back to index2019-04-26: Session 1: The Discipled and the Discipling
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follow all over the world. For example, in psychology, there are a lot of people that 00:00:08.440 |
would say that they're disciples of Sigmund Freud. You've heard that name, right? You 00:00:14.320 |
know, he was famous for, he was the founder of psychoanalysis. Or there are some who follow 00:00:20.560 |
spiritual leaders, like the Dalai Lama, for example, right, who was the head monk of the 00:00:26.600 |
Buddhist order. So when people say that they're disciples, what they mean by that is that 00:00:31.680 |
they're following the teaching and the examples of others, okay? But similarly, when we're 00:00:38.320 |
talking about what does it mean to be a true disciple of Christ, what we're saying, what 00:00:43.760 |
we're talking about here is that a true disciple of Christ is somebody who follows in his footsteps 00:00:53.400 |
and does as he taught and of course as he lived. And you know, but in order to follow 00:00:59.760 |
Christ and to be Christ-like, what has to happen first? We have to what? We have to 00:01:05.840 |
enter into a relationship with Christ himself. And that's really where true discipleship 00:01:12.800 |
begins. It begins when, you know, scripture talks about in Romans 10 that if you confess 00:01:18.040 |
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him 00:01:23.160 |
from the dead, then you're going to be saved. For with a heart, for with your heart, a person 00:01:28.160 |
actually believes, resulting in righteousness. Well, what you're believing from the heart 00:01:33.880 |
actually is that he not only raised him from the dead, but he rose again and that will 00:01:40.360 |
result in righteousness. And with the mouth, you confess, resulting in salvation. So being 00:01:46.480 |
a disciple of Jesus Christ always begins with what he has done for the believer. It always 00:01:52.040 |
begins with that. So let's think about that for a moment. What exactly has Jesus done? 00:01:57.320 |
And you know, ladies, you have to get the gospel right. Because if you don't get the 00:02:01.280 |
gospel right, you are going to be so shaped and influenced by the people out there that 00:02:05.520 |
are getting the gospel wrong. And just as an aside, I wanted to throw this out here. 00:02:10.040 |
If you get a chance to watch the American Gospel, that is an excellent film. It's out 00:02:15.280 |
there. You can even get it on your on-demand right now. But you need to know the gospel. 00:02:21.800 |
And it's very clear. We know that Jesus is the one that lived the perfect life that we 00:02:25.760 |
should have lived when he was here in human form. And he died the death that we should 00:02:30.900 |
have died. And he offered himself up as a substitute and a sacrifice for everyone who 00:02:37.760 |
is willing to turn from their sin and to trust in him alone. And so being a disciple of Christ 00:02:44.360 |
really begins when one has accepted the free gift of grace given by God. And that is turning 00:02:52.920 |
from your sin again, fully trusting in that finished work of Christ, and who is your Savior. 00:02:59.560 |
And then, you know, of course we know that salvation is not of our own doing. It's not 00:03:04.960 |
because of any good works you've done. It's all about that faith and that finished work 00:03:09.520 |
by your faith alone in Christ alone. So that's one aspect of it. But also, part of being 00:03:16.880 |
a disciple is denying self. Jesus talks a lot about that. We don't necessarily talk 00:03:23.760 |
about the cost of being a disciple. But a true disciple is one that denies self. Luke 00:03:30.120 |
9, 23, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself," which means that 00:03:38.080 |
believers with the help of the Holy Spirit are willingly of their own accord saying no 00:03:43.800 |
to self. And that's hard, right? Because you have to say no to your flesh, which is 00:03:48.840 |
actually one of your enemies that you're dealing with. But we must say no to self, 00:03:53.840 |
and we willingly set our desires and our wants and our lusts, and we bring those into submission 00:04:01.240 |
to Jesus Christ. A true disciple is also somebody who not only denies self but willingly takes 00:04:08.520 |
up her cross. In Mark 8, 34, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself 00:04:15.640 |
and come after me and take up his cross." And that's just another way of saying that 00:04:20.440 |
by the act of your will, you are saying yes to Christ and his will, which again, sometimes 00:04:28.640 |
can be quite painful, right? Because we again battle three enemies. I already said the flesh, 00:04:35.400 |
but you're also battling the world. And of course, you're battling Satan himself because 00:04:40.680 |
he likes to discourage believers, of course. And then finally, a true disciple follows 00:04:48.040 |
him. Jesus says in Matthew 16, 24 to 25, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, 00:04:57.080 |
take up his cross, and follow me." So for whoever would save his life will lose it, 00:05:02.640 |
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. To follow Christ means to obey Christ. 00:05:10.840 |
Jesus says in John 15, 14, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." So out of love 00:05:16.760 |
for Christ, it's always an out of a love for Christ, right? We're not talking about moral 00:05:21.520 |
living. I mean, we are talking about moral living, but it has to come from a heart that 00:05:25.600 |
loves Christ. That has to be your motivator. We obey out of love for Christ. We obey because 00:05:31.920 |
we want to glorify him. To follow Christ also means to have just a fervent love for one 00:05:39.080 |
another. So as a body of Christ, you know, all who belong to him, hopefully, you know, 00:05:47.120 |
you're spending time with each other, practicing the one another's, building relationships. 00:05:52.880 |
In fact, the world will know that you are one of his by how you treat one another. John 00:05:59.240 |
13, 35 says, "By this will men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one 00:06:05.440 |
another." And so a true disciple desires to serve one another in the body of Christ. And 00:06:13.440 |
so discipleship to Christ really begins when we hear these words, "To deny self, to pick 00:06:21.220 |
up your cross, and to follow him, and then to obey those words." That's what Jesus tells 00:06:27.040 |
us in his word. And so as true disciples, we are called to listen to him. In fact, if 00:06:35.200 |
you are a Christian, it's the same, you know, to say that you're a Christian is the same 00:06:39.120 |
thing as saying that you're a disciple of Christ. They didn't use Christian that much, 00:06:44.040 |
the actual label Christian in the Bible as much as they would say the way or a disciple. 00:06:48.920 |
But it means the same thing. And so when we say we are a disciple of Christ, we're saying 00:06:54.500 |
that we're committed to following in his footsteps according to his word and doing as he taught 00:07:01.780 |
and living by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. And that's just where faith comes 00:07:06.320 |
in. I mean, real faith, that's real faith in action. No longer living for self, but 00:07:11.640 |
living for Christ. The Apostle Paul probably reiterates that truth the best when he says 00:07:17.980 |
in Galatians 2.20, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ 00:07:24.860 |
who lives in me. And so now the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of 00:07:30.500 |
God who loved me and gave himself for me." So the Christian life is the discipled life. 00:07:37.420 |
It does start with that, but it also is the discipling life. It's not just a let go and 00:07:43.420 |
let God. There's a big part of striving for holiness while abiding in Christ. And so, 00:07:50.700 |
you know, we who are called to follow Christ, we're also commissioned by Jesus himself to 00:07:55.620 |
help others to follow Christ. In fact, when we take initiative and we come alongside and 00:08:02.220 |
we disciple others, it demonstrates our obedience out of love for God. Again, Jesus in John 00:08:10.780 |
14.15 says, "If we love him, we will keep his commandments." And one of his commandments 00:08:16.380 |
to all true disciples is to disciple others. And that's kind of where we're going to focus 00:08:19.900 |
