Purpose Driven Life: Discipleship

My wife, Louise, is an amazing woman. Amen?

An illustration of that is an ugly, beat-up pine chest. My son, Caleb, is working on it now. He's making a gift for his fiancée for her birthday. But a while back, Louise bought this absolutely, totally ugly, beat-up pine chest. I asked, are we going to use it for kindling?

nails sticking out of it cracked boards uneven boards rough edges and I told Caleb as he was working on this pine box this chest that Louise had bought I said you know your mom is an amazing woman because she can take that which is ugly beaten up looks like it would be worth nothing and she with her artistic ability and skill can transform it into something that is very, very beautiful. Caleb thought about that a moment and he said, Now I know why she married you.

But Jesus Christ is the same way. He can take ugly looking, beat up, worn out, cracked, scarred vessels like us. And he can transform us into something beautiful. That's what the lesson is about today. Becoming what he wants us to be.

Becoming what he wants us to be. How do I bring glory to God? So far in our study of the purpose-driven life, we have seen that we bring glory to God by worshiping Him. That is, offering our lives on the altar before Him as living in holy sacrifices. We honor Him and bring glory to Him through fellowship.

That is, by loving one another and thus bringing glory to Him. And we bring glory to Him through discipleship. And the aspect of discipleship we will focus on today is becoming more like Christ. character that Christ wants us to have in our lives. The means are first and then the end.

I will discuss. We have some means that the Lord has provided to us so that we can grow in Christ. So if we want to become all of what Christ wants us to become, we must use the tools that Christ has provided to us to become that. Okay? At the end of my teaching time this morning, we're going to discuss some questions.

Let me read you the questions so you can be thinking about them as we go through the lesson. What do you believe is the greatest hindrance for Christians in becoming more like Christ? Second question. Which of the means for spiritual growth, and we're about to talk about them, have I found most helpful in my spiritual life and why? have I most neglected? Why and how can I better incorporate it into my life in the future? And lastly, which of the spiritual virtues do I find most difficult and why? I'll give you some food for thought on each of those questions as we go through the lesson this morning. But the means, how can I grow in Christ? I'm just going to highlight these very quickly and just say a brief word about each of them so that I can then talk about the end which is becoming the way Christ But here are the means. The first means is through the Word. That is through the Bible.

If we're going to become what Christ wants us to become, we must be in His Word so we'll know what He wants us to be. That's our guidebook. That's our instruction book. So if we want to be what Christ wants us to be, we must be reading the guidebook, the instruction book, so we will know how we are to shape our lives in order to be what He wants us to be. The second means is the Spirit.

I could have put the Spirit first or the Word first. You know, the Word came through the Spirit. So when I say through the Spirit, we don't want to neglect one of the best means the Spirit has given us to become like Christ. That is the Word. But it is the Spirit that empowers us.

If any of you have tried to do anything to grow in the spiritual life, sometimes we try to do it by just gritting our teeth. and we find so often we fail when we just grit our teeth. There's something mysterious about it, but as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are filled with God's Spirit and we have the power within us that can help us transform to be what God wants us to be. So I'm going to tell you, if you want to be what the Lord wants us to be, we must seek the help of the Spirit within, the Holy Spirit. folks, again, it's a mysterious thing, but when we seek the Spirit's help, the Spirit helps. Some of us are sort of like the person who was trying to get the bus out of the ditch that had run in the ditch out by out there trying to lift it him or herself when Superman was on board and could have come out with one hand and lifted it up. Sometimes we're trying to become like Christ without using the power that is right there with us. Depend on the spirit at the same time at the same time we must give all the personal effort we can in this process it is a cooperative effort with the spirit working within us and us doing everything we can to grow in christ paul told timothy in the little verse i cited for you in the in this on this means says train yourself to be godly and that word for train is gunazo it's the word from which we get the word gymnasium it's the idea that if we want to become godly if that is our goal it's going to take some personal effort we've got to work at it it is not easy just as if we're going to run a distance run we've got to work at it every day the same is true in the spiritual race we it takes personal effort and personal responsibility train yourself to be godly there was a time in my spiritual life when i blamed the church for not helping me enough to grow in christ you know what at the end of the day you know whose responsibility it is to grow in christ it is the buck stops right here we can go through life blaming our mama or our daddy because we're not what we should be we can blame the church we can blame our boss we can blame our spouse we can blame our children the lord says train yourself it is your responsibility and quit making excuses so personal effort another means is through pains and trials.

