Disciple: Planted In Community - Pastor Joseph Pringle

So we've been talking through this whole series about being a true disciple. How do I become a real disciple, an actual disciple of Christ. Not a believer in Christian ideas, not a intellectual on those things, and I know it, but actually someone who is submitted to Christ and is being formed into more and more an image Jesus on this earth. A disciple is someone whose life has been reordered around Jesus Christ. It's not just about church attendance or you know ticking off this box and I read my Bible app this morning. It's actually about my life has been confronted by Christ. It's been encouraged by Christ. It's been strengthened by Christ that I can live in the new identity he has created me in. That I can live on mission for a purpose that is bigger than what I perceive my life purpose is. Jesus becomes Lord over all of my desires, my relationships, over my sexuality, my money, my time, my ambitions, my habits, my wounds, my future. I am learning to think like Him, to love like Him, obey Him, and increasingly become more like him. Amen? And if that is true then eventually discipleship has to confront one of the great idols of our generation and that is our independence. Our self- ingrained individualism. There is a version of Christianity that has become so radically normalized these days that say I love Jesus, but I don't need the church. I can worship God anywhere. I got preaching online. My church is in nature, and I just find my isolated journey with God is my church. This is not a part of God's plan, because the problem is, this is like all the problem. you open the New Testament and when we truly begin to know what the Scriptures are saying, we discover there is something completely different to this individualism. And I'm saying this with a smile here today. Because I know that this, and I want to let you know, I know I'm the pastor of the church. The reason why we planted this church is because we believe and have a revelation on the power of the local church and the authority that Christ has given it. You know, I'm not, I'm not doing this because this was the best career choice that I had. I'm doing this because I was so burdened and fought against that burden for a long period of time until God, until God actually submitted me in a wrestling, I do jiu jitsu. So all I can think of is he put me in a rear naked choke. So we discover that Jesus does not just save individuals, you get the revelation that Jesus is forming a people. In Matthew 16, he says this, I will build my church, not I will build your personal spiritual experience, not I will build a collection of disconnected Christians. He says, I will build my church. Paul says Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Hebrews 10, 25 says this, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day, capital D, judgment day, not Terminator 2 and all of this, this is the return of Christ. All the more as you see the day drawing near. Don't get in the habit of meeting only occasionally. Get in the habit, man. This is what God has set aside for his people. And I'm going to be talking more about this because it's hard sometimes. And we've got to put aside our preference to understand that the New Testament calls the church the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, the household of God, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. So we need to confront this idea that somehow we can be deeply committed to Jesus while remaining casually connected to the church. We cannot love the bridegroom while maintaining and building an indifference toward His bride. We cannot claim devotion to the head while purposefully cutting off ourselves from his body. We cannot celebrate Jesus as the cornerstone while refusing to be joined into the house that he is building. Because, and I'll tell you this, there is no category in the New Testament that calls for an intentionally isolated disciple. is no category in the New Testament that calls for that. It calls for us to be joined as one body because when Jesus calls you to Himself, I'm telling you this, He calls you into a people. He calls you into a people as well. Psalm 92 gives us a clear vision of what happens when his people stop wandering and become planted in the house of God. Here's what Psalm 92 says, verses 12 to 15, the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God and they still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright, that He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Isn't that an awesome premise for us to live by? It says this, that the righteous, they flourish. Like, I want to know how to flourish. I want to know where is it that I can flourish? And this Psalm, it breaks it all down. I mean, I mean, that's the life that we all want. Does anyone want a life that does not flourish? Who wants a life that doesn't, who wants a life that flourishes? Then there is a truth that is laid out for us that we need to plant ourselves. Not in a pot, not in our own little pot plan kind of makeups, but we gotta break the pot and start letting our roots go down into the soil so that we remain planted. We are faithful to the plan that Jesus has set out for us. And where do they flourish? It says they are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish where in the courts of our God. The psalmist connects fruitfulness