How To Do Better

Longevity from Lead by Paul Tripp

To do better at discipleship, here are some things a church must remember.

Be prayerful.  

Dependence on God means seeking his will from the beginning, depending upon him for strength and patience.  Doing all of this, knowing that he will be doing things in both the one discipling and the one being discipled.  

Christ-centered.

Discipleship doesn't just look to Jesus as the model of discipleship.  Jesus is the one we need to point people to.  Because of this, a significant part of discipleship is helping others see the necessity for hoping in Jesus, fighting self-reliance, and repenting of sin.  

Biblical 

While there are many helpful discipleship plans and curricula, the Bible must be the focus.  If you are discipling someone, you need to be in the Word for your own spiritual health and for the one you are disciplining.  If you are being discipled, you must understand that your spiritual health depends on being in the Word.  Meeting with a friend to talk about life is not enough.  Bible reading needs to be a personal discipline of a true disciple.

Intentional

Spiritual growth does not happen accidentally or without thought.  Everyone involved in the discipleship process must be intentional. 

Parents need to intentionally disciple their children.  Make the most of the times God gives you to point your children to Christ.

Those mature in the faith need to intentionally look for people to disciple and people to help them grow.

Those who desire to grow must intentionally look for people and opportunities that will help them grow. 

Gospel-growth

Remember, discipleship is about helping people follow Jesus.  It can often begin to focus on so many other things.  But remember it is about JESUS!

 Resources: 

https://www.crossway.org/articles/podcast-how-do-i-disciple-others-garrett-kell/ 

https://www.crossway.org/articles/podcast-i-want-to-disciple-my-kids-but-dont-know-where-to-start-jared-kennedy/

Disciplemaking A Community Project

This week's principle is Restoration from Lead by Paul Tripp.

Each week in February, class members share a summary of various booklets from the 9Marks Question series.  Here are the booklets we have covered so far.

• Is It Loving to Practice Church Discipline?  booklet
• What If I've Been Hurt By My Church?  booklet
• How Can Women Thrive in the Local Church?  booklet
• How Can I Encourage My Pastors?  booklet
• How Do I Get Started in Evangelism?  booklet
• Who's In Charge of the Church?  podcast

This past Week's Class was Community in Discipleship.

Last week's lesson - Elders, Deacons, Deaconesses, & Congregation - was not a class on church governance.  It was the first part of the lesson on the importance of community in discipleship.  

The church plays an essential role in your discipleship and the discipleship of others.  Discipleship disconnected from a church is not Biblical Discipleship. 

"The Christian life is the discipled life and the discipling life."  (Discipling, Mark Dever)

Over the last two weeks, we talked about these two questions.

How Can I Find Someone to Disciple Me? 

2 Timothy 2:1-2 is a discipleship chain.   Paul taught Timothy and told him to teach faithful men who teach faithful men.  Strategic teaching multiplies.  Timothy was discipled by Paul to do the work of the gospel ministry.  

How Do I Disciple Others?

Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission passage, talks about teaching disciples "to observe all that I have commanded you."  

Psalm 78:4, 7 says, "Tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD and his might, and the wonders that he has done."  The purpose of this telling is so they will hope in God and keep God's commandments."

Discipleship is more than teaching information.  It is about helping people live out the truth of God's Word.   Discipleship is living out Biblical truth that is learned.  

Here is a very Basic Definition of Discipleship

SEEKING someone TO HELP YOU FOLLOW Jesus.

HELPING someone FOLLOW Jesus and

A new believer needs people to help him with Bible reading, praying, connecting with others, and serving others.  As this believer continues to grow, he looks for people to help him grow while looking for people to help him grow.  

Let's pray that our church will be filled with members who are growing in their fellowship with Jesus Christ and are seeking to help others grow into the image of Christ.

Our Present and Future Hope

 

Krista, Jadyn, and I have been reading Everyday Gospel by Paul Tripp this year.

The daily devotionals have been a help in thinking about each daily reading through the Gospel.

Part of today's reading is Exodus 33:14 - 16.

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight,  I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct,  I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

Moses states that he would not go to the Promised Land if the Lord was not with him.  Tripp writes, "Moses understands that there is no hope for Israel and no reason for Israel to travel further if God doesn't go with them."

"[God] will go with us wherever we go and will do for us what we have no power to do for ourselves—not because we deserve it, but because he is generous in love and mercy.  It really is true that he is everything we need."

Today's Bible reading and devotional, the Psalm passage I preached on January 12, and what keeps coming up in Trinity's Daniel series is that our hope needs to be in the Lord.

