this is this area. I

think we need to fix it a little bit. And

then first thing, you have to listen. Correct If you

don't listen, nothing happens, right and when he when he listens,

I also have to allow him the space to justify

or explain, because it's relation oma. Right after that, what

happens does it just end there all right, is to

go another level, which is if agreeable acceptable, then it

changes to happen. Now, let me just quickly mention that

when let's just use the word I counsel him, it

is not baseless counsel. I know, it needs to be

counsel that is biblically let or spiritually let. Otherwise it's

just good advice, right stand tall, you know that kind

of thing. You know, it's it's not it's not really

spiritual advice. So that's the nice even that's the core

essence of disciples relationship because there needs to be opportunity

to account and accounting is the core purpose of it

is to build each other up and accountable. What's two ways.

I know the discipler also has to be accountable to

the discipler. I know you think about it in the

in the work sense, or you know whatever. You look

up to a mentor if the mentor is doing something

funn near right us, it like hey, correct, So it

actually builds the discipler as well. So it's a win

win relationship. I often say, right, a lot of times

you see, let's say, as the leaders only once a week.

Ask my wife lies here every day, she sees me

every day. Hopefully I am. What I do here is

exactly the same as how I behave at home. I

have to be accountable to her as well. Likewise the

other way around. So the family sometimes is the easiest

way to check whether this person is right or wrong.

Talk to the family members. Right, you can't be saying

something in church and behaving something funny at home or

with a family or at work, et cetera. So actually,

it accountable is a good thing. It keeps us in check. Now,

why do people don't want to come because they always

say this is private I don't want to go to

the private stuff. You're not talking about private stuff. We

are talking about biblical issues here. If something is biblically wrong,

your disciple has to say something. If he cannot say something,

also not right because why he's not helping. Oh yeah,

she's not helping you. Okay. If they say misunderstanding, it's fine.

That's why you have the opportunity to clarify. Sometimes it

is like this, right, if we say, give the benefit doubt,

maybe something's happening. I don't quite not quite sure this,

I said, Ivan, Would you like to just explain yourself.

We will talk through it, right, give him the benefit

of doubt, and then later of course, the willingness to

take corrective actions is the most important thing about accountability.

Otherwise there's no no real perperson there. So let me

just come back to it again. Accountability is a good thing.

It's to help each and everyone of us grow and

to be better, both the discipler and the discipler. You're

not just a tris that thing as well. At work

you need to disciple people as well. In school you

need to disciple people as well. You can't just do

the things you do differently here and then you're the

same person now, has anyway driven a truck before? No,

I've driven one before. And by the way, uh back

in Australia when I used to work, I just transport

stuff and then used to have a trailer as well.

Trailer is something that you hook up to a regular

car and then it's got, it's got, it's very funny

and you reverse, it's holding bends and it's very strange. Anyway,

that's not my point. The point is when you drive

a large vehicle, you will notice one thing that you

or the problem you'll face is very different from the

problem of your regular small car or regular size car.

One thing, you'll notice that there is a lot of

blind spots. And in those cases, right, what do you

do with blind spots? Usually get somebody, a friend, Can

you come and help me, just spot for me, a

spotter so that when you reverse, you don't reverse into

somebody or something. Right now, accountability is a bit like that.

We have to admit that will be blind spots in

our lives that you can't see yourself. But if you're

so arrogant to say I don't need it, you know

a professional reverse oral, you know, long car reverse oral.

I can take myself no problem. Very often you get

sert of the trouble and do you know it? Right?

And some Christians are like this. They believe they can

be lone ranges. I got God, what I don't need people,

But there's also a problems. That's this Iron sharpens iron, right,

iron and iron is people and people that it's not

gotten you right? So what what what are we saying? Accountability?

You open up, if I do something wrong, tell me

it's okay. Take it and the heart of it. If

me and him as a good relationship, but he understands

where I'm coming from, and it is not to harm him,

is to help him or myself as well, to bring

to the tension is what I'm trying to say. That's

what accountability is. Maybe okay, okay, next one. Yeah, these

are things that google.

Some say want to check.

Some say I don't need Sunday worship service.

I have my group, and vice versa.

How do we respond a regatic question? Some of like, oh,

you know, I've got a cell group or I've got

a haddle, I got, I got a good relationship the

pastor of the church. I don't have to go to

Sunday service not I mean technically not wrong. I don't

get legalistic into it. I mean the whole legalistic aspect

of it. But there's a place for the Sunday the

worship celebration service. There's also a place for the the

the discipleship side of the group side of things. Okay,

let me just quickly break it down that the Sunday

one is between uh, it's many. The we are many

taking care of the vertical communication relationship. We celebrate the

vertical on Sunday collectively if a group of believers as well.

The discipleship is usually to do with the horizontal stuff.