to rootedness. I've never seen an unrooted plant produce a bunch of fruit. I've never seen a tumbleweed blow through a John Wayne set and it's got a bunch of fruit on it. All it is is it's dry. It's blown by the wind left and right. We gotta plant ourselves to see fruitfulness in our life. There is something God wants to produce in your life that only comes from being planted. Point number one today is roots before fruit. Roots before fruit. In verse 12, Psalm 92, it says the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. I love the two pictures. It gives us a palm tree and the cedar of Lebanon. The palm speaks of fruitfulness and the cedar speaks of strength. Let's focus on the date trees. These are date palms, okay? Date palm was known in those times for life, fruitfulness, and longevity. A healthy date palm was productive for decades. It would continue producing in environments that were anything but ideal. Like look at this, this is a desert plain and yet there is an oasis that has sprung up. There is growth that is happening in conditions that are not ideal. I mean, look at that, that's incredible, right? If you were walking through the desert, you wouldn't think this is where I'm gonna plan a date pump, right? And it's so important for us to know that in hot environments, in deserts and in drought, flourishing can still happen in our lives. This is why he's saying like you will flourish like the palm tree because we sometimes confuse flourishing with favorable circumstances, with favorable seasons, with a favorable moment, we think I'll flourish when this season changes. I'll flourish when the pressure lifts, I'll flourish when my marriage improves, when people finally treat me correctly, when I find the perfect church, and I get the right opportunity. When I finally win the lotto, the power ball, the $17 billion power ball, I will be generous. And we're waiting for these ideal circumstances to actually live out the plans and purposes of God for our life. But biblical flourishing is not an absence of difficult conditions. Biblical flourishing is when the life of God in you becomes deeper than the conditions that surround you. That's why the fruit of the spirit matters in our life. Amen? Are you with me? Are you like, oh, my gosh, this is, wow, this is super truthful. Just reading the word of God. That is why the fruit of the spirit matters. Anybody can have peace when nothing is going wrong. But what happens when the storm comes? Anybody can remain faithful while faithfulness is being rewarded, right? But what happens when obedience starts costing us something? Anybody can appear spiritually mature in isolation because nobody gets close enough to you to reveal what is actually in you. But put us among people and all of a sudden we find out whether the fruit is real. Can I be patient with actual people? Can I forgive an actual offense? Can I receive correction without building up this defensiveness? Can I love someone who does not think like me? Who doesn't look like me? Can I serve somebody when nobody notices? Man, this is where Christian community begins moving beyond friendship, beyond a social club, beyond a country club. God uses community as a part of our formation. He uses the community as a way to expose fruit and capacity within our world. Sami goes on and he talks about, you will grow like the cedar in Lebanon. The cedars of Lebanon were legendary. We have a picture there. Look at that thing, I mean that's a tree. It's got stature, it was known as the tree of strength. It was known as extremely durable that it would live through many seasons and would continue to grow. And the timber that was produced from the seed was highly valuable. Like how many people want their seed of closets or whatever, they were useful for so many things. They'll burn seed to get rid of insects. You want the bugs of your life, stay faithful and stay committed and they would see these and it would also speak of faithfulness, of longevity. Here's the thing is that a cedar, it takes time to grow. You cannot rush a cedar and there are things that God, I said before, will do for you instantly. I could take decades to form in your life. God can forgive you in a moment, but learning faithfulness takes time. You know, I used to pray for patience, because I was a very impatient person, and I've stopped praying the prayer now, because I feel like God has worked a bit. Every time I prayed for patience, you know what he gave me? He gave me a long line at the DMV. You know what he gave me? He gave me a slow traffic down on the 405. But he gave me, he gave me a delayed response in a particular area. Faithfulness, it takes time to build. God can save your marriage in a moment, but becoming a godly husband and wife, that takes time. God can encounter you powerfully at an altar, but developing character to carry what he has for you. It takes time, learning humility takes time, learning discernment, learning forgiveness, learning generosity, learning how to control your tongue. Oh my gosh, it takes time. And that is the point. There are no shortcuts to maturity. There's no shortcuts to maturity. In this arm, it paints a contrast for us. In verse seven, it says this. Though the wicked, they sprout like grass. The wicked sprout like grass. The contrast is, but the righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar. It takes time. Grass grows