If the Lord's going to shape us, it seems we have to go through pains and trials. And one of the means that he uses is difficulty in our life to shape us. So I want to ask us as a group to take a fresh look at difficulty. I'm not saying pain is easy. I'm saying difficult circumstances are often the furnace in which God molds the metal.

so if you're in the midst of difficulty or trial begin to ask god how are you using this to shape me that's the difference between christians of old and christians of today christians of old when they went through difficulty weren't asking weren't blaming god as much it seems or asking why why why they were saying shape me mold me through it make me different through it and that's what we need to be doing fifthly the fifth means is through encouragement and support we have brothers and sisters in christ who help us in this journey i meet with a group of six guys twice a month and it's a great time when we can talk together we typically are reading through a book together we get together and discuss things and we've gotten to know each other so well that it's kind of a no-holds-barred discussion, you know, that you just can't say something and sort of walk away from it. You're going to hear about it, you know.

We're not able just to sit there and not have somebody challenge us or ask us where we are or how we're doing or how our relationship with the Lord is. We've got a group who challenges us. Now, it takes a while to develop a group like that, quite frankly. It takes getting close to one another. It takes having people that you trust.

It takes having people that you know will be candid with you, but people who you know love you. It's not something easy to develop, but it's a very helpful thing to have a support group in this journey we call the Christian life. Your encouragement and support could be your spouse, too. I have found that Louise has really rounded my rough edges, and it can be very helpful to have somebody

You know, we can fool a lot of people here, but boy, the one you sleep with at night, they know what you're like. Louise knows what I'm like. But the person who really loves you and wants to help you, who is closest to you, can help you see where you're missing the mark and how you can better walk in the way the Lord wants you to. Sixly, six means through prayer.

Don't neglect prayer. Let's not neglect going to the source of all power and saying, help me, help me, help me. Sixly, through time. And I mean through time in two senses. One sense in which I mean it is this.

If we're going to grow in Christ, it takes time. You can't, as Rick Warren says in the book, The Purpose Driven Life, watch television three hours a day, read your Bible for three minutes a day, and expect to have any significant growth in Christ. It takes some attention to this effort. It takes putting some time into the effort if we're going to grow in Christ. It also takes time in the sense of we don't mature overnight.

Just as the great redwoods, the great redwood trees didn't grow in a day, those who have deep spiritual character that character typically over a long period of time. The growth in Christ is typically a day-by-day, step-by-step, gradual process. So somebody who's a brand new Christian, we should not expect the maturity of faith of somebody who's been consistently walking with the Lord for 20 years. It is a process. I say that to say be a little gentle with yourselves, okay? We are a work in we're learning each day as we grow.

And the other reason I tell you this is growing in Christ is not a quick fix. It is not something where we become like Christ overnight. There's no five minutes to rock hard spiritual abs. You know, those commercials that we all know really aren't true. You know, just get this one machine and for three minutes a day you look like these models they put on TV.

Please. But we want the quick fix, don't we? There are no quick fixes. There's a quick fix to salvation, in a sense. When we come to the Lord in faith, we're saved.

