One at a Time and the Great Commission

I remember hearing the story of a little boy who was at the ocean with his family and at the time a huge number of Starfish had been washed ashore covering the beach they were at.  The boy was picking up the Starfish one at time and throwing them back into the sea, his Father watched him for some time and came up to him and said, "Son, you can't rescue all of these Starfish, there are just too many."  The son looked at his Dad and said, "You're right Dad, I may not be able to save them all, but I can save this one".  He bent over and picked up the one closest to him and threw it into the water, "and I can save this one".  And over and over he repeated himself.

  Many, many people say yes to salvation through Jesus Christ, but most don't stay with it.  Jesus even talked about this in the Parable of the Seeds found in Matthew 13, only 1 out of 4 seeds actually produces what it was created for!  In the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20 we read that every Christ Follower is to do;

1. Go.
2. Make Disciples everywhere.
3. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
4. Teach them to obey everything I commanded you.

  I want to focus on #4 - "Teach them to obey everything I commanded you."  I believe with all my heart that every Christ follower should have a mentor/discipler who does what Jesus commanded us.  These were His last words, and last words are usually quite important.  If we discipled everyone who asked Christ to forgive them I think the failure/fall out rate would be drastically lower, Christ followers would be so much more effective and more people would come to Christ as Savior.  Most Christ followers do not even know everything Jesus commanded.  Do you?  Take the time to do a Harmony of the Gospels Study, I recommend Thomas/Gundry's by Moody Press.  Spiritual Reproduction (discipleship) has to occur for Christianity to continue, and learning to apply Jesus' commands and taking the time to teach others what they are and how to apply them is fulfilling the Great Commission.

  My advice to you is first find someone who is young in the faith, go through Jesus' commands in the New Testament together.  Study them and figure out how to obey/apply them and then when you are both done, both of you go find someone else to do this with on your own.  

When Hope Seems Far Away

Hope is one thing we cannot live without, but often hope seems fleeting, or we have placed it in the wrong places/people. I am 100% sure that everyone reading this right now either has great need of hope, has needed it or will need it in the future.

I'm writing this on the Saturday of Easter weekend and on this day in history the followers of Jesus struggled the most. The 11 remaining Disciples had invested the last 3 years of their lives with Jesus and what they hoped for was a new era for Jews everywhere and that there place in it would be huge! Now it was replaced with a deep sense of hopelessness, a "what are we going to do now?" period.

Are you there? Does it feel like the clock is at 11:59:59 in a specific area of your life - job/career, finance, marriage, relationships, health or something else?

"May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick/ache, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

Reading the promise God has in Romans 15:13 is not false hope, God promises that you will be overflowing with joy, peace and hope AS YOU TRUST IN HIM. The Holy Spirit will make you overflow with those three things, your part is to trust in Him. The more you let go and trust in Him, the more you will experience Joy, Peace and Hope. I am not sure what the followers of Jesus felt like on that Saturday, but no one seemed ready to take on the world, or was anticipating the resurrection of Jesus even though He promised it. Instead they were hiding out in a room hoping not to be arrested and trying to figure out next steps. JESUS CAME THROUGH THEN AND HE WILL NOW. He is trustworthy! Put your hope and trust in Him fully and watch what happens next!

Join in on "The Blessed Life"

Jesus said "It's better to give than to receive." Many of us wish we could be more financially generous than we are, there are a couple reasons I believe we are not.

1. We are trapped by debt. We owe we owe so off to work we go. We are a society of impulse and selfish spending. There used to be a huge difference between what we need and what we want, today that gap is too close. Most Americans have more than they need. How many TV's, pairs of shoes, items of clothing, computers do you own?

2. There is too little room between what we make and what we owe. When emergencies/un-expected expenses happen most people living paycheck to paycheck have to use credit cards to pay for it. I have heard that around 70% of Americans live week to week.