quickly, cedars don't. Grass could appear almost overnight and disappear just as quickly. A cedar has endured years of seasons before anyone looks at it and says, that is strong. We live in a culture that is obsessed with fast growth. Overnight successes, instant sensations. We celebrate what exploded and what went viral and what became successful quickly. But heaven measures things differently. God is not just asking how quickly did you grow. He is forming the kind of life that will remain, that will be strong in every season. There's a Spurgeon quote, I read it out loud before and I thought it's better if we actually put it on the screen. It says this, the wicked spring as the grass, but the righteous self flourish like the palm tree, whose growth may not be so rapid, but whose endurance for centuries is in fine contrast with the transitory verdu of the meadow. Grass, which makes hay for oxen, is a good enough emblem for the unregenerate. But cedas, which build the temple of the Lord, are non too excellent to set forth the heirs of heaven. That is discipleship, my friends. God is forming people he can build his house with. And what does he build with those who have been planted long enough and to have endured and who have remained faithful, who have been committed to growth, who have been committed to their roots going down? Not a people who burn brightly for 18 months and disappear. Not a people whose faithfulness depends upon excitement. Not a people who are committed until they get offended. God is forming men and women who can carry weight and who he can place his structure on. Amen? Verse 14 tells us what this kind of formation looks like. Says this, they still bear fruit in old age. I'm 42, I still wanna be bearing fruit. Every year as I go on, they still bear fruit in old age and they are ever full of sap and green. After decades, after loss, after suffering, after unanswered questions, after battles and wars, after silent seasons where it feels like God is so away, after churches disappointed them, after life didn't happen according to their plan, they remain planted and they experienced a fruit that does not fade, they still bear fruit in every season, they're not living off the fruit of their 20s, they're not living off the fruit of the glory days, No, they still bear fruit and they still produce. They're still green, they are still tender towards God. They're still hungry for His presence. They're still serving God's people, still opening the scripture and praying, still generous, still worshiping and still full of faith. This is the kind of person, man, I wanna be. This is the kind of person I want to remain as throughout my life that I would remain planted the house of God where the flourishing happens. Psalm 92, like I said, it says that these people, these people who flourish in all of these times are those who were planted in the house of God. Amen? Their roots went somewhere. Point number two is you belong to a body. You belong to a body. everyone okay? Everyone feeling good? Yeah everyone's feeling like oh my gosh it's a little bit uncomfortable here. Listen I want to tell you like we won't be a church that withholds what the truth is actually saying and you can check me like I encourage you to go home and read your word and study for yourselves. Look it up, buy commentaries, eat it up pray to God and say man reveal your truth to me. Like check me on that because you could be listening to so many people insta-bros, insta-women who are who are spouting off all of this kind of theology. Like check the theology. Theology is it's not seminary that you go to. It's your thinking on the things of God. It's it's your thought and whether you understand it or not you have a theology. You have a way and so the best theology is taking the word of God and letting that be your theology. And so number two says you belong to a body. Romans 12, 4 to 5 says this, 4 is in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, a one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Think about that. Paul doesn't leave it at you belong to Jesus. He says, because you belong to Jesus, you belong to one another. You are connected to one another. The gospel does not only reconcile me vertically to God, it creates a new horizontal reality in our lives that shows people who have been reconciled to God are joined together in Christ. And that completely dismembers, it destroys the idea that Christianity is solely a private Christian spiritual experience. Christianity is deeply personal. Don't get me wrong, it's deeply personal, but it is not individualistic. Paul says we are one body, one household. Peter says we are living stones, being built together into a spiritual house. Every biblical picture that is painted for us is relational. A hand disconnected from the body isn't more liberated, it's dying, right? A stone disconnected from the building isn't more authentic, It's not fulfilling its purpose. I, if I cut off my finger and I put it in a jar. Okay, if I cut off my finger and I put it in a jar, it's still technically a part of my body, but it's worthless, right? It's worthless, it's not doing what it was supposed to do. It's meant to be attached, it's meant to be moving and holding and working. To put it bluntly, here's the point that Paul is making because of this statement. This is what he is making. Any Christian who is not