Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good Morning!

I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.

As we gather this morning, it is imperative that we understand why we gather.

We gather to worship and exalt the name of the one who has become our salvation.

The right hand of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ!

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to who we are...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

That is our mission, our purpose, why we exist as a church.

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you.

I invite you to take one and fill it out!

If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon.

You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Who’s Your One?

Scripture Memory

Opening Scripture Reading

Introduction:

Are you the Jordan River or the Dead Sea?.....

The Jordan River is an active body of water, flowing from north to south.

It has an inlet that lets water flow into it.

And guess what else it has......That’s right, it has an outlet that allows living water teeming with life to flow out of it!

The Dead Sea, on the other hand, has no outlets.

Water comes in from the north to the lowest point in the world, and it doesn’t flow back out.

So the water is stagnant; it just sits there.

It does not allow life to flow out of it.

Every Christian could be compared to one of two bodies of water: the Jordan River, or the Dead Sea.

So which one are you?

Are you the Jordan River or the Dead Sea?

Robby Gallaty rightly argues

“...that every Christian is like one of these bodies of water.

You are either flowing as God uses you to impact the lives of other people, or you are stagnant and lifeless, like the Dead Sea.”

Gallaty, Robby.

Growing Up (p.

36).

B&H Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Today, we are beginning a five-week sermon series entitled, “ENTRUSTED: Reclaiming Discipleship!”

It is my belief that the church at large has missed the central process of God’s command to the church to make disciples?

Oh, we know all about the Great Commission.

I am going to get a little snarky for a minute, bear with me.

We know we are to live on mission.

We know we are to pass out tracts and try to share our faith.

We know we are to go on missions.

We know we are to give to missions.

We know we are a people on mission.

No one would argue that these are all good things.

But I am afraid we center our effectiveness on mission on three criteria that are not found in Scripture.

The Three B’s:

Butts

Budgets

Buildings

We are happy when these three B’s are all increasing, but is that criteria God used in the Old Testament as He discipled and grew a nation of people who would be used to fulfill His redemptive plans and thereby bring Him glory?

Are the three B’s the criteria Jesus used when He selected twelve young men who weren’t good enough to be selected as disciples by the other Jewish rabbis?

Were the three B’s central to Jesus’ goals as He called these young men to follow him and be His disciples.... get this..... he called them, “My Disciples” for a reason.

Jesus wanted to model for them what He wanted them to become, “like Him.”

I’m sorry, maybe I am missing something, but I don’t see the three B’s as a major part of God’s plan.

Are they outgrowths of a successful fulfilling of the great commission, perhaps, but perhaps they aren’t.

One thing is for sure, they were not the major focus of God’s plan to accomplish the mission.

Something else was at the core of that plan.

There is an element that means much more to the mission being successful than how many people we can fit into a building, or how much money we can reap from those people, or how many big and beautiful building we can build.

Paul knew what that something was.

He spent his life pursuing that something.

He wrote extensively on that something, but one of his epistles really brings that something into focus.

In Second Timothy 2:2 we find a scripture that is the heartbeat of our five week sermon series.

It reads...

Here in one verse we have the heartbeat of the Great Commission fleshed out in human experience the way God intended.

One word drives this passage and reminds us of our rightful calling as followers of the greatest Rabbi who ever walked the face of the earth.

That word is “ENTRUST!”

The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) defines entrust as “to commit to another with confidence,” or “to deliver something in trust to.”

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines this verb as to “assign a responsibility to,” or to “put into someone’s care.”

Entrust is a verb!

It is something we do!

Paul was telling Timothy that he had to take the lessons he had learned from Paul as a disciple of Paul and put them into someone else’s care.

To entrust the life of Christ to others who would deliver it to still others.

Paul relays to us, at the very least, FOUR Generations of disciples, although it could be argued that the number mentioned here is exponential because it will go on indefinitely until Christ returns.

As it should!

Paul had been discipled by Jesus, the Apostles, and others in the church.

Paul then discipled Timothy.

Timothy was to disciple faithful men.

Those faithful men were to disciple other faithful men and on and on and on.

Where would any of us be today if those who came before us had not entrusted the Gospel to others who would be faithful in entrusting it to others?

Christian, do you realize that the gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.

God never intended for your salvation to be an end, but rather He intended it to be a beginning.

God saved you to be a conduit through whom His glorious, life-changing gospel would flow to others.

You are a link in the chain of 2 Timothy 2:2.

Gallaty, Robby.

Growing Up .

B&H Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

What is Discipleship?

Well, while there are many definitions, I believe a definition by pastor and author Robby Gallaty best relays to us what discipleship is.

He says,

So what is disciple-making?

We could say that it is intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ.

When people become disciples, they learn what Jesus said and live out what Jesus did.

Gallaty, Robby.

Growing Up (p.

19).

B&H Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

So, are you the Jordan River or the Dead Sea?