tonight. Why don't you turn to Matthew 28. And we're just going to kind of focus on the 00:08:29.220 |
Great Commission. And I'm hoping that I'm going to have time to get through all the 00:08:33.540 |
notes tonight, but I promise you if we don't get to cover everything, we'll just pick up 00:08:38.620 |
where we left off tomorrow morning. But Matthew 28. So as you're turning there, this passage 00:08:46.180 |
is known as the Great Commission. You're familiar with it, right? Yeah, the Great Commission. 00:08:52.500 |
It's really our biblical support, I think, for when we start talking about, you know, 00:08:57.180 |
making disciples. We have to allow scripture to shape that, not someone's program. And 00:09:03.740 |
so it's good for you to just kind of look at this passage with fresh eyes, and we need 00:09:08.380 |
to kind of think through it a little bit because it's really important. But Matthew 28, and 00:09:13.580 |
then just go to verse 18, and I'm just going to read from 18 to 20. "And Jesus came up 00:09:21.140 |
and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 00:09:27.660 |
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the 00:09:33.660 |
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded 00:09:40.340 |
you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" So as you can see 00:09:47.740 |
there, that's a concluding passage, right, in Matthew. And again, referred to the Great 00:09:54.900 |
Commission. And the cool thing is we just celebrated resurrection, right? The cool thing 00:09:59.500 |
is this happened a week later. So the timeline is this would have been about seven or eight 00:10:05.420 |
days later, after Christ had resurrected, and he's appearing to different people. So 00:10:11.780 |
he met with his disciples in Galilee about seven to eight days later after the resurrection. 00:10:18.700 |
And so, you know, the reason why he met with them is he wanted to commission them. He's 00:10:25.020 |
kind of passing the baton, so to speak, and giving them some instructions. But it's not 00:10:29.820 |
just isolated to the disciples then. This is for all of us who claim the name of Christ 00:10:36.180 |
and who desire to make disciples of all people. So as we begin to kind of unpack this passage, 00:10:43.620 |
I want you to kind of just silently pray in your heart and, you know, allow the passage 00:10:50.660 |
to really awaken your hearts this evening. Allow it to impact you and renew you in your 00:10:56.900 |
individual calling, because we're all called to do this. This is not just for your pastor 00:11:02.260 |
or for your elders or for your women's ministry or whatever. This is for all of us individually. 00:11:08.420 |
And so as I'm teaching through this, allow it to impact you personally, because it's 00:11:13.420 |
meant to. It's the church's calling, and the church is not a building, right? The church 00:11:18.820 |
is made up of a body of believers, and so this is an individual calling as much as it's 00:11:23.500 |
a church calling. So let's bow our heads right now, and I'll just go ahead and pray. Father 00:11:29.580 |
God, thank you so much for allowing me to come here today and to open up the Word with 00:11:36.940 |
these ladies who love you and more just desire to grow more in their faith. And Father, it's 00:11:45.140 |
just a wonderful opportunity to start from the beginning. When your dear Son rose again 00:11:53.060 |
on the third day, and Father just appeared to all of those who didn't even believe that 00:11:58.780 |
he really would do that. And here he is meeting with the original disciples, commissioning 00:12:04.140 |
them, and because we know that your Word gives us everything we need for our life and godliness, 00:12:10.060 |
and it's put there for our instruction, we know that these words are meant for us today. 00:12:15.220 |
And so I just pray that as we go through this passage carefully, that you'll just impact 00:12:21.860 |
each heart out there today. I know that when your Word goes out, it never returns void, 00:12:27.900 |
and so I'm just trusting you, Lord, to do the work. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. 00:12:34.260 |
So here we've got, we'll begin with the claim of Christ, okay, the claim of Christ to his 00:12:40.020 |
disciples. As Jesus gathered his eleven disciples up on that mountain in Galilee, he claims 00:12:47.300 |
in verse 18, "All authority has been given, all authority in heaven and in earth has been 00:12:54.780 |
given to me." So to begin, before we can even look at what Jesus is commanding us to do 00:13:02.340 |
as far as making disciples, you need to know that it's really, really important that Jesus' 00:13:07.860 |
claim as to his authority is the basis for everything that we do. You have to really 00:13:13.740 |
have a firm, just claim or just trust in that. And so what is Jesus really claiming here? 00:13:22.520 |
Look back at your scripture there. What is the first thing that we notice? He's claiming 00:13:27.060 |
to have authority in heaven and earth. Did you know that that was prophesied in the Old 00:13:32.900 |
Testament? When he claims to have authority in heaven and earth, Daniel actually talked 00:13:38.540 |
about that. In chapter 7, verse 14, there was a time when Daniel prophesied that Christ 00:13:47.460 |
would be, there would be, well, he said there would be a son of man who was given all authority 00:13:53.900 |
to rule and to have glory and to have a kingdom of every people, nation, and language who 00:13:58.260 |
would serve him. A kingdom that is an everlasting kingdom which will never pass away or be destroyed. 00:14:05.300 |
And it's interesting that that text is actually talking about Jesus or the Messiah to come 00:14:11.740 |
and that's what Jesus is claiming here in this passage. He is the one that Daniel was 00:14:16.780 |
talking about. But Jesus also makes a claim about his authority over every believer in 00:14:22.420 |
this room. In other words, Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior. Okay? You didn't just decide 00:14:30.780 |
one day to make Jesus Lord and Savior. By the authority given to him in heaven and earth, 00:14:36.380 |
Jesus just is Lord and Savior. You know what I'm saying? Right? Yeah. And, you know, we 00:14:42.620 |
read about that all over scripture. One that I'm thinking of right now is Philippians 00:14:46.660 |
2, 9 to 11, where after Jesus died and rose again, you know, he was exalted. So when he 00:14:52.900 |
rose again, which you guys probably learned on Sunday from your own pastor, when he rose 00:14:57.860 |
again he eventually ascended and is at the Father's right hand. So he is Lord over all 00:15:04.460 |
creation no matter what the world tells you. He is Lord of all creation. He has absolute 00:15:11.820 |
authority over nature, nations, diseases, sin, demons, death, and over every life in 00:15:19.660 |
the world. And one day, even though the world has no clue, one day, one truth that we know 00:15:27.740 |
for sure is that every knee will bow. Every knee. Every knee will bow and every tongue 00:15:33.500 |
will confess Jesus is Lord. That is a guarantee. And so when we're talking about the Great 00:15:39.060 |
Commission, like I said before, we're not talking about some special man-made program 00:15:44.260 |
in your church. Because a lot of churches kind of make it seem like that. But that's 00:15:49.580 |
not where we're at. We're talking about the authority that has been given to Christ in 00:15:54.180 |
heaven and on earth. And that's what should motivate your hearts to make disciples of 00:15:58.620 |
others. It's just thinking about who Christ is and the authority that he has in your life. 00:16:05.060 |
And so, you know, we go and we disciple others to follow Christ because we love Christ ourselves. 00:16:13.780 |
And we want to acknowledge his authority to others. That's hard on college campuses, isn't 00:16:19.620 |
it? That's hard. I know what you guys are facing. I realize I work at a Christian school, 00:16:23.940 |
but I deal with the secular community and counseling. And I know that's hard. But we 00:16:28.980 |
have to stand firm in what we believe. And you don't need to be afraid, by the way, because 00:16:35.580 |
the word has authority. You don't have to argue people into the kingdom. You just need 00:16:39.340 |
to allow God to do his work and allow the word to do his work. OK? But, you know, we 00:16:45.260 |