attached, functioning, serving member of a local church is living outside of the will of God. I find so many people are saying, man, what's the will of God for my life? And my answer is always, man, you can seek and find that in prayer, but until you live the basic will that he has set forth in his word, it's gonna be really hard to discover your individualistic purpose. You gotta be attached to what God loves. He calls it his household, he calls it his bride, because that is where our modern culture pushes against scripture, because we have been discipled to protect autonomy at almost any cost. We've been discipled this way. My truth, my life, my boundaries, my preferences, my happiness, my choice. Then we bring that formation into the church and instead of looking at the world with a filter of the gospel, we start looking at the kingdom with the filter of our old identity. Does this work for me? Do I like the preaching? Do I like the worship leader? Do I like the music? Are these my kind of people? Does the schedule fit my personal preference? Do they have what I need? And there's nothing wrong with asking whether a church is healthy. And it's biblically centered. And a place where your family can grow and flourish with it. There's nothing wrong with that. But somewhere along that kind of pathway, the church became another product and the Christian another consumer. And consumerism is poisonous to biblical community because a consumer's commitment only lasts as long as there's satisfaction. A disciple cannot begin with what's my preference. A disciple begins with what has Jesus said and what does he command me to be a part of. There's a story about a strawberry farmer. And if you've heard me say this, I apologize, but go with me. A strawberry farmer and him and his son, they used to farm the strawberries and walk down the fields and the father would be like, hey son eat a strawberry and eat them in there. They're organically growing in there and they're big and it's a natural strawberry and it eats into it and all the red juice is coming down the face and it's sweet and it's vibrant and it's beautiful. And he loves it. But one day he's down on his BMX and he's riding around 7-11 and he meets some friends and he goes, he goes, Randy, get over here. Have you ever tried a strawberry slushie? And he goes, no, I've never tried a strawberry slushie. And so he runs in and he has it. And all of a sudden this fake, artificial, manufactured taste of strawberry hits his tongue and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is incredible. I'm getting a sugar rush. I believe this is what strawberry tastes like. And he started developing a need for this taste in his life, this strong desire for this manufactured version and he began losing his appetite for the real thing. Nothing was wrong with the real strawberry, but his appetite had been retrained. And we could see, like I see this that something similar has happened within the church and has happened to Christianity. We have tasted a version of faith manufactured around personal comfort for so long that sometimes biblical Christianity, it feels like too strong, man. Commitment feels extreme. Submission feels control and correction feels toxic. Accountability feels invascent. Serving is inconvenient. Sacrifices unhealthy. Staying in relationship with imperfect people. It's just unnecessary. I have to always be forgiving. and this is really hard, but maybe, just maybe scripture is in the problem, maybe our appetites have been formed by another kingdom, by another culture that is shaping a personal preference instead of the good news of the gospel. is when I read the New Testament, I do not find a convenient community. I find a covenant community. We find this all through the Scriptures. Listen to these, bear one another's burdens, confess your sins to one another, forgive one another, submit to one another, encourage one another, admonish one another, pray for one another, serve one another, love one another. Nobody could obey the one another's by themselves. We cannot serve the Scriptures and see them come to life unless we are connected to people. This is part of why God plants us among people because biblical community reveals what private spirituality conceals. You can think you are patient until somebody tests your patience, amen? My wife just screamed, amen. You can think you were forgiving until someone really wounds you. You can think you're humble until someone corrects you. They were brought correction and all of a sudden it's like, no, no, I just get defensive. You think you were loving while surrounding yourself with people that are the kind of people that are easy for you to love. But love is meant to reach beyond every barrier of my own personal preference. So God puts you among his people, not perfect people, but a redeemed people, a being sanctified kind of people, a sometimes difficult kind of people. And it's through those relationships that God begins exposing these growth points within our life, these things that need to be a date palm that flourishes in even the driest of spaces. That even though growth is gonna take some time, I wanna form a cedar of Lebanon kind of faithfulness in my world. It's why we experience friction in community. And when we experience that kind of friction, it's not always the evidence that something has gone wrong. A lot of the time friction is