And that can be in an instant. But then the growth to become like Christ is a maturing process. Okay, the means, I've covered. Now I'm going to go to the end. In other words, the means aren't an end in themselves.

reading your Bible you know

the envelopes we Baptists get have the little check marks when you give your offering have you read your Bible and so forth they used to do they don't anymore I don't think have you read your Bible and so forth and those were a good tool to remind us we're supposed to be doing those things but some of us thought just checking off we read the Bible was enough reading the Bible studying the Bible knowing the scriptures is not an end in itself the goal is transformation to be different people so all of those means i just went over aren't ends in themselves they are means to get to an end and the end is to have spiritual virtues or spiritual character that christ wants us to have in our lives okay and i'm this is where i've been guilty folks for much of my christian life i was and i love studying scripture and knowing the languages of scripture and there's so much of my Christian life I was filling my head with knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Not a bad thing in and of itself but I forgot the knowledge was to be gained for a purpose. The purpose was to change me. God doesn't want people with heads this big. He wants people with hearts this big if you understand what I'm saying. He wants us changed to be changed people. So what does he want us to become. One of the best places to go, I think, is the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. And I'm going to hit those very quickly. So if you want to turn to Matthew 5, starting at verse 3, we're going to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches his disciples how he wants them to be. And what I'm going to press us toward, folks, is that if we are sincerely interested and being genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will want these spiritual characteristics in our lives.

Okay? But we need to understand what they are.

Now, if you know anything about the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, they start by saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit. And then there's a reward stated. Jesus is saying we should desire these spiritual virtues for two reasons. The first reason is, is the promise is that if we have these spiritual virtues, we will be the objects of God's divine favor. Blessed are those who have these spiritual virtues.

Blessed, blessed, blessed. So if you want to be an object of God's divine favor, you should want this spiritual virtue. on it is because there is a promised reward so if we want the rewards that are stated here we must have the spiritual virtue in our lives do you want reward in your life rewards from the lord you should there's nothing wrong folks with wanting the rewards the lord promises us so long as we're seeking the rewards in the way he teaches is appropriate in the appropriate ways by having me. Here's the virtue number one. Poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Who are the poor in spirit? Now flip on the backside of your handout. I've got a schematic there and you can fill in the blanks. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Here who are the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are those who acknowledge their spiritual bankruptcy.

They are the folks who acknowledge their spiritual helplessness. They are the folks who acknowledge their unworthiness before God.

You see, our culture doesn't get it. It's not the proud in spirit that are going to get the blessing or the reward. The Lord resists the proud. You know who's going to get the reward? The one who says, God, you're right.

I have nothing to offer you in and of myself. I am spiritually helpless apart from you. I am unworthy to have anything you have to offer. That's the beginning of spiritual transformation. Acknowledging poverty of spirit.

It's the beginning. come to the cross folks right salvation begins by saying I'm a sinner and I don't deserve anything you have to offer me Lord but I come to you on my knees asking you just to forgive me and I realize I need your forgiveness you know what the promise is what's the reward heaven these are the folks who are going to inherit the kingdom of heaven

so you want to inherit the kingdom of heaven you got to start Acknowledging how far removed you are from God. The second spiritual virtue is mourning. Blessed are those who mourn. Oh no, this doesn't sound too pleasant. What is Christ talking about?

Blessed are those who mourn. I think he's saying those who mourn, mourn because of first their own spiritual sinfulness and unholiness, but also because of the sinfulness and unholiness of other people. Have you ever just grieved over your own sinfulness? Have you ever looked out at our culture and seen what's going on and not been angry at people, not wanting to chop somebody's head off because they were doing something unholy? Have you just mourned, felt a sense of loss because of it?

The promise is that if we are people who mourn over our unholiness and mourn over the unholiness of our culture, the Lord's going to provide comfort to us.

the third virtue is meekness meekness the meek are those who have a true view of themselves they don't have overly inflated egos because they know anything and everything they have is from god the meek are those who are gentle they're gentle particularly when dealing with other people because they know how far short they've fallen so they sure as the world don't feel like they should be harsh with anybody else who has fallen short of God's standards because the meek know, boy, I sure have fallen far, far, far down below what God wants myself. So when they deal with others who are in sin, they're very gentle. You know, we as Christians, on the one hand, we should preach very directly and teach very directly what the Lord calls sin. We shouldn't shrink from that. But at the same time, when dealing with the sinner, particularly very gentle in dealing with them.

