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[0:00] Today I want to talk to you about being a family of missionary servant disciples.! Family of missionary servant disciples. This is our church. We say, what do you guys do as a church?

[0:11] What kind of constitutes the life of your church? And we organize the life of our church into what we call missional communities. Missional communities are a small family of believers on a mission to specific people and places.

[0:22] Okay? And those missional communities are trying to do all four of these things. Be a family that's on mission, that serves one another, and that really becomes disciples and helps each other become disciples.

[0:37] So, family of missionary servant disciples. These four identities are the things we're trying to identify with as a missional community. And the reason this is important is because our mission flows out of our gospel identity.

[0:52] Okay? And if we forget this, we're in danger of finding both positive and negative identity in what we do, falling into a religious performance trap.

[1:02] Okay? Which we don't want to do, obviously. Christ's work has given us identity that we work from, not for. You hear me on that? Christ's work has given us identity that we work from, not for.

[1:18] We are not saved by good works. We're saved for good works. Do you follow me on that? Okay? Our doing flows out of our being. All right? Ephesians 2, 8 to 10 kind of articulates this.

[1:30] For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[1:49] So our salvation is not a result of works, but the result of that is good works once we know who we are, who Christ has made us.

[2:01] And this is really important because we can seek to strive to be a bunch of things that we can do to our own strength and we can do to our own energy. And eventually we're going to fall flat or we're going to get burnt out. We're going to be like, forget this.

[2:13] This doesn't sound like life. This doesn't sound like peace. This doesn't sound like the fruit of the Spirit. And you know why? Because it's not. The fruit of the Spirit is fruit of the Spirit, not of the flesh.

[2:26] Okay? And so if we are not seeing first what our identity is and living out of that identity, we're going to end up falling into this religious performance trap. And I don't know about you. I've done that before.

[2:36] Don't ever want to do it again. And if you've done that before, I'm sure you never want to do it again. It's a racket. It's a rat race. It's a hamster wheel. It's not what Jesus Christ died and resurrected for.

[2:49] He didn't do that so that we could just try harder and we could just be better people. He's not a humanist. Okay? Christ lives for the glory of God, believes that we function best when we live for the glory of God by the identity that is given to us and imparted to us through the gospel.

[3:06] When Jesus died and was buried and rose again and we put our faith in him, our identity changed. Who we are changes. There's implications to his death, burial, and resurrection.

[3:17] There's implications to the gospel. And we live out of those identities. Okay? We don't have to strive to be those things. God has already made us those things. The question is, do you believe that?

[3:28] What is your motivation? Is it the gospel? Is it, or is it man-pleasing? Is it insecurity? Am I insecure? Therefore, I'm trying to fill that void of insecurity with performance.

[3:41] All right? Do I care a lot about what people think? And so I'm doing things so that those people will be pleased. Which eventually I can maybe do for a little while, but it's not going to last. Okay?

[3:52] Romans 12 verse 1 in the CSB says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

[4:03] This is your true worship. Okay? And I want to read that before we jump into these, because I don't want any of us hearing this message and think, you rah rah, try harder. Okay?

[4:14] I want you to hear this message and say, God has been merciful to me, therefore. Right? God has been merciful to me, therefore. In view of God's, it says, therefore, in view of God's mercies.

[4:28] His mercy to us causes us, out of the overflow of who he has made us in him, redeemed, washed, cleansed, forgiven, saved.

[4:40] When those things come upon us and transform us, in view of that mercy, we offer our bodies as living sacrifices. If you offer your bodies a living sacrifice to get something, you have not understood the gospel and you're missing Christianity altogether.

[4:54] And we don't want to have a church that functions that way. Okay? So, these are four things that we're always trying to do in the context of our missional communities. These are four things, four cylinders.

[5:05] You know, someone says, hey, now we're firing on all four cylinders. Here you go. Here's the four cylinders. Okay? These are the four cylinders we want to be firing on. And there's going to be different seasons where we emphasize one over the other, because that's the season we're in.

[5:19] Kind of think of it when you're riding a bike. You never push both pedals when you're riding a bike. You only push the pedal that's up. And there's going to be seasons of time, and it's like, you know what? Now's the time to focus more on family.

[5:30] Now's the time to focus more on discipleship. Now's the time to really focus on serving one another. Now's the time to focus more on mission. Okay? And recognizing those things and not getting caught in some weird performance trap.

[5:42] Again, when you're hearing this and saying, we've got to do all four of these, and we've got to do them all at the same time. And we're doing this, but we're not doing this. And we're a failure, and we're not doing church well. And it's just like, whoa, chill out. Just like, what's the season we're in?

[5:56] What are we focused on right now? We can do a couple of these things at the same time, maybe. All right? But there's freedom and rest in the gospel to be able to say, as a church, let's just cultivate these things.

[6:08] Let's learn and grow and see how we can cultivate these things better in the context of our missional communities. Before I jump in, I want to say one thing. The difference between addition and multiplication. Okay?