disciple others to follow Christ because we love Christ ourselves. And we want to acknowledge 00:16:49.580 |
that. Jesus is our king. I mean, he is. And we are his subjects, so to speak. And we want 00:16:55.480 |
to give him the worship that's due his name. I mean, I love it when we get to open up with 00:17:00.860 |
singing. I love all of the music that we sang before we got started. I mean, it's part of 00:17:05.020 |
worshiping our king because that is who he is. And we should all desire for others to 00:17:11.940 |
say and confess with their own mouth that Jesus is Lord. Right? Amen on that? Yes. Yes. 00:17:20.220 |
Amen and amen. Now, after Jesus claims his authority over heaven and earth to his disciples, 00:17:26.720 |
that's when he begins to urge the disciples to make disciples. He says, "Go, therefore, 00:17:34.240 |
and make disciples of all nations." And so really what he's saying there is he's saying, 00:17:38.280 |
"In light of my authority, I want you to go." That's the command, to go. If you want to 00:17:45.320 |
parse it out in the original language, actually that verb translated "go" is a present participle. 00:17:51.240 |
How do you like that for college students? But it's a present participle, going. And 00:17:57.280 |
so what Jesus is saying to all of us who consider ourselves true disciples of Christ is, "While 00:18:02.600 |
you are going, make disciples of all the nations." So no matter where you're going, you're called 00:18:09.480 |
to be actively witnessing for Christ by seeking to win others to him and then teaching new 00:18:14.840 |
disciples to follow him or teaching them what you yourself have been taught according to 00:18:21.240 |
the scriptures. And that's how it's been from the beginning and will be to the end. To be 00:18:27.240 |
a disciple is to make disciples. I mean, scripture doesn't know of any disciple in the Bible 00:18:33.680 |
that's not making disciples. That's normal Christian living. That is part of being a 00:18:38.720 |
Christian is making disciples. In fact, in this entire passage, there's really only one 00:18:45.800 |
main command to his disciples, which is to make disciples. Okay? Now, when we're talking 00:18:53.120 |
about making disciples, within that passage itself, there's four goals that we can look 00:18:59.120 |
at that's really, really helpful, I think, as you're kind of thinking through this whole 00:19:03.920 |
issue. And the first one, of course, is just to share the truth about Christ. According 00:19:10.400 |
to verse 19, the early disciples were told to go beyond the nation of Israel, and they 00:19:15.320 |
were called to call others to repentance and belief. And so these disciples spoke the gospel 00:19:21.520 |
as they lived out the gospel. And it's not any different today. I mean, as we're going, 00:19:26.480 |
we should be sharing the gospel as we have opportunity. You know, I mean, it's one of 00:19:33.960 |
those things where you have to pray for opportunity, and you have to be willing to share when you 00:19:38.200 |
get opportunity. Again, I think what stops people is fear of man. Right? We just need 00:19:44.000 |
to trust that the Lord is going to do his work, and trust in the authority that Christ 00:19:49.160 |
has and that he has in his word. I think a really practical way to share Christ, to be 00:19:54.680 |
quite honest, is to just, you know, grab coffee with somebody and to just share your testimony. 00:20:00.920 |
I think that is a great way to break the ice. You know, you're building relationships with 00:20:05.120 |
people, and they want to know what's different about you. That's what always comes up. They 00:20:09.320 |
want to know why, when I'm around you, you're not acting like the world. What's different 00:20:15.080 |
about you? Why do you have joy when you go through trials? You know, why are you not 00:20:19.320 |
cursing like the rest of them? Kind of a thing. And so, a great way is just to share your 00:20:25.760 |
testimony. You know, part of my testimony, I was liberal as all get out, ladies. Totally 00:20:32.760 |
feminist. My neighbor, a woman, her name is Jodi, I love her, took a risk. She came over 00:20:40.840 |
when we bought our first house, and she became my friend. And through that friendship, over 00:20:47.600 |
time, she began to share her testimony. And then she began to share more truth. And then, 00:20:54.200 |
you know, it just kind of goes on and on. And then she began to invite me to church, 00:20:58.120 |
right? And so, the good news is, is the church was solid. And so I heard the gospel every 00:21:04.600 |
single Sunday because we had a very faithful gospel preacher, you know. And it's just amazing 00:21:11.640 |
to me to think that she took a risk, number one, because it was probably a little bit 00:21:15.480 |
intimidating. But as she was witnessing to me, and as the pastor was doing his work, 00:21:21.560 |
preaching well, the Spirit of God was bearing witness to me through these people in my life. 00:21:28.560 |
And God is the one in his kindness and mercy who granted me repentance and redeemed my 00:21:35.360 |
heart as I placed my faith in that finished work. So, praise the Lord. Jodi obeyed the 00:21:40.960 |
Lord, you know, and she was willing to come and reach out to me and share the truth about 00:21:46.760 |
him. So, maybe you have neighbors. How many of you have neighbors? All of us have neighbors, 00:21:52.280 |
yeah. You know, whom you need to reach out to. You just never know what God's going to 00:21:57.080 |
do. You know, you can share Christ with God. Actually, he doesn't have to, but God does 00:22:04.040 |
use people to get the gospel to others. I never grew, I didn't grow up in a Christian 00:22:08.680 |
family. I have very liberal upbringing, so I never heard the gospel in my whole life 00:22:13.320 |
until I was 27, okay? And I would have thought Christians were crazy anyway. I wouldn't have 00:22:18.800 |
talked to them. So, it's just amazing that the Lord used somebody in that way in my life. 00:22:25.520 |
And it's just amazing that I was even willing to listen to her. But God is the one doing 00:22:32.360 |
the work. He's drawing people near, you know, he's tenderizing the heart, as it were. He's 00:22:37.320 |
allowing the word to have an impact. But making disciples doesn't end just with sharing the 00:22:43.280 |
truth with people. I mean, that's a big part of it. But according to the second part of 00:22:48.640 |
verse 19, when people respond to the gospel, that is to say they've turned from their sin, 00:22:54.120 |
they've turned to Christ, from that point, they symbolize their identification with Christ 00:23:01.640 |
through believers' baptism, right? And that's, of course, we do that in the name of the Father 00:23:07.400 |
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And that's actually a command from Christ himself. We 00:23:13.160 |
don't get baptized to become a Christian, right? We become a Christian and then we're 00:23:18.920 |
commanded in scripture here to make a declaration of our faith in Christ through believers' 00:23:25.760 |
baptism. And that just becomes the opportunity, once again, to share our faith with others. 00:23:32.600 |
Because after my neighbor shared the truth with me and I became a believer, then she 00:23:37.160 |
did a great job of discipling me because she continued in her discipleship of me by having 00:23:43.160 |
me write out my testimony. She helped me to make an appointment with the pastor to kind 00:23:48.120 |
of get this whole baptism thing down. Of course, it was completely frightening. But that's 00:23:53.360 |
part of it. And within the next few months of being a new believer in an evening service, 00:23:59.440 |
you know, I got to get up and do that whole bit. I'm sure you guys do that as well. You 00:24:04.760 |
have baptisms. Do you have baptisms here in the evening kind of a thing or baptismal services? 00:24:09.720 |
But anyway, you know, before you, usually before your pastor or an elder baptizes you, 00:24:18.240 |
you have a few moments to give about a 10-minute testimony typically. And the neat thing is 00:24:23.000 |
is that my husband wasn't saved yet. Okay? So I was able to use that opportunity because 00:24:29.440 |
he was at least willing to come and listen to that and observe that. And the Lord used 00:24:36.040 |
that testimony over time, drawing him near. And he got saved about a year later. It's 00:24:40.240 |
