Pastor Saul and I have a written thank you to you as a congregation for your kindness and
!
I want to make a brief comment to tell you how thankful we are that God in His kindness
has allowed us to minister here and to know much of your generosity and your thoughtfulness
to us.
Your Christmas gift certainly was one that your generosity is always surprising.
How's that?
It doesn't sound wrong, but it's like, wow, what a kind people.
I'll never forget many years ago when I first prepared to go into ministry, I talked to three
different pastors, and one of them was Bill Good, who is with the Lord now.
And I said, Bill, would you give me some advice on pastoral ministry?
He said, it's simple.
He said, love your people.
God will take care of the other details.
I'm still working on my part.
And you are a wonderful people to serve.
Well, let's turn in our Bibles this morning.
That's a wonderful thing to say, isn't it?
Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to John chapter 14.
And I'm going to take a little bit of time to get there.
But by way of background, historically, at the first of the year, one of the things we do
in our fellowship is we talk about some clear objectives, things we want to target, things
we want to work at.
And I don't know about you, but I like New Year's because in some ways they give you an opportunity.
When the New Year rolls around, we have an opportunity to reset, kind of target things.
That's something I'm going to work on this year.
And I trust that you as an individual have some objectives and some things that you want
to make progress at.
And we as a congregation are the same way.
We want to think about those things that are pertinent and valuable and things that we want
to focus on as a people.
You'll remember that a number of years ago, we went through and we put together a set of
core values.
And you will see them kind of roll behind on the screen on a fairly regular basis, reminding
you that we have a deep and abiding commitment to God's Word.
We have a commitment to prayer, to family, to God's honor.
And we have a commitment to seeing people come to Christ.
And out of those, in the last several years, what we've done is we've actually taken time
to break out a couple different specific targets, objectives that are going to fall under each
one of those headings.
This year, we're going to go about it a little differently in that we are going to narrow our
focus.
And I can tell you in advance that instead of having two or three different objectives that
are going to fall under the five headings that we've given to you in the past, we're only going to have
two that we're going to focus on.
And I trust that the outcome of that is that these two things that we focus on together really get
woven into our fiber as a family of believers.
And they really do genuinely make a difference in how we use our time, all of us, not just a couple.
Well, Pastor, I think he's working on that one.
And maybe a couple deacons are doing it.
But these things that we're going to target become really a thing that weaves in and is recognized
in all of our people.
There are things that God helps us do fairly well.
And that's true.
I am looking forward sometime in February to preaching on stewardship.
And I will tell you in advance, I don't preach on stewardship because it's a desperate moment for our
fellowship.
You are a generous people beyond expectation and understanding.
I don't count the offering.
I want you to know that.
I don't even know who gives what.
But Pastor Saul comes and says, wow, did we exceed the budget plan for last year?
We're close, a couple thousand dollars off.
But you know what?
That doesn't count all the other giving that comes in.
It's a blessing.
And when I preach on stewardship, it's not going to be because we're desperate and we're crawling around here in
abject poverty.
It's to remind you this is what God has to say.
You are a people that sing enthusiastically.
Do you know that?
Now, by the way, that's not because you're coached, but that's because I trust because you're spirit-filled.
Because you know what it says in Ephesians?
It says that when we're spirit-filled, we sing.
It's appropriate.
I think the things that we're going to target this year, though, are areas that we do as a fellowship need to continue growing in.
And I pray that you will mark these things and you will make them a matter of prayer and you will work at them yourself.
I think about a little line in relationship to what we're going to talk about from T.S. Eliot.
And I don't want to recite a poet just for the sake of, well, pastor knows poets.
Forget that.
But here's what he says.
He says,
That's a very interesting statement.
Most of us think that not having anything to do is just the cat's meow.
I mean, that's where you want to be, right?
But here's the truth.
We were not hardwired from creation to sit around on our hands and do nothing.