3. We are selfish creatures when it all comes right down to it. A simple test is what you do when you get an un-expected bonus or refund. Most people think about what they can buy instead of how they can be generous toward others in need.

Generosity is NOT limited to money, we have talents and abilities, we have time and we have spiritual gifts that have been given supernaturally from God to be used to expand His Kingdom and bring glory to Him. I want to challenge you to come out on Wednesday nights during the month of February from 6:30-8:00 at Southbrook Church for our 4 week Blessed Life Study. If you are in a Life Group you will be going through this study with your group and we are providing a study/discussion guide for you to use. "The Blessed Life" written by Pastor Robert Morris is all about the blessing of being generous. It's NOT a prosperity gospel book or philosophy, it's about being radically and obediently generous, the life impacting kind.

Wonder

At Christmastime my sense of wonder heightens, I love watching children get excited about Santa, toys, decorations and parties. I love how one moment the Christmas Spirit seems bigger than life and people are generous and kind, but then we get stuck in traffic or Black Friday sales and cause riots and get mean and selfish. How are these things possible? This makes me wonder.

In the Book of Corinthians "God made Him who knew no sin to become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God." Wonderful! Amazing! It didn't start with the birth of Christ and it didn't end with the death/sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Christianity is the only religion where God works His way towards us since it's impossible to work our way to Him. That causes me to be in wonder and realize how wonderful God is toward me and all of us.

As I close I leave you with an illustration; if I went out a bought you a Christmas gift, wrapped it, tied a bow around it and placed your name on a card on it, is it yours? You have the knowledge of the gift, I could describe the gift even, but the reality is that is not your gift entirely until you receive it. Many people know about God, Jesus and His offer to completely forgive us of all of our sins. But knowing about it will not change a thing, it's only when you personally receive that gift by asking for it, believing it and trust in what He says He has done. Knowledge is never enough, it's about the experience! I hope you will wonder a lot about why the world has celebrated the birth of God's gift for 2000 years!

The greatest gift you can ever receive is complete forgiveness, unconditional love, and a place with God for eternity. Jesus is the reason for this season and it makes me be in wonder and awe.

Foundations are tricky things, I am no construction or engineering guy, but I have heard wild stories of houses, buildings and roads where the foundations weren't solid and it meant disaster. Billions of dollars of worth of destruction happened because of poor planning/research, or acts of nature.

Our lives need foundations because disasters will happen. These disasters may not even be our fault, but something may go wrong because of either poor planning or a natural disaster. We will need a strong foundation in order to survive and thrive. Take some time to think about what you are building your life on that is strong enough to count on. Most people will say family, friends, health and traditions. Those are good, but let's face it, family and friends are NOT 100% reliable. People die, get sick, move away or there is a disagreement that divides.

Those of you reading this know me well enough, (I think) to know that I have built my foundation on God and the Bible. They have stood the test of time and truth! The truths found in them have sustained people for thousands of years. I admit there is controversy in some parts of the Bible regarding slavery, religious wars and the mistreatment of people. People are flawed and that's why we need God. People come and go, philosophy's become out-dated, historic buildings and even modern ones that supposedly are indestructible have fallen! Building your life on top of God and His truth will be the best thing you can do.

I close with John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father (get to Heaven) except through me". You don't have to crumble when disaster comes, God is for you, He will never leave you, He is faithful! People and organizations will let you down. There are many wrong things said about God, the Bible and the church all under the subject of "organized religion", but part of the reason Jesus came was to get rid of religion and have people live in freedom and love. A local church is full of people who are in process, but as God takes over our lives people will see a difference. A life filled with love, forgiveness, generosity, unity, and crosses barriers that prove God is a foundation worth building upon.