incredible. It's incredible what Lord, that's just the providence of God. That's nothing 00:24:44.720 |
that we're doing. It's amazing. It's amazing what God will do in a person's life. And so 00:24:51.880 |
you can use testimonies at baptisms. If you have friends, family members, I brought my 00:24:57.360 |
unsaved parents to my children's baptisms. That's such a great way to again just acknowledge 00:25:05.720 |
Christ to be able to share the truth about Christ. So yeah, if you're a true disciple 00:25:11.200 |
of Christ and you have not been baptized, you actually realize you're living in disobedience, 00:25:16.000 |
you need to think about that. Okay? Because we are called to symbolically identify with 00:25:21.440 |
Christ through our baptism, believer's baptism that is. Okay? Now, not only does Jesus commission 00:25:28.880 |
his disciples to share the truth about him and symbolize or identify with him through 00:25:33.920 |
baptism, but really the third goal of making disciples is to be committed to showing the 00:25:41.360 |
word of God by teaching others to obey Jesus's commands. In verse 20, we read, "Teaching 00:25:52.880 |
them all that I have commanded you." Okay? So teaching us that we don't just receive 00:26:01.560 |
the word from those who witness to us like my neighbor did. And you know, sometimes people 00:26:06.200 |
get saved and they just sit in their churches, they soak it in, and then I call, what I say 00:26:12.280 |
is they sour because they're not doing anything. They just sit, soak, and sour. And they just 00:26:18.320 |
show up week after week and they don't do anything. They don't involve themselves in 00:26:22.080 |
the body of Christ. Actually, true disciples of Christ have a biblical responsibility to 00:26:28.600 |
show the word of God through evangelism and through teaching others what they themselves 00:26:34.200 |
have been taught. And part of showing the word does happen in our local churches as 00:26:39.120 |
you listen to your pastor preach week after week, but also showing the word of God happens 00:26:44.480 |
in the life on life relationships. You know? Are you having community with one another? 00:26:51.000 |
Right? That's an important aspect of the Christian life. Of course it's going to happen. I mean, 00:26:57.080 |
women are so relational. I'm sure it's happening all the time. When we meet regularly, it gives 00:27:02.640 |
us an opportunity, especially with new believers, to model the Christian life by showing others 00:27:09.320 |
how to pray. I mean, I didn't know how to pray as a new believer. Did you know how to 00:27:13.160 |
pray? That's a tough one. You have to model that a lot of the times. We disciple because 00:27:21.520 |
we want to teach people how to study God's word in context and just things like that, 00:27:27.320 |
how to grow in Christ through that, how to lead others to Christ. I mean, that's what 00:27:31.160 |
church life is all about. And so that's what making disciples is all about. And I praise 00:27:37.160 |
God for the women in my church when I was a new believer who came alongside me and they 00:27:43.480 |
just willingly and lovingly taught me so many things. Sometimes I would just meet with them 00:27:48.840 |
in groups. You know, you have your typical women's Bible study and you learn lots that 00:27:52.680 |
way. But I just treasure those times when there were women that allowed me to come over 00:27:58.160 |
to their home and they showed me how to be a godly wife and mother. I mean, that's tough 00:28:04.440 |
because I already had children that were five, six, and a newborn. And so I had already poured 00:28:10.080 |
in all of the psychologized self-esteem stuff into my kids. And I had to relearn how to 00:28:17.320 |
be a Christian parent. And I praise God for the, just the patience of some of these women 00:28:23.320 |
who came alongside me and modeled, you know, Christ in their life. And that's just part 00:28:27.700 |
of life on life. We're not an island. We're not to isolate from each other. That's a big 00:28:32.200 |
part of Christian living. And so it's important for you as well to come alongside other women 00:28:38.840 |
and have other women come alongside you. Discipleship is just so vital so that you can grow and 00:28:45.760 |
you can mature in Christ. And also just to be able to give that opportunity to model 00:28:52.800 |
in daily life. That's just normal. In fact, we find support for this in Scripture. So 00:28:59.000 |
I'm going to invite you, we're going to, we're still under showing the word. So I'm just 00:29:02.920 |
going to invite you now to kind of turn to Titus 2. We're going to look at this for a 00:29:06.200 |
little bit. We'll segue a little bit. And then we'll go back to our commission passage. 00:29:12.040 |
But you know, Scripture has a lot to say about women discipling other women. It's a big part 00:29:18.280 |
of what we should be doing with one another, no matter if you're married, old, young, single, 00:29:24.520 |
we're all called to do it. But Titus 2, 3 to 5, I'm going to read, Paul's writing to 00:29:32.200 |
a bunch of churches. He's not just writing to one church. He's writing to various churches. 00:29:37.760 |
And he writes, "Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, 00:29:44.920 |
or slaves to much wine. They're to teach what is good, and so train the younger women to 00:29:50.280 |
love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive 00:29:57.040 |
to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." And so here we have Paul, 00:30:03.680 |
again, you know, there's primary things that are going on here. He needed Titus to go out 00:30:10.000 |
and put in order what remained in the churches, and he also needed to appoint some elders. 00:30:15.360 |
There were a lot of things going on at the time. But part of what he was doing, as far 00:30:21.160 |
as putting in order what remained, was trying to teach groups of people what was appropriate 00:30:28.680 |
for sound doctrine. And we're looking at two of those groups, the older women and the younger 00:30:34.160 |
women. There's specific commands, obviously, for us. And as you can see, as far as the 00:30:40.520 |
older woman goes, there's really no age that's particularly specified. I mean, we know that 00:30:45.880 |
she was an older woman. We know that she was probably—we just assume that she's been 00:30:51.400 |
married long enough to at least have something to say about marriage. We also know that she's 00:30:58.320 |
probably passed through the season of life, you know, probably has grown children, has 00:31:03.640 |
passed through the season of having little ones. He's probably talking about someone 00:31:08.160 |
like me, you know, someone that's a little more gray-haired. But, you know, in the New 00:31:12.480 |
Testament times, I mean, women served all in the church in numerous ways, not just in 00:31:18.640 |
this way. But here, Paul is just kind of talking about the responsibilities of older women 00:31:25.120 |
to teach and train the younger. That's a big thing. And to teach and train the younger 00:31:29.760 |
in the things of the Lord, which is actually just another way of saying making disciples. 00:31:35.880 |
So let's kind of look a little bit at the older woman. What is she to be like? What's 00:31:41.800 |
that first characteristic? She's to be what in her behavior? Say the word. Yeah, reverent, 00:31:47.600 |
right? She's to be reverent in her behavior. And that's an adjective, okay? It's an unusual 00:31:54.800 |
combination if you look in the original language. It's kind of like saying, it's kind of a weird 00:32:02.760 |
word really, but he kind of just means like being a priestess in a temple, somebody that, 00:32:09.600 |
you know, has a holy way of living. And do you guys know who Anna the prophetess is in 00:32:15.160 |
Luke? She would be an example of what Paul, where Paul is getting at. She was widowed 00:32:20.120 |
at a young age. Anna was probably widowed when she was in her 20s. It's kind of amazing 00:32:25.480 |
to think about, especially in that culture. And she didn't remarry. So what she did her 00:32:31.720 |
whole life is she prayed day and night and fasted in front of the temple until Christ 00:32:37.920 |
came. It's a wonderful story. And so she was known for being devout and holy. And that's 00:32:46.600 |
kind of what he's getting at here. An older woman, an older Titus 2 woman should have 00:32:51.160 |