In fact, when we have an inordinate amount of time to sit around and do nothing, guess what happens to the little pea brain I have and you have?
It goes wobbly.
It becomes obsessed with details that are irrelevant.
It becomes self-focused in professional navel-gazing.
It creates a lot of unhappiness and tension that God really has not planned for us.
And so, when we come to the beginning of a new year, we go, okay, all right, what are we going to work at?
What is it that we want to do as a family of believers?
And we're going to talk about that this morning.
But before we go there, the reason I have you in John chapter 14, verse 15 is because I think it's really important at the beginning to understand what really motivates the believer.
I want you to read with me John chapter 14, verse 15, and mark what it says.
If you love me, if, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
So, as we take up this text, we understand that what Jesus is making very clear is that if we love him, the outcome is that we're going to obey what he has to say.
I am struck by the cause and effect relationship here.
Do you follow what I'm saying?
It's like, if, then.
If you turn the key on your car, guess what you hope happens?
Yeah, if, then.
I expect it to happen.
It should follow.
And here is Christ speaking to us as believers, and he makes it profoundly clear.
He makes it undeniably simple.
This business of loving him has a consequence or an intended outcome, and it means that we who love Christ walk and do what he asks.
Do we do what he asks because we're pathologically afraid that he's going to put the whipping on us?
No.
No, not at all.
We do it because of our love for him and our desire to please him.
And so, I want you to understand this morning as we pick up the text that really what I want us to start with as we think about what do we want to accomplish this year
is the starting point of recognizing that if we are here this morning and we do love God, we know God,
there's a natural desire for us to grow in pleasing him, and we want to know what it is that's important.
It really isn't a small thing for us to start out dealing with the motive of our behavior.
In fact, when you really stop and think about it, the Scriptures take a great deal of time to make motive the first thing that it teaches us before it deals with behavior.
That should be the characteristic of our ministry to our children, wouldn't you say that?
Help them understand that the reason they are obeying us is not because they're terrified about the way we will deal with their disobedience.
And by the way, I'm not suggesting that that should necessarily be off the table.
But the first and most important thing for you to teach your children is that obedience is to flow from love.
And God goes out of his way to make this clear to us.
Let me go back just for a moment to the passage that I recited to you at the beginning before I came up to pray.
I said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.
The apostle takes three chapters to explain what the blessings are that every believer enjoys.
And then following that, having laid the groundwork on the goodness and the mercy and the love and the kindness of God,
he then calls us to do reasonable things that are in keeping with obedience and are profitable.
And so this morning, as we think about what is it that he wants us to do in this coming year,
I want you to recognize that at the beginning, appropriately, I want to draw attention to the fact that at the start,
when we talk about what the year is going to be marked by,
we want to be very careful that we do have a love for God.
You know, you can manipulate obedience for a period of time.
How many of you have discovered that?
You can manipulate, you can threaten, you can put pressure on an end.
You better do this or...
And guess what happens eventually?
If that's the only tool in your kit,
your child grows up and says,
Hey, when I'm 18, guess what?
I'm out of here.
Or the person who is being manipulated with that in a work environment or something,
they say, Hey, I'm not putting up with that.
I'm going somewhere else.
And when we see people rely on force or reward,
how many of you have been in a store before,
and you have a parent who is being terrorized by a child?
It's always very interesting to see.
You know, I would like to interfere when the mom says,
Well, if you stop crying, I will let you have those Cheerios.
My thinking is I would say to the child, Hold out.
You can do better than Cheerios.
You know, it's like, Hey, since you've got her moving,
go ahead and press forward.
Lord, I'm not settling for Cheerios.
I'd like an iPad.
You know, while we're at it, let's do a car.
And we've all seen that, right?
You can kind of prompt a certain level of behavior by terror.
I kind of put it this way, the carrot or the stick, right?
Do you realize God doesn't do that?
He calls us to obey Him because of our love for God.
And so this morning, as you think about this with me,
I want you to recognize the Bible's clear.