[6:21] Most churches would say they want to grow. Any healthy thing grows, so you should say that. Okay? A church should want to grow. I don't think that's selfishly ambitious, although it could be.

[6:31] But it's good to grow. All right? But there's two ways of growth the Bible talks about. It talks about addition and multiplication. All right? In concept, maybe not in specificity.

[6:43] And addition happens a lot of times in churches in the sense that a really slick Sunday morning presentation, the charismatic preacher, the amazing worship team, and the killer kids ministry, kind of the holy trinity of church planting, right?

[7:04] You know, preaching, worship, and child care. You nail all those things. Those things themselves will add people to the church. What do I mean by that? Well, you ask someone, why do you go to that church? Oh, man.

[7:14] Killer preaching. Just love the preaching. It's awesome. That guy. He's great. All right? Or you say, you know, why do you go to the church? Oh, the child care is amazing. Why do you go to the church? Oh, I just love times of worship.

[7:25] It's so awesome. And those things add people to the church. But they're limited. It's just three things. Those three things, we're not adding. Well, I really, and then now we also do, I don't know.

[7:38] I don't know what else you'd add. But it's just those three things, right? And they're constantly adding people to the church. That's not a bad thing in one sense. As long as Christ is preached, like, and people come and they hear the gospel, that's great.

[7:50] We rejoice that Christ is preached. But I don't think it's what God intends for church. I think he's wanting multiplication. Okay? And if you have addition, you have this maybe just kind of growth all the time.

[8:02] The way we're trying to build is through multiplication. And what that looks like, it's going to be really slow on the front end. But over time, it's exponential. What do I mean by multiplication? What I mean is the attraction is not the show we put on.

[8:15] It's not the things we do necessarily on Sunday morning, although that can be part of it. It's the people. It's the people. It's a quality people that function together as family, that function together as servants, that function together as disciples, that function together on mission.

[8:31] And it's in the everyday stuff of life. It's all the time. And when that group of people is solid and they are representing Christ, living like Christ, when that group of people becomes a people on mission that is filled with the Holy Spirit and they're functioning the way that God has called us to function, then the church multiplies because any given one of those people is going to interact with other people and be on mission to them and reach them and love them, see them get saved.

[8:59] And then you have exponential multiplication. Do you understand what I'm saying? As more and more people come to the church, you have more and more touch points for impact and gospel impact especially.

[9:10] And so that's what we're going for. We're not just looking for, you know, let's get some really good paid professionals. We can get in here to do all the work of ministry. The work of those guys is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

[9:21] God wanted the church to be saints who are doing the ministry, not a few paid professionals that everybody else consumes from and is a spectator of. Church is meant to be all of us participating, using our gifts, recognizing no one person is the whole enchilada.

[9:36] We all have a certain part that we play. And as we all do that together, the church builds itself up in love and grows and grows. That's the multiplication we're seeking. It's slow on the front end because we don't have that many people, right?

[9:49] But more and more as we just interact with people and we're faithful and we're not in a rush, we're not in a hurry, we're just faithfully conducting our lives, glorifying Christ, building relationships with people, preaching the gospel, growing in discipleship, challenging one another, confronting one another, loving one another, praying for one another, being there for one another, comforting for one another, all these things.

[10:10] People start, we start interacting with people and they're exposed to the family of believers. They're experiencing Christ in a myriad of ways from a myriad of people. That's multiplication. You follow me on that?

[10:23] Some of you do, maybe some of you don't. Okay, good. We can talk more about it. So let's jump into it, all right? First one, family. We're family. In Christ, we are children of God, which makes us family.

[10:36] Okay, John 1 verse 12. Great verse. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to be called children of God. A lot of times, especially as Americans, we like to talk about our rights.

[10:50] My favorite right as a human being in Christ is the right to be called a child of God. That's a good right. That's a right I will stand up for and boast in, right? I've been given the right to be called a child of God.

[11:04] And together, we have been given the right to be called children of God. And what does that do? That identity makes us family. That identity means we function together as brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers.

[11:15] Verse Timothy 5, 1 to 2 says, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as he would a father. Younger men as brothers. Older women as mothers.

[11:26] Younger women as sisters in all purity. Seeing the language here? Again, this speaks of our identity as a church. We're family. This is the same that's true when it speaks of overseers or elders or pastors.

[11:38] Verse Timothy 3, 4 to 5 says, He, speaking of an overseer, must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

[11:53] Again, basically saying, if you can't take care of your own family, how will you take care of what is also called the family, the family of God? The training ground is your own family because this larger entity is a family.

[12:05] And the skills transfer. You being able to manage your own household, your own family, carries over to the household of God, which is also a family. 1 Corinthians 4, 15.

[12:17] Paul said to the Corinthians, he said, Though you have countless guides in Christ, another version says 10,000 instructors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

[12:31] See this familial language. 1 Thessalonians 2, 11 to 12. For you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each of you and encouraged you and charged you.

[12:42] Okay? Like a father with his children. 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 to 8 says, We were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. Okay?

[12:54] Does this mean Paul was trans? No. It means that Paul was able to... You didn't see that question coming, did you? Okay? Well, what's the deal here though?

