1. What are some attributes that God most clearly shares with us? What are some attributes he doesn’t share very much with us? Name one attribute of God that you would like to imitate more fully in your daily life and tell why.

2. Can you tell what some of the dangers would be in considering one of God’s attributes more important than all the others?

3. Which of God’s attributes seem most amazing to you? What have you learned about God through this attribute?

Acts 12:24 “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”

When we preach the Gospel and teach believers to feed themselves on the Scriptures, there will be lasting fruit of the word of God spreading as people believe, know and apply. The problem is in many churches people have become accustomed to being spoon fed theology by pastors and good Bible teachers when instead they should be learning to feed themselves. After all it was prophesied that in the New Covenant we would teach ourselves as we are guided by the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:31-36; John 6:45). As a result the word of God is not multiplying at the rate it did in Acts.

We need to commit ourselves to know the Word and not expect to be fed only by eloquent teachers of the word.

We also need to commit to preach the word to others so they may believe in Jesus.

Finally we must be faithful to disciple new Christians to teach them how to feed on the word and help them gain a vision for teaching it to others. Through this all believers will take up their God commissioned responsibility to make disciples, teaching them (Matt. 28:19-20).

This requires a time investment many are not willing to make. But if we want to be obedient to our Lord this is required. If we want to see the Gospel spread with power for the glory of God like we read about in Acts this is non-negotiable.

What is real friendship? It seems like a trite term but “authentic” would seem more so. It seems everyone is on a quest for meaning in relationships. One problem we face in building real and lasting friendships is the desire for instant gratification that our culture has produced. I think even in the prosperity of the first five years of this new century we grew accustomed to getting quick and abundant results for little effort. But this is never how friendships should work.

1 Samuel 18 introduces us to the friendship that David had with Jonathon. They were the least likely to be close friends but by God’s grace they were. They show us the type of hard work needed to make friendships last. You have to devote time and effort to building healthy relationships. It will cost you at times as you work out conflict. But through the Holy Spirit’s leadership in your lives, you have the opportunity to move each other closer to Christ and grow your bond as friends.

Proverbs 18:24 says “there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” Do you have this kind of friend? Someone or a few you can share your struggles with maybe even disagree with but walk away still in committed friendship? Is there someone you could call when you are being tempted and ask for help? That is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. You need to make the investment in people to make these kinds of relationships happen.

As a small group leader, as you model this to your group, you will cultivate a culture of real friendships. I have had a few conversations recently about relating to each other and some of us are reading Samson and the Pirate Monks by Nate Larkin (that’s for guys, sorry ladies). So I am moved to help build a value for real friendship among our fellowship.

Proverbs 9:10 in the Living Bibe says, “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.” If you lead a small group, you are a vital part of leading group members to know God so they can gain understanding in all areas of life. We live in dark world where people are given over to all kinds of sins out of desperation to understand life. We have the only true understanding through the Light of the Gospel. Through small group Bible study communities we can be part of trasnforming lives as we remain in God’s Word and His Word remains in us (John 15:7). What an exciting endeavor, we literally are shedding light on the subject!

Success God’s Way

Charles Stanley defines success as “the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing the goals God has helped you set.”

1. Success is a continuing desire to pursue God’s desire

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)  ⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

2. Success is an ongoing pursuit

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NASB) ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Philippians 3:10 (AMP) ¹⁰ [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

We are on a journey for our whole lives of learning, growing, serving and becoming more like Christ. So we understand that success is an ongoing pursuit.

3. God is committed to your success

The Bible is your guide—The Bible only uses the word “success” seven times: twice in Joshua, once in Genesis, Nehemiah, Job, Ecclesiastes and Daniel. But that doesn’t mean God is not interested in our success. There is another word that appears a lot in Scripture, the word “prosper.”

God is concerned with saving your whole person so he desires you to prosper.

Prosperity is wholeness in action.

Take inventory of your life.

          Where am I in my spiritual walk?

          Where am I in my finances?

          Where am I in my education?

          Where am I in my vocation?

          Where am I in my service to the Lord?

          Where am I in my health?

Where am I in my relationships with other people? (family, friends, coworkers, fellow church members)

Wholeness is not contingent on circumstances.