The Bible calls us to obey because of our love for God.
And as we think about the thing that we're going to look at
as we move forward in this,
I would venture to say that when the truth really is known,
there's a greater number of us in our fellowship here today
that really will need to work more conscientiously
and more diligently at the things we're going to talk about.
And unless our hearts are prompted by an unrelenting pursuit
of the love of Christ, we won't get far.
I do want you to understand that while the Bible commands us to love God,
the Bible also makes it clear that loving Him is a fitting response.
It's a proper, it's an appropriate response
to His character and His worth.
And understanding this order is really critical.
Let me give you a couple of illustrations
so that this stands out in your minds as we think about it.
I want you to think here of what we find in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
And for some of you may have the passage already memorized in your mind,
but if it's not memorized, can I encourage you to do so?
But I also want to encourage you in the interim
to go ahead and turn to the passage in Deuteronomy 6.
Deuteronomy is Moses' closing sermons.
And he's preaching his heart out to people that he's going to leave.
Deuteronomy chapter 6 is also known,
if you had gone to a Hebrew school growing up,
you would have learned this as the great Shema.
The word Shema refers to hero Israel.
I kind of recite the part that it bears on.
And it was something that the Israelite, the Jew,
was supposed to say in the morning and the evening.
If you really wanted to kind of die on the upswing,
are you following me?
Your last words as a Jew should be the Shema.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God.
There is a God.
And he has something to say.
And you need to listen.
The Lord is one.
And you shall love the Lord with all your heart.
Do you follow that?
That's how God introduces the expectations that follow.
He says, listen, I'm God and you're to love me.
There in 5 and 6 and the passage in Deuteronomy, he says,
you'll love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart.
Guess where the word of God is to be?
It's not to be in a Bible that's sitting on the shelf or on our iPad that we can,
we know it's there.
I heard a person say to me one time,
well, I've got nine copies of the Bible on my, you know, my iPad.
Well, good news.
Are you doing anything with any of them?
You know, the question is not do you have the technology
and do you have the information,
but is that information making a difference?
Yes.
And we should understand that when God says to us that you are to love him,
he is calling us to a fundamental responsibility
that is absolutely essential to our well-being.
I want you to look at another passage in relationship to this.
Turn over in your Bible to 1 John.
We're going from one end of the Bible to the other, basically.
1 John is right towards the very back of the Bible.
And in 1 John 4, verse 19, let me read this to you.
It says,
We love him.
How many of you know the passage?
We love him because he first loved us.
Do you know what that's telling us?
I want you to listen because this is important to understand.
The only reason we love God is because of all that he has done to love us.
The expectation that the word of God places on us as believers of loving him
is nothing other than an appropriate response to how he has loved us.
I don't know if any of you were following what's been happening in North Korea.
The third, the current president for life, chief, whatever his name was or is,
he's a young man, 30-something like that.
Dennis Rodman's going over there to do basketball camps and stuff.
Important information you need.
But this young man decided that his uncle was not trustworthy.
And so what he did was he had his uncle killed.
He threw his uncle in a cage and had him eaten alive by dogs.
Do you think people are afraid of that young man?
I think so.
Do you think everybody in that country of North Korea loves that guy?
Now, if you wanted to ask a professional question while you're in North Korea,
and he would come out and say,
Do you love me?
What would people say?
Choice on one hand.
Dogs.
The other say,
Yeah, I love you.
What do you think?
They had one of these,
I think they had his birthday or something like that.
No, no, no.
It was when his father died,
there were some individuals in the military that were not grieving enough.
And so what they did was they strapped them to a 105 millimeter howitzer shell,
you know,
pulled the wire way back,
and then electronically put the shell off.
And guess what happened?
That kind of prompts us to really love, right?
God says,
No, no, no.
The reason you love me is because of who I am and what I've done for you.
We love him because he first loved us.