Moses needed God more than the Promised Land.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego needed God more than the king's approval.
Daniel needed God more than the safety given by this world.
Psalm 118:8 and 9 say, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.  It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes."

This hope in the LORD should affect how I pray, spend my time, interact with others, and do everything else in my life.

This Friday (1/31), I will be posting a summary of two 9Marks Church Questions books
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Teaching and Serving Pt 2

In this week's class, most of our time was spent discussing the importance of approachability and loving honesty.  Part of this discussion was how to handle criticism. 

Preference criticism - example "You should be more like ________."

Improvement criticism - example criticism that might make your discipleship better.

False teaching criticism, examples are found in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.

Very Basic Definition of Discipleship:  HELPING someone else FOLLOW Jesus.

Within this definition, approachability and honesty are very important.

Candor from Lead by Paul Tripp

The following is a prayer and some quotes from chapter 8 of Lead.

Lord, God, Three in One, the one who said it was not good that Adam was alone, 

Thank you for making us relational beings.  You want me to be comforted, warned, encouraged, rebuked, and instructed by others.  May my willingness to confess and share struggles not only be a help to me but also an encouragement to others. 

God, make me aware of my own heart struggles and areas of weakness. 

I pray that

pride of personal maturity,

the pursuit for the respect of others,

functional Gospel doubt,

ability to minimize sin, and 

identity in ministry

will not silence me.

Help me and those I lead with to lead and live, knowing the dark, despicable, destructive, and dishonoring nature of sin.  May we never attempt to rationalize sin and make it look o.k. 

I pray that the fear of a lost leadership position will never be great than the fear of giving sin room to do its evil work in my life.   

God, I want my life and my ministry to be about you and your glory!!! 

Amen!

Some quotes to consider

An isolated, independent, separated, and self-hiding Christian life is alien to the Christianity of the New Testament. (148) 

No one is so spiritually mature that he is free from a need for the comfort, warnings, encouragement, rebuke, instruction, and insight of others.  (148) 

A spiritually healthy leadership community is spiritually healthy when it is a safe place for struggling leaders to speak with candor and hope.  (149) 

"The ministry leaders I regularly meet with often share a personal experience, but they leave out how they themselves factor into it.  They talk about what happened and what other people did and said, but they give little sense of their own heart struggle as it was all going on.  (150) 

It is quite possible to be committed to leading robust gospel ministries and yet be denying the same gospel in your leadership community.  (152) 

A gospel-shaped leadership community will be a confessional community, where leader honesty is not only a constant protection but encourages a deeper and deeper dependency on God.  (152) 

It is in the soil of the devastation and humiliation of confession that servant leaders grow.  (153)

What silences us?

1.  Pride of personal maturity

2.  Ability to minimize sin

3.  Must have the respect of others

4.  Identity in ministry

5.  Functional Gospel doubt

Every leadership community needs to pray together for grace to see sin as dark, despicable, destructive, and dishonoring to God as it actually is.  Every leadership community needs to regularly cry out for help, admitting that sin doesn't always look sinful.  (155)

If I have [the leadership community] in the appropriate place in my heart, I will see them as God-given tools of grace and be free to be candid with them about my real issues of heart and life.  (155)

The Gospel promises us that the good things God calls us to will produce good in our lives, even if that good looks different from what we hoped for.  (157)

Do we fear the loss of leadership position more than we fear giving sin room to do its evil work in our hearts and lives?  (157)

Next week (January 2) is an often-missed part of discipleship - the role of elders, deacons, deaconesses, and the congregation in discipleship. 
Discipleship is NOT a solo project.  Discipleship is a community project.

Teaching and Serving

This week, the Pray/Prepare class joined with the Overview of the Bible class.

John Van Tongeren has been teaching the class this quarter but needed coverage for the next few weeks.  I decided to take this week for two reasons:

1. The Prah/Prepare class topic was Teaching and Serving Helps.  Throughout the lesson, especially in 1st John, we will look at some of the teaching tools John uses in the letter, and next week, the class will look at the lesson and talk about teaching techniques.
2. The books 1, 2, and 3 John are heavy on the topic of teaching.

Here are some helpful teaching tips from How Can I Begin Teaching the Bible? by David Helm

Principles:

• You need confidence.  Not self-confidence, but confidence in God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
• You need the right convictions.  
1. The Bible is God's Word.
2. Prayer is a must.
3. The local church is one of God's greatest gifts.

Preparation

• Find the structure and emphasis.
• Understand the context.
• Highlight the message of the. Gospel.

Presentation

• Know your goal.
• Construct an outline.
• Drive the Truth home.

One to One Bible Reading

Servants from Lead by Paul Tripp