[13:04] Paul says, he just said in the same book, that like a father with his children. Just making sure you guys are awake. And then he says like a nursing mother. Okay? This again flies in the face of macho Christianity, where men think that they can't have any kind of tenderness to them.

[13:21] All right? They must be tender. Paul unabashedly says like a nursing mother taking care of her children. And he says, I was so affectionately desirous of you that we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

[13:37] This is the language of family. This is the language of fathering, mothering, becoming dear to one another, affectionately desirous of one another. You ever been a part of church where you'd say, I'm affectionately desirous of the other person?

[13:50] I hope you have. If you haven't, we can be. Okay? And again, it's not about, well, I just have to try really hard to make sure we're a family. No. God has given us the right to be called children of God.

[14:02] We just need to act out who God already says we are. We need to believe, and our belief will inform our behavior. Okay? Our belief will inform our expression of church. Do you believe?

[14:13] Do you believe that we are children of God in a family together? Lastly, Philippians 2.22. Paul said, You know Timothy's proven worth how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

[14:25] Okay? So how do we live out our identity as family? Okay? Two main ways, before we get into more specifics, is just, number one, time together. Any healthy family spends good time together.

[14:37] Quality time together. All right? And a lot of people love to say, Well, I want the church to be a family. Or the church is a family. But, or, Are you willing?

[14:48] Is your desire consistent with your level of time you're willing to invest? Someone once said, Time equals relationship. Okay? You really can't have a relationship much deeper than the time you spend.

[15:01] Time is what builds relationship. Time is what builds a sense of family together with people who aren't your blood. But it can be stronger because you have that bond of the Spirit, or what the Bible calls the fellowship of the Spirit.

[15:12] And so it's important for us to be able to say, Hey, I am not only just willing, I am prioritizing and setting aside time to cultivate family with the people around me. Okay?

[15:23] And that doesn't mean being really awkward and weird and contrived. Because again, that doesn't build family. That just builds divisive weirdness. All right? We don't want that. You don't want that. It's just being normal with each other.

[15:36] It's doing the things you'd like to do with people and enjoying one another, enjoying life together. Okay? So that's one aspect of family. It's just cultivating time. Just making time for one another. The other side, though, which I say is almost as important, and the longer I'm at this, I'm starting to think maybe it's even more important.

[15:54] Jury's still out on that. But is growing as a family together through mission. You know, you hear the term even band of brothers. What caused that band to become brothers?

[16:06] Mission. War. You know? And when you get in the trenches together, when you fight for other people together, when you're preaching the gospel together, when you're on mission to specific people and places, when you're ministering to people and in the trenches with people and crying with people and burdened with people and losing sleep over people together, you know what I'm saying?

[16:25] Where, I mean, have you ever been so burdened by someone or a situation or their sin that you can't even eat, and there's other people who can't eat because they're so burdened by it? I've experienced that before.

[16:36] When you go through the trenches like that, and then you come out on your side, and you see God's faithfulness, and you see the victory, and you see God redeem broken things, and people repent of their sin, what does that do with those other people?

[16:48] You might have nothing in common with them, but you know what you have in common with them? You've been in the trenches together. You've been at war together. You've grieved together. You've cried together. You've pleaded together. You've prayed and fasted together.

[17:00] You've been on mission together, and what happens is it forms deep familial bonds that in some ways time together can't really touch. This is why, you know, the people who come back from war have a bond that they didn't have when they started, even though when they went out there together, they had really nothing in common.

[17:16] What drove them together? The mission, okay? And so think of those two things. I think those are primary in cultivating family together, but just trying to be brothers and sisters to one another.

[17:28] What does it mean to be a brother? What does it mean to be a sister? If we're older, thinking about what it looks like to be fathering or mothering people. You might say, well, I don't want to be a father or mother. I don't know how to be a father or mother.

[17:38] No one fathered and mothered me. Well, you can find out. Ask someone you do know who is. Get into the scriptures and learn how, because if you're older, invariably someone is looking to you in that way, and you might not even be realizing it.

[17:53] They're looking at you and they're thinking, oh, you're a father figure. You're a mother figure. And you're thinking, I don't want to be a father figure or mother figure. Why not? A family screwed us up. It's going to be a family that puts us back together.

[18:05] It's part of the reason why we have the family of God. The church is that entity that can come and redeem those broken places where our own natural families have screwed up. We can still experience the father with skin on it.

[18:17] The father fleshed out in a group of people where you understand who God is and what he does through people, the way they love you, the way they listen to you, the way they're there for you, the way they're consistent with you and faithful with you.

[18:28] You get to be able to see the faithfulness of God. Okay? This means meeting regularly with people in your missional community. It means eating meals together with your entire missional community or just certain people in your missional community.

[18:40] All right? Meal sharing is all throughout the scriptures. Don't negate that as not a big deal. You may say, well, that's just life. No, that's actually intentional. Jesus would see someone when he saw Nicodemus.