Remember the consequence or the connection, though?
The Bible makes it clear.
If you love him, you're going to keep his commandments.
We'll look at 1 John 5, verse 2.
It says,
By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and obey his commandments.
This is how we show it.
And incidentally,
one of the things I want you to remind yourself of
is the commandments that God gives us.
There in verse 3, it says,
For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments,
and his commandments are not burdensome.
Hey, listen to me.
Do you follow what I'm saying?
When God gives us instructions,
what does it mean that they're not burdensome?
It's a little bit like a parent
who's going through the process of teaching children
not to touch hot stoves.
How many of you are working on that right now?
You know, it's the hot stove time.
You know, I saw you there, Natalie.
You know, what happens when you say,
Jasper, don't touch the hot stove.
You know what Jasper's thinking?
My mom is all about cutting into my fun time.
I mean, it's like I gotta do naps.
I have to eat carrots.
You know, there are lots of bad things in my life.
And one of them that I'm not gonna let her run
is the hot stove business.
I'm touching it.
You know, Natalie turns her back,
and guess what happens?
She doesn't know when the stove was touched,
but you know what she knows?
She knows the consequence.
Mom, that hot stove is really bad.
Yeah.
When I tell you something, it's for your good.
You see, when God tells us things,
he tells us things for our sake.
So let me come back around to the question,
really, that's the heart of the starting point we make,
is that we're gonna talk about things we gotta work at,
but my interest is this, is do you love him?
Do you honestly love him?
If you do, then the things we talk about next
will become dominating and directing.
Because here's the deal.
Genuine love is more enduring,
it's more controlling,
and it produces fruit that's undeniable.
And so if you are growing in your love for Christ,
one of the things that's gonna play out
is that that love will become evident.
Well, let's talk about the fruit of love.
And I want you to turn in your Bible,
if you would, over to Matthew 28, verse 19 and 20.
And I confess in the outcome,
one of the things that always is very challenging
about preaching familiar passages
is that you kind of sit there and you think to yourself,
I know that one.
Yeah.
What's he gonna show me?
A little reminder.
Everybody smile, look at me.
Preaching is dependent upon the revealed word of God
and the spirit of God
and the heart of the saint.
So you could have heard the same sermon
20 times in the last week,
but this morning God has something to say
in this passage and you do well to say,
all right, bring it on,
teach me what you have for me.
I want to apply it.
We could reduce this passage to two simple points.
Let me make them and then clarify them if I may.
Love makes disciples
and love does it
the way Christ instructed.
Love makes disciples
and love does it the way Christ instructed.
Let's go first of all to the commandment about disciples.
Genuine love for Christ leads us to make disciples.
I would imagine,
I'll never forget,
a number of years ago,
I was in a fellowship in a church.
I was part of a church
where the pastor would say every morning,
I mean, every time we'd get together,
he says,
we love you today.
And being the person that I am,
I'd kind of sit there a little sarcastically
and think to myself,
does everybody here really love Jesus?
How many of you are like that?
You know, pastor says something,
and you think, yeah, right.
But I remember he'd say,
we love you today.
I would think,
I'm having a little problem with that.
I didn't want to raise my hand
and let the pastor know that,
but you know,
I know you're probably struggling,
some of you here,
with really loving him.
if you do love him,
it will be seen in the fact
that you are making disciples.
Now, it may not be obvious
in the English translation,
but the Greek text in this passage
in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 and 20,
actually only has one verb.
I don't want to overplay this
because I'm all interested
in giving you the cake,
not the recipe,
but the Greek is important.
And the actual action
of these two verses
that we have in Matthew chapter 28,
go and make disciples,
is not going.
For you who are looking
for a little grammar quiz,
you can email me later
and I'll give you the details of it.
But the point that we want to recognize
is that there's really only one thing
that dictates action in this passage,
and it is the verb,
make disciples.
Going, baptizing, teaching
are not verbs.
