Discipleship:
I--The Greatest Commandment:
Following Jesus begins and ends with the greatest commandment. When Jesus was on this Earth, he was asked by a religious leader which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses. Jesus replied," The most important commandment is this: the Lord our God is the one and only Lord and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself--- no other commandments are greater than these." Mark 12:28-34. Jesus tells us everything we must do as a follower.
Jesus hangs on these two commands so we should probably understand them at a deeper level. It's not enough to just say love God and love others! We must know what that actually means! CS Lewis once said there is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. Therefore, every part of us must love God or else it loves Satan-- there isn't much room for the in-between.
[1a] Loving GOD:
With All Your Heart
Loving God with all your heart or every fiber of your being means we do not prioritize anything over God. It starts with our heart! Jesus says, "Wherever you are, your treasure is there. The desires of your heart will also be. Matthew 6:21. We can prioritize a lot of things over Jesus: money, possessions, people, even religion--- can become more important in our heart than actually loving God. Where are your priorities?
With All Your Soul
We must also love God with all of our souls. That means the very depth of our being is turned over to God. It means we have confessed all of our sins and purified our souls. You don't have to tell everyone everything, but you do have to tell everything to someone. Loving God with all your soul means you have allowed him into the depths of your psyche.
With All Your Mind
Loving God with all your mind means you fill your mind with Godly information every day. Numerous things compete for our attention! We have to be intentional about what we feel our minds with.
With All Your Strength
Loving God with all of our strength means we give concentrated effort our relationship with Jesus. It has a lot to do with the effort we give even when we fall short. We won't be perfect, but our intentions and effort will be clear to God.
[1b] Loving Others:
Out of the overflow of our love for God comes the love for people. It's the second part of the Great commandment. What does it mean to love people? Jesus breaks it down for us in the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:30- 37. A lot of people interpreted this parable as helping people on the side of the road or who are who in financial need. It can be that --of course, however, that is not the full point the parable! Jesus tells illuminates three key principles for loving people.
1, Actually Care About People
We are called to love anyone we meet, notice, or come across in our everyday lives and we must actually care for them! The Good Samaritan saw the man on the road and had compassion on him.
2. Notice the Need
Loving people means we notice their needs and we try to be of some help. The Good Samaritan doctored the wounds of the man abandoned on the side of the road. Sometimes those wounds are under the surface-- so we have to pay attention to people in order to help them.
3. Go Above and Beyond
We have to go beyond the normal expectations for people. The Good Samaritan paid above and beyond what he had to do in order to help the hurting man on the side of the road. As a Jesus follower, your love should be radically different in the world going above and beyond the normal. It may just mean instead of pulling in the garage and shutting it right away-- you stop in the driveway and talk to your neighbor outside.
Our love for God is expressed in our love for people! Our love for people is what we should compel them back to God, however, we will never make disciples if we don't love God and love people.
II--The Great Commission:
When Jesus left his disciples physically for the last time he gave them this Commission I have given all authority and Heaven and Earth therefore go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this I am with you always even to the end of age.
If you have been in the church for any amount of time you have heard the Great Commission it's probably the most quoted scripture for telling people about Jesus yes we should share our faith but making disciples of Jesus is a process.
Being mentored or mentoring others discipleship does not happen overnight once we are baptized we begin a journey where we must learn and grow over time to be more like Jesus however we grow the most when someone takes the time to help us grow typically we don't learn unless we have a teacher a disciple is someone who consciously makes a decision to follow Jesus head knowledge grows more like Jesus over time heart change and serves and make disciples tangible service with their hands it's hard to become a true disciple without spending someone spending intentional time with us Jesus himself modeled discipleship by spending time and pouring into 12 others who in turn poured into and mentored others who also poured into others eventually every follower of Jesus must take time to mentor and guide another person in their faith we are not a Jesus follower if we do not make a disciples.
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Discipleship at the Safe Haven Grace Worship Center:
We are passionate about loving God loving people and making disciples in fact our mission is to make authentic followers of Jesus we will leave God's love is two-fold God loves us right where we are he is compassionate and welcomes us and no matter what sin we carry where we have come from or what has happened to us in the past but he loves us so much that he refuses to leave us in our sin so the closer we get to God the more challenges to grow and change think again about the fruits of the Holy Spirit the more we allow God to work in and through us his Spirit challenges us to live out his personality we want to love people in this community in the same way we love people no matter what but we also love people enough to challenge them do not leave this class without accepting the challenge of making taking your next step.
Central to the Christian faith is the personal relationship between an individual and GOD.
Each person does this by 4 pivotal elements: habits, knowledge, experience, and commitment.
Habits and Traditions---
Cultivating habits that strengthen our connection with Christ is essential to any relationship. Similar to how couples establish routines to deepen their bond, believers engage in spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Scripture reading, and communal worship.
Knowledge---
Delving Deep into our relationship with Christ also demands delving into God's Word to gain knowledge and understanding. The Reformed tradition underscores theological study and biblical literacy as the bedrock of spiritual maturity. Paul highlights this in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, noting Scripture's role in thoroughly equipping believers for every good work, thereby shaping our comprehension of God and His desires for us.
Experience: Encounter and Empowerment---
Conversely, faith's experiential facet prioritizes direct encounters with God and the life-changing influence of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals and charismatics, for instance, stress genuine experiences of God's presence, spiritual gifts, and the palpable touch of the Holy Spirit in worship settings. The events of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2, exemplify the significant role that experiential encounters play in individual and communal spiritual life.
Commitment: Steadfast Devotion and Sacrifice---
At the heart of relational growth with Christ is commitment—marked by unwavering devotion and readiness to serve sacrificially. Traditions focusing on commitment, such as the Baptists, highlight the necessity of adhering to God’s commands and enduring challenges for Christ’s sake. Jesus’s call in Luke 9:23-24 to take up one’s cross daily accentuates discipleship's sacrificial aspect, demanding complete dedication to Him.
Synthesis and Collaboration:
Embracing Ecu-ministry--
While each quadrant—habits, knowledge, experience, and commitment—provides invaluable insights into growing with Christ, individually they cannot encapsulate the full experience.
Ecu-ministry encourages us to transcend these distinctions, fostering a unified approach that acknowledges the body of Christ’s diverse yet complementary parts (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). This collective ministry approach enables us to draw upon each tradition’s strengths, cultivating a richer, more vibrant Christian community united in service and the advancement of God’s kingdom.
In today’s world, marked by division, the ecu-ministry model proposes a unifying vision for believers. By cherishing the variety within Christian traditions and collectively nurturing our relationship with Christ, we demonstrate the gospel’s reconciling love. Guided by Christ's example, who prayed for His disciples' unity “so that the world may believe” (John 17:21), our commitment to ecuministry stands as a testament to Christ’s transformative love, both in our lives and the wider world.