A Simple Discipleship Formula

Sometimes we complicate simple things. Think of jobs or projects from your past where rules and procedures so slowed outcomes down to the point it either robbed joy out of it or caused resentment and caused you to quit altogether. We make up rules and procedures that may look like safeguards but in the end they can easily take us down a path so far away from the original idea that we forget why we are doing what we are doing. Take discipleship, Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 that we should go into the entire world to make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey EVERYTHING He taught and as a promise, He'd be with us always. Looking at His ministry life we know that He spent a full night in prayer just to determine who the faithful followers would be who would become His disciples, God's agents of change. Next, He spent 3 years training, teaching, being with and praying for these guys. If it were an equation it might look something like this; Relationship + Spiritual Truth + Teachable Heart + Time = Transformation In our highly connected, socially savy, information revolution we must remember that there are no short-cuts to building/multiplying Jesus followers. Books, blogs, tweets and podcasts can help as long as they are pointing back to the Bible and not just about it. Authenticity and transparency are critical so that disciplers do not set up disciples with the idea that they personally get something out of the Bible every time they read it, or that great faith prayers are prayed that reap huge results morning, noon and night, and that new converts are won every week. I have had the honor of being poured into and been able to pour into others. Success rates climb really, really high when we take the time to dispense practical Biblical truth, over time to people who are teachable and real. Biblical truth can seem pretty overwhelming but an easy place to start are the Red Letters of the Gospels. What did Jesus say? Most people can quote only a fraction of it. And remember in the Great Commission quoted above in Matthew 28, that Jesus commanded us to teach them everything He commanded. We also have the Epistles of Paul where there is plenty to study and apply. We have the entire Old Testament which is full of great treasures of Truth/Gold. This can easily take you all of 3 years. As I have quoted many times from David Watson's classic book - "Called and Committed" "If a gifted evangelist could win 1,000 converts a night, it would take them about 10,000 years to win the world to Christ, not including any population spikes, but if a true disciple of Christ were to win one person to Christ per year and spend that year training and teaching that disciple to do the same it would take aprox. 32 years to win the entire world to Christ." Amazing! Let's make this simple, if you need to be poured into, ask someone around you whose walk with Christ inspires you and you wished to be like to help you become like them. If you are pretty mature and obviously walking with Christ, than you should be looking for someone to approach and pour into. It's simple!

It's Still All About Relationship

We are all wired differently and of course that's a great thing. Some people are thinkers, others are inventors, engineers, artists, athletes, writers and relational. I was certified years ago as a DISC Personality Profile Facilitator and loved helping people and teams identify strengths, here is a simple view! D for Doer/dominant; I for Influence/people person; S for Steady/loyal and C for Compliance/correctness. There are also many ways to learn, reading, watching, listening, doing and mentoring. When it comes to discipling others in the ways of living the life of a Jesus follower all of these are needed but the one item that is MOST NEEDED is the Mentoring/Relational method. Jesus spent 3 years with 12 men who were willing and teachable and the world has never been the same. Who are we to think that reading the latest greatest book, blog or magazine is better than a real person? Doing is great but if you don't know what you are doing then failure is an option, and no one likes to fail. Listening is a great way to learn as well and there are so many great podcasts we can access at anytime from the very best teachers in the world, but unfortunately you can't take that teacher with you during your day. The best method of discipleship is still the tried and true method of on-going relationship. Even if you've never had this experience for yourself, you can still be that person for someone else. If you have been a follower for a long time, it's never too late to have someone do some nuturing/iron sharpening so that you can still become all that God desires for you as you follow, obey and reproduce. I encourage you to take some steps that are quite do-able. 1. Identify some people of the same gender whose faith you look up to. 2. Pray and ask God to lead you to the person you'd most love to be mentored by. 3. Go ask the person and be specific about what you are asking. 4. If they say yes, set up a time to begin meeting and decide a time frame, a curriculum/study to go through and discuss what it is that you need or they think you need to become a strong, God confident and producing re-producer for the rest of your life. It doesn't matters if you are relational or not, the reality is you have something to offer to others and you have needs certain others can provide. It's still all about relationship!