They're words that explain
what making disciples takes.
Now, let me make several points
in relationship to this text
as we're actually looking at it.
I want you to recognize
that this is a command
that applies to every single believer.
You follow that?
Should a pastor
be a disciple maker?
What do you think?
Should he be known
for that?
What do you think?
And I trust that
one of the things
you know about
Tim Knoyer as a pastor
is that I get excited
about the opportunity
of discipling individuals.
I love seeing growth
in people's lives.
I wake up in the morning
and one of the things
that I'm interested in
is seeing people
make progress
in their spiritual journey.
Discipleship
is hardwired
into the heart
of a pastor.
But it's not just
Pastor Knoyer.
Pastor Saul's involved
in that.
But it's not just
Pastor Knoyer
and Pastor Saul.
It's all of God's people
and that's what
this passage
is making clear.
You
go
make
disciples.
I want you to recognize
also,
and this is an important factor,
it is really
a central piece
of what you do
to honor Him.
As I was praying
this morning,
I was thinking about
asking the question,
I'll go ahead and ask it
since I've introduced it,
but I thought about saying,
so,
Becky Green,
where do you really work?
What's your job?
And Becky Green,
obviously,
knowing the answer,
would say,
well,
I'm all about,
well,
Maria,
what would she say?
Making disciples!
Eh,
I got this thing
going over at
Nationwide.
But,
you know,
it's just a side job.
I mean,
I'm really about
disciple making.
I could say,
Pete Simons,
what are you doing?
He'd say,
well,
I'm making disciples.
Oh,
yeah.
Is that fair?
Would you agree with me?
Huh?
Andrew,
are you making disciples?
Caleb?
Making disciples?
You know,
got to watch my time.
I said I would quit
at an appropriate time.
But,
why is my wife smiling at me?
Can you help me with that?
I'll tell you,
I was talking to my wife
about growing to be
a better preacher.
She says,
you just need to be shorter.
Send her a card.
Thank her.
You see,
we're all in this
to be disciple makers.
Isn't that right?
I don't know about you,
but,
but earlier last week,
I was reading
Dan Byram's
missionary letter.
And,
he and his family
are working
in Gambia.
And,
they are having
brain cramp
trying to learn
the Wolof language.
You know?
I mean,
do you know why
they're doing that though?
They're doing that
so they can make disciples.
Everything
about their life
is zeroed in
on the thing
of discipleship.
When they show up
at the ferry
to get across
to the other side,
and everybody else
is relying on bribes,
and they don't pay
a bribe
to get in front,
they're doing that
because they're
there to make disciples.
when the Gambians
pay attention
to the way
that Dan and Bridget
treat each other,
and they're really,
really curious
about that.
Remember when we had
John Sittio here
during the missions conference,
and John Sittio
was talking about
the fact
that when people in,
where was he from?
This is a quiz,
and you're failing.
I failed already,
but I was checking on you.
Well, it's somewhere
in Africa.
You got me?
I mean,
he was talking about
the fact
when African men
would come to Christ,
they would stop
beating their wives.
Remember that?
And there were some wives
that were coming in
for counseling.
They were saying,
we're feeling very uncomfortable
in our marriages
because our husbands
are beginning
to treat us differently.
What does that mean?
Well, they don't beat us anymore.
It's like, really?
Hmm.
Well, you see,
here is John Sittio.
Here's Dan Byram
who's saying,
all that I am doing
is designed
to help people see Christ
so I can make disciples.
Well, we do send
some people to Africa,
and we're hoping
to send some people
to Jamaica.
We've got Caleb and Charity.
They're going in the spring
to class,
and then later,
Lord willing,
to Jamaica.
We have Pastor Saul
who's taking a group
of people down there
to Jamaica
to be involved in missions.
But everything we do
ultimately is about
making disciples.
So let me have you
zero in on that word
and ask the practical question
in your life.
Here's the question.
Are you a person
who actually is involved
in making disciples?
