Priority: Discipleship
Introduction
What are all the “hats” that you wear regularly in your life? I know that is a weird phrase and question when you think about it literally, but you know what I mean: What are the different roles that you regularly take on in your life?
You undoubtedly have many different roles you have lived in your lifetime. And you realize as you get older that not only have you had many roles over time, but you also realize part of maturing is that you often are given more and more roles to inhabit at any given moment.
For instance, if you look back on your life, when we were younger, we all had relatively few roles to worry about. We largely lived with the roles of child, sibling, and friend. Your largest and clearest role was in relationship to your parents as you lived as their child. That came with certain requirements and give-and-take and a relationship that formed patterns and expectations over time. It may have been just one parent, adopted parents, or a split home, but your relationship with your parent (or parents) was quite defining as a main role in your life.
If you had siblings, that was probably the second role you realized you had. You had this “other child” in the mix of life. Someone who competed for mom’s and dad’s attention, who was sometimes awesome to play with, and sometimes not so much. They sometimes blurred the line between sibling and friend, but they always have a special role in your life and you in theirs because you were siblings. You will always have a type of connection because you shared many similar experiences in life together.
Then there was your role as a friend. A role that came with many less requirements and much more enjoyment when you were young! People who you connected with on a shared joy of sports, video games, bike rides, and more. A role you usually couldn’t wait to jump into. A role you maybe gravitated towards more than the others.
Yet, as I mentioned, your roles—the hats you wear—continued to increase. There was student, a role where you were expected to spend time on math equations and writing (like it or not). There was the role of athlete as you engaged in PE dodgeball or other sports you trained in. There was the role of employee as you entered the workforce at some point and, for most of us, are still there today. There are the roles of boyfriend and girlfriend, fiancé, husband and wife. Marriage also brings along other roles like travel companion, counselor, constant encourager, and “debating” buddy (otherwise known as a friend to argue with).
And for those who have chosen the path of parenthood lets add in at least the roles of short-order-cook, maid, first aid paramedic, Uber driver, stylist and personal shopper, life coach, spiritual guide, and in the hard moments—seemingly the leading role of antagonist of your child’s story. (Children, antagonist is a nice way to say villain, which your parents most likely aren’t even if it feels that way sometimes.) For those of you now in the later stages of life, you realize that most of these parenting roles did not stop when your child turned 18, but many continue on, and some were even transferred to grandchildren. And you may have also added in your later years the roles of grief counselor, estate planner, and hospice caregiver to your repertoire.
And many of you may have found, over the course of this life as the hats pile up, that you have slowly become confused about what is your identity versus what is your role. Am I just a mom/dad or something more? Am I defined by my job, or is my job just a thing I “do?” You do a role so long or so often that it can begin to seem like it is an identity. Our roles can seem endless, and our identity can seem quite fractured. Whether we realize it or not, one of the questions we are always asking ourselves is, “Who am I?” and “What am I truly supposed to be doing?” Those are very important questions, and they can become very confused as our different hats, our different roles, become more demanding and build up in our life. Yet this is one of the grand questions that God wants to answer for us.
Discipleship/Disciple
Hopefully many of you have been able to be here this summer for our Priority Series that we have been going through over the last several weeks (or at least have listened to them online). We are talking about the priorities of the Christian life that we don’t want to forget and that we want to examine often. We have already looked at the priorities of Worship, Witness, All Peoples, and now this week we are looking at the priority of:
Discipleship
And along with this priority we also need to make sure we understand the core concept of discipleship as well, how we are a:
Disciple
And this is where our discussion about roles and hats comes in. The world wants to offer us many different identities—frankly any area that we can imagine. Just put on the hat and own it as WHO YOU ARE. And without God to ground us, it seems like there are a thousand roles (many of them good roles) that we should latch onto for our identity: mom, dad, money earner, good friend, and so many more. Yet, God has always had an identity for us that was much larger than any one of those roles. In fact, none of those roles can be done well nor to the glory of God if it BECOMES our identity. Rather, we were meant to find our identity in God alone. That is what being a disciple and discipleship is all about—our identity and then how to rightly live out our roles and life in light of that identity.
This morning, I pray you walk away valuing the beauty of being a disciple and the outworking of discipleship. This morning, I hope to remind us of two main points:
Disciple: Your Identity
Discipleship: Your Act of Living out Your Identity
As someone who has faith in salvation through Jesus Christ, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, our God. This is your identity. And you are called to discipleship—living out the roles and qualities of being a disciple AND helping to create, grow, and encourage other disciples. These two ideas of being a disciple and living out your discipleship are meant to ground us and guide us through our entire life.
Disciple: Your Identity
Let’s start with this first concept that your identity is as a disciple of Jesus:
Disciple: Your Identity
Discipleship: Your Act of Living out Your Identity
It is interesting that the word “discipleship” is not found anywhere in the Bible, but the word “disciple” is found all over the New Testament. That helps point us in the right direction to see that we need to begin with the idea of being a disciple before we talk about discipleship. We see in Scripture that there are disciples of John. Paul is a disciple of Gamiliel (Acts 22:3). Paul writes often to his disciples, about disciples, and making disciples. Jesus has disciples. He has a close group of disciples (the 12) and a larger group of disciples who follow him around. All this talk of disciples is part of why we can become confused about disciples and discipleship!
On the one hand, as Christians we can struggle with the term disciple because we have often assigned the term to a particular group of people: THE 12 Disciples. We think of disciple more like special a title for a special group of people more than an identity. True, there was a specific group of men who were closer disciples of Jesus in his lifetime, but he had many other disciples. Jesus sends out 72 disciples in Luke 10 to go and witness in his name. He considered all who were following him to be disciples even if some were closer to him relationally.
On the other hand, we also get confused when we see Paul talk to his disciples because they all seem be leaders and elders in their churches. That can make it seem like being a disciple isn’t for normal people, just people who will be leaders or who have a really cool person to disciple them like Paul.
It can help make the idea of a disciple more concrete to remember that the word for disciple in the New Testament simply means a follower of a teacher. Someone who was particularly devoted to a specific rabbi (a teacher) and their way of understanding and living. So, when we see in Scripture that WE are to be disciples of Jesus, in places like John and Matthew:
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
(John 13:35 ESV)
“Go therefore and make disciples…”
(Matthew 28:19 ESV)
That means we are those who are meant to be specifically devoted to and desirous to know and live in Jesus’s wisdom and ways.
Today, when we are thinking about our identity in Jesus, we often express that identity by calling ourselves “Christian.” That term was beginning to be used even in the Apostle’s time of ministry. Note what we see in Acts 11:
“And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”
(Acts 11:26d ESV)
So to be a disciple is the same as being a Christian. Yet the word disciple is used far more than the word Christian in the New Testament. This means we when we see commands to disciples, when we see encouragement to disciples, when we see discussion about disciples, we should be seeing that God is talking about OUR identity as well in those ideas. It wasn’t just for those 12 or 72 or the crowds who followed Jesus in his day. It wasn’t just for Titus and Timothy. What we see across the pages of the New Testament when we look at the word disciple is what two writers have aptly stated:
“Disciple is [our] identity; everything else is a role.”
Jonathan K. Dodson and Matt Chandler, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 1 edition. (Crossway Books, 2012), 29.
When you look at those hats you wear in your life of child, student, spouse, short-order-cook, and lawn maintenance person, those are all roles. Roles are the hats you often wear, and they can change throughout a day, and they can often throughout your life. But YOU, the person wearing the hats, YOU have an identity. And your IDENTITY through faith in Jesus is that of disciple. You and I, Christian, are someone who has gazed upon our God in the God-man Jesus and we should be enamored with all that he is, all he has done for us, and we should want our entire life wrapped up in his life and his way of living. That is a DISCIPLE!
For some of you, that may not be an earth-shattering statement or reality. Perhaps you already have made the connection between being a disciple Jesus and this identity we call often being a “Christian.” The identity many of us here own already. But I have a question for everyone, even those who already have made this connection between Christian and disciple: You may own the title, the name of disciple or the name of Christian, but do you know what that means for you? Do you know what it means to have your IDENTITY as a disciple of Jesus Christ? Being a disciple is much more than just a title.
Identity = Knowing
So often when we think about that idea, “What does it mean for me to be Jesus’s disciple?” we immediately go to actions. Actions matter, and that is part of “discipleship” as we will talk about in a minute, but there is something much more core to being a disciple than actions. And that core is knowledge of God himself.
If being a disciple, if being a Christian, is an IDENTITY statement—who you are—that means we find our life, our purpose, and our very being in God. And to do that we must KNOW God:
Know God
by Knowing Jesus
And we know God by knowing his perfect image sent to us, the Son of God incarnate, Jesus.
“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
(John 14:9–11 ESV)
And we mean “know” in every sense of that word. We are to know God relationally, intellectually, experientially, and emotionally. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he told the lawyer:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
(Matthew 22:37–38 ESV)
To be a disciple means your identity, all you are, is wrapped up in knowing, loving, and pursuing God. He is your all and defines your all. The prophets promise us that we all have hope that there will be a day where we will fully know of God. Habakkuk promises us that one day:
“[T]he earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
(Habakkuk 2:14 ESV)
And this is God’s goal as well. He WANTS us to know him and to know him fully (but never exhaustively). The core of our identity as disciples is the redirecting of our loves to the one who is lovely. It is beginning to behold the boundless, infinite, bottomless flood of knowledge and beauty that is our God. God has promised that he is going to fill this earth with knowledge of himself and his people, and his disciples, must begin to have that now. When we see and know all that God has done for us in Jesus, when we know his gospel message, we should find ourselves drawn to wanting to know more and more about our God. And this is one of the reasons God has given us his Holy Spirit:
“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might [know] the things freely given us by God.”
(1 Corinthians 2:12 ESV)
Christians, disciples of Jesus, being a disciple means we start, end, and pursue our God by knowing him in everything. That is not just a text-book answer, it is our reality by definition. Being a disciple means you and I must orient everything we are, every thought we have, every ounce of our affections around God, and all aspects of him as we have seen him in Jesus Christ.
Application
Hopefully that sounds beautiful to you! Hopefully it sounds amazing that God would allow you and I, his disciples, to even begin to know him and understand him. That God would even want us to draw nearer and nearer to himself that we might know him in every way that we can. But you may still be asking, what does that practically look like? If I was to own my identity as a disciple and begin to pursue loving God with all my heart, soul, and mind that I might know him well, what would change? Well, there is one very overlooked yet incredibly important but simple truth that comes out of our identity as a disciple:
Theology Matters: Yes, even for you!
Theology, the understanding or knowledge of God, is so important. That is exactly what we have been talking about. Studying “theology” simply means we are trying to know our God better. And what could be more important to a disciple, someone who is trying to make their life oriented as best we can around our God in every way, than to know him more?
If we don’t know our God well, we run a great risk. We run the risk of orienting our life, our affections, and our loves around an aspect we believe rightly represents our God, when in reality it doesn’t. That would mean we are following an idol, not our God. That is the sin of all people outside of Jesus:
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
(Romans 1:21–23 ESV)
Our desire now, in Jesus, through faith, is to find ourselves continually knowing more and more about God and knowing him truly. That is what Jesus has bought for us in our salvation and promises us:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
(John 17:3 ESV)
Or as John Calvin says:
“The final goal of the blessed life rests in the knowledge of God.”
John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans Ford Lewis Battles, vol 1 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox, 2001), 51.
Now this doesn’t mean you need to learn Greek or Hebrew. It doesn’t mean you need to go and get a specific degree, nor does it mean you need to become an expert on every single small argument ever made about every issue in Scripture. But for most of us, it does mean we need to care a lot more about knowing more about our God. Most of us know way too little of his story, way too little of his character, and way too little of his purposes for us here on this earth. Most of us haven’t made pursuing knowledge of God—pursuing theology—important. We don’t read Scripture enough and we definitely don’t study it enough.
And it is not JUST about knowing God. We need to grow in knowledge, but we specifically need a knowledge of God that lifts us in worship of our God! As AW Tozer says:
“It is simply not enough to know about God. We must know God in increasing levels of intimacy that lift us above all reason and into adoration and praise and worship.”
A.W. Tozer, Delighting in God
Here is the encouraging part about becoming a theologian: If our identity as a disciple is something we simply ARE now that we have faith in Jesus and walk rightly with our God again, we don’t have to worry if we can do this. Theology is not out of reach for any believer. God has given each one of us the ability, through his Holy Spirit, to begin to know more of him today, that we might rightly be his disciples. We should find ourselves constantly growing in our knowledge of God both intellectually but also experientially and in ways that change our entire life.
Theology matters, even for you!
Discipleship: Your Act of Living Out Your Identity
It is that increasing change in us as we continue to know our God and be formed by our knowledge of him that should well up within us and begin to change us AND flow out of us. This is the shift to discipleship:
Disciple: Your Identity
Discipleship: Your Act of Living out Your Identity
Being a disciple is your identity which means discipleship is the overflow and outworking of our identity as a disciple and the knowledge of God working in us and out of us. Now, warning, here is a grammar nerd moment: When we use the ending “ship” in English (like in discipleship) there are two main ideas we are trying to convey with that suffix. First, one goal of the suffix “ship” is that we are trying to take a word and convey the idea that you are in the state of that word. So:
Friendship = You are in the state of being friends
Membership = You are in the state of being a member
Similarly, one aspect of discipleship means we begin to be in the state of a disciple.
Discipleship = You are in the state of being a disciple.
As we rightly understand our identity AS a disciple we are to begin to increasingly live our lives as a disciple in our own discipleship. Discipleship for you means you are beginning to live rightly in the knowledge of God and growing in that knowledge.
But second, “ship” can also indicate you have an ability to do this thing:
Horsemanship = You have the ability to ride a horse
Penmanship = You have the ability to write well (or just write)
Again this is true of discipleship. In this sense it means we begin to have the ability to disciple, meaning impart knowledge and direction to others, that points them to the knowledge of God in Jesus.
Discipleship = You have the ability to disciple
WE begin to be someone who can make a disciple and encourage disciples by God’s grace and strength.
That means there are two aspects to discipleship: one is concerning our state to be a disciple and grow as a disciple, the other is ability to help disciple others and help them grow as a disciple.
Our definition of discipleship for this Priority Series is this:
Discipleship: Personal and corporate efforts to grow and help each other grow in Biblical truth and wisdom and faith and love, which show Christ as our supreme treasure.
You can see how that definition includes both those ideas we just talked about. We have a personal outworking of our identity as a disciple through our own discipleship as begin to live like a disciple (that is growing ourselves as a disciple and showing Jesus as our supreme treasure), and we also have an outworking of being a disciple in discipleship as we help others grow and teach them to value Jesus as THEIR supreme treasure.
Discipleship: Our State
This first idea, being in the state of discipleship, is much of what I pray we receive as encouragement from this sermon series on priorities. I pray we begin to see what it looks like for us know more about God, his heart, his purposes for us, and begin to see it in our life as we value each of these priority areas.
Disciples ARE:
Those who make much of God in all areas of their lives (Worship)
Those who demonstrate their love of God to others through their words & actions (Witness)
Those who love all people: sinners & a diverse groups of believers (Loving All People)
Those who both rally around leadership and strive to lead themselves in these areas (Leadership)
Those who rely on an all-powerful God to provide their needs through prayer (Prayer)
Those who care for those believers around them (Mutual Care)
Those who have compassion on all those we are brought into relationship with (Compassion)
Those who want to see this amazing God know throughout the world (Spreading)
We are to have these characteristics, and we are to live this way BECAUSE it is emblematic of God’s character and who HE is. A disciple will live in discipleship themselves. We know our God and then know more of who WE should be, and as we live this is discipleship for US.
The knowledge of God changes everything about us! But I want to stop this morning and think about two specific areas and ways we want begin to live out discipleship in our life rightly: we are to see our discipleship (living out the life of a disciple) evident in particularly in our roles, and in our emotions.
Roles
Emotions
Roles
Let’s go back to our hat analogy. We begin to mistake our roles for our identity when we either don’t know our identity as a disciple of Jesus, or as we forget our identity amidst the bustle of life and our many roles. We are called to remember that we are to become more and more like our God in every way and then see that effect every sphere of our life.
You and I, we are a disciple Jesus. We are to become more and more conformed to the image of Jesus as we know more and more about God through his Holy Spirit.
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)
The image here is that of Moses, who, when he saw the very presence of Yahweh on the mountain, he returned to the people with his face shining so brightly he had to cover himself with a veil. The idea is that you and I, as we behold our God more and more as we see and know Jesus through the Holy Spirit, we will begin to change from one degree of glory to another, and it will be impossible to not notice! And we aren’t to cover it. We are to let the glory of God radiate out from you and I like Moses’s face, and it will change every role we take on.
You have probably heard that we aren’t engineers who just happen to be a Christian, or doctors who happen to be a Christian, or a parent who happens to be a Christian, but rather a Christian Engineer, Christian Parent, or Christian Doctor—implying that the Christian part, the disciple of Jesus part, is what defines HOW we are an engineer, parent, or any role. Not the other way around. That is exactly what we are talking about here. We best serve the roles God gives us in any sphere—whether at home, with our spouse, at work, or in the world—as we find ourselves defined by Jesus and who HE is. It will change everything about our roles!
It is one thing to be a parent. It is another thing to be a parent who is being defined by and conformed to the very knowledge of God and who he is in our life and then interact with our children. You will love, care for, and be patient in different ways as you are more conformed to Christ as a Christian Parent. It is one thing to be an engineer, it is another to be utterly defined by our knowledge of God and his glory and then attempt to engineer something. You will design and build and organize for the glory of God and his good nature to be seen in your work in ways you otherwise wouldn’t.
Your Christianity, your discipleship—living out being a disciple of Jesus—is meant to be visible and apparent like Moses’s face in everything you do. God should be radiating from you—because your identity is in him—as you do whatever he has called you to do. Regardless of the hat you put on, or in Moses case, regardless of the veil he wore, it should be God who is shining through us in each role as we come to know him more in Jesus. We are to be a distinct flavor in each role we are given by God.
Emotions (Totality of our life)
Additionally, our discipleship should change the tenor of our roles. The note people hear us singing in our life as we do these roles should change. We should find that as we know Jesus more and more and as we are conformed to him more and more, we should find a primary change in our emotions and demeanor: We should be more joyful!
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind [having joy as well!], having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
(Philippians 2:1–2 ESV)
In other words, we should find joy like Paul as we find the same encouragement, love, and mind of God in Jesus that he has found. And we find this joy because it is the joy Jesus has as well:
“[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:2 ESV)
Jesus had joy in knowing the Father, in being the only one who truly knows the Father. Clearly this joy doesn’t mean we can’t admit things are hard. It was hard for Jesus to go to the cross. Jesus wept at the idea of going to the cross. Clearly it doesn’t mean every moment in our life is filled with fake laughter and Tele-Tubby bubbliness, but our life IS to be seeded with a deep, abiding joy that is present because we have seen the beauty of our God and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ and we rest in his joyful completion of our salvation.
Our personal discipleship should permeate every role we are given and should be exuded in our joyful demeanor of trust and thankfulness for the knowledge of God we have been given in Jesus!
Discipleship: Discipling Others
And last, but not least, our identity as a disciple and knowing our God more and more bubbles up and changes us in every way in our own discipleship and then ALSO begins to make us fit to help show others the way to our God. That we might disciple them to seeing the same beauties, joys, and love that we have found.
We have already talked much about Matthew 28 in this series:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:18–20 ESV)
This is often where we start when we think about discipleship—the idea of helping others begin to be a disciple in knowledge of God as well. Yet, as we have seen, this idea rests upon our own identity as a disciple, our growing knowledge of our God, and our ability to live like him ourselves AS THE FOUNDATION to our helping others.
Now, don’t get me wrong. That is not an excuse to say you can’t take part in discipleship of others because you are not yet perfect. You aren’t perfect. You won’t be perfect in this lifetime. But to the degree you have seen and have realized that your life is wrapped up in Christ and to the degree to which that knowledge has begun to change you, you have a responsibility and the JOY of getting to share that with others.
And that isn’t just a one-time occurrence. So often we read this first part:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
And we stop there. We endeavor to help people come to faith—essentially what Jesus means by baptizing them—and we stop. Saving faith and salvation is not a small thing, and people like the thief on the cross got very little more than that aspect of discipleship. But discipleship—your being a good disciple and others being a good disciple from your encouragement—is more than just a salvation MOMENT. Jesus continues and says:
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
(Matthew 28:18–20 ESV)
Teaching them to observe, or DO, all Jesus has shared with you. That is the totality of discipleship. Listen to how Paul says a very similar thing to Timothy:
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”
(2 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV)
Paul instructs Timothy to be strengthened by what he has seen in Jesus from Paul and through the word and then pass that on to other men who will take it on to other men. That is discipleship. Making disciples who can also make disciples as they love and enjoy the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ.
That is the basis of discipleship of others. Helping God through the Holy Spirit to make disciples who find their joy in knowing him who can also then go out and make disciples of others who will find their joy in knowing God. Discipleship of others is not just about salvation, it is about bringing them into the same, ever-expanding and widening view of the knowledge of God that leads to your own discipleship and growth and then the discipleship and growth of others. I love it how Chandler and Dodson talk about this as well:
“If making disciples happens through gospel-centered going, baptizing, and teaching, the semantic distinction between evangelism and discipleship is superfluous. Disciples are made, whether for the first or the fiftieth time, through the gospel.”
Chandler & Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship
We bring people the beauty of the knowledge of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in doing so, we help to make disciples of others whether they had never known God previously or if they have been a Christian for several decades. Our identity as a disciple feeds our discipleship of ourselves which results in an outward discipleship of others to the treasure and enjoy the same beauty we treasure in God!
Conclusion
There is so much more we could say about being a disciple and discipleship, hence why it is a priority topic we need to come back to again and again. Look again at our two main passages today:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
(John 17:3 ESV)
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”
(2 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV)
You and I may wear many hats in this life, but those are only roles. The true us, the person wearing the hat, is a disciple of Jesus Christ by faith in his gracious offer of salvation through his death on the cross. In faith you and I are changed! We are given a new identity, and we find that our life is summed up, given form, overflowing with meaning in identifying as those who strive to be like our God and master, Jesus Christ. Our identity is a disciple of Jesus.
Disciple: Your Identity
And this means we must know God, and we should strive to be theologians! We must want to know our God and know him rightly. That knowledge will change us both in mind and thought but also in actions and affections. And out of our knowledge of God, we will find we overflow with the beauty and joy of Jesus. We then begin to live out discipleship.
Discipleship: Your Act of Living out Your Identity
First, we will see this in our own life as we begin to live rightly as a disciple of Jesus. Our own discipleship will affect every role we have in our life in every way we live those roles, including through our emotions. We will shine as Moses in the glory of the knowledge of the Lord, and we will find joy as Christ found joy in knowing God himself!
And second, we will overflow in this knowledge of God in discipleship of others, both to salvation but also into their own walk as disciples who love God and pursue the knowledge of God themselves. When we think about Discipleship, we want to think about both our:
Discipleship: Personal and corporate efforts to grow and help each other grow in Biblical truth and wisdom and faith and love, which show Christ as our supreme treasure.
Main Street, as disciples of Jesus we want to have a God centered vision of all things! We want that vision to define us and our lives. We want that vision to change us to be more like him that we might walk rightly before our God. And then, as we grow in our own discipleship remember to help one another and a dying world see him, come to him, and make disciples themselves.
Response
Now here is the reality today. The reality is you are going to walk out of here this morning and immediately need to put on a lot of other hats besides “congregant listening to a sermon.” Before you do that, I want you to stop and think about being a disciple and discipleship:
Do you view your identity as a disciple of Jesus?
Do you see being a disciple as by definition meaning you need to be a theologian?
How might God be asking you to have your knowledge of him overflow? Perhaps there are ways your knowledge of God needs to be changing your roles or your affections, or perhaps it needs to flow out to others to help disciple them into their knowledge and love of God?
Do you see your discipleship and the discipleship of others as grounded and rooted in your identity as a disciple who knows and loves your God more and more?
I want to encourage you to stop and think about these questions for a moment. I am going to invite the worship team to come up and play instrumentally for a moment, and then we will respond in a song together. Pray with me for a minute about your identity as a disciple and your life in discipleship yourself and discipleship with others. What might God be pressing you to consider more today?
