Are You His Disciple?: The Constantly Growing Christian

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. It's not enough to just come forward. We need to go forward as followers of Jesus Christ. That's really what the Christian life is. It's a lifetime of discovery. It's a lifetime of learning.

It's a lifetime of transformation. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie launches a series on discipleship. Disciples are those who make a concerted effort to follow the Lord and to learn.

The Christian life is one of constant growth. Hey listen, stall and you fall. It's one thing to be on the team. It's another to be in the action.

It's one thing to watch from the bench. It's another to get in the game. Spiritually speaking, our salvation is a free gift from God. Jesus paid the price, but discipleship has a cost. It's a higher level of devotion and a higher level of reward. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us chart a course for genuine discipleship. And he begins by commenting on an evangelistic outreach that had just concluded. We're still rejoicing that over 10,000 people made a profession of faith at Angel Stadium. Notice I use the phrase profession of faith.

I don't say 10,000 people were saved or 10,000 people became Christians because I don't know if they became Christians. I hope they did. I pray they did. But only time will tell.

Right? Because the Bible says by their fruits you shall know them. The Bible says faith without works is dead. So we're praying we'll see the fruit spiritually in their life. The results. The works that follow a true conversion.

Because it's not enough to just come forward. We need to go forward spiritually. And then we continue to grow as followers of Jesus Christ.

That's really what the Christian life is. It's a lifetime of discovery. It's a lifetime of growth. It's a lifetime of learning.

It's a lifetime of transformation. Last Sunday I was at our church, Harvest Kumulani, and they all say aloha to you. And we had a great time there. It's just exploding. So much excitement. And every week we are seeing people come to Christ.

It's an amazing thing. So I attended a number of board meetings while I was there. By board meetings I mean on surfboards. And I am a really bad surfer by the way.

I never surf in California. But when I am over there a lot of people from our church get up very early in the morning and go out for what is called a dawn patrol. Right? Very early. And so it's so cool because you are out with like 15 people from our church and everyone is giving waves away and cheering each other on. God bless you you know. Not fighting for waves or anything like that. So I have been trying to learn how to do stand up paddle.

Do you know what I am talking about? As opposed to laying down on a board and paddling with your arms. Stand up. You have this really big board and a paddle. And you paddle into waves. And it has been challenging I have to admit because I am not very stable.

I fall a lot. And so I caught a few waves. And I even got a little watch. There is this little digital watch and it will tell you how many waves you caught. I have a friend named Jim who always tells me how many waves he caught.

He says, look I caught 27 waves. So I got my wave watch on. And after I was done I looked at it and the screen said, seriously? And what is this? And then I pressed a button and it said, such a loser. I couldn't believe that. So I disabled the mockery. No this is not true. I think I caught seven waves.

And that is really being generous. But here is what I discovered. You catch the wave. You are in the wave. You are riding the wave in. And then when the momentum of the wave stops you slow down and that is where I always fall. And so you have got to keep paddling.

You have got to really dig in once the wave has stopped to turn around and go catch another wave. And so I discovered stall and you fall. Hey listen what is true of stand up paddle is also true of the Christian life.

Stall and you fall. The Christian life is one of constant growth. Constant learning as I said.

Constant transformation. But here is the problem. Some will make what I would call a profession of faith. They will pray a prayer. Because maybe they want to get well fire insurance. They don't want to go to hell when they die. So they want to cover that base. I mean they are willing to take Jesus as their Savior but not necessarily as their Lord.

They are willing to take on Christ as their friend but not necessarily as their God. And they stay in sort of this baby-like state. You know babies are cute. I love babies.

Don't you? Every now and then I get to dedicate babies. And you never know what a baby will do.

That is the fun part. I have had them throw up on me before of course while I am praying for them. And now as I have been doing this for a while I am meeting more people that are young adults and sometimes not even that young that will say, you dedicated me when I was a baby.

And I am looking up at them going wow. So you know babies are cute when they are babies. But babies have to be cared for.

Initially you have to nurse a baby. Then the baby learns how to eat soft foods. And then you cut the food up into little bite-sized pieces for them. And one day the baby picks up a spoon or a fork and they start learning how to feed themselves.

And they get more food on them than in them. And I feel sorry sometimes for servers and restaurants after a toddler has been in there. You look under the high chair. There are just mounds of food everywhere splattered up against the wall on the ceiling you know. That is a little baby learning how to eat.

It is okay. It is cute. That is what babies do. That is how babies roll actually. But it would be sad if someone was still behaving that way when they are in their 20s. Right. You still have to feed them and you still have to make airplane noises when you are coming in with a bite to keep their attention.

All right. Well what is true of babies can also be true of us as we grow spiritually. We all start out as babies. We all start out with a hunger for the Word. In fact the Bible says in 1 Peter 2 as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.