Daniel 6:28 (NASB) ²⁸ So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

In the midst of all his trials Daniel trusted the Lord and was considered a success.

4. God calls you to success

Joshua 1:1-9 NASB

Neh 2:18-20 NASB

Success is a process

5. God equips you for success

The Holy Spiritis given to every believer enabling us to be successful in what God has made us for.

Rom 8:28

The Holy Spirit gives us the following:

·         Discernment

·         Gifts

·         Assurance Rom 8:28; 1 John 1:9

1 John 5:13 (NIV) ¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

·         Guides—convicts, moves, compels

6. Your key to success is setting Godly goals

One of the most goal oriented people in the Bible is Paul.

Phil 3:7-14 NASB

Goal- organized, planned stretching of your life.

·         Know your priority goal (or three)—it’s the same for all of us.

To know Christ, to become like Christ and to glorify Him.

Romans 8:29-30 (NASB) ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

This expands your horizons of what your goals could be. It never limits you.

·         Four questions to ask God as you set goals:

1. “Why is this important to you Lord?”

2. “Does this fit into your plan for my life?”

3. “Is this goal totally in line with God’s word?”

4. “How might the accomplishment of this goal bring blessing to others?”

·         Write it down. God puts value in what he says to us and we ought to write it down.

Jeremiah 30:2 (NASB) ² “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book.

Jeremiah 36:2 (NASB) ² “Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

Habakkuk 2:2 (NASB) ² Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.

·         Types of Goals

Immediate Goals—preach this message

Short Range Goals—lead a fruitful semester of ministry that leads you to connect with God, ministry in the church, and your mission in the world.

Long Range Goals—Develop a ministry that trains up and sends out laborers for the Kingdom.

Ask the Lord to direct your goal setting and use the following tips.

·       Be Specific

·       Set goals that are reachable

·       At the same time, Set goals that can only be accomplished with God’s help.

·       Set goals that are measurable

Not “I’m going to grow in Christ”

But instead state specific goals like, “I’m going to grow in Christ by reading my Bible five days out of the week.”

·       Take one step at a time.

·       Depend completely on God

          John 15:5, Joshua 1:8

Phil 3:14 “I Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”

Do you ever struggle with whether achieving success and being humble are reconcilable? I agree with Charles Stanley who wrote in Success God’s Way, the Bible is clear, God desires you to be successful. While the Bible only uses the word “success” seven times, it uses the word “prosper” or “prosperous” numerous times.  Stanley defines success as “the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplish the goals God has helped you set.”

The key to your success is knowing what God desires you to be successful in. Psalm 37:4 says “delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God is committed to your success as you are committed to his desires. And that is not a limiting statement to say you must pursue God’s desires to be a success. Instead, it is “unlimiting” when you let God enable you to do amazing things you could never imagine (1 Cor. 2:9)!

Maturity vs. Immaturity

Read Hebrews 5

The matter of Christian Maturity always is on my heart as a pastor and as a leader of Bible study/Discipleship ministries. We are faced with such immaturity in the church because we have relied more on programs to grow disciples rather than taking personal responsibility for one another’s growth.

Christ said he came that we could not just have life, but have abundant life (John 10:10). And that life is found in growing up in Christ.

Choices of Maturity

The Life Application Study Bible gives the following contrast between mature and immature choices as believers that helps us gauge where people are and where we need to lead them.

The Choices of Maturity

From the Life Application Study Bible.

Hebrews 5:11-14 (HCSB) ¹¹ We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become slow to understand. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of God’s revelation. You need milk, not solid food. ¹³ Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.

I have to laugh when it says “you have become slow to understand.” The author is saying, we have to keep this simple and go slow because you have not been very teachable. Each of us, when we have learned, should go and teach others (5:12). So when a pastor has taught us well from the Word, he should not have to lead us through it again. We should be faithful to apply it and go teach it to others.

I remember a lady once saying in answer to some struggles in our church, “The pastor needs to lead a group through ‘Experiencing God’ again.” What? No! The people who had been through “Experiencing God” needed to apply it and some of them needed to lead a new group of growing Christians through the study in order to grow them in these life changing principles.

So lets all be about maturing and making mature choices as we lead others from immaturity to maturity in the Body of Christ.

