Disciples Making Disciples: Relationship

This past Sunday we spent our time together looking at the stages of spiritual growth. Where am I in terms of spiritual maturity? Am I ready to be a person who makes disciples who makes disciples? We learned that our words and actions reveal where we are in our spiritual growth process. The five stages are Spiritual Death, Spiritual Infant, Spiritual Child, Spiritual Young Adult, and Spiritual Parent. If you were not able to be here this past Sunday, I encourage you to go to our website, www.fbcgo.com, and listen to it.

This coming Sunday we will see that discipleship cannot happen without relationship. God has designed us to be in relationship with Him, but we were also created to be in relationship with one another. Often in church, we lack depth in our relationships with one another that lead to discipleship. We will also see that Rules - Relationship = Rebellion, while Rules + Relationship = Obedience. We are called to Grow in our walk, or another way of describing this is that we are to become like Jesus. Becoming like Jesus means we have to live out (obey) His commands (rules). Without relationship we will merely rebel. We will understand that the type of relationship we were intended to have can only happen in small groups (less than 14). As a part of this sermon, I will explain in greater detail what we feel God is calling us to do long-term. I hope you will be here.

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Disciples Making Disciples: Stages of Spiritual Growth

Last week we asked how Jesus made disciples. We saw from the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 that Jesus did not make disciples in a classroom or use any curriculum--at least not how we would define classroom and curriculum. His classroom was life and happened wherever He was. With Zacchaeus the classroom was on the road and in a house. The "curriculum" was based on the needs of the individual because each of us is unique, and we cannot put people in a box to learn how to follow Jesus. Remember, we cannot separate the results of Jesus from the methods of Jesus. Therefore, disciple making has to be done the way Jesus did it. It happens through relationship as we intentionally model what it means to follow Jesus.

This next Sunday we will look at the stages of spiritual growth. Where am I in terms of spiritual maturity? Am I ready to be a person who makes disciples who makes disciples? We will understand that our words and actions reveal where we are in our spiritual growth process. We will delve into the five stages of spiritual growth, and you will have the opportunity to evaluate your life to see where you are. This will not be designed to discourage you, but I hope you will learn where you are spiritually and what needs to happen next to become a spiritually mature parent who makes disciples who make disciples.

Disciples Making Disciples: How Did Jesus Make Disciples?

For the past two Sundays we have looked at what a win is and what a disciple is. Jesus defines winning as making disciples who make disciples. We also saw Jesus' definition of a disciple from Matthew 4:19:

• Know - to follow Jesus ("Follow me")
• Grow - to become like Jesus ("I will make you")
• Go - call others to do the same ("fishers of men")

This leads us to another question. How did Jesus make disciples? I have learned/been convicted in my studies about discipleship that "you cannot separate the results of Jesus from the methods of Jesus." We cannot expect to make disciples, the result of Jesus' work in John 17:4, unless we use the same methods He used. This will be the heart of the question we will ask on Sunday. Are we using the same method Jesus used to make disciples? We will be looking at the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19:1-10. This is just one example of how Jesus made a disciple, and the Gospels are filled with others we could use. I hope you will take time to read this passage before Sunday and ask yourself three questions. Where is the classroom? What curriculum did Jesus use? How did He make Zacchaeus a disciple? Another way to ask the last question is, what was the method of Jesus to make disciples? For the final question, it might help to think through the entire scope of the Gospels. Here is a bonus question. Am I making disciples the way Jesus did?

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR

Disciples Making Disciples: What is a Disciple?

This past Sunday we began talking about disciples making disciples by asking the simple question, "What is the Purpose of the Church?" To help us approach this differently, we asked, "What is a win?" How do we define winning as a church? If our church sees ______________ happen, then we know we are winning. We talked about the importance of our church being on the same page and how we need to align winning with Jesus' definition. We studied the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 and learned that Jesus defines winning as people "who make disciples who make disciples." The impact of that means we need to align individually, as well as a church, into people who make disciples who make disciples. We also looked at John 17:4, and we learned that Jesus had work He needed to complete in addition to the cross. That work was making disciples who were ready to make disciples. He spent three years modeling, teaching, and preparing the first disciples to make disciples. So, we are going to define winning as making disciples who make disciples because that is what Jesus did. Obviously, this will impact our church in too many ways for me to list here. We will begin unfolding some of those in the weeks to come.

This coming Sunday we will ask a second question. What is a Disciple? Just as it is important for our entire church to be on the same page in regards to what a win is; it is equally important that we all operate with the same definition of what a disciple is. Imagine a church where we all define what a disciple is differently. We need to have the same definition so we all know what the target is. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." This verse is how Jesus defines what a disciple is. I figure using his definition is better than any you or I can come up with. It has three parts to it:

• Know - to follow Jesus ("Follow me")
• Grow - to become like Jesus ("I will make you")
• Go - call others to do the same ("fishers of men")

On Sunday, we will dive into what all of these mean and begin to discover if we are disciples the way Jesus defines disciples.

In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR