Simply Unstoppable

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the fourth week of our Multiply series. We'll finish it up next week. And we began this year talking about how Jesus commissioned his church, sent his disciples out to make more disciples.

And so we've been discussing what it looks like for us to make disciples and how we go about that and how we multiply disciples, how we equip people and send them out, that we share the gospel with them, that we walk with them, train them up into what it looks like to follow Jesus and equip them to do the same with others. Jesus talking in Matthew chapter 13 says this. We're not going to turn this on the screen. We'll be somewhere else this morning, but I want to start here. Jesus talking in Matthew chapter 13. He says he told them another parable.

He says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. Now, if you're like me, baking analogies. Am I right? Like as soon as he said the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you were like, yes, leaven. No, what he's saying is three measures of flour is 36 liters. And unless you're Raz and from Australia, that doesn't help you that much.

It's like two five gallon buckets. It's a lot of flour that you just put a little bit of leaven in and the leaven takes over. What he's saying is that the kingdom of heaven seems simple, seems small, that if you zoom in on it, if you look at it and just kind of investigate it, you go, that's it. And Jesus says, yeah, that's it. Now, wait a minute. And it's going to take over.

When you zoom in on the gospel that the God of the universe would die, that he would come in humility, that he would live simply, that he would die on a cross, and that you would go, really, that's what he came to do? He didn't come to set up this kingdom. He didn't come. He said, no, the kingdom of heaven starts small and then overtakes everything. And so that's what we're talking about, that discipleship works that way, that the kingdom of heaven grows that way, that it's small and simple and it's bit by bit, but eventually it spreads and overtakes everything, that the kingdom of heaven expands.

And so grab your Bibles, go to Acts chapter 2. That's where we'll be today. So Jesus sends out his disciples. He commands them to go make more disciples. And then we pick up in the book of Acts as the church spreads and we see what the disciples did so that we get to learn from them how they went about making disciples. So what happens is in Acts chapter 1, they pray, they replace Judas with another disciple.

They say, we're going to keep the number at 12. Then the Holy Spirit falls in Acts 2. Peter stands up. He opens his mouth. He proclaims the gospel. It's what we talked about last week.

We would share the gospel and people believe the gospel and they say, what do we need to do? And the disciples were like, we're ready for this because Jesus has just told us. Be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's what he said. Go make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So they say, repent of your sins and be baptized.

And then we get to see how they began to teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded, how they began to make disciples. And so our question today as we look at this is, what does discipleship look like? How do we make disciples? How do we grow as disciples? We've been talking about how we share the gospel, how we get people to believe the gospel and be baptized. And now we're saying, okay, what does it look like to help them observe everything that Jesus commanded?

So I'm going to pray. Pray with me and we'll study this this morning. God, we ask that we would be disciples who make disciples for the glory of your name and the growth of your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. So today we're going to look at four aspects of discipleship.

That what needs to be in place, what needs to take place in order for us to be making disciples. What is the content of discipleship? What is the context of discipleship? And so that's what we're doing. We're in 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So we're going to start there. The first thing that we're going to see is that discipleship is a life of learning. If you're going to be a disciple, you're going to commit to a life of learning. That you're going to consistently be learning and growing. And so it says they devoted themselves. And I want us to see that first.

They devoted themselves. One of the things we've talked about a lot in our church is that we belong to one another. That we're family. That we're members of one another. And so we rightly have taught that we ought to pursue one another. We ought to correct one another.

We ought to, when somebody's running in sin, we ought to go to them and challenge them and point them back to the gospel. But what happens is over time sometimes, especially the good-natured, good-hearted ones of us. Some of us are like, not exactly there, but others of us start really trying to want Jesus on behalf of somebody else. Start trying to want to follow Jesus on behalf of somebody else. And that's not how it works. They have to devote themselves.

We have to devote ourselves. The people who follow Jesus are the people who wanted to. Now, certainly we should correct each other and certainly we should go to one another when we're in sin. But eventually, some people are going to choose not to follow Jesus and we can't want Jesus for them and we can't follow Jesus for them. The encouraging thing is if you want Jesus, you'll get him. If you want more of Jesus, you get more of Jesus.

But if you don't, you won't. And so the first thing we have to see is that they specifically, intentionally devoted themselves to the things we're about to talk about. So it says they devoted themselves first to the apostles' teaching. So the apostles were the twelve disciples that Jesus had sent out, proclaimed the gospel, and then people said, what do we do? We need to repent and be baptized. And then the apostles began to teach them everything that Jesus had taught.

