Intentional Discipleship

I was reading today about Palm Valley Church. They try to do the vast majority of their formal discipleship on weekends. As a result, they are very intentional about planning their weekends. Read the following snipit from Stirred Up Leadership

The Palm Valley team thinks differently about weekend services. Every week, they focus everything on one thing, and ask five questions before planning each service or sermon.

1. What do they need to know?
2. Why do they need to know it?
3. What do they need to do?
4. Why do they need to do it?
5. How can we help them remember it?

As a community of church leaders, there’s a lot we can all learn from what God is doing at Palm Valley.

I actually like this list as a list we should all regularly be asking about our efforts to help our people be discipled. However, I would add one CRITICAL question.

"How can they do it?"

Equipping doesn't stop with telling people what they need to do and then helping them remember what you told them? That is cognitive change, not life-change. The church must tell people what needs to change and the help them do it! That's true discipleship.

Five Questions Worth Asking on A Regular Basis

1. Which area of my life is most desirous of attention for the purpose of spiritual growth?

2. Of which of the ten commandments does this area represent a violation?

3. What "fruit of the Spirit" is most necessary for my improvement in this area?

4. Who will walk this journey with me? Whom will I invite?

5. What is my next step?

Three "S" Words That Should Characterize Your Relationships

What does it mean to love others?

SUBMIT

Within the body of Christ we are commanded to submit to (or prefer) one another (Ephesians 5). This submission is rooted in the example of Christ, who submitted himself to the Father and in doing so, submitted himself to death (Philippians 2).

Submission is choosing to give my power away for the good of someone else.

SERVE

Jesus said we are to love others the way he loved us. Just before he said that, he demonstrated his love for his disciples by washing their feet, a not-so-pleasant act of service (John 13). We've each been given unique abilities and resources, which when pooled, enable us to function as the body of Christ. Each of us must learn to use what we've been given to serve the body with all our energy (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 13)

Serving is using my resources for the good of others.

SACRIFICE

Jesus said the greatest love of all is the one who is willing to give up his life for his friend. Within 24 hours, He was doing that very thing (John 15). Paul reminded us that we need to be we willing to give up our own desires and wishes if that will be beneficial to those around us (Romans 15).

Sacrifice is doing what is good for others even if it costs me dearly.

This Really Isn't the Place to "Go Alone"

The other night at LIFEgroup, I threw out a mildly provocative statement that, "The idea of someone having a 'personal relationship with God' is not really supported Scripturally."

Sure, God saves each of us individually, and all of us need to be responsible for our own actions and spiritual growth. In fact, I would make a strong argument that every believer should daily be "working out" their spiritual muscles, and often that needs to happen alone.

BUT.

All of that work on our own needs be done within the context of the relationships we have with other believers. As many have stated, there are no real Christian hermits.

Anyway, here's a bunch of passages in the Bible that have helped shape my thinking in this area.

God functions as a TEAM

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he h ears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it know to you.

As believers, we do not function ALONE

John 17:20-26 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that yo u have sent me. I have made you know to them, and will continue to make you know in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Ephesians 4:12-13 ...to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Romans 14:7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.

Our relationship to God is tied to our relationship with ONE ANOTHER

1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

I John 4:20-21 If anyone says, “I love God, “ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, who he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I Thessalonians 4:6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.

1 Corinthians 12:13-14 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Matthew 5:23-24 “Therefore, is you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Our relationship with each other provides a platform to REACH the WORLD

Mark 6:7 “Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.”

Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The body of believers (as a group) is the new TEMPLE of GOD on EARTH

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is
sacred, and you are that temple.

2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are
the temple of the living God. As God has said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Ephesians 2:19-22 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and
precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

7 Supplements for Your Faith!

Consider the supplements and vitamins used by many people to promote their health. They don't give life, they make the life you've been given better. They don't keep you alive, they make the life which is kept for you healthier. Supplementing your faith is not providing faith, or bringing the new life; it is making your faith stronger, and aiding your new life in being healthier. Peter says you can "supplement" your faith by:

• Being virtuous
• Which is supplemented by knowledge
• Which is supplemented by self-control
• Which is supplemented by steadfastness
• Which is supplemented by godliness
• Which is supplemented by brotherly affection
• Which is supplemented by love

(1 Peter 1:5-7 ESV)

10 Things You Can Do With a Sermon

This idea was borrowed from Justin Taylor's post Things You Can Do With the Gospel.

My version was for our church's celebration guide. 10 things you can do with a sermon:

• Hear It
• Journal It
• Pray It
• Consider It
• Remember It
• Believe It
• Apply It
• Share It
• Accept It
• Repeat It