Empowering Discipleship: The Church's Call to Action

I know what it was like to think I knew my faith and think I had a good foundation and and to know what it was like when somebody came at me with a different thought and a different maybe even religion and questions and all of a sudden I don't know anymore and and all these doubts and these questions start popping up in my mind and it makes are they ready for it you know will they give into the pressures when they're out there on their own what will come of their involvement in church what's going to come of their walk what's going to come of their faith. [00:33:42]

Statistics tell us that the majority of teenagers that grow up in church when they graduate high school and go off to college or go off into the workforce whatever that we've lost in statistics say that the majority are gone and will never return I don't accept that and I don't believe that has to be the truth I believe there can be something done about that. [00:34:10]

Not every home is teaching what should be taught I work with a lot of students we work with a lot of children and we realize that not every home is exemplifying the standard that should be lived by so unfortunately we have to go beyond just reinforcement a lot of times when a child sits in front of us whether in kids church or students sits in front of me at elevated or one of you as an adult come into this room or in any setting like that unfortunately it may be the first time that they've ever heard it we may be telling them something that they've never been taught before we may be teaching them something they've never heard before so we have to go way beyond just reinforcement. [00:35:42]

Nowhere in the Bible does it say hey you need to get people saved hey you need to fill a church with a lot of people hey you need to make a lot of Christians no it says make disciples everybody say disciple so what is a disciple all of you have an opinion all of you have a thought on it and when I ask that question the students most time well that's the 12 men that followed Jesus when he did his earthly ministry right well you're right that was 12 that was the 12 disciples but it goes much further than that. [00:37:27]

A disciple is a growing everybody say growing is a growing follower of Christ and that's our mission statement here at Clinton Community Church to make growing followers of Christ and this term disciple would actually comes from the word discipline often we think of discipline we think of you know punishing our children or disciplining them and setting them right and that's part of it but discipline is something that doesn't naturally happen for most people discipline takes work and it takes time and you need somebody walking alongside with you to keep you on track and that is our mission here to make followers of Christ with it with discipline which leads into habits. [00:38:17]

If there's no follow -through there's no connection there's no relationship means there's no growth which means there's no disciple no growing follower of Christ and then we wonder what's happened then we wonder why students are leaving the church the way they are then we wonder why statistics statistics say what they say see we have to train teach and walk with them and do we miss this. [00:40:18]

Why are we afraid of people having doubts why are we afraid of people having questions about their faith is it because maybe we don't know the answers I tell our students all the time I want them to ask questions I encourage them to seek out answers for themselves why because one it shows me that they're seeking and seeking leads to growth here's the truth people have doubts students have questions adults that come through these doors some of you you have questions and you have doubts you won't answers even the disciples had them right where do we want them finding their answers they're going to seek them they're going to find answers and they don't find them through us they're going to find them somewhere else and that's somewhere else is out in the world and we want them to gain in the truth right we want their faith to be strong and we want them to build a foundation they need that truth to go out into the world they need that truth to make a stand and people need that stable foundation a stable foundation is a must for a disciple. [00:41:46]

The church was created to sin out and to impact the world and God has a plan for his people he has a plan for his church a plan for his body and he intends for it to grow into maturity he desires for us to grow up to be like Jesus that's what the new chest a new testament church did and it's the same he wants for us. [00:43:20]

When a church becomes too the statement too inward focused that means we're only focusing on who's in here we're only focusing on ourselves and we're not we're not outward focused focusing on the people that are outside of these walls you know what happens to the church man by the name of d .a. Carson said a church either evangelizes or it dies in other words if we're not out there getting people and we're not reaching people if we're not reaching teaching going out we die. [00:45:16]

The church is not this building the church is not these four walls that surround us it's not the classrooms it's not the musicians it's it's not the instruments the church is us the church is you it's me it's the people the church is the body of christ and we are to be prepared to go out and make a difference reaching people. [00:46:40]

When the world is more and more separated and people are more and more separated when they go into times of need and they're in a time of despair and they're in a time of trial and they need someone guess where they can turn to hopefully the church the church should be a refuge we this body should be a refuge for people to turn to and to be there for one another it's got to be more than a building more than a sunday morning meeting place more than an organization it's a community a church should be a place where people come together again that body not the building. [00:48:39]