reverence in that way. You know, it also says that older women are not supposed to be slanderers, 00:32:59.320 |
right? And that is kind of an interesting word again, because it means not to be devilish 00:33:05.800 |
or not to be malicious. And so the idea that Paul is trying to convey there is that people, 00:33:12.960 |
in this case older women, who cannot control their tongues by speaking lies or making false 00:33:18.560 |
accusations or spreading malicious gossip, whether it's true or not, is really doing 00:33:24.360 |
the work of Satan himself. And so, you know, that exhortation to master the tongue, why 00:33:31.160 |
is it only especially directed towards women? What do you think? Do we kind of get caught 00:33:38.320 |
up this way a little bit? Where there are many words, ladies, where there are many words. 00:33:44.840 |
But if we're going to exemplify, and I realize that a lot of you are not, you know, aged 00:33:49.960 |
like me, you're young, but you should be aspiring or you should be training yourself up in this 00:33:56.720 |
way. You need to think through these things. And, you know, you need to think about your 00:34:02.160 |
conversations with one another. Are your conversations with one another God-honoring? Or are you 00:34:09.200 |
getting caught up in gossip kind of thing? Are you using words that build up? Are you 00:34:15.840 |
using words that edify? Are you giving grace to those who hear them? And so that's kind 00:34:22.120 |
of where he's getting at, that we need to have, well, out of the heart the mouth speaks, 00:34:25.800 |
and so really it's a heart issue if you're getting caught up in that. But, you know, 00:34:30.680 |
what are your words like these days? And then he also talks about women, older women shouldn't 00:34:37.920 |
be enslaved to much wine. I mean, the emphasis there is enslaved, actually. You know, the 00:34:44.320 |
older woman isn't to be a drunkard. She's not to be in bondage to the wine of her day. 00:34:49.480 |
So it kind of gives you some insight into the culture. I wonder if they had a lot of 00:34:52.960 |
trouble with drinking, which is interesting. And so, you know, that's kind of what he's 00:34:59.280 |
getting at specifically, but can we be enslaved to other things today? What do you think? 00:35:04.560 |
Yeah? It's not just alcohol. We can be enslaved to our emotions. And in contrast, though, 00:35:12.000 |
Paul's just saying we need to exhibit self-control. So this is not a perfect woman. This is just 00:35:16.720 |
a faithful woman. That's what he's trying to emphasize. She's striving after godliness 00:35:22.680 |
while abiding in Christ. She's trusting in God, and she's doing what is good. And one 00:35:28.200 |
aspect of being devoted to doing what is good and making disciples is being willing to come 00:35:34.480 |
alongside other women and putting into practice what Titus 3 is talking about, which is to 00:35:39.680 |
teach what is good and to train, which leads us to the commitment of the Titus 2 woman, 00:35:46.920 |
the commitment of the Titus 2 woman. You know, as many of us know, and I'm sure you've experienced, 00:35:55.280 |
I know I have, you're going to be exposed to so many teachers in your life. There's 00:35:59.480 |
just so many people that want to speak into your life, a lot of different things. They 00:36:04.480 |
want to give you advice about everything. I bet when you were pregnant with that little 00:36:07.720 |
one, probably everybody wanted to give you advice on how to be a mommy, right? So there 00:36:13.080 |
are just so many people that want to speak into your life, but really here, Paul's just 00:36:17.680 |
trying to say, look, you know, the ideal model is for a seasoned Christian woman to come 00:36:24.640 |
alongside another woman, a younger woman, and to train her and to teach her what is 00:36:30.600 |
good. That's the idea. And so he's talking about, you know, the kind of teaching would 00:36:38.520 |
be noble instruction or excellent instruction or holy instruction. And in the context of 00:36:44.960 |
the letter, the primary goal would just really be to come alongside younger women and just 00:36:49.880 |
commit to making them disciples by teaching them what they had been taught themselves 00:36:54.680 |
to help them grow spiritually. From this passage, part of the teaching, what was good, was just 00:37:00.960 |
modeled or training. You have to take culture into view here. But that part of it is just 00:37:07.320 |
encouraging women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, which 00:37:12.720 |
just simply means sober-minded, to be pure workers at home and submissive to their own 00:37:18.000 |
husbands. And the reason why is so that the word of God won't be reviled. And so there 00:37:24.040 |
– and just, you know, don't check out right now if you're single. This isn't 00:37:27.760 |
just for married women, okay? You're still commanded as a single woman to be sober-minded, 00:37:33.640 |
to be pure, to be even a worker at home. You ever thought about that? You think being a 00:37:38.160 |
worker at home is just isolated to married women? It's not. That's for you as well. 00:37:42.400 |
You need to be a worker at home. It just means manage your home. To be sensible so that the 00:37:48.080 |
word of God will not be reviled in your life. And so for me, you know, I love coming alongside 00:37:55.080 |
younger women. I mean, that's a big part of my ministry is college age and teaching 00:37:59.800 |
them these things. And just even teaching them what it means to have – to be submissive 00:38:04.860 |
to authorities in their life if you're not married. I mean, that's a big part of it 00:38:09.080 |
as well. So the commitment should be just to train a generation of women to love and 00:38:14.240 |
fear the Lord through modeling and through the teaching of sound doctrine rather than 00:38:18.320 |
giving out worldly advice. I'm through with worldly advice. I want some advice from God's 00:38:23.680 |
word, right? I want to know what God has to say on these subjects. And he gives us everything 00:38:28.080 |
we need for life and godliness. He speaks to issues in life. And so you've got to 00:38:33.160 |
believe that we have a sufficient word that speaks to issues in life. And the same goes 00:38:40.600 |
for your children. We ought to – if you have children, you ought to be your children's 00:38:44.440 |
primary disciples. You should be shaping, investing in your kids and helping them in 00:38:49.760 |
that way. Now I think given the culture at the time, a lot of what's happening here 00:38:55.080 |
in Titus probably happened in the privacy of women's homes. So it's a little different 00:39:01.120 |
for us today. We can still do it that way, but there's different scenarios. You know, 00:39:05.640 |
there's all kinds of ways that we apply Titus 2. Of course we go into people's homes 00:39:11.880 |
and do the one-on-one discipleship. Like I said, I treasure those days when I had that 00:39:17.400 |
in my life. Even if the women failed, you know, even if they failed, it was a good thing 00:39:23.720 |
to see because I got to see how they worked through conflict. I got to see forgiveness 00:39:29.440 |
being extended, things like that. That's just so huge, I can't even tell you. How 00:39:34.880 |
do you teach that? You know, you got to model those kinds of things. You got to see it lived 00:39:38.200 |
out. That's why discipleship is so important. I think in the church today, some other ways 00:39:44.720 |
this can be modeled is, you know, I would say probably biblical counseling would be 00:39:50.280 |
one, that formal setting. It's still a one-on-one thing, but that kind of looks like me coming 00:39:57.040 |
alongside another woman and just kind of helping her to understand how to apply God's Word 00:40:01.720 |
in difficulty. So that's one aspect. How many of you are going through the ACBC training? 00:40:06.680 |
How many of you are learning that right now? Okay. Yeah, so you know what I'm talking 00:40:09.800 |
about. You know, someone comes along, they have a pattern of sin in their life, and they're 00:40:13.840 |
really just needing some help with how do I repent of this? How do I deal with the sin 00:40:19.240 |
in my life? You know, and then just kind of teaching them how to deal with things like 00:40:25.000 |
that. And we'll actually be talking about that tomorrow. I'll get a little bit deeper 00:40:27.960 |