The Disciple Making Church Part 2

The New Covenant and Discipleship

Jeremiahs 31:31-34; John 6:45

Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 6:45  NASB

As People of the New Covenant:

1. God has put his law on our minds and our hearts

Through Christ being our substitution, we become part of the New Covenant. As such, God puts his Holy Spirit in us and that is how the law of God is internalized in our lives. We have an inner ability by the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to live righteously

In the OT the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell all believers.

Ezekiel 36:24-28 (NASB) ²⁴ “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. ²⁵ “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶ “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. ²⁸ “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

In the New Covenant recorded in the NT we received the Holy Spirit permanently at conversion to faith in Christ. That is how we enter the new covenant.

Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV)  ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

This is how we now have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

God has put his law on our minds and our hearts.

2. We are taught by God and not merely by men

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God speaks to us through his Word. So the Word of God is a non-negotiable in our lives.

Even Paul writing to the Thessalonians about their love in 1Thes. 4:9 says they were “taught by God”

How does he do this? By the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-17 (NASB) ¹⁶ “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 14:25-26 (NASB) ²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. ²⁶ “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

3. We live what we know and trust God for the rest

This covenant is alive in believers

Die to self to live in the new life of the new covenant  Gal 2:20; Luke 9:23

Matthew 16:13-19 (NASB) ¹³ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said* to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Don’t treat your life like a Spiritual Buffet where you starve all week by refraining from spending time in the word, then come to church on Sunday and stuff yourself full.

Deuteronomy 32:46-47 (NASB) ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ “For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

Jeremiah 15:16 (NASB) ¹⁶ Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.

Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) ¹² For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Where Are We Going?

1. We need to develop people who feed themselves

Ezra 7:10 (NASB) ¹⁰ For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Study

Obey/Apply

Teach

2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) ² And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

2. People want to be with you, not just go through a workbook

Mark 1:17 (NASB) ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

John 1:38-39 “where are you staying?” the new disciples wanted to be with Jesus

Are you living a magnetic life? Is your lifestyle contagious? Do people notice you live for Christ and not for self? Do they want what you have?

Spend your life looking for people to invest in for eternity by showing them how to walk with God and live for his purposes.

3. Don’t Compartmentalize Your Life

A.W. Tozer “If Jesus is not Lord of all in your life, He is not Lord at all in your life.”

4. Go with God or be left behind

Israel was led by God in the wilderness—to choose to stay behind and not go with God would have meant to chose to leave God’s protection and provision—The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

5. Disciple to a relationship and not to a task

John 14:23-24 (NASB) ²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. ²⁴ “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

View video at www.fsbctucson.net through truthcasting.com

Disciple Making Church Part 1

Matthew 28:18-20; Phil 1:3-7; John 1:38-39 NASB

Intro:

Romans 5:8 NIV

Why do we mistakenly think that we or anyone else should “clean up their act” before coming to church?  Yet, Jesus did not expect it. The Bible says he met us right where we were in our sin. He cleans us up as we follow him in community with each other. This is the foundation for which we can build a transformational community at our Church.

Expect worldly people to act worldly

I. Make sure you have a right view of the church

Many think the church is a place where we learn more about Christ and pool our resources for missions. With that view we will never fulfill God’s purpose.

The Bible says the church is much more.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB) ¹⁸ And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I made a mistake referring to this passage last week in Priority when I wanted to stress the thrust of this text, I said it was “go” but it is MAKE DISCIPLES. Our Primary function is to make disciples. That begins with Evangelism—tell them the good news. It continues with a public profession through baptism and it goes on to obeying the Word to the point that new Christians are discipled to a place where they in turn can go and preach the gospel to someone else—making disciples. If a new Christian is discipled who are they discipled by? Other Christians.

A. Make Disciples—that is the clear initiative Jesus gave the church. If it is so clear and simple how have we lost sight of it?  I’ll tell you, the Enemy does not want us to keep it clear and simple because he knows if we do, we will reproduce rapidly and powerfully.

There is no other more neglected area of the church today than our failure to develop disciples.

The mistake many Christians make is to think that they are an audience to be entertained instead of an army receiving marching orders.

In the 1^st Century the fledgling church brought the mighty Roman Empire to its knees.

Acts 17:6 (NLT)
⁶ …”Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city,” they shouted.