where our formation will happen. Proverbs 27, 17, it says, iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. This is not frictionless, right? This is sparks are happening and if we are not okay and you can go back, we actually talked about this, receiving correction, am I correctable in my life? Can I be corrected or am I just too sensitive, too correct? Can I let the Word of God change me? Are you okay with some sparks flying in your world. The Bible says in Proverbs it says faithful are the wounds of a friend. So not all wounds are bad. There were friends who would wound you well so that you grow in this life. And this is where we have got to know the difference between unhealthy church environments and the normal discomfort of a biblical community. Hear me, abuse is not discipleship. Manipulation is not spiritual authority. False teaching should not be tolerated, okay? But neither should we carry or call every disagreement abuse, every correction control, or every difficult relationship toxic, right? We've got to come to a place where we understand that we have to be corrected, we have to be formed, we have to be the pot on the potter's wheel that's been, thumb has been stuck into the middle of my life and God is opening it up. And after all of this stretching, guess where I get sent to? The kiln, I get set into the fire so that I harden up a little bit. And I think that in this comfort culture, I think some of us need to take a spoonful of concrete and harden up a little bit. We've gotten so soft and sensitive as Christians. You are a warrior in God's army. Like it's time for us. I can take real truth. I can take the potency of his word. I can apply it to my life, receive correction, and form my life to look more like Christ, amen? There are things that God develops in us because we stayed long enough for our roots to go deeper. That's his plan. The last point here today is from receiving to contributing, from receiving to contributing. Are you getting someone out of this today? Crazy Australian is yelling at me, speaking in a language I don't understand. And now Romans 12 we're gonna stick in there. It moves naturally from belonging to the responsibility we hold as those who belong. Romans 12 6 says this, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Paul's vision isn't just left out, you need a body, it's also the body needs what God has placed in you. Paul says if prophecy is being given, prophesy. If service, serve, if teaching, teach, if exhortation, exhort, if generosity, give, if leadership lead with zeal, if mercy show it cheerfully to the people of God. There is no category. It pulls ecclesiology for a body filled with permanently passive members. everyone has the same function but everybody has a function. This is where being a disciple moves from what am I receiving? What am I getting out of this? To what has God entrusted to me? What is these gifts that He has given me? If I'm called to be the servant of servants, If I'm called to be a leader but yet I will not serve, then I'm sorry to tell you if you're not humble enough to serve, if you're not low enough to serve, then leadership will always be too high for you. It's this serving heart, and why is the serving heart there? To serve with the people of God. To serve within the kingdom that he has set apart in his bride. Peter 4-10 says this, as each has received a gift, use it to serve what? One another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. I think that's huge. If you want to be a good to it of what God has given you, use it to serve other people. Use it to serve the house of God. It's funny when you look at these where it says one another and and and use it to serve it always points back to the gathering the the the the unified gathering of people which is called the church use it what God has given you to serve his people in his house this is the truth of God that gets revealed to us continually. Grace has come to you but it's not supposed to stop in you and I'm telling you if God can move it through you he can get it to you over and over again. If there is a vessel that is ready to pour out of us then there is more in the waiting that God keeps giving that keeps pouring through us. Your testimony carries something. God has placed something in you that is for other people. Your encouragement, your generosity, your mercy, your teaching, your prayers. It's giving something to someone else. I can't go past Acts 16 where Paul and Silas are worshiping in the prison and all of a sudden they're having their own little worship time. It says about midnight, like who has who has a midnight worship party in a prison for goodness sake and he's there and he's chirping around him and Paul and Silas are like I'm just grateful for you you know a lot I'm just grateful for you and all of a sudden this this worship is a fragrance is heading up to heaven and and God smells this fragrance and it says that he shook the prison at the foundations. It wasn't just opening their door but opened. Every prisoner on that row, oh man, like the worship and the faith that I can bring could be a liberation for the person next to me. Look in there, they might be judgy. What the heck? He's like saying all of this and he's saying, look at his hands up so high, you know, and then all of a sudden the spirit fills them and all of a sudden their cynicism that they've held their