Wherever you go you're to be making disciples and are we are we equipping people for this at the end of this month June 30th actually we're leaving we're taking a team of 16 to go to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip and I did this in first and I'm going to stop right there and I need to make a plug real quick if you don't have lunch plans and hopefully you already have plans and you're going to eat a spaghetti plate if not we have spaghetti plates that are going to be ready for you at 12 o 'clock whenever you go or you don't leave at 12 you're standing here until the service is over okay for others at 12 we're going to 1 .30 but for $8 you're going to get spaghetti dessert bread and a salad okay and you're going to go I'll give you instructions at the end and all that but every bit of the money that comes in is going to go towards this trip if you don't want spaghetti you can still donate some money okay let me say that there's still quite a few that are in need God has blessed us already but it's going to be an awesome trip and the reason we're going is a little bit different see we've been on missions trips and what we do is we go and on this trip we're going to do Bible schools and typically what happens is we go and we set up at churches during the day and we do a Bible school for the kids and we minister and we'll do a drama and we'll sing some songs and play some games with them do some arts and crafts and then that night we'll have everybody in that neighborhood come and we'll have a service and we lead the service and me or another leader will preach and we'll have our praise team to lead we're doing it different this time Trevor Clowers who's actually up in the kids church right now he came to me he said I got an idea his parents are missionaries he said let's talk about maybe a trip to the men he started sharing with me these ideas he said what if we go instead of doing what we typically do what if we go and we actually train those kids those students those people what if we train them and during the day as we get together minister to children but then when they come to the service time it's not us doing they're doing it I was like man that's great so we're actually going to go train and equip and prepare them to make disciples in their nation but for us to go and do this guess what we have to be prepared we have to be equipped we have to be trained we have to be growing followers of Christ we have to be disciples. [00:50:25]

So Christ himself gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers right so what is the purpose of these positions what's the purpose of these gifts so in verse 12 it says what it could be said that well it's to help fulfill the command that's given in the book of Matthew it's to help fulfill the great commission you'd be correct but what else does it say it says for the equipping of the saints for the works of the ministry and for the edifying the building up the body of Christ. [00:53:18]

Notice that it says every Christian is to be equipped nor every Christian is to be a growing follower of Christ not just the leaders of the congregationnot just the pastors not just the teachers but everyone all his people Paul goes on to say later that when that begins to happen that when everyone and I'm going to put it in my words when everyone becomes a growing follower of Christ when everyone is being equipped that's when the growth of the church actually begins to take place. [00:54:27]

The word ministry has come to mean the job or the duty of the man that stands before the people the pastor I watched my pastor when I was younger kill himself because of what we thought ministry was supposed and who was supposed to be done by the New Testament word that was used here is diokoneus and it signifies the work not of the pastor but of a servant and it can refer to a special servant maybe in a position but it actually is referred more to often the work assigned to every believer every Christian earlier I said that all are to be growing and that means all are to serve Mark 10 43 not so with you it's instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant this work it includes a mutual responsibility again I said mutual all together to serve each other physically and spiritually we are called in the Bible it says we are called to consider each other to give careful attention to take care of one another to reach out to those that are in need to reach out to those that are lost this is the works of the ministry is speaking of and it's for all of us that call ourselves followers of Christ. [00:56:31]

The growth of this church depends on those who are here, not those who are not here yet. Does that make sense? Did I say that okay?In other words, it's up to us. That's a big job. God wants us to use our talents. He wants us to mature to do the work that needs to be done. [00:59:42]

Spiritual service is the work of every Christian, every saint of God. God, this last part can be hard. He said, Only church attendance is a poor substitute for participation in ministry.I'm going to say that last one again.Only church attendance is a poor substitute for participation in ministry. [01:00:15]

When equipping is taking place, and when training is taking place, and when we're doing what we're supposed to do, no longer will people be thrown back and forth like a ship upon the waves.They will know what they believe in. They will know why they believe it. And they will have that stable foundation to stand upon. That's what equipping does.That's what growing followers of Christ do.And then we go out. We do the work of the ministry and the building up of His people. We make more disciples. [01:01:24]

How awesome would it be if our response would be this?Who's the minister over at Clinton Community? That's easy. We all are. Wait. Who's the minister over at Clinton? No, no. Who's your minister? You're not hearing me. We all are. All of us are ministers. We all go out and do the ministry of the body.All fulfill the purpose of ministry. We're all building up the body of Christ. We're all called to do that, correct? [01:03:39]

There's something about a church like that. There's something about a body like that. You know what it'll do?It'll outlast every one of us in this room. Thought about this. Fifty years, guess what?There ain't many of us in this room that are going to be here then.Don't sound, oh, that's morbid. It's just the truth, folks.By then, if I'm alive at 92, praise God, I don't think I will be because the way I feel some days, it's like, man, I don't know if I can make another year. Right? Oh, you're young. Okay.I work with teenagers all the time. All right? Just keep that in mind.But listen, I know we will not be here.Do we want this church to be here? Do we want this church to continue being successful? Do we want it to continue moving forward? What about these children that are up in kids' church right now? Do we want them not having a place? Or do we want them to be the next leaders of this place, carrying it forward and continuing the work of God? What about these teenagers? What about the adults that are here? What do we want for the future?See, an equipped congregation can and will continue moving forward and will not lose the momentum of what's happening.When all members are fully equipped, that's a challenge. That's a challenge. [01:06:55]

God has called us all to be equipped.He's called us all to move into the world. That great commission, these instructions given in feet, it wasn't just for a group of people. It's for all of us for eternity. So let us all join together as a body and let us go forth and do what God has called us to do. Let's stomp those statistics in the ground. How about that? Let's destroy them. And let other people go, how did you do it? We followed the Bible. We lived out God's instructions.We're going to go out and we're going to make disciples. That's the ministry for every one of us. [01:08:21]

So let's all do all that we can to ensure that children, teenagers, adults, people are equipped, growing, and they're going, and they're multiplying. [01:09:08]