[18:52] What did he say? Hey, I want to go over to your house. We're going to eat. We're going to eat together. That's a form of ministry. Get to know each other and get familiar with one another's stories and their testimonies.

[19:03] If you know that a person knows what hurts you, there's a deeper bond there, right? If you know that they know you and they know what's been hard for you, they know what you've been through. Party and celebrate together.

[19:15] Their birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, wedding receptions, holidays. Do we do this stuff together? That's what families do. Families do that together. Okay? Families should be, if they're healthy, they're good communicators.

[19:26] You think, well, my family isn't very good communicators and there's pain because of that, right? What is the key to communication? Or, I'm sorry, what is the key to community? Just gave away the punchline, sorry.

[19:38] What is the key to community? Communication, right? Same root word, right? Community, communication. It's communing. People say, well, I want community, but I don't want to communicate.

[19:49] Tell me how that works. Tell me how that works. It doesn't. It doesn't. I want community, but I never want to return people's phone calls, texts, boxes, whatever it may be, or I just want to do it on my own time.

[20:01] How's that working for you? It doesn't. Okay? You can't have community or what's even deeper than community, family, if we don't, if we aren't good communicators. Okay? This looks like, family looks like being voluntarily open with one another.

[20:16] Family doesn't wait to be asked. Family just opens up. Okay? Makes that really open. Whenever someone asks me, I answer their questions. What about being voluntarily open? Where you don't wait till they ask your questions.

[20:28] You know people like that. They're the ones you feel you know the best because they're an open book. And being an open book, having the windows open, is one thing, but is the door locked and bolted and chained shut? Do you let people in after you're open?

[20:40] Are you vulnerable? This is what family is. Family lets people in. They say, well, my family doesn't let me in. Right, but that's not healthy family. Healthy family lets you in. Okay? Family helps each other.

[20:53] They share stuff with each other. Intentionally blessing one another. They share hobbies or interests together. And you don't just share your own interests, you share the other people's interests.

[21:04] Okay? Getting into other people's worlds. We have fun and relaxed together. Okay? Maybe even get, you know, a missional community going away together on a trip together. Just growing together, having fun together, and then looking for the seasonal rhythms of when that makes the most sense.

[21:19] Family can be cultivated all year round very easily. Okay? Secondly, we're servants. In Christ, we belong to God, which makes us servants.

[21:31] Okay? 1 Corinthians 6, 19 to 20 says, you're not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Okay? Because we're not our own, we glorify God with ourselves.

[21:43] Like, we're no longer at the disposal of ourselves. We can't just do what we want, when we want, how we want, the way we want. We've been bought. Jesus bought us with the blood of Christ, and now we're his servants.

[21:55] Okay? That's the identity we have. But it flows out of his purchasing of us by his blood. When we take the Lord's table, we remember not just that he died for us to be forgiven, we remember that he died for us to be bought, that we were purchased, that our life is no longer our own.

[22:10] And so we glorify God with our body, not out of obligation, but out of response to the death of Jesus on the cross when his blood was shed, so that ours wouldn't have to be.

[22:21] He died in our places, as Sean shared this morning, right? The substitutionary sacrifice of the Savior. Galatians 5.24 said, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

[22:36] So when you know that it's our identity, that we belong to him, that he's purchased us, the implications of that are that we crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. That's the fruit of someone who knows they belong.

[22:47] That's the fruit of someone who knows I'm a servant of Christ. Because I belong to him, I've put to death the flesh with its passions and desires. Mark 10.43-45 said, whoever be great among you must be your servant.

[23:03] Whoever be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. What is your heart when it comes to service?

[23:14] Galatians 5.13 says, through love, serve one another. 1 Peter 4.10-11 says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.

[23:27] Whoever speaks is the one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Okay?

[23:38] You each have gifts. We all have gifts. Are we using them to serve one another? Yeah, knowing that my gifts don't belong to me. I don't belong to me. I've been purchased by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, everything that's given to me is for the body.

[23:52] It's for others. I've been given a gift. It's used to serve one another. I've been given things. It's used to bless one another. That's the heart of a servant. And I think there's two ways, I think, that this service fleshes out.

[24:04] One, just the service of the family of God. We serve one another. We look for ways that we can help one another, do things for one another, but also missional service. Where we can, there's sometimes when you're trying to reach out to someone, I remember even one of my neighbors many years ago when I moved into the house we lived in before this one, I was trying to reach out to a neighbor and there was no getting through to them.

[24:26] And I remember just, they were out sealing their front deck. Kind of an innocuous little thing, not a big deal, right? I just said, hey, we'll help you.

[24:37] They're like, oh, you don't have to help me. No, no, no, we'll help you. Went back in the house, put on some paint clothes, came out there. We just sat there, talked to them. I mean, it wasn't hard work at all. But you would have thought we gave my firstborn kid to them or something.

[24:48] They were like super overjoyed that we would help them. And you know why? Because they probably don't have any friends who do that. And you might think, well, that's normal for us. We do that for each other all the time. It's not for them.