And by the way there is no shame in that. That very hunger for spiritual truth is an indicator of spiritual health. Because a healthy person is a hungry person. If you are not feeling well and you go to see your doctor one of the first things I will ask you is are you hungry? How is your appetite? Well I am always hungry so I know I am in good health right now. I am perpetually hungry.

I don't know if I am alone in this. But that is true spiritually too. If you are hungry for God's Word. If you want to hear God's Word that is a good thing.

It is something you should be desiring. And if you are a young Christian. If you are brand new in the faith I am so glad you are here. Because we are here to help you grow up spiritually. Here is the objective. We want to take you from getting your food in bite sized pieces and that is effectively what a sermon is. I sort of prepare it and cut it up and give it to you. But we want to teach you how to read the Word of God. Process its truth.

Learn how to think and then live biblically. My granddaughter Allie she has lost a couple of her couple of her front teeth. And so she has a really hard time eating like a nectarine. She loves nectarines. So she will always say to my wife Nama, that is what she calls Kathy, would you cut the nectarine up so she can eat it. She doesn't ask me. Because when I cut a nectarine up it is a scary sight. I don't know why it mystifies me. Kathy's slices are so perfect and minor.

All strange shapes and I don't know it is crazy. But she needs it cut up in bite sized pieces. That is what we all need initially. But then we need to grow up. You know when I was a young person in school I had many teachers say to me, Greg Laurie will you just grow up. Because I was always acting like a little kid.

And sadly I just heard this yesterday from my wife and a grandchild. Because what happened was we ate dinner and there was a store that had just closed their doors and there were still some sales people in there. I shouldn't even admit this.

I don't know why I am saying it. So you know there are people in there. My wife is standing there looking in. My grandkids are looking in. So I knocked on the window and then ran off.

And so everybody turned. There is my wife standing there. She says, Greg will you just grow up. Stop acting like a sixth grader. And then my granddaughter Riley said, Papa you are a pastor. You shouldn't be acting like a sixth grader. And she was right of course.

It is time to grow up. And we all need to grow up spiritually in our walk with the Lord. Is the term disciple synonymous with believer?

Is every believer a disciple? Pastor Greg answers that important question in just a moment. It is so encouraging when we hear that listeners are growing by hearing these studies. Dear Pastor Greg, I found Christ in the mid-1970s and I am very thankful for my Christian life. I first heard you preach and learned about evangelism at your first harvest crusade at Anaheim Stadium where my friend Bill was saved.

Over my life Jesus has protected me time and time again including healing me from cancer. I have lived on the East Coast now for over 25 years and recently reconnected with you through your podcast where I found each podcast is a real Bible study for me and I am learning so much and it is causing me to study God's Word more intently. At nearly 79 years old I am enthused and excited about my faith like I was those many years ago. Thank you for helping me rekindle my fire of love for Jesus in my old years.

Life is wonderful. What a great story of how Pastor Greg's teachings from God's Word have made an impact on this man's life. And if you would like to listen to Pastor Greg's podcasts, you can do that through Google, Apple, or Spotify. Or just go to Harvest.org.

That is Harvest.org. Pastor Greg continues now with his kickoff message from the new series, Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. Discipleship is all about growing up.

It is about going to the next level, if you will. It is about really living the Christian life to its fullest. Living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. It is called being a disciple.

Then in turn going out and making disciples of others. That brings us to our first passage. Matthew 28. These are the words of Jesus.

Now these are familiar words. Words that many of us have even committed to memory. But I want you to consider the fact that these were the last words of Christ before He left earth. This is after the crucifixion. He is risen again from the dead.

And He is going to ascend into heaven now. So this is the final charge from the Lord. You know last words matter. If someone is on their deathbed and they have one last statement we always want to know what it was. There is an emphasis on last words.

And so these are the last words of Christ to us. And they are at charge. They are a command. They are a commission.

That is why we call this the Great Commission. Matthew 28 verse 16. Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee going to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him. But some of them doubted.

Some of them doubted. Jesus said to His disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 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 the age. There it is. We are all commanded to go and make disciples.

But listen to this. It takes one to make one. So we say we should go make disciples.

Right. Let me ask you this question. Are you doing that? Are you fulfilling the Great Commission? Are you making disciples of others? You say well I am not really sure what that means. Good.

That is what we are going to talk about. Because before you can make a disciple you have to be a disciple. Sort of like when you fly and you are seated there and they are going through the routine of what to do in case you lose altitude and you need to use your oxygen masks. And so they will say if the oxygen mask should come down put it if you are traveling with the child put it on yourself first and then on the child.

That seems counterintuitive. It seems like oh man if we are losing altitude I should take the mask and put it on the child first and then put the needs of the child. No. First. No.