Are you?
When you are dealing
with a problem
in your home
with your children,
are you actually
consciously and deliberately
aiming towards
making them
a disciple of Jesus,
or are you just aiming
at correcting their
misbehavior for the moment?
As you teach them,
is your objective
to help them grow
to be a follower
of Christ,
or is it just about,
well,
I want them to grow up
and be responsible
and have a good job
and give me bragging rights
on their SAT scores.
That's what I really like,
and maybe even graduate
so I can brag.
No,
are you aiming
to make them
a disciple?
I want you to understand
that a genuine love
for Christ
also leads us to go,
to baptize,
and to teach all people.
So as we move
into this coming year,
I want you to understand
that our objective
as a family of believers
is going to focus down
a little bit
on this two-fold target
of making disciples
by going,
by baptizing,
by teaching.
And that means
that at the heart
of what we're going
to be involved in
as pastors and deacons
and as our family
of believers,
we're going to be involved
in helping our men
in this fellowship
grow and improve
in their discipling work.
Guess where?
In their home.
And by the way,
for some of you,
that's going to take
some work
because how do I do this?
Well, guess what?
The Spirit of God
and the Word of God
and the people of God
can help with that.
We're also going to work
to widen the range
of activities
that we're involved in
as a church
that have a very specific
evangelistic objective
with the intent
of seeing people
come to Christ
so you can't disciple people
that don't know Jesus.
Do you understand that?
I've got to tell you,
one of the things
that I thought
was a knock-it-out-of-the-park
event this year
was trunk-or-treat.
And I realized
that there were
a lot of people
that came here
only because
of the candy.
You know,
I thought to myself,
how did Jesus feel
when about 99.9%
of the people
that He healed
weren't on His side
at the cross?
Do you follow that?
And so,
we're going to work
at things like that.
We're going to weave it
into what we talk about
and what we pray about
and what we work at
that this business
of discipleship
and evangelism
is going to be woven in.
I get excited
when I hear people
say things like,
you know what,
Pastor,
Maranatha is a friendly church
and that's the way
it should be.
I like it too
when people say,
wow,
you guys sing.
We should sing.
The thing I'm looking forward to
is when people walk in
and say,
you know what,
I can't get over
the fact that people there
always talk about Jesus.
You know what,
we do talk about
the things we really care about.
Last week,
there was someone
in the lobby
and I'm not going to
call his name out
but he was saying,
I'm really having
trouble sleeping.
I said,
try melatonin.
Yeah,
it's like,
you know why I said that?
Because I believe
melatonin works for me
and if it works for me,
it probably worked for you
and it's cheap.
You can buy it
over the counter.
It's like,
hey,
do melatonin.
Whenever there's a problem,
most of us,
if something's working for us,
what do we do?
We sell it.
Hey,
yeah,
this works.
Try these essential oils.
Rub this on the left toe
and the right finger
and,
you know,
I'm sorry,
I'm sorry.
Okay.
I'm going to get a text
on that one.
You know,
it's like,
okay,
thank you.
Hey,
here's my point.
Hey,
listen,
don't miss it.
If it really is important
and it really is working for us,
we talk about it.
Listen,
I am not here
to put a guilt trip on you
for the lack
of your evangelism
because the problem
really isn't
your lack of evangelism.
if you love me,
what?
Keep my commandments.
How many of you here
know that I love Judith?
Reason you know
that I love Judith
is because I talk
about her
all the time.
if you love Jesus,
guess what's going
to happen?
You're not going
to choke down
and hold off.
You're going to talk
about the lover
of your soul.
You're going to share
the goodness
of the one
who's delivered you
from the pit,
giving you complete
forgiveness
for all of your sins.
Do you understand that?
And is in the process
of helping you change
to be someone different
than you have been.
I love telling people
what Jesus can do
for them.
And I want you
to love him
so that you do the same.
Let's close in prayer.