And so they devoted themselves. They were hungry for it and they ate it up. So how do we do the same thing? We devote ourselves to the Bible. That's the apostles' teaching. That they were taking the Old Testament, explaining how Jesus showed up in it, and teaching the new things that Jesus had explained.

That within about 15, 20 years, we started having the letters that we have being passed around the churches. In about 30 to 40 years, we started having the gospels written down, bound together, that we have. By about 90 years, we had all of the New Testament that was being shared and spread around. And so we study the New Testament and we study the Old Testament in light of Jesus. And that's us devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching. So that if you're going to be a disciple, you're going to be hungry for the word.

You're going to study the Bible. That's one of the reasons we gather on Sundays. That's why we read biblical texts. That's why we say them out loud together. That's why we study them together. That's why we study them in our groups, is that we would be devoted to the scriptures.

And as Americans, we have the least excuse whatsoever to not be devoted to the scriptures. Your phone will read the Bible to you. If you pay a little money, James Earl Jones will read the Bible to you. We have podcasts and websites. We have ways to access the Bible in multiple translations. Not just in English, but in multiple translations that we might pursue the word together.

And so what I would say is that the content of discipleship is a life of learning. That we are learning and studying the Bible. Studying the scriptures together. That we might grow together. I would encourage you to do a couple of things. If you're new to trying to read the Bible, I would encourage you to find somebody who's not new to trying to read the Bible.

And y'all read it together. Or just say, hey, I'm going to read these three. We're going to read the first three chapters of Matthew over the course of this week. And then we'll talk about it. And you just write down things that you have questions about. You know you can read your Bible and text somebody and say, hey, what is this doing?

I still do this. I'll open my, I'll be reading my Bible. I'll open up the Bible app. I'll copy the verse. I'll send it to a group of guys. And I'll say, what on earth is that talking about?

Is it this or this? And we discuss it. And I grow. It's edifying. I would also encourage you to get a study Bible. They're very helpful.

If you want more, if you want to listen to podcasts or know some websites, we'd love to talk to you and point you in the right direction. I would not encourage you to just Google your questions. I would encourage you to go to resources that have already been tested for faithfulness. So it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. We're going to skip over the fellowship because that's what we're going to talk about next more in depth. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching to the breaking of bread.

This means two things. It means that they shared meals together. That they got together. They shared meals together. But specifically as we see this play out in the New Testament, these are intentional gospel meals.

Intentional church family meals. That ultimately this is communion as we have it now. That they would get together and specifically intentionally say, we are reminding ourselves over a meal of who Jesus is and what he's done for us. One of the ways we've done this in our community groups is when we've taken communion in our community groups, we've actually gone in a circle, person by person, and said, how do you need the gospel right now? What is it that you're fearful over? What is it that you're in doubt?

Where are you sinning and not believing that the gospel is better than the thing you're chasing? Where is it that you need the good news? And somebody would just confess or they'd say, here's where I'm struggling. And the rest of the table would just say, well, here's how Jesus is better than that. Here's how this is good news for you. Here's what you're celebrating when you take communion tonight.

And we would ask at the end of that, do you understand when we take communion what you're celebrating? How Jesus is good and how the gospel is for you? And they say, yes. And we go to the next person. And that's what they were doing. They were actively, intentionally applying the gospel to life.

They were sharing gospel meals. They were reminding each other of what Jesus had accomplished for them. And they were spending time together. So they devoted themselves, not only to just learning what the apostles were teaching, but to applying that in repentance and applying it to their lives as they celebrated communion. And the prayers. That they were intentionally, collectively praying together and praying separately.

That they were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to applying the gospel to life, to practicing the gospel in life through repentance and through celebrating what Jesus has done and praying. That is the content of discipleship. That if you're like, I'd love to try to walk with somebody, but I don't know what to do. Okay. Get together. Get your Bibles out.

Talk about how the gospel applies to life. Repent of sin. Celebrate that Jesus is good. Pray. Boom. That's the content of discipleship.

That's what they were doing when they gathered together. This is how they were practicing this. And the other thing they were devoted to is the fellowship. That's the context. That this happens in relationships. And so discipleship is a life of learning, but it's also life on life.

That you would actually be around each other. This is what it says if we keep reading. So it says they devoted themselves to the fellowship and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to any to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. That they were around each other day by day.

They were gathering in big groups. They were gathering in homes. They were sharing their possessions. They were with each other in life. I want to read Deuteronomy 6. When the law was given to the nation of Israel, God gives this command.

It's called the Shema. Shema just means here. This is the command that Jesus says, if you'll go to Deuteronomy 6. This is the command that Jesus says is the most important command. Hear, O Israel. Yeah, cool.