Put it on yourself first because I can't help the child if I am blacking out. Right. The same is true in discipleship. I can't help somebody else be a disciple of Jesus if I am not first a disciple myself. Again it takes one to make one.

So listen to this. While it is true that not every person who makes a profession of faith is a Christian it is equally true that not every Christian is a disciple. Let me put it another way. Every disciple is a Christian but not every Christian is necessarily a disciple. Let me say that again. Every disciple is a Christian but not every Christian is necessarily a disciple. So you should not say well this doesn't apply to me.

I am happy with fire insurance and I will leave it at that. No. If you are a true follower of Jesus you should want to be a disciple. And I am asking you this question. How many of you are disciples of Jesus? So let me ask you this question. How many of you would consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ raised up your hand?

Ah. You didn't all raise your hand. Because you know I ask trick questions don't you. Because yeah well I think I am but I want to see where He is going and then I will decide if I am a disciple. And you know that is ok. That just shows you are actually very smart.

That is all that shows. But really every one of us should be able to say I am a disciple. Maybe not a perfect disciple. Not someone who has this totally down but I am a growing disciple of Jesus.

And everyone should be a disciple of Jesus. Because really what is discipleship? It is living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. Discipleship is living the Christian life as Jesus taught it. As the early church understood it.

It is real Christianity. But I think some are reluctant to want to live that way because it seems well radical. That is why I call this series discipleship the road less taken. Because some don't want hardship. They don't want a challenge. They don't want difficulty. So they take the path of least resistance instead of discipleship road.

And listen to this. Discipleship road is challenging but it is fulfilling. It is hard but it is more than worth it. Because as I said it is living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. And so here is what it comes down to. Every one of us should be a disciple. And then as a disciple we should either be being discipled by someone more mature than us or we should be discipling someone less mature than us. Every one of us should either be being discipled or discipling someone else. Really what it comes down to is you take a new believer under your wing. You are helping them to grow spiritually as you teach for them and model for them what a Christian looks like.

Or you should be being discipled by someone more mature than yourself. I will tell you what. Right after I accepted Christ on my high school campus I could have fallen through the cracks so easily. And some guy I had never met before walked up to me. I have told you about him before. His name was Mark. And Mark effectively discipled me. He said, Greg I am going to take you to church.

And he did. And then he took me home and I met his parents and we had Bible studies around the dinner table. And he kind of helped me get to that rough spot. And then I started hungering for it myself. And pretty soon I found myself doing it for others.

Can you be that for someone else? If you know someone that accepted Christ I hope you will seek them out and say, I want you to come to church with me. And I want you to go out to lunch with us after church. And I want to help you grow spiritually.

That is what people need. And not everyone is a disciple who claims to be a Christian. You know it is interesting when Christ walked our planet He spent a lot of time with those 12 handpicked disciples. Matthew 5 we read, one day as the crowds were gathering Jesus went up to a mountainside with His disciples and He sat down to teach them.

And this is what He taught them. And after that comes the Sermon on the Mount. So we envision Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount speaking to the multitudes. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Blessed are they to me. Now that message was given to His disciples who were gathered around them you see. So the point is that He took time with these guys.

He spent time with these guys. And the basic definition of the word disciple means a learner. You are a learner. You are someone that is listening and you are processing. And these disciples listened and followed Him around. And there are sort of like three phases we can go through. And I was reading a book on discipleship written by Dwight Pentecost.

It is out of print now. But the title of it is, Design for Discipleship. So I borrowed this from him.

I wanted to give him credit. He had three words he used to describe different phases of where people are at spiritually. The three words were curious, convinced, and committed. And you fit into one of these categories today.

Category number one. Curious. Jesus had a lot of curious people gather around Him. Especially when He performed a miracle.

And by the way His most popular miracle was when He multiplied the fish and loaves. I mean healing blind people that is awesome. Restoring deaf to those that can't hear. Fantastic. Curing a leper.

Amazing. Free lunch. Now we are talking. So when Jesus would show up the crowds would show up. They would listen to Him. But it wouldn't really impact them for the most part.

They would just go on back home as they did before. So we would classify those people as curious. And that may be you. You are here today. You are curious.

You know I will go to church today. But some of you have already mentally checked out. You know you are updating social media. You are looking around for Pokeman still.

Even though that is long over with you are still looking for him. Or you are distracted. You are curious but not that curious. And you are already checking your watch and planning your exit plan.

But then there is the next level which is interesting. It is convinced. It is convinced. In other words you believe these things are true. You would sit here today and say, Greg I actually agree with everything you are saying.

It is all true. Now maybe it doesn't impact you personally but you give intellectual assent to it. Which is an important step. So that is being convinced.