We should also be humble. The meek are humble, and the meek are considerate. They're considerate because, you know, when you're inconsiderate, you're inconsiderate when you feel like somebody owed you something. Hey, don't you know who I am? Huh?

The meek don't have that kind of attitude. They realize their unworthiness. Remember, they're poor in spirit. They're mourning because of who they are. They're meek.

The promise is, these are the folks who are going to inherit the earth. a new heaven and a new earth. Who's going to inherit the earth? Not the proud, not the strong, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek. You see, God's going to turn everything on its head, folks.

You want to inherit the earth? Get off your high horse. Get on your knees. Fourthly, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness desire a right relationship with God.

They want to have right character in their lives conduct in their lives. And the promise, and not only in their individual lives, but they want society as a whole to be just and righteous.

And the promise is that these folks will be filled. In other words, if we seek after and hunger for and thirst for righteousness, the Lord says, you're going to find it. You're going to be satisfied. You're going to be filled with it, if that's what you truly seek and desire. Next virtue, the merciful.

The merciful are those who are forgiving of the sins of others, who are compassionate toward those in need. You know, these are the folks who are helping feed the hungry and clothe the naked and going visiting the prisoners. And the promise is that these folks will be shown mercy. Boy, I want to be shown mercy. There was a gentleman walked in.

this is the first time I think this has happened while I was actually teaching at Josh's Way, but a guy who obviously was in some need just happened to walk into one of our classes on Thursday night and just sat down and said, can I just sit in and listen to the class? So for two hours he sat there listening. And after the class, it turned out he didn't have a place to stay the night. He didn't have any money for food or whatever. He needed to get back to a hotel that he wanted to stay in over in Greenville.

right and we'll get you some money to get you some food and shelter and as I was getting ready to leave one of the people in class pulled me aside and said David do you think it's safe to take him I said yeah it's okay because I didn't know him that we're a little concerned you know what I was thinking it's dangerous not to take him I want that mercy folks I know the Lord's going to reward those who help those in need so it was sort of self-interest a little bit but I think in the self-interest, doing what the Lord's called us to do. Pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. The pure in heart are those who have an inward reality in their lives. Pure in heart is not just an external purity.

You know, the Pharisees had that external purity. They did everything right on the outside. Purity in heart means that we have a single, settled, supreme loyalty to God. In other words, purity of heart is not just talking about clean living the moral living, is talking about having a heart that's solely committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Pure gold is 100% gold, right?

There's no other impurity in the gold. A pure heart is 100% committed to Jesus Christ. There is no other loyalty in that heart that takes precedence over Jesus Christ. There's no wavering. There's no double-mindedness.

Blindedness, there's a set loyalty to Jesus Christ and nothing will shake it. That's who the pure in heart are. And the promise for the pure in heart is they're going to see God. And that's quite a promise. Because other than Christ in the incarnate state, God is invisible.

Right? He's a spirit. So how are you going to see God? Well, that word see, I think, has the sense of perceiving or understanding. If somebody explains something to you you don't understand, you say, oh, I see now.

The promise is if we're pure in heart, we're going to see God. We're going to have such a close relationship with Him that we will understand and know Him in an intimate way like we've never known Him before. The peacemakers, blessed are the peacemakers, these are those who seek to promote peace between God and humanity. How do we do that? By preaching the gospel.

And seek to promote peace between people. And the promise of the peacemakers is that they will be called sons of God. You know, a child looks like the parent often. And the sense is here that since God is the great prince of peace, or Christ is the great prince of peace, if we are promoting peace, then we are like the one we serve. And thus we're like his child, his son.

We look like him. And the last spiritual virtue is persecuted because of righteousness. In other words, we want to have righteousness in our lives and live righteousness in such a way that if we are persecuted, we're being persecuted for the right reasons. In other words, being persecuted for righteousness means suffering that arises from holy living, from standing for the truth, and for advancing the cause of Christ in a Christ-like way. Now I've seen some people in religious life who are religious people who say, oh, I'm being persecuted by people.