All right. This is what Jesus tells them. This is the greatest commandment. It says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today should be on your heart.

So the first command is that you would love God and that you would have his words in your heart. And then he says, and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. He's teaching them how to train others, how to equip others. First step, love the Lord. Have his word in your heart. Second step, live your life.

With others, that's what he's saying, that you would love the Lord so much that when you're just typaling your children, that it's what you talk about when you rise up. That's what you talk about when you sit. It's what you talk about when you walk. It's what you talk about when you lay down, that it's part of life, that your love for Jesus is so part of your life. Now, this was a command specifically to parents for their specific children. So for me, it'd be my two boys.

But it was also a command to the nation of Israel for the next generation, that they would teach their children. And it is how discipleship works, that you are around people in life. So I want to pause for just a second and talk about discipling children. And then we'll go back to talking about exactly how we do this in application to each other. Parents, you're supposed to disciple your children. The church is supposed to join in that and help that the collective call to disciple and raise up children is something that takes place in community groups that we try to help with in Kid City.

But primarily, you are around your children way more. And here's the thing. Sometimes parents go, all right, I don't know what to do. Like, am I supposed to read a Bible story? Or am I supposed to, are we supposed to do like family worship and every night or just once a week? And how's that supposed to look?

And they get real stressed out about it. And I understand taking it seriously. And it does help to read Bible stories. And it does help to do family worship. I mean, that's as easy as playing something on a podcast, singing with them. Or if you're with my son singing Joy to the World, 365 days a year.

This is his favorite song ever. And sometimes I'm just like, no, bro, we're not singing that tonight. Like, I just, I don't like Christmas that much. We've got to sing something else. There are other songs. But like, walking with them, training them in specific moments.

But really, your kids pick up way more who you are and what you love all the other times during the day than just some specific moments when you say, okay, now we're going to teach. Now we're going to learn. Because that's what he's saying. Teach them diligently, meaning be intentional. But also, when you wake up, when you walk, when you sit, when you lay down.

By the time your children are in middle school, they've got a real good handle on what you actually care about. By the time they're in high school, by the time they're graduating, they've got a good, good handle on if you really love the Lord and his word is in your heart. Or if what you really appreciate is the praise of men. And you were always worried about how your family appeared to others. If what you really cared about was your own personal comfort. They've got a good handle on that.

You actually make, you reproduce who you are way more than reproducing what you teach. This is just true for any amount of discipleship. You reproduce who you are way more than what you teach. We can see this very simply in some of our community groups. We've seen it as we started out. Matt and I were the first two group leaders.

Matt's groups tended to be very encouraging towards one another. Very loving. There's like a lot of hugs in their groups. My groups tended to be easily distracted and sarcastic. It wasn't uncommon for us to quit studying the Bible to make fun of one another. Lose our train of thought.

And it just had to do with I was trying to teach the Bible but unintentionally just sharing a lot of what I'm like. Easily distracted and sarcastic. I didn't promote encouragement. We promoted saying mean things to one another. And that's what happens and that's what he's saying is that that life on life discipleship is how you raise your children. I want to tag one more thing with raising children.

Your children matter and if you are new to parenting, which a lot of people in this room are, they're like little cannonballs into your life. You had a nice little life and then you had a child and they're terrorists. They are. They're. I'm going to scream until you feed me. That's how they enter the world.

And then I'm going to scream because I went to the bathroom. I'm going to scream because I'm sleepy or I'm going to scream. And you know that I just slept, that I just ate and I have a clean diaper. I'm just going to scream. They're terrorists that you're deeply in love with. It's super weird.

And what happens is it's pretty easy early on with your children to start bending your life to them. You have to. But at some point, you've got to help them bend their life to Jesus. And you've got to help them see that life, that he, it's a long-term value play, that he matters more. And so what happens is at some point, we're like, I've got to work around my kid's schedule. And at some point, you've got to say, no, my kid's schedule has got to work around how we follow Jesus.

And this will happen when they're young with nap schedules and with bedtimes. And it will happen when they're older with sports and school. Now, it's a life of loving Jesus, which means that for some of you, you need to say no to travel sports because it affects how you follow Jesus. And for some of you, you need to say yes to travel sports because it's one of the best places to teach your children how to be on mission and how to love people and how to serve people and how to connect people and how to share the gospel. But over the course of a life, your children will pick up, did they matter more than Jesus?

Did their schedule matter more than Jesus? Did sports matter more than Jesus? And whether or not the value play was at right in your home or was he in your heart and his word in your heart and your life was, how do we rise? How do we walk? How do we sit? How do we sleep in a way that we love Jesus?