Here is an interesting passage. We read that the first miracle Jesus did turning water into wine. In Cana of Galilee in John 2.11 it says, He did that miracle and His disciples believed in Him.

Wait. What? His disciples believed. I thought they were already believers.

Well they were in a sense. See they had gone from curious to convinced. They were so convinced they were starting to follow Him. But at that point at that miracle they went from convinced to committed. Have you?

Have you gone from convinced to committed? You say, well what does it mean? What it means is it impacts you and the way that you live. And you say now I want to be a disciple and I want to make disciples of others. Pastor Greg Laurie with good counsel today on the importance of discipleship. It's the first message in a new series called Discipleship the Road Less Taken. And there's more to come here on A New Beginning.

But if you'd like to preserve the study you heard today you can download an mp3 by going to harvest.org or stream it while you're online. The title of today's study is Are You His Disciple? And then it's a real privilege to make available a new book by Fox News anchor and chief legal correspondent Shannon Brehm. You may have seen her on Fox News at night in the evenings. She's written a refreshing new book called The Women of the Bible Speak and Pastor Greg's wife Kathy is here with Shannon. Shannon you dedicate this book to your grandmothers and I just want to know what was the role that your grandmothers played in your life in your journey of faith and maybe you could say a word of encouragement as to how women out there today might realize that they may have a very quiet role of parenting or grandparenting, but the impact that it can make on an individual. Yeah, so my grandma Nell lived to be a hundred and two and she was faithful. I mean, she was in church every Sunday. She had her pew. She wanted to sit close up front so she would hear the music and the pastor. She always wore a hat and every Sunday it was a family tradition that we would be with her and then we would have Sunday dinner afterwards and just those Sundays together are such an amazing fond memory for me that she was faithful and she trusted the Lord and she was feisty about it. I mean, she was somebody who her faith was her priority. Now, I'm still blessed to have my grandmother, my other grandmother Margaret Weatherly who is still with us.

She is 95 years old and she is somebody who has in the last few years really struggled health-wise with other issues. But man, I can't have a conversation with her where she is not talking about the Lord's giving me another day. What can I do with this day? He knows what the timing is and I'm just going to trust him. He's with me. He's my companion, even when I'm alone, even when I'm struggling. And so for her, she continues to be that witness and I haven't shown her the book yet because I want to show her in person the dedication and I can't wait for her to see it and just to be able to thank her for living that consistent life of faith, especially in these days where she's really faced a lot of struggles.

And instead of turning or being bitter, I mean, she's somebody who said, hey, listen, the Lord woke me up, gave me another day. What am I going to do with it? He's going to walk with me. I love that. And I'm holding in my hands this book. It is so beautiful. I'm a grandmother and I'm just thinking if someday someone would write a book and include me in an introduction or a dedication like that, I'd be so blessed. It is beautiful.

I love it. It's just very feminine, the flowers on there. But the contents of this book hopefully will inspire another generation of women to go forward with strength and boldness and courage. Even in the most difficult times, the encouragement is here. These women of the Bible really do speak to our lives. And I'm so grateful that you wrote this book, The Wisdom of Sixteen Women and Their Lessons for Today. And that is what's so amazing is the Bible is truly alive. The words are important and they are living and they speak life into us even today. Kathy Laurie speaking with Shannon Bream, author of the new book The Women of the Bible Speak. It's such a wonderful tool of inspiration for women and really for all of us. And we'd like to send this to you to thank you for your investment in the important work of bringing people to the Lord and bringing people closer to the Lord.

In fact, we recently heard this from a listener. I've listened to your podcast for nearly three years. You helped me accept Jesus. I'm currently receiving cancer treatment and your new believer's Bible is what keeps me going. I read your devotions every morning. Well, you know, your investment helps us reach people like this.

It's an investment in touching and changing people's lives. And with your donation right now, you can choose the amount. We'll be glad to send you The Women of the Bible Speak.

And you know, with Mother's Day coming up this Sunday, this is the perfect time to give this to the special mom in your life. Just write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. And we can take your call anytime. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, give us the news about your new TV program called Harvest with Greg Laurie. So we've really expanded on television, I would say quite dramatically, wanting to reach new people, wanting to reach unexpected people in unexpected places like the Lifetime Channel. And it has a huge viewership. This is not what you would call a Christian channel.

It's more of a secular channel. A mainstream TV outlet will be on the Lifetime Network. Also will be on the Fox Business Network. Also on Newsmax. In addition to that, we'll be on great Christian networks like Daystar and TBN.

If you want to find out more about air times, go to harvest.org. Well, next time Pastor Greg offers more good counsel for those of us reluctant to stand up and be counted as one of the Lord's own. That's next time here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make Him known to others, or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.