Well, sometimes they're getting persecuted because they're just being a horse's patootie. You know what I mean? Being mean-spirited, ugly toward others. This is talking about being persecuted because of righteousness, Because we're living the way the Lord wants us to live. Because we're standing for the truth.

Or advancing Christ's cause in a righteous way. And then we get persecuted. And the promise is the kingdom of heaven.

Well here are my lessons for life. Lesson number one. This is back on the front side of your sheet now. Meaningful change in our lives rarely occurs without a desire for change.

so let's honestly ask ourselves do we genuinely desire to change to become more of what christ wants us to be the reality folks let's just put it on the table many people come to church but you know the reality they really do not want to change because if they really change to be what to be, then things in their lives are going to have to be different. And the reality is a lot of people just aren't interested. So I'm going to press this. If we want to be like Christ, it begins with a desire to be like Christ and to be what he wants us to be. The proof is in the pudding. What we really desire is shown by where we put our time, our energy, and our money.

You can tell me you love Jesus. You can tell me you love Jesus. You can tell me you love Jesus. But if you never spend time reading your Bible, meditating on the Word, if you don't spend time coming to church or with other believers, if your money is never spent advancing the cause of Christ, your talk is just wind. Where are we putting our time and our energy and our effort?

Fourthly, let's not forget the basics. You know, sometimes when I was, particularly as a younger person, I was saying, man, I'm going to grow in this spiritual life. It's so complicated. You know, how do I grow spiritually? Go back to the basics.

Read your Bible. Pray. Go to church. Get with a group of believers and fellowship. Don't forget the basics.

That's how we really grow in Christ. They're the basics. They're the foundation for how we grow. Information should lead to transformation.

the test of a great teacher

or a great preacher is that when the people leave the sermon or the lesson is they're not saying, wow, that was a great lesson. They are leaving saying, I am going to do something. I'm going to be different. I don't know what, but based on what I just heard, I'm not going to stay the same.

you see teachers can get discouraged if they're not seeing transformation. Preachers can get discouraged when they don't see transformation because that's what it's all about. We're not just here to fill our heads with knowledge. We are here to be different people.

Pain is God's megaphone. Without it there's rarely significant spiritual change in an adult. It doesn't have to be the case necessarily, but my experience is most people don't grow in Christ as adults. Don't have significant change as adults without some difficulty in their lives. Why is that?

Because we get sought in our ways. We're not going to change. And the Lord has to send something that rattles our world. and sometimes when the world gets rattled we reach up to the one to whom we should have been reaching all along. Now some when they go through pain reject everything completely.

That's true. But the Lord loves us enough to let us walk through the fire sometime. And lastly, finished pottery must go through the fire.

SDG.

I didn't leave this time to discuss this morning.

There's not enough time in Sunday school these days.

How about doing this? Let me remind you of the questions.

What's the... What is it that hinders Christians most in seeking to be what the Lord wants us to be? which of the means have I neglected

in growing in Christ which one have I found most beneficial and lastly which of the spiritual virtues that I just went over do I need the most work on in my life well you think about those things and I'm going to just pray that you will and we're going to close let's pray

Lord we're rushed we're rushed and we're rushing we're rushing through this stuff and I just have to leave it in your hands that somehow you will take often inept words from an inept teacher and somehow you will penetrate sometimes hardened hearts or sometimes hearts that are just sort of indifferent or going through the motions aim. Don't let us just be people who listen and leave and do nothing about it. I pray that you will help us to see that you want us to be people who seek a higher cause, a higher meaning to life, that seek that which you have said is most important. Let us not be distracted from the truth and what is most important by all the stuff of this life that is thrown in our face. and I will say, Lord, it's because the enemy wants us to be distracted.

Let us not be distracted. Take the blinders away from our eyes and let us see clearly what you want in our lives and what is most important. I pray, Lord, for each individual here that no matter where they've been, no matter what they've done, no matter how far they may have strayed from what you want them to be, that you are calling them home right now. and that you're saying, my child, my child, my child, trust me, walk with me, listen to me, and be different.

For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.