And that is how discipleship works. It happens life on life. So Jesus gets disciples and the first thing he says to them is just come follow me. You, come follow me. Leave your tax booth. Let's go.

You, drop your nets. Follow me. Let's go. And he just starts going. And then they start picking up what he's like as he goes. That's how it happens, that they're around him in life.

Teaching my son Bible stories. He's two and three, so we would just act him out so that he'd help remember him. I remember one time I was laying on the floor. My wife comes in. He's throwing all his Nerf balls at me. She's like, what are y'all doing?

He's supposed to be getting ready for bed. I'm like, well, we're doing the story of the stoning of Stephen. And she said, are there not appropriate children's stories you can do? I was like, he's loving it. In a second, he'll get to declare that Jesus is great and I'll throw balls at him. It'll be wonderful.

But I was doing one where, sorry, I was doing one where we were trying to help him see, you know, Jesus just trained his disciples in life. And so what we said was, you're the little kids. Your mom's going to be Jesus. I'm going to be the disciples. I want you to come over and ask me, can I come see Jesus? Y'all know this story?

The disciples tell the children no. And so he would come over and say, can I see Jesus? And I'll go, no, you can't see Jesus. And I'll just push him to the ground, which is a little more than what the Bible says it was, but I was trying to help him pay attention. And then finally his mom would say, no, let the children come to me. And he would go over there and she'd hug him and tell him he was wonderful and we'd do it again.

And I thought this was great, but what I ended up teaching was the disciples were bad guys because at one point I was like, we're disciples. He's like, no, we're not disciples. We're the worst. But the disciples on that day learned something because they were with Jesus in life and they began to see how he valued the world and how he loved children. And what happens is that's how discipleship takes place, that it isn't just sufficient to get with someone for one hour and teach a thing, but we're actually meant to be around each other in life so that we might share who we are. That is why you will disciple your children, whether you want to or not.

You will train them. You will teach them what is valuable, what is good. It will happen. That's why he says be diligent. And at first you got to love the Lord and you got to have his word in your heart. And the truth is anybody that walks with you in life will be slowly discipled by you.

And so what we need to do is love Jesus and then intentionally be around one another that we might help grow one another towards Jesus. That's what we see throughout the New Testament. First Thessalonians 2.8 says, Paul's specifically writing to Timothy there and he's saying, you know me, you've been around me, you know my life. Not just you've read all my letters. No, no, you know me. You know what matters.

And that's what he says in 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And that is a lot of how discipleship works. As you say, no, walk with me as I walk with Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. Let's walk together.

Let's imitate one another as we imitate Christ. As we picture this out for one another and display this to one another. That we're meant to walk in life together. So the content of discipleship is scriptures, actively, intentionally applying the gospel to life through sharing meals and through sharing communion and through applying the gospel to each other and walking in repentance and praying. But the context for all of that is normal, everyday life.

Life, not some extra bonus time, not once a month at Starbucks. Everyday, normal life. And it's life on life, but it's not just life on life. It's life in community. It's not just you and one other person walking together. It's not just you and two other people walking together.

But it's a communal picture. So let me show this. We showed this a couple of times. This was kind of Spencer's. It used to have little names in there or whatever. But Spencer's line of this person shared the gospel with these people, helped disciple them.

They shared the gospel with these people, helped disciple them. And the truth is, if that's just evangelism, just sharing the gospel, that is how it looks. This person shares the gospel. They share the gospel. And it does spread and grow and multiply. If it keeps going, it gets beautifully ridiculous.

You know, kind of like leaven. All right, so, but what happens when we see that in the discipleship mindset is, okay, you immediately start picturing this next picture, which is this, which one am I? Who am I ready to be? Am I a discipler? Or do I need to be a disciplee? Like some people looked at that and saw and said, I'm not ready to have two or three people that I'm helping coach and equip.

That's overwhelming. And some of you saw it and thought, okay, I'll do it. Yeah. White knuckle. And this is your little chart here. This is how you follow Jesus sometimes or how you decide it.

I'm going to try harder. I'm going to do it this time for real. And you get fatigued. You're tired. So you quit.

Then eventually you feel bad again and you try harder again. That's the wheel of religion. Some of you are like, yes, that's me. I'm in like a hamster wheel of that. Okay, that's not the gospel. Try harder.

Get exhausted. Quit. Feel bad. Try harder. Get exhausted. Quit.

And there are churches that are just running through with like, all right, we're going to work with the 20% that are in the guilt zone right now. Y'all in the guilt zone? You ready to work? Y'all are fatigued? You quit? We'll get back to you when you feel guilty again.

