EFFECTIVELY DISCIPLING
Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. NIV
Effectively discipling begins in the home! For the Jews, the ministry center of the family is the home. For Christians, the ministry center has become the church. Making disciples begins in the home. Family meals, communion, prayer, Bible reading, and overall time together as a family.
I was very inspired to discover Joshua had 14 successive generations of faithful high priests serving God. What you do today and what you fail to do today echoes for hundreds & hundreds of years into the future, and it echoes in the lives of hundreds & thousands of people for good or for bad.
Singles - This should greatly alter who you marry. 'Oh, she’s hot I want to marry her!' Will she be a good wife? Will she be a good mother? Will she be a good grandmother? Do I want 14 generations of this kind of woman as legacy? If not, move on.
Ladies: Will he be a good husband? Will he be a good father? Will he love the kids, read the Bible with them and tuck them in at night? Will he tell them about Jesus? Will he be a good grandfather? Is he the kind of man that I want to see repeated for 1,000 years? If not, move on.
Many don’t come from a line of faithful servants of Jesus. If you knew your dad maybe he wasn’t a great man. But God can start with you to raise up a brand new family line. He can pour out his grace on you enabling you to be a good father and husband because of Jesus’ faithfulness to you. The family of devastation & destruction could be completely redeemed by Jesus so that from you would come generations of people who love Jesus. Broken walls of legacy can be restored!
Neh 7:1-2 Now when the wall was rebuilt and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed, then I put Hanani my brother, and Hananiah the commander of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. NIV
God was restoring Israel as a result of their love for God, love for God’s Law and their passion to see him high and lifted up! They would gather together and worship.
When you live a life of legacy you not only find places to serve but you take your children with you, imparting into their lives a heart to serve Jesus and His family. Purpose the actions of your life that will ring 14 generations into the future. We serve because it unlocks God’s desires in our heart causing us to live a life of passion fueled by worship.
Your deepest sense of purpose is born from learning to be part of other people's need.
What does your personal ministry into the lives of others look like? Our goal at Destiny is not to make you more church-like. Our goal is to make you more Christ-like. There is a practical side to our spiritual lives. There is a spiritual side to our practical lives. We are called the salt of the earth. Salt is sodium and chloride. Sodium alone will kill you. Chloride alone will kill you. Interestingly you will die without the combination of sodium chloride in your system. Practical religion produces death. Spiritual religion produces death. The combination of these two ingredients produces life that causes human flourishing in the earth!
James 2:14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? NLT
James 2:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. NLT
We must refuse to reduce the Gospel to a moral conclusion! The Bible doesn’t say believers will be known by how strong and established we are in our beliefs. The Bible says we will be known by our love, or by our loving behavior.
So the question becomes whose life is flourishing more because of you? Whose faith is deeper or family is stronger because of you? Most believers don’t forget to work at being Christian. We tend to forget to work at being human.
GP4RL:
Purpose something meaningful this week with family and friends.
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
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