I mean to say, you will work with the day

to day problems with your discipler or disciple disciples relationship,

but we won't work with the day to day problems,

although sometimes recover it. But it's moll big picture stuff

on Sunday, because it's really sharing what God has in

store for the church, for the congression at large. But

if you have one and not the other, also not

quite right because again the vision it's just you just

do the mission and then you just be end up

the math, just doing the doing and not understanding why

you're doing the doing as well, so you can say

both are you can going important both also to grow you,

and that's way we encourage people to be doing it

both as well. Okay, So yeah, summary, corporate worship is fantastic.

Come enjoy worship together. You practice Monday to Saturday in

your personal worship all areas of prayer, worship, et cetera.

You prepare yourself for the corporate worship here. Collectively, that's

the beauty. Okay. But the horizontal and the vertic both

are important and there's a place for it. If one

is weak, you're not complete. So let's just focus on

the two. Okay. And again you know this. We are

called to love God. We're a so called to love people.

We can't just be hermit and love God only right.

You have to put in practice as well, otherwise you'd

be overflowing. Sorry, not overflowing. You'll be like yeah, no

place to overflow too. In two Okay, all right, Next question.

H can everyone be disciplined? What ifout disciple disciple? What

if our discipleship relationship ship slash group falls apart or evolves?

You want discipline is discipleship for everybody's in a way

to ask it is it only for the select few.

These are the discipleice perspective, and some people don't dare

to start a disciplesion relationship because they're afraid that it

may not work out. Sometimes you can also look at

it like, maybe it evolves over time. Now it's in

this season it's effective, and maybe next time not so effective,

and then you'll be like what was happening here? Those

are the fears to start anything, right, But let's just

address this. Look at Jesus again. He did he get

it perfect his twelve Probably not right. He's got some

fallots as well, But let's not let's not get there first.

But one thing addressing that, is it for all? Yes,

it's for all? Why because Jesus sees when we accept

this proposition, right, we will see things through Jesus eyes. Right.

Leaders will often come and say, Carisa, you can do it.

You know why because they will see maybe a bit

more potential. And we always oways say God sees more

potential in you, right, and then you have the same perspective,

so you're actually seeing the potential of people, not where

they're at, but where God sees them down the line.

Because again, disciplesh it is about building. So we need

to do this because everybody needs building. He said. Nobody

is should be happy where they are. If they are,

then again we need to step in and encourage them

to see where they can go even further. Right, So

everyone that you disciple, you need to see the potential.

That's first thing. You have to be honest because God

sees them as they are or I means as where

they can be. So you also need to allow them

to live up to the expectation of where God sees them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about you know, discipling,

like how sometimes there's mass discipling, like how Passaicanda does

the whole big two thousand people think there's a special

kind of gifting. Not talking about that. But can you

disciple one? Can you speak life into one? Can you

handle one person that is a small definitely can lead

a discussion with two of a conversation and encouragement again

the fact again, check what it's faithful. Encourage the person

and is faithful. You will also notice as you you know,

give give him or herd a little you see some faithfulness.

You also notice the giftings that the person has that

you may not have seen before. But if you do

not start the disciples relationship, you will not be able

to see anything at all. And if you leave it

to wishful thinking and by chance, most likely the person

will not grow. And again, just to be clear, it's

not just in the church. I think it's outside the

church as well. Right workplaces understand that. Why don't we

understand that? Okay, So again, look for people, equip people,

look for the fat qualities, fact fact qualities. But one

thing they have to mention to you is that you

do not need to be fully qualified to do it.

Some people think that I have to get it all covered,

at least in theatological sense before I go out and

do anything. No, it's not second Timothy to to heresy

is you've heard that, they say, many many witnesses and

trust to reliable people. That means it's as long as

you're reliable, that's it. It's the criteria. You don't have

to know it all, you know, be qualified. That's why

you see a lot of people they disciple not because

again they are they've gone through Bible Bible school that

maybe the olden kind of era. You can't. You just

need to be faith faithful, as long as they're reliable,

you just look on them. I can say Jesus himself

he trained the twelve on the job. One do you

think any of them venture byle school the twelth? Probably not.

They learned it as they're doing it. They were not.

They're nowhere near perfect leaders, but they were equipped as

they serve. Now, the last question there is what if

my group falls apart or if things go south? Like

I said, Jesus himself, his group also didn't succeed. Will

denied him Peter as well as as Judas as well.

But one point say is failure isn't final, right, that's

a saying right. Even if something died there, it can

still be fertilizer for something else. I don't be sound

more a bit, but even in failure, God can make

something out of it. Just treat you, I fertilize that

for the next big thing that God is going to

grow in them. What is actually worse, right is if

worse than the discipleship readship struggling, then to not try

and allow the person to or disciple the person, that's

even worse because then nothing will happen. So it's okay

even if that fear holds you back. It Turn the

person next to you and say, if that's the fear

that's holding you back from deciping somebody, say it out loud,

that's crippling you. That's not enabling you to disciple somebody.

Our God is still bigger. It's not you, you know. Okay, come,

let's summarize and then I'll close very soon. Oga. So

the method how we make disciples today? Start a group small,

doesn't matter. Make sure it is I say, Bible is centered.