We don't want to do that. And we don't want discipleship to look like that. And we also don't want you to be fearful and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't. I just need to be coached up. Because the truth is that's not the best picture of discipleship.

That's not a good picture of the gospel, but it's also not a picture of how we go about discipleship. So the next slide is how we intend to go about discipleship. We want to be in community groups. Now, community groups aren't in the Bible. We are trying to actively apply what we see in the Bible, which was they were around each other day by day. And they gathered in homes.

And they gathered together, large groups in the temple. They gathered in homes. They shared life together. And here's what we know about Americans. You don't have to share life with anybody. We say this all the time, but you can watch friends instead of having them.

You can be very independent. You're taught that you're supposed to be. Like the ultimate hero of America is like the marble man out by himself smoking on a hilltop or whatever. And doesn't need anybody and doesn't want anybody. And he's going to get cancer and die. It's going to be awesome.

But we're actually meant to be in life together. And so what we do is we say, no, no, no, no. We're going to be intentional, diligent about making this happen. So here's you. And don't tell anybody I told you this, but you are the shining star in your group. You're the best group member.

Here's how this works. You're connected to everybody. And everybody's connected to you. Once you're in a community group, you get to know everybody. You're connected to everybody. Everybody's connected to you.

And I didn't tell Miss Bebe I was going to say this. And she's here. So hopefully she'll forgive me. But Miss Bebe told me one time that one of the things that she began to enjoy and appreciate about community groups was that she could no longer read her Bible the way she used to. She used to read her Bible and she could only think from her perspective. She read it like Bebe.

And she said, I now read my Bible and I see everybody else. I hear everybody else. I know people who have small children. I know people who are in this season of life and this difficulty. And she said, I read my Bible now with our group in mind. And it's changed the way I read the scriptures.

And what we're seeing is that we're supposed to be connected to other people. And we're supposed to be connected to other people where the thing that we have in common is Jesus and nothing else. There are supposed to be people in your group that you have an extremely hard time talking to. That's how it's supposed to work. And it's possible that you have a hard time talking to them because they have a hard time talking with everyone. And it's possible you have a hard time talking with them because you have a hard time talking with everyone.

And it's possible you just aren't on the same page. But that's how it's supposed to work. that we're supposed to be around people that we don't naturally connect with because they help us grow and they help us see things that we don't see otherwise. But you're connected to everybody. Everybody else is connected to everybody. So this is what groups look like.

Because they're supposed to be connected to everybody. But it's life on life and life in community, so there's also this. You're more connected to a few people. Just how it works. You get along a little easier. You're in similar stages of life.

You live near one another. Maybe you're not in similar stages of life. Maybe they're empty nesters and you have small kids, but they love small kids, so they just hang out with you all the time because they have more open schedule. I don't know, but you've got some people that you connect with a little better. And the truth is, that's the case for everybody in your group. That everybody's got somebody they connect with.

There we go. That's what it looks like. Now, for some of you, seeing this web and thinking about a community group, you're like, yes, I'm an extrovert, and that's a trampoline of awesomeness. And some of you who are introverted is like, that looks like a spider web of despair. I would get trapped in that. It would suck the life out of me.

This would be terrible. So I just want to talk for just a second about what this looks like and how this plays out and talk to a few different people. So some of you think, no, no, no, no, no. I have the thick lines with everyone. What I'm willing to bet is you make a certain depth of relationship and never go past that. So everybody feels like they're on the same level.

Everybody's your thickest line. And what you ought to do is get to know people a little more deeply. You ought to walk a little more closely with some people. We want to have people that can speak into your life. You want people who love Jesus, who are not you, who see the world a little differently, be able to speak into your life. One of the things that frustrates me to no end that happens all the time in churches is someone just announces some big life change, some big we're doing this, we're doing that, and everybody just goes, oh, congratulations.

We're in a community group, but we end up being like Facebook friends. We just all press the like button. And somebody needs to know you well enough to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got some questions. Not saying this is a terrible idea. Just saying I got some questions because I know you.

I've walked with you long enough to know that one of the things that you have as an idolatrous nature in your heart is this wonderlust, that you have to be in some other city in order to be happy, and you get bored with places, and you don't know how to build deep relationships. And so when you said, I've got a job. I'm moving to Tulsa. And everybody said, yay, congratulations. I immediately thought, that might be terrible for you. Let's talk.

Someone when you say, I've met the man of my dreams. I've met the girl. She's the one. Someone who knows you well enough to go, isn't this your fourth one? In like four years, like don't you do this every time you meet somebody? I'm sure they're nice, but let's just tone it down a step.