[25:01] They don't have friends that do that. They were so taken aback that we would help them seal their deck. It was a very tiny deck. It wasn't that big of a deal. You know, so easy, easy win.

[25:11] But in their world, that was big. Okay? Serving the lost is a huge way to break down walls. Doing different things. It's not hard. And it's fun. It's fun when you do it because you belong to Christ.

[25:22] It's not out of religious obligation. It's not out of striving. It's that, hey, I've been bought with a price. Seal a deck? Yeah, I can do that. I can do that. Jesus purchased me.

[25:32] This is no big deal. And if this is an inroad for these people to be open, to be talking to them about the gospel, let's do it. That conversation on that deck led to me going on a trip down to Haiti with them and their parents where I preached the gospel to them, their parents, to all the workers down in Haiti that I met, and a bunch of other people that I met throughout that whole trip.

[25:56] It was like a paid missions trip through them that they didn't know that I was on. And it all started with me just going over there and doing their deck. So, look at that.

[26:07] That worked out pretty awesome. What are some ways we can serve one another? Help each other when in need. Okay? And here's a key one. And not letting people do things alone.

[26:18] You know the thing that you have to do that you don't want to do but you have to do it and you hate to do it alone? The best thing to do is to help the person with that thing so they don't have to do it alone. I remember one time I was working on my house when I first moved to Kansas City in 2008.

[26:32] Bought a house in the Northeast and I was flew down here by myself and was working on it. And another guy I had known here, a spiritual father of mine, showed up on a date night with his wife in their nice clothes, saw me there alone and had compassion for me because they had known what it's like to be working on a house late at night all alone.

[26:53] And they started going to work. I'm like, no, no, no. Do not do this. And they're like, no, no, no. We are doing this. We're not letting you do this alone. And I'm like, no, you guys are all in your nice clothes. And they're like, we have been in many nights like this where we've done stuff alone.

[27:05] We're not letting you do this. And it just meant so much. I mean, in one sense, I didn't want them to do it because I'm like, you guys just want to date. You're in your nice clothes. But it really meant a lot to me because when someone says, I won't let you do this alone, there's something really bonding in that moment.

[27:22] So that's how we can serve when I look for opportunities. When someone's doing something by their self and that you can tell they're really burdened by it, just like, hey, I'm not going to let you do this alone. Let me come help you. Let me come over there. I'm coming over right now.

[27:33] And they say, no, no, no, no. Come over. No, no, no. I'm coming over right now. Okay. And then you just go help them out. So that could look like home repair. It can look like working on each other's houses, babysitting each other's kids, serving.

[27:45] You know, some people just never get a date because they don't know when to watch their kids. That can be huge. Making or paying for meals for each other, praying for one another, helping each other move.

[27:57] Okay. We've been able to bless a lot of people through moves, making one of the missions of my life is to make moving suck less for people. So I'm just trying to, create like a lot more people to help move.

[28:09] So let's just go short and quick. And it's not as a horrible experience. Helping each other budget. All right. Listening to each other, showing hospitality without grumbling by opening your homes to one another for gatherings or meals or parties.

[28:24] Barring your stuff to each other, borrowing vehicles, tools, clothes, and then just looking for those seasonal kind of rhythms of service. Maybe there's certain seasons where it makes more sense than others, but service is pretty much, I think, a year round thing that we can be doing here and there.

[28:39] Okay. Next thing. Number three, we're disciples. Okay. We're disciples. In Christ, we abide in his word and bear much fruit, which makes us disciples. John 8 31 says, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed them, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

[28:56] And then John 15, eight says, by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples. Okay. So because of what God has done for us, we abide in his word.

[29:08] And in that abiding, what ends up happening is we bear much fruit, which proves that we're disciples. Okay. You don't strive to be a disciple. Discipleship and the fruit of discipleship comes out of abiding in who Jesus is and what he's done for us.

[29:23] Okay. It's a fruit that comes out of us. It should be coming out. It should be coming out of us in some ways, some ways effortlessly, not always, but there's just, it's just, it's growing inside of us.

[29:37] There's a seed inside of us that grows. The word of God grows inside of us, our abiding in him. And it's Christ who lives in us. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in us. When Christ lives through us, does Christ have a hard time living the Christian life?

[29:53] No. Does Christ have a hard time bearing the fruit of discipleship? No. Has he ever? No, he doesn't. And when you are in Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in you.

[30:03] And when Christ lives in you, the fruit of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of discipleship comes out of you. Okay. And it proves that you're a disciple. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

[30:15] If you bear much fruit, you so prove to be a disciple. Fruit is the proof of discipleship. Okay. This is why we look for fruit. This is why we confront fruit. This is why we have conversations about fruit.

[30:27] And this is why we don't judge people's hearts because we don't know each other's hearts. But we do know each other's fruit and we can speak to the fruit. Okay. Luke 14, 26 to 27 says, If anyone comes to me, it's not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters.

[30:43] Yes, even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. And verse 33 says, Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

[30:59] So discipleship has it with a great cost. And for us to be disciples together means we're going to have to challenge one another. We have to hold each other accountable to walk in divine order to make sure we're not exalting good things like family above Christ.

