09.04.2022 - Preparing for Your Disciples

25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Planning for Your Disciples

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Belong. Believe. Become.

It has been a tough year for farmers all across our country. Many went through weeks of heat and drought this summer when they needed their crops to grow tall and green. Then, in some places, it poured and poured. The hard work of planting season and disappointment at the dry brown crops (and some of our yards as well) was then made worse by the floods that took not only the crops but the topsoil as well. If you don’t have the right ingredients in the right order, you don’t get the right result. I learned how to apply this to disciple-making in seminary. My professor gave us the assignment to come up with a plan for discipleship in a church. I wrote that I wanted to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to listen to the people because everyone is different so I couldn’t commit to any particular plan. I did not get a good grade on that assignment. My professor explained that if you don’t have a plan to go somewhere in discipleship, you won’t get anywhere. Was called out on my refusal to prepare in advance because it seemed easier to fly by the seat of my pants. Several years ago, the churches were encouraged to step up and choose three or four words to describe a plan that would get people from perfect strangers to spiritual siblings in Christ, essentially to do the same thing my seminary teacher asked me to do: Make a plan. It doesn’t matter how big your barn or your tractor is. The crops won’t come in if you don’t work the soil. You have to till, you have to plant, you have to do something about the weeds, and you have to harvest them. God handles the rains and the seasons, and we adapt to His will. If we saw a farmer driving his tractor around praying fervently for crops but never planting or harvesting them, we would not call that farmer faithful. We would call him confused. When it comes to being disciples that belong to Jesus, believe in Jesus, and become disciple-makers of Jesus, we, too, have important work to do. However, the church has come to believe that if we open the doors, God will do the rest of the work, that if we somehow build a house for God, the rest of the work is on Him, not us. But it is on us. It is the one job we were given by Jesus and the reason we are still here on earth and not swept up to heaven the moment we are saved. We are here as the Church, the Body of Christ, to belong to and believe Jesus as disciples and to become disciple-makers ourselves. Disciples must count the cost of following Jesus, and Disciple-makers must count the cost of making disciples of Jesus.

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The Horizon

We stop where we are not prepared to go. When we are already low on fuel and did not pack food or a change of clothes, we stop where the road ends or becomes unfamiliar. Like the Hebrew people in the time of Moses, we complain and refuse to go wandering through the wilderness when the comforts of Egypt are just a few steps away. Why work for something that you are less familiar with than settle for what you already know? We won’t follow Jesus further or become more than we are prepared to go or become. Where we are not prepared, fear and frustration will stop us dead in our tracks. Like the short parable of the builder, we will stop when we run out of money or oomph. Or, like the parable of the king going to war, we will quickly change our minds about following and serving Jesus when we see the enemies we will be up against. Many of us may be grown men and women, but when we are called out to walk through those dark valleys, we react the same way as children. No, thank you. Someone else can go. I’m fine right here. Only fools go wandering off in the dark. Well, heaven is going to be filled with a lot of fools. From Abraham in Genesis to the martyrs who give up their lives for Christ today, they all gave up easy lives for a greater challenge that moved them into the darkness, carrying the light of Christ.

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Make room for your cross

Matthew 5 tells us we are supposed to let our light shine, but it is a cross that Jesus tells us to carry with us here in Luke 14. Crosses are not ornaments we wear around our necks or small objects we can pull out of our pockets. They are the symbol that the world has rejected us. They are big and visible, and you cannot carry much else when you carry a cross. Carrying a cross was a cruel punishment because it meant you were carrying the instrument of your death to the place where it would end your life. To pick up your cross and follow Jesus meant to submit to the end of your self willingly. Have you ever looked at a project in your life, or perhaps even a person under your care, and thought, “you will be the death of me?” Those disciples learned to look at Jesus that way. When they came to arrest Jesus, the disciples knew that they were next. Even before that, in John 11:16, Thomas knew following Jesus could lead to his death. After the resurrection, though, they saw that by pouring out their lives in obedience to God, they were able to love and live in a greater way, free from the limitations of sinful mortal nature. No longer were they worried that Jesus would be the death of them because God overcame death, allowing them to live and love better, and death could not stop them. Following Jesus’s instruction, they made room for the cross by letting go of everything else. They didn't allow the world to burden them with either wealth or worries. They made a conscious effort to follow Jesus first and let the world worry about itself. I have been told that in China, where the underground Christian movement continues to thrive, the people sometimes take years of consideration before deciding to follow Jesus. For them, it usually means losing their family and friends. Sometimes it means losing their jobs. But it also meant gaining something. These disciples belonged to one another, and they lived out that belonging by sharing that life with those they chose to disciple. Children may question whether they belong or not, but parents and grandparents define what it means to belong by the way they pass on who they are to their children. If you are looking to belong, find yourself a mentor and pass along what you learn to others.

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3 Steps

Let me give you 3 quick steps to help you prepare for the disciples that God has already placed in your life.

Get some help. Don’t do it on your own. Make disciples as a family, as a church family, by inviting others to love and share with your disciples with you.

Share what you are learning from God today. Sometimes we think that others might be too far ahead or behind us to understand what we are going through with God. Most of the time, we are more alike than we are different. Besides, the best way to learn something and make it stick is to teach it to someone else.

Pray for God to open your eyes to see and your heart to love as He does so you don’t miss the people that God already has around you that need a relationship with Him that they will learn to receive and grow through their relationship with you.

Going to church and reading your bible and praying - Belonging and Believing, does not worry the devil. When you decide to pass on your faith to others, Becoming a disciple-maker for Jesus - that’s when the devil starts pulling out all the stops. He wants God’s grace to stop with you. Making disciples is a lot like raising children. It takes a lot out of you, from their birth to your death. It also takes a lot of help from God. It’s not 50/50. It’s 100/100. And you need help from others as well. It is hard work, and it is even harder if you do not prepare for them and the changes they have to go through to grow into, to become the men and women God created them to be. But it is worth it. Almost every funeral I’ve ever attended has an obituary reading, and that obituary lists out the achievements of the dearly departed. The naming of their children and grandchildren holds a prominent place in the way we celebrate the lives of our loved ones as if it was their purpose for being here. Whether the children were born to them or adopted in at a later date doesn’t matter. Their life and faith were passed on to those children, those disciples. I’ve met plenty of people who struggled with their children, sometimes in heart-wrenching ways, but I’ve never met anyone of faith that regretted making disciples of the people God brought into their lives. It is hard work, but it is worth it, and, in the end, it might be the most important work we do in our lives. Belong to Jesus. Believe and follow Jesus. Become a disciple maker of Jesus. Where have you stopped? Who is God calling you to make space for as a disciple in your life?

Communion – The Great Thanksgiving II

Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another. Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Glory to God. Amen. The Lord be with you And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is right, and a good and joyful thing, Always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And so, With your people on earth And all the company of heaven We praise your name and join their unending hymn: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, And made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. On the night to which he gave himself up for us he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said; “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Drink from this, all of you this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” And so, In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.” By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is your, almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen The body of Christ, given for you. Amen. The blood of Christ, given for you. Amen.

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