People who know you well enough to not just cosign everything, but love you. Now, for the introverted person, keep the spider web up there, please. For the introverted person, there's a lot of slides. Thanks, Nick. You're doing a great job. Way more than normal.

Usually it's like, here's a Bible verse, and then we just go for it. For the introverted person, some of y'all looked at that and thought, some of you looked at it and thought, I've been in the group for a while. I don't have a deep connection with anybody. And that may be true. I'm sorry if it's true. Don't be okay with that and don't think that's how that has to work.

You may need to insert yourself a little more. If you only build relationships one-on-one, you may need to invite people one-on-one. There are some people in your group who feel perfectly, beautifully connected with you because their level of relationship only goes to a three. I feel super close to everybody in my group. But that's because I have to work real hard to get closer with people.

My wife, it takes her like 15 years to develop a friendship. Now, once you're there, she'll help you bury a body. She'll stab people for you. She is on your team. I feel sorry for any teacher or anybody that ever messes with one of our children. People think I'm intense.

I'm going to be the person just holding her and she's going to be like, I'm going to get on my back. No, no, hold on, hold on. So some of you, it takes a while to build relationships. Keep doing the hard work of relationship building. Some of y'all see that and think everybody's already full. They already have all the relationships they can handle.

That's not true. That you're meant to be welcomed. So here's what I want. If you're that person who just says, I don't feel like I've connected with anybody, announce that to your group in a non-condescending, non-condemning way. Just say, hey guys, I'm having a hard time and I really would like to hang out with someone one-on-one. Community groups.

Make that happen. I have a hard time making friends in groups. So I end up just sitting next to this conversation and sitting next to that conversation and sitting next to that conversation. And I feel like I'd be intruding to press into that any and I need some people to just, can somebody just hang out with me? Can we just get a cup of coffee? Can we get, I just need to.

That's why one of the reasons why our groups try to do fun things periodically is because it helps change the dynamic. We believe fun makes family. Okay. Content. First aspects of life of learning. And the content is the word.

Applying the gospel to life. Praying. The context is a life on life, life in community. And we actually have to see each other in real life and we have to be around people who we would not normally choose to just be around. And that's what makes the church beautiful. That's where all the one another's come in.

That we love one another. That we serve one another. Then he starts saying things like bear with one another. Forgive one another. Be patient with one another. Do you know you have to bear with, forgive, and be patient with?

People who frustrate you. People who you're around more than just a little bit. A lot of us have been in a group and we've gotten super frustrated with people. And it's the moment, the moment where we can apply the gospel. And we can confront and we can confess and we can forgive and we can bear with and we can be patient. It's that moment where we can really do some Bible things.

And you know what we do? We say this group's messed up. Filled with sinners. I'm going to find a church where they're not like that. We go to our next church. We say my last group was terrible.

And they were so sorry. They wouldn't build friendships with me. We're so sorry. They were the worst. We're so sorry. Come.

We're not like that. We love Jesus. We love you. Come. And you're like, this place is great. And it is like a year, year and a half, two years until you start trying to build some real relationships.

Until your friend Karen does the same crap she's done 1,500 times. And you're like, you know what? They're all the same. It's like, no, you have a moment to grow, to repent, to be gracious, to forgive, to be patient, to bear with. And when you do that, it becomes beautiful and glorious and we grow. So that's discipleship.

Life of learning. Life on life. Life in community. Now, immediately you might ask, okay, cool chart, bro. How on earth do I have time to do that? I'm glad you brought it up.

Here's February. How on earth do I have time to be in life on life, life in community? I'm super busy. Okay, well, your group meets every Tuesday. Every Tuesday. Did you know that?

Some of you are like, it's Wednesday. Okay, whatever. Once a week. And for two hours, hour and a half, if y'all are quick and got a bunch of people with little kids and you want to go home. Three hours if you're super chatty. Two hours studying the Bible.

Praying together. Sharing a meal. Applying the gospel. Confessing sin. Every single week. We get together every Sunday.

Every Sunday. We're here. Unlock the bill and we pay for it. Every Sunday. We gather together to devote ourselves to the word. To be around one another.

Some of you, a community group isn't enough for the amount of relationships you can have. Some of you, it feels too much. It's overwhelming. There's 12 people here. I can only have two real friendships. So it's like, okay, we'll find those two people, corner them and talk to them.

Some of you are like, I need 45 friendships. I will know everything about you. I will remember you. I will know your birthday. You're the people who are super frustrated when anybody forgets anything. Because you're like, how on earth can you not?

If you love people, you know every aspect of their life ever. And you can keep up with everybody ever. Show up on Sundays and get to know people. We want to be a bigger group. We want to have, you can have friendships outside of your group. We want you to be intentional with the ones in your group.