[31:12] We're not exalting good things that we're supposed to do without not doing the right things in the wrong order. All right. But we're doing the right and they're not just doing the top things and neglecting the lesser things.

[31:24] We're doing all the things in the right order. Okay. That's discipleship. That's the kingdom of God. We're seeking the kingdom. We're teaching one another. Okay. Acts 11 26 says that in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

[31:40] Some people teach that disciple is different from Christian. The Bible doesn't. Disciple and Christian are synonymous. When it says disciple it means Christian. When it says Christian it means disciple. So when we make disciples we make Christians.

[31:52] Okay. When we encourage people to be disciples we encourage people to be Christians. In 2 Timothy 2 verse 2 says what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

[32:06] Okay. And is this not the essence of discipleship? You hear things you grow in things you learn things and then you entrust them to others. You teach them to other people. This is what we do as parents right?

[32:17] We've learned things and we hope to bring our kids up in those same things. It's not just in these set times of discipleship it's in their coming they're going when they're rising when they're going to bed.

[32:28] We are speaking truth to them and it should be the same way in the church. It's not just relegated to Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights it's in the everyday step of life where we're learning and teaching and imparting things to other people that we have received from others.

[32:42] Okay. What is the two kind of ways to look at discipleship? One is in seasons. There are seasons we're always doing discipleship in one sense but then there's a seasonal aspect of it.

[32:54] I think in especially in Kansas City the deep winter time and the deep center summer time is the best time to hunker down for discipleship because when it's really cold people don't really want to go out and hang out and do all kinds of stuff and in the middle of the summer when it's super hot people aren't getting out those are good times to kind of hunker down and say alright let's do some discipleship let's get in the word together let's study something together let's talk about some discipleship needs in our missional community let's use this season for that particular time.

[33:25] Okay. But then there's also the life on life discipleship there's going to be strategic times much like we're doing what is a man on Monday nights that's a specific thing nine weeks talking about what is a man that's great it's good stuff right it's helpful isn't it I know it's helpful for me but in a Sunday morning sermon helpful okay hopefully what I'm preaching is helpful I know I listen to the other sermons those are helpful okay but what about is it just that is that all we do no when Jesus ended his life did he have 12 disciples when he was crucified and then left this earth did he have 12 disciples when it was all said and done no he had 120 okay well where did the rest come from if disciples are only made in the context of small groups well he spoke to them in larger groups so it's in all things it's the large it's the small it's in the public it's from house to house okay that's why we're not one or the other it's both all right the bible says in public and from house to house do we believe in public yes

[34:27] I'm preaching right now in public do we believe in house absolutely we open up our homes you guys open up your homes this is intentional and this is where discipleship happens in the life on life in the context of life on life you're with each other and you're talking with each other and these things happen and you can be led by the spirit it was really awesome last night we had a family over before they came over my wife I believe prophetically brought up something to me that she thought I should talk to them about and when she brought it up to me I had already been thinking about those things so I was like yes I like this tell that to me again I want to make sure I got it right so she told it to me again then we sit down and I'm just praying and looking for a way to bring this into the conversation not in a weird awkward way because it's kind of a confrontation right but I really care for these people and the guy starts sharing he's like hey I have this dream the other night and you were in it I was like oh you tell and he had this dream it was insane the dream was exactly what we were going to talk to them about and it painted it all perfect and I was just kind of like wow this is the biggest softball I've ever received it was but it was

[35:38] Gene and I were so encouraged it's just like this is how discipleship happens it happens supernaturally too like you can trust for prophetic words you can see God give prophetic dreams and I think it probably made him so much more receptive to even what I had to say because he had this dream like God actually put me in a dream to talk to him ahead of time so that when I talk to him in real life it would go better thank you Lord that was great but so encouraging I mean it just made Gene and I both say we need to pray for more of this stuff this is awesome did you tell them that Gene and I said something yes we did we told them afterwards she's like can I tell them I'm like yeah tell them but it's so encouraging and but sometimes we forget about stuff like that we think oh we're just striving in the flesh like oh here's some people here they're at my house should probably encourage them or challenge them or teach them instead of thinking hey the God of the universe is present he's with me he saved me I don't have to strive I don't have to make something happen here that's not my job

[36:40] I have my job just to be faithful and so it's like alright here we are Lord let's do this what do you have and then look what he does and we need to expect more of that that's discipleship yes we'll have formal stuff we'll do man camp you know what is a man on Monday nights we'll do teachings like this and we'll do marriage stuff and parenting stuff and other kinds of training those are all good things what about the life on life we speak boldly to one another but in love in each other's living rooms and kitchen tables that's important okay so what are some other ways that we do identity as disciples studying and being prepared to teach others the gospel or practicing preaching the gospel to each other sometimes even taking the Lord's table together or being fluent in the gospel okay where we can just speak the gospel to one another so that we get good and so we know how to speak it to the lost people this looks like confessing your sins to one another okay and just saying and not exalting the sin but exalting the Savior there's a way to confess sins that makes your sin exalted and there's a way to confess sins that exalts the Savior of your sins know the difference we don't want to have a church where everybody leaves the accountability time and feels morbidly discouraged just like oh that that was rough everybody shared their sin and now we're going to do it again next week you know like there's nothing