It's not just the Bible side, but it Make sure

it's focused on growing the person spiritually. Don't worry accountability, mixture, accountable,

focus on that the fat You can look at all

the scriptures there, Okay, balance the worship and the discipleship. Right.

Encourage vertical focus and also horizontal focus. Both are essential. Lastly,

we have the multiplier. Is it you trained the twelve

so that the twelve can train? Does not end there

as well? Right? So the next question is the final

question of the day. Who are you?

Who are you investing in?

What's holding you back? You notice before this everything is

wevv right. First time, I'm going to put the ball

on your court. Who are you investing in. In other words,

discipushi is an investment, you think myself in just a

lot of free times, go and meet everybody right away.

If we're meeting everybody one by one, eitherre's couples of individuals,

H and some of the other leaders are just doing

so it's an investment, and we are doing it because

of all the things that is mentioned earlier to grow together. Right,

But the thing that's holding you back sometimes could be

the barrier and understand barriers. Let's look true the whats

and the whys that this may not be happening sometimes, right,

you know, just to remind us again, John fourteen fifteen says, yeah,

if you love me, keep my commandments, right, So one

way to put it, if you're very black and white

like me, yeah, if you do not obey the commandment,

does that also probably mean that maybe perhaps the loving

God part is a bit problematic, black and white engineering

that right again, if you love me, you will obey

me keep my commandments, So hesitation could be maybe perhaps

the relationship between myself and God is affected. And again

we talked about this before, go back to it, we

kin again, we fire again, or maybe some sin you know,

enemy always those sins in the picture. I'm not worthy, Lord,

you know I cannot. Again, it's still me and God.

Maybe it's fear, fear of the unknown. Hopefully you've addressed

a little bit of that. And again fear is always

from the enemy as well. So that's where your leaders

come in or disciples, disciple blurs come in. Two then

he feels some encouragement as well to help you. True.

Remember we started off earlier. Everybody is involved in this.

You need to disciple somebody. It's not an option. So

the last slide is at first I put various, but

let's just use the word excuse as well, because unless

it is an excuse, And these are the typical ones

that google I'm not qualified, I don't have time. What

if I fail? And these are also the verses that

I've found that sort of helped answer to the address

the questions. Jesus didn't call us, you know, he he

didn't call the equipped to go. He called everybody. He

equipped the leaders as I mentioned, to then respond to

the call. So if you do not have it, and

it's okay, we are training. We do training inside out.

That's why sometimes they say, yeah, why are we going

back to basics. Again, in some of the material that

we do in our teaching, it's because people are not

doing it yet, So how can we advance to more stuff?

Like say, it's not about ht knowledge, it's about obedience.

If you can do the distributing the five that wus

very well, then find we move on to something else.

Are we there? Are you doing it yet? I don't

have time? Okay? This on between you and God. You pray,

God puts something in your heart, you love him, you

should love people, and you should make time on And

of course the last one is that yella, we're all

imperfect anyway, so it's okay. Also, like I said, fertilizer

nila for next big thing not knocking. But there's always

opportunities for God to shine and show true. Are you okay?

Let's end here. Extreme can come up and now we've

got something out of this today, like I said previously,

is always about the vertical relationship of discipleship, but really

today my main focus is on the horizontal. You know,

when a dying man is going off, he knows his

time is up. Normally, when he says something right is

very important, it's not simply words come up with his

mouth and Jesus' last final words. It's obviously important and

what was his last few words? Make disciples. So if

we ignore this call, this command, as I started off earlier,

we actually ignore his heart for this world, his whole

purpose of coming to this world. We negate every thing.

And that's how crucial and serious this disobedience can be.

I use the word Disobedience'm so sorry. It's very strong,

but it is what it is. So there is some

urgency in discipleship at the last light over there. It

isn't optional, it is for all. So really, today the

call for action is that if you're not in a relationship,

the disciples relationship, find somebody, start one. You know, between

the time and we start talking about discipleship, there's a

few that she came to different ones, different leaders and

began something. I think that's good, But you know, there's more.

I think there are many more opportunities right here for

those that who are not discipled to be discipled. The

second one is to invest in somebody. Like I said,

it's not just the ones in church. You have access

to different ones wherever you are, and that we the

church have access to. Won't you just invest in somebody,

a young potential believer, a young friend in school, somebody

at work, your neighbor, etc. Who nobody else can reach.

Won't you just disciple that person? Because this is not

an exclusive program in church. That is what making disciples

is as God intended it. And the last call for

action is really for you to live as a disciple.

What does that mean? Follow Jesus fully, don't water it down,

don't be loo warm. You're either hot or not. You're

either a disciple or not. You can be mediocre. So

as we close today, I want to ream mind us

again that Jesus didn't say make disciples when you're ready.

You know what's the first word before making disciples? It's

the word go, go man, not when you feel already

go first. Well, like I said earlier, you need to

make disciples as you go. Can I just go both

out the door? And then what's to do? What's the plan?

Go and make disciples.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as Church RG. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week ahead

for you. God bless