But you can, don't feel like it's wrong to have other friendships. If that's you, do that. We gather on Sundays, but you get to see, there's a handful of guys in our community group that show up early on every Sunday. I get to hang out with them on Sundays. Sometimes we get into really intense conversations about the Bible. Sometimes we get into really intense conversations about SEC football.

It doesn't matter. We're walking in life together. Serving, seeing each other on Sunday. Seeing each other when we get together during the week. Let's say your group decides on a specific Saturday that you're going to do some kind of a mission outreach something.

You're going to try to get around some people to share the gospel. You're going to all go to a park and just try to meet people. You're going to go downtown and hand some food out in some areas where homeless people hang out. You're going to go serve at a school. So all of y'all are going to see each other on Saturday as you're on mission together.

Let's say there's a Friday during February when somebody just says, hey, we're going to a movie. If anybody wants to come, come on. Hey, we're all going to go eat at Cracker Barrel. Hey, we're doing a game night at our house. And so you get to hang out then. Let's say that on Thursdays, some of the guys are able to get together for lunch.

Or some of the ladies get together for an extra Bible study. Or maybe they get together for breakfast. Or you figure out a way to trade off who's watching kids. And you figure something out. The guys in my group used to eat at Denny's every Thursday morning. Now we're trying to get some lunches.

It happens about twice a month. And it's not everybody, but it's whoever can make it. Now it's 2019. I'm not going to tell you which color represents which gender. You can pick that for yourselves. Let's say that with the people that you hang out a little more with, you get to see them more often.

Your life overlaps a little more. It's easier for you to watch kids together or not have kids. Or you both get off of work at 11 p.m. and you play video games or whatever. You get to see some other people. But look at that.

That's a normal schedule in people whose lives are busy, who've set out some intentional time, and then who go out of their way to overlap their lives. It is doable for you to be around people. It does take some effort. It does take us working with our schedules because we're busy people. And if we're not intentional, our schedules will fill up. But it's possible for us to devote ourselves to being around one another, to walking in life together, to pointing each other towards Jesus, and to be around each other in enough circumstances in life that we might be able to grow together as disciples.

Lastly, it's life on mission. That we were meant as Christians to be making more disciples and sharing the gospel. And that when we stop doing that, we become unhealthy. If your group ceases to be on mission, it will start becoming unhealthy. I can tell you the best way to be miserable anywhere in your community group, but you can also import this into your marriage or your roommate situation, whatever, is to show up and think that it is about you. When we cease to be on mission, we forget that we're supposed to be actively sacrificing to see other people grow and to see people meet Jesus.

And when we stop doing that and when we fail to be on mission, that's what the disciples, what it says here is that day by day, attending the temple together, this is verse 46, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. They were walking in life together, loving one another, serving one another, sharing with one another, and making their city better, proclaiming the gospel, and people were hopping in all the time. The Lord was saving people day by day.

Let me tell you what happens. If you start hanging out with your group and y'all cease to be on mission, you start thinking that the purpose of your group is for your own personal edification and your own personal growth. And you show up and you start asking questions like, what am I getting out of this? Who's talking to me? You see people enjoying, you ever been out to eat and you're having a good time until there's two tables over is having a better time? They're laughing real loud and everything's going super great.

And so suddenly you're like, well, my dinner's not as nice as it used to be because look at them. And so what happens sometimes you start hanging out with your group, you start hanging out and you start going, well, they're better friends than I am. They talk during the week. They just said they got caught. And you start, and we forget that the whole purpose is that we collectively grow together, that you're here to serve other people. You're here to pour into other people.

And we're actively walking in, helping other people meet Jesus, that we would be on mission together. And there's joy in that. Also, mission happens better in community because there are things that you're gifted at that the person next to you isn't, and vice versa. And as we serve and connect and love together, more people meet Jesus. They get to see what the gospel does among a group of people, and more people buy in because more people connect, more people understand, more people see how on earth do y'all hang out with each other, and they get to begin to see what it looks like for people to follow Jesus together.

And then they, maybe you're really good at inviting, but somebody else is really good at getting close to somebody. I've had that happen in my group. I've been friends with somebody for a couple weeks, known them at work, bring them to our group. They finally come, they hang out a little bit, they hang out one time, and afterwards, a week later, one of the people in my group will go, hey, how's that? How's that issue that they've been struggling with? How's that going?

I'm like, what issue? What are you talking about? They were like, well, they told me they were struggling with issues. They were like, well, nobody tells me that stuff. Nobody, my coworkers aren't volunteering that they're struggling with things with me. That's not how conversations go with me.