whole life starts lifting off their life. I don't know what God's going to use that for, but I'm telling you that God has given you a gift to use for one another, to serve one another, and spiritual maturity begins when we stop seeing the grace of God just as something that blesses me and we begin seeing ourselves as stewards of this gift of grace that God has bestowed upon us. I mean, what a beautiful responsibility we have. it's incredible. He gives you this gift and it's revealed. And then you get around a community of people and they encourage you like, man, do you got that gift? I want to see this. Let's sharpen it and let's put it into action. Let's pray for what you've got, the gift of faith, man, stand beside us and start depositing that faith in us as well, that we would pray, bigger prayers is why Paul he says in one Corinthians 12 21 that I cannot say to the hand I have no need of you you may have heard this scripture before and sometimes it's it's it's spoken as an encouragement for the hand right like your valuable hand like is this silly eye you know is but your valuable hand and it's usually and you are you're valuable but this is a rebuke and Paul is actually directing it towards the eye. The eye is saying, I don't need you. And Paul says, you don't get to make that distinction. God designed the body, God arranged the members, God distributed the gifts, and God decided that you would need what he has placed in somebody else. That means self-sufficiency is not spiritual maturity. God deliberately designed his church because he knows that we would need one another. It will be seasons when someone else's faith carries you. When someone standing beside you is revealing a confidence in Christ to your circumstances, When someone else's prayer strengthens you. Somebody else's wisdom, it protects you. I can't tell you, I pray for wisdom so much, and God uses the voice of my wife to speak that wisdom to me. And I've been idiotic in the past where I haven't listened. I say, ah, no, you're thinking too much about that. And guess what? It all fell apart. And so, I'm humble enough to hear this wisdom that God has given my wife for me. We need one another. When somebody else's generosity, it provides for you. And there will be seasons when you become that person for somebody else. You walked in here not being able to carry yourself, but your testimony is what's going to lead someone else to a place of strength. The person who needed prayer, they learned to pray and stand beside those who are walking through their own valleys. The person who needed discipleship becomes a disciple maker, and you see multiplication starting to happen. The person who needed encouragement becomes the encourager. The person who needed generosity all of a sudden becomes the generous person. The person who came in broken eventually finds themselves kneeling beside someone else who was broken and saying, God met me here too, man. Don't worry, I walked in just out of the same kind of mess. God is good. Jesus is a savior. Jesus is a restorer. Jesus is a redeemer. Jesus is a builder of the broken. He binds together the brokenhearted. He makes ugly things beautiful in his presence. He uses every ash and makes a crown of beauty out of it. One day your story, your experience is these moments that you feel like are leaned on on the church for this. You will be the one who carries that blessing to another. And what a beautiful thing that is. What a beautiful thing that is, because when you receive fruit, real fruit, it carries seed. It's not just meant to be eaten, it's meant to be replanted. In every gift, every fruit that has been given, There is a responsibility to start planting in other people. Eventually, the question has to become, is the life of Jesus in me becoming life for somebody else? If he calls me salt and light in this world, that's an identity for you. You are salt. And if you're kind of like salt, what does that mean? go look it up. You are light, a representative of who He is. Is somebody stronger because I am planted? Is somebody closer to Jesus because I am faithful? Because there comes a point when the disciple has to stop only eating fruit and begin bearing it. Amen? Let's all stand here today. Dear God, we've lived our eyes to you. I thank you, Father, that your life living within our own becomes a declaration of how faithful you are, of how righteous you are, of how redeeming you are. I thank you, Father, that we lay our lives down and we pick up the cross that you have for us. pick up your cross and walk diligently, faithfully, loudly, with a conviction in our hearts, Lord. And God, I pray that we would war against just ticking off boxes, but we would become ascribed to your world. We would abide in the real, in the real vine, that we would let our roots go deep into the soil. And we would be a planted people in your kingdom. I thank You, Lord, that Your Word would speak to us, that it would multiply in us, and that the fruit we receive would be fruit that we plant in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray that joy would spring up within us. I pray that even in broken situations you make whole. All of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our spirits and all of our souls. God, we glorify you here today for you, a king above all. You hold authority above all. In the mighty name of Jesus, we We all said, amen,