into that. I think it can be a public ministry, too. For example, how many of you are like 00:40:34.440 |
in a small group? You know, that's kind of A-form. Yeah, quite a few of you. Where you've 00:40:40.520 |
got a woman kind of leading you through the scriptures, because you want to learn it in 00:40:44.480 |
a deeper way, apply it to your life. And that's what that happens. Or even in a women's conference 00:40:50.320 |
like this. And so again, you know, I'm thankful that I was allowed to experience all of those 00:40:56.060 |
things. And I've just learned so much from other women that it's just something that's 00:41:01.080 |
just amazing to think about. But to kind of sum up, on the issue of women making disciples, 00:41:08.440 |
my pastor back home wrote this quote. He says, "Teaching what is good requires the seasoned, 00:41:16.400 |
mature Christian woman to be committed to being responsible, confrontive, and affirming 00:41:23.000 |
in an ongoing relationship with a younger woman." So really the key phrase in all of 00:41:27.400 |
that is ongoing relationship. It's really key, so I would circle it. That's really part 00:41:34.400 |
of the goal. And we all need to be women committed to sharing the truth about Christ, symbolizing 00:41:40.560 |
or identifying through baptism, and then showing the word by teaching other women what is good 00:41:46.280 |
and hopefully when you have that life on life, being able to model some of the teaching what 00:41:52.520 |
is good, which means it should be happening regularly and consistently. And you know, 00:41:58.080 |
this is one way God has basically ordained in his church how women are to grow within 00:42:02.760 |
the context of discipleship. So you may be the seasoned Christian woman out there. I 00:42:07.840 |
don't know. I don't know your ages. And so for you, you know, you might be thinking about 00:42:14.160 |
who, you know, I haven't discipled anyone. Is there someone in my sphere of influence 00:42:19.200 |
that I need to be thinking about coming alongside and investing in? Or you may be the younger 00:42:24.640 |
woman out there who also is committed to making disciples. You know, you can do that. I teach 00:42:30.520 |
that class. I teach college women how to do that within the context of young personhood. 00:42:37.840 |
But or little children if you have kids. Or if you serve in youth group. I mean, that's 00:42:42.720 |
a relationship. You know, young people really need to know and really want to hear from 00:42:47.160 |
you. I was at a high school group a couple of weeks ago and you know, they wanted me 00:42:52.800 |
to talk to them about social issues. They had some really deep questions for me. They 00:42:57.600 |
wanted to know how to deal with comparing themselves on social media. That's a hot issue. 00:43:02.720 |
And they really struggle with the self-image deal, comparing. They wanted to talk about 00:43:08.640 |
how to handle when they have, most of them have a friend that's dealing with transgender 00:43:13.360 |
issues. I'm sure that is not, that is something you're dealing with. How do I deal with a 00:43:18.040 |
friend that's struggling in that way? They wanted to know about biblical womanhood. I 00:43:22.840 |
think you can all probably come alongside a young person like that and probably disciple 00:43:27.400 |
them and help them walk through those issues. Because you need to help them to learn how 00:43:31.360 |
to shape their answers, not by the culture, but by God's word. Seriously. And so I was 00:43:36.920 |
kind of encouraged that they were even asking the question and we were even having the conversation. 00:43:40.600 |
It was great. So I just want to encourage you, whether you're married or single, young 00:43:47.240 |
or old, it's just really important that you take this seriously. Because I know it's a 00:43:52.800 |
challenge. You know, we want to be self-sufficient. We don't want to be in these kinds of relationships 00:43:59.080 |
because that means I've got to be transparent. Okay? And there's a lot of fear in that. But 00:44:04.560 |
that is normal Christian living. We have to be with one another and able to encourage 00:44:08.480 |
one another to love and good deeds and to grow spiritually. It's just part of the walk. 00:44:14.680 |
Okay? So we talked about the three goals and the last thing that we want to cover as far 00:44:21.400 |
as the four goals is making disciples also means serving the world. Okay? Going back 00:44:30.360 |
to our passage now, kind of moving back to Matthew 28, at the end there Jesus says, "To 00:44:36.120 |
make disciples," he says, "for us to make disciples of all nations." And he doesn't 00:44:41.080 |
mean simply nations or even countries. He's actually talking about tribes and families, 00:44:47.240 |
neighbors, clans. You know, there are over 6,000 people groups that haven't been reached 00:44:54.240 |
yet. So he's saying get out there. And, you know, for some of us we can travel and we 00:45:00.280 |
can do that. I do that. You know, Jen mentioned a little bit about that. But not all of you 00:45:05.160 |
can do that. Not all of you have that situation. But you can certainly start making disciples 00:45:12.200 |
in your own families or perhaps it's your spouse or your children. Maybe it's your siblings. 00:45:19.480 |
Maybe you have unsaved parents. That's your mission field. You know, it could just be 00:45:24.120 |
your neighborhood. It could be your workplace. You know, contrary to what people are telling 00:45:29.920 |
you the world is not getting better. I'm sorry to disappoint you. But the world is not getting 00:45:34.840 |
better. And even worse, a lot of your friends and neighbors are probably following false 00:45:40.900 |
religions and that's even sadder. And so they need Christ as much as you need Christ. Do 00:45:46.240 |
you think you need Christ? Do you need Christ? Yes. Your friends need Christ too. So serve 00:45:53.240 |
the world by reaching out to your own mission field and the Lord can work through you like 00:45:57.680 |
he did my neighbor 27 or so years ago. Finally, after learning that we must obey Christ by 00:46:05.480 |
making disciples, Jesus gives us a wonderful promise in verse 20. Look there for a second. 00:46:13.720 |
He says, "And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." It's really comforting 00:46:21.680 |
to know that we're promised by Christ himself that as we're making disciples, he's going 00:46:27.360 |
to actually, this is what I was talking about before, we don't need to fear because as you're 00:46:32.520 |
going out and making disciples, whether that's sharing the gospel or teaching others what 00:46:37.800 |
you yourself know, Jesus promises to be spiritually present with you until the end of the age. 00:46:46.000 |
And that just kind of means until he returns a second time. Are you praying for that by 00:46:50.120 |
the way? That Christ will return? Because he's coming. You should be praying for that. 00:46:56.800 |
And so as believers, we don't have to be anxious about our life. We shouldn't be worried about 00:47:03.960 |
making disciples because it's not based on you as much as it's based on Jesus and what 00:47:10.680 |
he can do through your life. And so we just need to have a willing heart. We need to have 00:47:15.160 |
an obedient heart and to remember overall that the Lord is with you and he's for you. 00:47:23.120 |
He's not against you. I mean, what more do you need to persevere in this life? I mean, 00:47:27.880 |
seriously, what more do you need to be discipled or to be a discipler? God is going to be with 00:47:33.040 |
you regardless of your successes, your failures. He's with you. And so you need to trust him 00:47:40.240 |
and ask yourself if you're going to go and make disciples. It's really, really important. 00:47:45.040 |
Okay, so that's kind of the foundation. We have to lay that foundation before you kind 00:47:49.960 |
of get into any kind of biblical counseling training or anything like that. We have to 00:47:55.240 |
know where the authority is and what scripture says in reference to what it means to make 00:48:01.520 |
a disciple and to be a disciple. So with that foundation in mind, I have time because you're 00:48:08.040 |
going to go into your small groups type thing about 9 o'clock, so I'm going to go ahead 00:48:11.520 |
and try to get through some of that last part. We're going to sort of transition now into 00:48:19.040 |