But today we are impotent because we have let the culture influence us into being quiet, polite, and accommodating to them. Listen, the early church did not turn the world upside down by being quiet, polite, and accommodating!

B. Discipleship must function as the heart of our church.

This means every program we have should be examined to answer the question, is this helping move people through our process to become mature disciples who make disciples? If its not, then we need to fix it or eliminate it. And we need to not cry about not getting our way.

People are dying and going into a Christ-less eternity in Hell so I am floored that people would want to complain and throw a fit over petty issues like what room your group meets in. Even now some of you are more offended that I said that than you are that people are going to hell without Christ.

Making disciples is the priority of our church and the priority of our lives as Christ’s followers.

C. We need to get after people

You don’t have to be a super Christian or Bible answer man or have years of experience. God wants to use every believer to grow and to lead others to know Christ and to make him known. Disciples span age groups, interests, spiritual gifts, and any other category you can put people in.

Dawson Trotman wrote,

Pray, “God give me a girl or guy whom I can win to Christ, or let me take one who is already won, an infant in Christ, and try to train that one so that he or she will reproduce!”

We are thrilled to see numbers of people fill our seats. But, where is your man? or where is your woman? Someone said, “I would rather have one Isaac alive than a hundred dead, or sterile, or immature.”

Why must we get after people?

D. Programs do not make disciples

It is clear in Scripture that people are God’s method.

Our church programs are the places we get together and know each other to recognized those who need to be discipled. When someone comes forward to receive Christ or is baptized, another Christian should come right along side to teach them about assurance of salvation, baptism and how to walk with God.

Philippians 1:3-7 (NASB) ³ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ⁴ always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, ⁵ in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. ⁷ For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.

II. You are a disciplemaker 24/7  1:4-5

A. Every believer is to be about preaching the gospel 1:5

B. God is perfecting us

You are faithful to invest in someone

God produces the fruit

Your task is to be faithful in investing in others for spiritual maturity then entrust them to God

C. Begin making disciples at home

1 Timothy 5:8 (NASB) ⁸ But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

III. Come and Behold Jesus

John 1:38-39 (NASB) ³⁸ And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said* to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” ³⁹ He said* to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

In awkward bewilderment these men were really asking, “can we tag along with you?” They were filled with questions and needed answers. They had no plan; they were on the threshold of hope.

And Jesus gave the greatest invitation: “Come and see! Come with me and you can see how I live.”

Watch the video at www.fsbctucson.net

There is a growing and disturbing trend in the church. This trend is the onset of an apathetic generation. Furthermore, we have so programmed ourselves and marketed our ministry so much that we can draw people and do great things with out the Holy Spirit being in any of it. This is alarming. We need to return to a pursuit of a Spirit-filled life and a Spirit-filled church. Then we can see God accomplish his work in us and through us and stop relying on good marketing schemes.

The Spirit Filled Life (Acts 2:2-4; Eph 5:18)

Have you ever observed a Christian and was so amazed at how the Holy Spirit just seems to ooze out of every part of their being? I mean the kind of person that hears God clearly in their prayer life. They can leap over temptations in a single bound. And they are that person that always has the story of how they got on an airplane and sat next to someone, shared the gospel with them and had everyone on the plane on their knees in the aisle accepting Christ. And then you think, “I wish I experienced the fullness of God’s Spirit in my life like that.” Well you can. The Bible says that God wants for all believers to live Spirit-filled, Spirit controlled lives. It is a reality that is within reach for all of us.

The sad thing is, many Christians have a basic doctrine where they believe:

1.    nobody’s perfect

2.    God understands

But God never intended for us to live with a defeatist mentality like that.

Acts 2:2-4 (NLT) Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. 3. Then, what looked like flames of tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

I want to show you how to be Spirit-filled. First, we need to understand an important truth.

I.  ALL BELIEVERS RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT CONVERSION

I Cor. 12:13 (NLT) Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.

This is the way it happened for the apostles and first disciples because Jesus was still with them. And the Spirit could not come until he left. But after Jesus ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit was for all believers (Acts 2:38).

Just as you become a child of God at salvation, you also receive the Holy Spirit into your heart at salvation

Gal. 4:6 KJV “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”