[38:07] I don't want to do this next week this is horrible you know instead of hey this is what Christ is saving me from yes this is this is a struggle but I want you to know how I'm accessing Christ through faith or you say hey I want to confess to you some sin and I'm having a hard time believing that Christ is saving me I'm having a hard time accessing the saving power of Jesus would you help me would you speak the gospel to you would you expose my blind spots here I'm missing something right and then someone helps you and say okay now I can testify God's saving me because I see it the Bible talks about you've been saved you're being saved and you will be saved it's three tenses and so often in the church we talk about hey man hey brother I've been saved I've been saved or we talk about the Lord returning and we will be saved and then what is it we just grit our teeth and try to stay free from sin and our own strength all through this life no the same power that saved us from the penalty of sin is available to save us from the power of sin and so we can be being saved that's sanctification right well that happens in the context of body life that's discipleship that's our identity as disciples we teach each other to rejoice and magnify the saving power of Jesus even in the midst of our sin even in our sin and I say even in the midst of our sin where else are we going to do it right

[39:25] I mean that's where we need it okay this is studying and obeying the Bible together notice I didn't just say studying the Bible you know a lot of people want to have a Bible study how about a Bible obeying right like you can study the Bible but are we doing it right it's easy to study it in one sense like wow that's really good I studied the Bible okay now do it can we just study it some more I mean that's a lot more fun no we have to obey it as well right we speak the truth and love to one another we determine discipleship needs in the missional community and then teach on those needs and don't think that only the lead partner is the one who can do that you might be seeing something that they're not seeing had someone come up to me the other day and just said hey this is just something I've noticed I think would be good to teach on I was like I did not think of that but I think you're right like that's really helpful thank you for bringing that up so those kind of things are helpful sometimes you're seeing a need that someone else isn't seeing and maybe you're even the one who's going to teach it you know like hey could I teach on this do you think I could take some time and just share this maybe it's briefly maybe it's a little bit more longer form teaching but that's helpful for us to become disciples together growing and understanding what gifts you have and then how you can use the gifts you have to serve one another and disciple one another build one another's up could look like praying and prophesying over each other right just praying over each other asking the Lord

[40:49] Lord would you speak to us for this person this person that's being discouraged Lord just it'd be awesome if you gave us a word for them and you're just waiting on the Lord maybe he does maybe he doesn't but you're making room for him to speak to you you're listening you're waiting okay maybe it's a specific person maybe it's a whole family maybe it's just a couple it could be any of those three or teach on being filled with the Holy Spirit and praying for people to be filled with the Spirit okay valuing the filling of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit realizing again we're not doing church in our own strength we want to be a church that is charismatic in the sense that we believe in the power of the Spirit not we believe in all this weird excess we believe that God's Spirit empowers us to do the thing God has called us to do that can only be done by God's Spirit and so we're not going to substitute the Spirit with the flesh and say this is church that's not church and it does not exalt the third person of the Godhead which is the Holy Spirit okay lastly how we can become disciples together is we can pray even for freedom with each other sometimes the Bible says in Ephesians 4 that when you let the sun go down and you're angry you give the devil a foothold okay if we believe lies about God or about the Bible and you know it says the devil is a father of lies you can get a strong hold on us or a foothold on us and we need to pray sometimes for freedom there needs to be confession repentance and bringing things into the light darkness is the domain of darkness and sometimes people walk in secret sin and we get those things in the light and then we see people be set free there are some people who are stuck in certain things you know the Bible says resist the devil

[42:27] I mean it says submit James 4 verse 7 people love to quote James 4 verse 7 and just say submit to God and the devil will flee and they skip the middle part it says submit to God resist the devil and he will flee and a lot of people skip the resisting part you have to resist the devil and you know what's best done with the brothers and sisters where they can just resist the devil with you and of course though at the backdrop of submission to God we're not just willy-nilly resisting the devil when there's not submission of God we're taking the whole verse in context we're saying you must submit to God and when you submit to God we resist the devil and then what does he got to do he has to flee he has to flee lastly we're missionaries okay in Christ we are sent by God which makes us missionaries or people on mission John 20 21 says Jesus said to them peace be with you as the Father has sent me even so I'm sending you I'm sending you Matthew 28 19 the Great Commission right go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit go

[43:33] I'm sending you this involves getting out of our comfort zone have you ever met any person who drifted into mission just kind of accidentally found themselves there you know D.A. Carson says nobody drifts into holiness I would add nobody drifts into mission no church drifts into mission it's like wow we have this church nobody was even thinking about mission we weren't aiming at mission and then we just did we just got on mission and all these people got saved said by nobody ever that just does not happen okay mission is the uncomfortable thing to do mission is the thing you have to believe that God is sending you and then you have to go okay you have to leave your spot you're in and go to another spot you have to go nobody drifts into that that doesn't just happen that's an intentional action and it flows out of our identity when you know that's just not something I do it's something I am that I have been sent by God God didn't want me to be stationary God didn't want me to just be comfortable God didn't want me to just be in my us four no more bless me club where I just listen to good sermons hear good music and have my kids watch no