deeper discipleship, page 10. And this is where we start thinking more specifically 00:48:25.600 |
about sheep to sheep. How do we deal with people, broken people in the church? The hard 00:48:32.120 |
people, right? The people that are just difficult to deal with. I think in a spiritual sense, 00:48:39.160 |
the church is like a hospital, okay? I say that because, you know, I know that we're 00:48:45.520 |
all new believers or new creatures in Christ as believers, but we're all kind of recovering 00:48:50.200 |
in a way from radical heart surgery ourselves. But we still battle with this residue of sin. 00:48:58.520 |
You know, we're not perfected, this side of heaven. And so inevitably, we're going to 00:49:03.920 |
find ourselves in situations where we need to be involved in deeper discipleship relationships 00:49:09.000 |
with other people who are struggling. I am sure you've had many friends come to you in 00:49:14.360 |
tears needing to talk about stuff. And so I'm hoping to kind of help you think through 00:49:20.080 |
what do we talk to them about when they're struggling in a deeper way as they're stumbling 00:49:26.160 |
along, right? And so you get this privilege when this happens to administer in love with 00:49:33.760 |
the right bit of medicine, which of course is God's word, to reorient somebody back to 00:49:38.080 |
good spiritual health. I think one of the things I want to probably throw out there 00:49:42.480 |
right away, because this is kind of something that happens in biblical counseling, you know, 00:49:49.080 |
people are not problems attached to people. They're not your project. Okay? We come alongside 00:49:55.480 |
people out of care and concern for them, wanting to help reorient them back to Christ. So we 00:50:01.080 |
need to think of it that way. It's not a medical model. I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind 00:50:05.720 |
of doctor, right? And so this is ministry. This is loving people. This is a one another 00:50:12.040 |
ministry actually. And so you need to kind of have that attitude when you think through 00:50:16.800 |
this kind of a ministry. We want to help somebody that's off track with Christ. My favorite 00:50:24.360 |
scripture in the Bible is 1 Thessalonians 5.14, I can't even talk, which says, "And 00:50:30.520 |
we urge you, brethren," it's on your outline, "And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, 00:50:36.680 |
encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with all men." And so Paul's 00:50:43.480 |
actually giving you three categories of people, actually kind of four if you want to throw 00:50:48.000 |
in patience there, but he's actually giving us a way that we can understand how to disciple 00:50:54.840 |
certain groups of people when they're kind of caught up in certain kinds of behaviors, 00:51:00.800 |
if you will. This is what I call deeper discipleship, when you come alongside helping people with 00:51:06.240 |
particular struggles like this. And what's the first struggle that Paul's talking about 00:51:11.720 |
there? What's the first one? What's the first kind of person? Say it out loud. That's right, 00:51:19.160 |
unruly. That word just means disordered. You know, a person that's disordered, it kind 00:51:25.200 |
of is a military word. The visual he's trying to give you is this person is going along 00:51:29.360 |
and they're just completely out of line, completely not keeping within their rank, so to speak. 00:51:35.040 |
It kind of gives you a picture of someone who's just insubordinate or rebellious, maybe 00:51:40.240 |
non-submissive. They just don't obey, basically. I call them the unbenders in counseling. I 00:51:47.680 |
get them a lot. They're just kind of out of step with the rest of the soldiers in church, 00:51:52.120 |
if you will, and they are just rebellious towards God's word and what it has to say 00:51:56.720 |
for their life and just even in Christian living. They're not always unbelievers. A 00:52:01.680 |
lot of them are believers, but they're just living in a very undisciplined way. And so 00:52:06.680 |
it has a lot of faces in church. Unruliness is not just one thing. So it's kind of tough 00:52:13.880 |
to pinpoint all of them, but in Thessalonica, in that church, the unruly people were the 00:52:21.320 |
people that refused to work. They wanted everybody else to take care of them. And so, you know, 00:52:27.360 |
they were just kind of expecting others to come along and support them, but Paul says, 00:52:31.000 |
"Look, if these people don't work, then they shouldn't eat." And so that kind of unruliness 00:52:35.360 |
can happen in a church. But more often than not, what you're going to see is unruliness 00:52:41.840 |
that you're going to see in churches typically are people that slander the leadership, you 00:52:45.560 |
know, say things to kind of divide the church. That's unruly. That's very unruly. Or people 00:52:52.320 |
that are engaging in adultery or people that are engaging in any kind of sexual immorality, 00:52:57.080 |
that's unruly. That is completely out of step with Christ, right? So that's where he's getting 00:53:02.400 |
at. People who are enslaved to alcohol, that kind of thing. I mean, I was helping a woman 00:53:07.440 |
in a local church who would say she's a committed believer, completely enslaved to alcohol, 00:53:13.800 |
you know? That's how she handles her problems. She's under pressure. And that's her false 00:53:20.240 |
savior. That's what she turns to, to deal with the pressure in her life. So there's 00:53:24.160 |
lots of people that would name the name of Christ and still struggle in this particular 00:53:29.200 |
way. And that would be another example of unruliness. And so there's lots of different 00:53:33.720 |
kinds. But what does Paul say that we're to do with people like this? If we come alongside 00:53:38.640 |
someone that we care about that's engaging in unruly behavior, what are we supposed to 00:53:43.000 |
do? What does he say? What's that command there? Yeah, that's right. Admonish. And you 00:53:52.440 |
know what? All that means is to warn. That's all that means. To warn them with the idea 00:54:00.520 |
that we need to show them the consequence of their sinful conduct. That's why you warn 00:54:05.760 |
them, because you want to bring that to light. Not in front of your friends or in front of 00:54:10.000 |
people. You do it in private. But that's the whole idea. Practically speaking, though, 00:54:18.440 |
before I would ever admonish anybody, I wouldn't just, you know, run over to admonish a person. 00:54:24.320 |
I always take time to pray. I want to make sure that my motives are correct. I look at 00:54:30.920 |
the big old log in my eye before I look at the speck in my brother's eye or my sister's 00:54:34.560 |
eye. And I think through how I'm going to do it. You always want to do it in private, 00:54:39.920 |
of course. But, you know, the whole goal of admonishment is restoration. It's not to condemn 00:54:47.520 |
people. You get me on that one? They're off track with Christ. It's about Christ and their 00:54:53.720 |
relationship with Christ. And so the whole idea is to try to come alongside and admonish 00:54:59.080 |
them and to warn them that they are going to go down a road that is not good. But we 00:55:05.480 |
do this when there's a pattern of sin like that. And that woman that I was telling you 00:55:09.800 |
about that was engaging in drunkenness, she was somebody that I needed to talk to in private. 00:55:16.120 |
And I just simply told her out of love for her, you are at a step with Christ and the 00:55:20.240 |
rest of God's people. You're turning to a false God. And this is not, this is going 00:55:24.400 |
to end in disaster. Just think of the consequences that she's going to reap if she doesn't repent 00:55:29.600 |
of this behavior. She's going to lose her marriage. She's going to, she's going to probably 00:55:34.520 |
lose her job. And so, so many things. A good proverb that you can share with someone that's 00:55:41.000 |
being unruly is Proverbs 13, 15, which says that good sense wins favor, but the way of 00:55:47.840 |
a transgressor is hard, you know. And that was kind of my admonishment to her that it's 00:55:54.840 |
not going to be, you're just thinking like in the present. You're not considering the 00:56:01.320 |
consequences of your actions. But at a heart level, you know, a Christian who's being unruly, 00:56:07.280 |