I've never really just made a conversation go there. I have to have been someone's pastor for two and a half years, and then they're like, maybe I'll tell it. But there was somebody in my group who just went over and said, how are you doing? I don't know, the Holy Spirit works in that. The person looked at them and went, terrible. And they talked, and they worked, and the Holy Spirit works, and people end up getting closer to Jesus, so they meet Jesus, and it's because we collectively are on mission better together.

So that's what happened in the New Testament church, and that's how we walk this out. So I want you to know it is doable as you commit to all the small things, that you're going to love the Bible, you're going to have God's Word in you, and you're going to commit to being around each other. You're going to commit to showing up to your group, to showing up on Sundays, to talking to people, and we're going to commit collectively to try to help other people meet Jesus, and guess what? We'll make disciples. See, that's what Jesus is saying about the leaven. So if you zoom in on it, it doesn't seem that spectacular.

If actually, if you just walk somebody through the February schedule, it's like, yeah, we meet every week, we meet on Sundays, yeah, we're confessing sin, we're walking together, but the truth is, you pull that out over a year for someone who's bought in, committed, devoted themselves to the Word, devoted themselves to the fellowship, devoted to applying the Gospel, and guess what? They're growing. And if we're actively devoted to sharing the Gospel with people, more people are hopping in, more people are growing, and none of it looked that spectacular, and none of that was overwhelming, and none of that was amazing, but it was we just collectively decided, this is who we're going to be, we're going to be around each other, we're going to devote ourselves to the Word, and we'll get to see it happen. That a little bit of leaven is going to take over the whole thing.

And so, if there's any aspect of that, that you have opted out of, don't. Devote yourself to it. Some of you, it needs to be, you need to devote yourself to the Word. Some of you, it's life on life. You hang out with your group, but other than that, you don't really get to know people, you're not really talking to people. Some of you, it's life on life, but you won't hang out with your group, so you only hang out with somebody one-on-one, but you never get in the community aspect.

Some of it's a mission. But that was how they made disciples, and that was how they began, and the church exploded. with people meeting Jesus, and people growing. And that's what we want to see, and that's what we hope to see. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing one song together, and as we sing, we're going to take communion, because as we've gathered to fellowship today, we're also taking communion, we're breaking bread together, to remind ourselves that Jesus saves sinners, that He's good, and that it's not on us to just try harder, or to do better, but to trust Him, to work in us, and to be faithful in all the small things, knowing that He ultimately makes them effective.

That He's died, that we might be redeemed, and then if you're sitting here today, and realize I hadn't been doing this stuff, you don't need to feel overwhelmed, or crushed, you need to run to Jesus, and know that He works, and He redeems, and He's good, and you're holy, blameless, and above reproach, and we get to take communion, and walk this out together. So if you are a believer, if you are part of our church, we'd love for you to take communion. If you're not a believer, we would ask that you refrain from taking communion, because we want you to know Jesus, before you practice the remembrance of His death, and His resurrection. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for your grace, and your goodness. We pray that we would be active, in all the small things, as your Holy Spirit works in us, that we might see disciples made, that we would be intentional about it, that we'd be devoted to it, that we'd be diligent in it, daily, in all the small ways, to overlap our lives, and to be around one another, and to study your word, so that we might proclaim your gospel, and see more people come to follow you. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Y'all stand, sing when you're ready. Take communion.

During the sermon, there were many slides used to visually display the concepts taught. We have included them below with a brief summary to help you better follow along while listening to the sermon online.

Discipleship multiplication as described by Spencer during the first sermon in our Multiply series.

When we start considering discipling others we may begin to think of it as a simple dichotomy: Am I a prepared to be a disciple-er” or do I need to be a “disciple-ee?” But the truth is more easily accessible.

As discipleship plays out within groups you are connected with everyone in your group and everyone is connected with you. Therefore you are both able to pour into others and have them pour into you.

You are not alone in your group. Everyone is intended to disciple everyone; therefore, the weight does not fall entirely on you.

You will naturally have deeper connections with some people than with others and you will spend more time discipling those you have deeper connections with and having them disciple you.

As long as you are invested in your group, you will have deeper connections with some people than with others. Spend your time cultivating those relationships understanding that this is how it works for everyone. In this way discipleship gets to be both Life on Life (deeper relationships) and Life in Community (the full group dynamic).

By committing to your group, you will have opportunities in your schedule to be around people in your group. We gather on Sundays, meet once a week, and have various rhythms throughout the month to ensure the people within our groups are spending time together. It take intentionality in our already busy schedules, but it is doable and it is worth it.