[44:35] God has died on the cross and then says if you want to be my disciple you pick up yours too now go seek and save those who are lost just like I did follow my example follow me follow me to where the lost are don't ask them to put the uncomfortability on them and to come to you you put the uncomfortability on you and you go to them that's what true mission is right Acts 20 24 Paul the quintessential I love this verse so much I do not account my life of any value nor is precious to myself if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify of the gospel of the grace of God you know why you don't drift into it because the only way you can finish the course of testifying to the gospel is if you don't account your life of any value you know precious to yourself and so that takes some high level intentionality okay this is why St. Corinthians 5 talks about us being verse 20 talks about us being ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us if you know you're an ambassador you know that's an identity of us as a church we make appeals we appeal to people

[45:44] I implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God right that's what we do if we're ambassadors of Christ it's what Philippians 1 verse 5 calls partnership in the gospel partnership in the gospel okay so how do we do that what does that look like it looks like figuring out the who what and where people are going to be on mission to like we have to answer those questions who is the who what and where now it's ideal if the whole group can get on mission together to somebody but sometimes there's not a natural connection to a who what or where and so what do we do start at least with two you got at least minimum two and you're like we're going to some specific people and places and when you do that then you report back to the rest of the missional community and then the rest of the missional community praise and strategize what's the next step how do we get more people involved what do we do next again I don't cut my life as precious or valuable I want to see my work fulfilled which is to testify to the gospel of the grace of God and you go and then you're looking for sometimes it's just looking at what you already have going on in your life and just saying how can I do it with more gospel intentionality sometimes you're looking for new people in places okay and you're developing strategic kind of ways of doing that alright and that's the how and the when what's the how and the when it's eating together it's events it's serving it's being a regular and it's just cold call evangelism you know so often it's just easy to get on mission by eating with people right and again this is biblical barbecues parties meals maybe you know having meals with someone after church giving meals away having an open night at your home that you just invite people over and it's like that's just an open night that we invite people over for meals might be just a coffee or dessert night might even be doing something more fun like a food contest like everybody bring a pizza homemade pizza who will vote on the best one everybody bring a dip and we'll vote on the best dip you know everybody bring a dessert and we'll vote on the best dessert whatever it may be and just make it something more fun and then that's very natural to invite somebody to it's like hey you want to come to this we're doing this little food party and we're doing a contest sweet let's do it right it can look like events right utilizing sports playing coaching or watching could be a block party done block parties at our house before when we lived downtown bonfires game nights okay which many of you guys have utilized those kind of things even poker nights together holiday celebrations we did for eight years in our old neighborhood we did a christmas party every year for eight years and every year we met somebody new every year we got in relationship to either unchurched believers or unbelievers that we didn't know and had more access in their life to preach the gospel and to build relationships with other believers it's easy a holiday party

[48:34] I mean who doesn't want to do that right common interest things might even be a bible study inviting people to a bible study or even like what we did with what is a man or we've done it before we've done even a marriage seminar to get people we had a bunch of people in our life who are having a rough time in marriage so it's like let's do a marriage seminar and let's invite people to that okay look like serving a blessing like I was saying before housework yard projects neighborhood cleanups or identifying at least one way that you want to express the gospel on a regular basis through serving and then sticking to it with a group of people or it can look like being a regular right like regular going to the same restaurant you're going to the same store going to the same grocery store same coffee shop same barber hairdresser same mechanic same chiropractor I mean pick them right and you just consistently go to that people and then you say okay our missional community let's go to that person together let's all go to the we had one time a friend of ours was a barber and like everybody go to the barber I didn't I don't have any hair to get cut but the rest of the guys did you know the guys who had hair would go to this barber and it was great because then he started hanging around us why because we all went to him they all went to him as his barber so it made sense now if we hung out outside of that he knew everybody you know those are just easy wins like that or just cold call evangelism where you just go into a specific place where people are and we're just going to preach the gospel maybe it's a college campus maybe it's a coffee shop maybe it's a park you're just meeting people and you're just preaching the gospel these are the ways we can do that and seasonal rhythms of that it makes sense a lot of times in spring and fall to really get on mission those are good seasons for mission springtime fall time are great for that but family missionary servant disciples these are the identities we're trying to flesh out and if we all work on these things and say hey

[50:27]  I want to believe that this is who I am and I'm going to live out of this identity what's going to end up happening is health sprouts out in all kinds of areas as a church and that's what happens and do we have to do a whole bunch of other stuff not really like when we're just focusing on those four things and doing those things well so many other things get taken care of we're being a family to one another we're serving one another we're doing discipleship with one another and we get on mission with one another think of how many things get taken care of when we do that amen