you can't just, you can't just think about the behavior on the outside. That would make 00:56:11.200 |
us humanists. We got to really think about what's going on at the heart level. And essentially, 00:56:18.040 |
you know, that's when we start asking deeper questions like what do they want that they're 00:56:22.320 |
not getting? Why do they want to have, you know, it's usually a pride issue. You know, 00:56:27.960 |
why are they seeking to take Jesus' rightful place on the throne of their hearts? And so 00:56:33.720 |
those are some things to think about. But I even gave you like a definition of pride 00:56:38.720 |
there that was from a booklet that one of my colleagues wrote. Because a lot of times 00:56:43.760 |
unruly people struggle with particular issues of pride, and you can read that on your own. 00:56:50.760 |
Thankfully, that lady I was telling you about, she actually repented. And that was just such 00:56:55.240 |
a joy to see that, that she was willing to lay aside her sin for the sake of Christ. 00:57:00.880 |
And Jesus is your perfect example of discipleship. You know, he admonished a lot of people in 00:57:06.960 |
scripture. So you don't have to take my word for it or follow me. You just follow Christ 00:57:12.360 |
because he admonished people when they were at a step. And I think I gave you some scripture 00:57:16.680 |
verses. The next category are the faint-hearted. These are people that Paul says are literally 00:57:24.920 |
small-souled. That's what that word means in the original language. Small-souled. These 00:57:31.840 |
are women that are anxious. These are women that are timid. These are women that are just 00:57:37.040 |
faint-hearted. You know, they fear everything. They fear the unknown. They are captive to 00:57:44.040 |
worrying habitually. A lot of times they have a sense of inadequacy or maybe even a lack 00:57:49.560 |
of confidence in their abilities. And they often lose heart. You know, they just kind 00:57:54.720 |
of want to give up before they even get going. Do you know someone like that in your church? 00:58:01.000 |
Are you someone like that in your church? It's a common one. There's no temptation 00:58:06.640 |
common to man. This is a very common thing I see. And it was happening in the church 00:58:13.160 |
in Thessalonica. Think about that. That was over how many years ago? And so you have women 00:58:17.580 |
that were faint-hearted. Not women, just people that were faint-hearted in that church as 00:58:20.920 |
well. They were kind of struggling because they really thought they had loved ones that 00:58:26.520 |
had died. And they were struggling because they didn't know what was going to happen 00:58:30.760 |
when Christ came back. What was going to happen to their loved ones that were buried? And 00:58:34.800 |
so Paul had to encourage them with the truth and say, "You know what? When Christ returns, 00:58:40.840 |
your loved ones who are already dead, they'll be raptured as well. So don't worry about 00:58:45.520 |
that." But in the church today, I mean, women struggle with a lot of things. You know, probably 00:58:50.800 |
the most common thing I see is women struggling in their marriages. They're faint-hearted. 00:58:55.280 |
They're losing heart. They need encouragement. How do I deal with a disobedient husband? 00:58:59.600 |
Or how do I deal with an unbelieving husband? Or whatever. And that's where that comes in. 00:59:05.720 |
They're just discouraged because the circumstances might feel like it's beyond their control. 00:59:11.100 |
And so we encourage them, you know. He says to encourage them. And that command is actually 00:59:19.020 |
in the present tense imperative, meaning that if you're given a chance to counsel a faint-hearted 00:59:23.640 |
woman or disciple someone like that, you are called to continually encourage them. It's 00:59:29.580 |
a continuous act. And so you need to be observant. Be looking out there in your church and see 00:59:36.940 |
if you have friends or women that might need some encouragement. Again, people are going 00:59:43.300 |
through lots and lots of things and they need our encouragement. There's definitely more 00:59:48.660 |
to be said about that. But I want to move on to helping the weak so we can kind of finish 00:59:52.140 |
on time because I want you to work through those questions. But another category is just 00:59:56.660 |
helping the weak. It's another group of women that you'll probably find in your church, 01:00:02.900 |
no doubt. You know, the definition for weak here kind of means people, those without strength. 01:00:11.780 |
Not physically, but more spiritually. And the first one that he's referring to really 01:00:17.800 |
is a spiritually weak faith. And so those would be people that just kind of have a lack 01:00:22.500 |
of knowledge of the will of God. Some through just a lack of courage to trust the Lord. 01:00:29.300 |
Maybe they're facing persecution in their families or just from others. And it can also 01:00:35.580 |
mean morally weak. You know, there are many people out there who just keep falling into 01:00:40.020 |
the same sins over and over again. And so there are some women in your churches, unfortunately, 01:00:45.780 |
that just get carried away by their emotion and they struggle with self-control and with 01:00:51.300 |
their thought life. And in Thessalonica, Paul was kind of alluding to the weak being sexually, 01:00:58.140 |
sexually tempted in chapter 4. But the command that we're given, I mean, we're not to run 01:01:05.180 |
away from these people. You know, we recognize this is going on in their life and the command 01:01:09.500 |
that we're given is to help them. But it has a much bigger meaning than what we think, 01:01:14.900 |
you know, help. What Paul has in mind there is to give sympathetic assistance. You know, 01:01:21.580 |
it's kind of that idea of supporting a weak person by keeping yourself directly over against 01:01:27.020 |
the weak so you are sustaining them. And Paul talks about that actually in Galatians 6, 01:01:33.140 |
1. You who are spiritual, if you're caught up in a trespass, you are to restore such 01:01:38.900 |
a one. So you're picking these people up, you're bearing their burdens, and you're holding 01:01:44.300 |
them up. And, you know, the church is just full of weak people. It's, you know, sometimes 01:01:49.940 |
they're just new believers, they come out of hard lives, and there's just lots and lots 01:01:54.700 |
of things that we can really encourage and help them in. But Jesus, who is the believer's 01:02:00.060 |
perfect example of discipleship, really helped those who were weak. And you know what? Peter 01:02:04.900 |
actually was an example of a weak believer in the beginning anyway, before Jesus was 01:02:09.940 |
crucified. He was often very frail, he was often very half-hearted, but Jesus helped 01:02:15.660 |
him to face his weaknesses. And, of course, we have learned lots from Peter. It's amazing 01:02:22.380 |
how he had such full devotion at the end. And then the last thing that I want to point 01:02:28.940 |
out in 1 Thessalonians is that Paul says that we need to be patient with all men. Okay? 01:02:36.060 |
So that's a category of people, that's everyone else who does not fit into the first three 01:02:41.300 |
categories but actually in those who do. So it's kind of a both/and. He's saying that 01:02:46.220 |
all men, all women, need to be patient with people as God sanctifies them. And that's 01:02:51.620 |
something you're going to run into because if you're really serious about making disciples, 01:02:56.580 |
one thing that I've noticed, and I train counselors all the time too, one thing I notice, and 01:03:01.420 |
maybe even Esther can confirm, sometimes when we come alongside people we want them to grow 01:03:06.620 |
spiritually really fast on our own timing. Right? And we can't figure out why they aren't 01:03:13.460 |
growing at the fast pace that we think they should. So we need to remember that God does 01:03:19.780 |
the sanctifying. He's just using us as an instrument in his hand to get the word to 01:03:24.780 |
them and to come alongside and encourage them, but he does the growing. And so God is asking 01:03:31.300 |
us to have a steady patience with people that really expresses that long spiritedness and 01:03:37.340 |
a slowness to anger, which of course is reflective of God's steady patience with us all the time.