Just Do It | Embracing the Job of Discipleship

We're glad you're joining us for A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast supported by Harvest Partners. Get more encouraging audio content when you subscribe to Pastor Greg's Daily Devos. Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. Our objective is to go lead others to Christ, establish them spiritually, and do it again and again and again.

Basically, it's wash, rinse, repeat. Pastor Greg Laurie says the Lord calls us all to practice discipleship, to step out of our comfort zone and help someone begin to walk with the Lord. Just do it. Enough talking about it.

Just do it. Go lead someone to Christ, help get them stabilized, and do it again. God has given each of us a job. It's an important job, but we probably spend a lot more time at the job that's printed on our business card than engaged in the job God has given us. God didn't put us here to be the vice president of this or the regional director of that. Pastor Greg Laurie points out today our main job is to show others how to know the Lord. Today on A New Beginning, some practical insight on how to do that job well.

The job is discipleship, and we've all been called to that privilege. You know, when I first became a Christian, I really didn't fully understand what I'd done. I went forward at a little Bible study in my high school campus, as I've told you many times, and I prayed this little prayer. I didn't know what was ahead of me. I didn't know what was going to happen to me, but I believed what I heard. And not long after that, a guy comes up to me that I don't know from Adam's house cat. He says, hi, my name is Mark, and I saw that you went forward and prayed to accept Jesus the other day. I was kind of like resentful.

Yeah, so? No, but hey, I want to help you. I want to take you to church. I'm like, no, that's okay. I don't want to go to church.

No, no, I really want to take you to church. And I have to tell you something about this guy Mark. Mark wasn't a cool guy.

He wasn't the kind of guy I would have normally hung around. But he was so doggone persistent. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. And the best way, let me take you to church.

Finally I said, okay. But he didn't just take me to church. He introduced me to other Christians.

He had me over at his house for dinner with his mom and his dad. We're just kids at this point. I'm talking to Christians. I'm asking questions.

No question was too ridiculous to ask. Here is what Mark was doing. He was discipling me. And if he had not done that I fear I would have fallen through the cracks. Because a lot of times after a person accepts Christ they don't know what to do next. And so he helped me in that transition. And what Mark did for me we need to do for others.

Because that is what the Great Commission is. Again it is to go into all the world and preach the gospel and then make disciples of all nations. Listen. If you are following Jesus as a real disciple you will be leading others to Christ.

Let me reverse that. If you are not leading others to Christ are you really following Him as you ought to as a disciple? Here is our commission again. Matthew 28 verse 16. Go therefore says Jesus and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given to you and lo I am with you even to the end of the age.

So here is our job. Here is discipleship simplified. I have told you what a disciple is. Now let me tell you what a disciple does or what it means to make disciples of others. Our objective is to go lead others to Christ, establish them spiritually, and do it again and again and again. Basically it is wash, rinse, repeat. Evangelize, disciple, stabilize, repeat.

Do it over and over again. But somewhere along the line we have sort of separated evangelism from discipleship. And they are one and the same. We are not just called to invite people to Christ but then we need to take these new believers under our wing and help them get up on their feet spiritually. So here is a few things a new believer needs.

Number one. They need assurance. They need assurance. They need to be reassured that God loves them and God has forgiven them and that their name is written in the book of life. One passage everyone should commit to memory is 1 John 5 13 where John writes, I write these things to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Reassure a believer of that because remember in the Garden of Eden Satan attacked Adam and Eve.

Do you remember how he attacked? He said to them, did God say what you really thought God said? And He will do that in the life of a new believer.

And for that matter. Older believers sometimes too right? Are you really saved? Do you think Christ has really forgiven you? It is not based on how I feel. It is based on what God has done. New believers need assurance.

Number two. New believers need protection. They need protection.

When you are holding a little baby you have to hold them carefully and hold them in the proper way and support them and anything that could harm them you put yourself in the way of that thing. And new believers need protection as well. Galatians 4 19 says, my dear children I feel as though I am going through labor pains for you again and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your life. New believers are vulnerable to their emotions as well as being vulnerable to false teaching. Old friends will try to drag them down. Old girlfriends and old boyfriends will materialize out of nowhere. Temptations will come that maybe they have never experienced before right?

You remember that yourself. So they need to be protected. And just as in the parable of the sower Jesus talked about the seed sown on the roadside eaten by the birds. And He said, these are they that hear the Word of God.

But Satan comes immediately and snatches it away. The new believer doesn't know what is happening but we do. So we need to help them. And number three they need food.

They need food. So when you are a new believer you are hungry for the Word of God. Can you remember the first time you read the Bible as a new Christian? Now if you were raised in the church it was familiar but perhaps it came alive to you. But if you were more like me and you weren't raised in the church and you started hearing these things for the first time I am just a kid 17 years old. And I am reading these things in the Bible that relate to me as a 17 year old. And I still relate to them as a 40 year old with added years. And so it is relevant to you in your youth. It is relevant to you in your middle age.

It is relevant to you in your old age. Number four new believers need an example. They need to see what a Christian looks like. You see some things are taught and some things are caught. As Paul said in 2 Timothy 3.10.

There is no 3.10. He says to Timothy you have observed my teaching. Listen. My conduct. My aim in life and my faith. So it is not just my teaching. It is my conduct. It is my aim in life. It is my faith. You have seen an example.

And let's be honest now. Here is one of the reasons we don't want new believers in our life. We don't want to change our behavior. See because if I take a new believer with me to church and we go to lunch after and they are with me I can't gossip. If I have a new believer with me I will probably drive the speed limit. And I will probably talk about the message and do things that Christians ought to do already.

Maybe we don't want that added pressure in our life. But we are missing out not only on helping them but on helping ourselves. Pastor Greg follows up on that in just a moment. We will see how new believers need long time believers to show them the way. But long time believers need new believers just as much.

More on that in a moment. Hey everybody I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at Harvest.org and on our brand new app Harvest Plus which is available on your mobile TV devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's Word.

So again join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. Well Pastor Greg is pointing out the importance of taking part in the discipleship process. Showing a new believer what it means to live for the Lord. Let's continue.

And I think this is an important thing to have a new believer in your life because they will energize you. You know someone asked me in an interview recently, what do you like to do in your spare time? I had to think about that. What do I do in my spare time? I don't have a lot of spare time. But I thought well I ride my Harley occasionally and very occasionally at this point. I surf once in a blue moon.

So what do I do? And I thought for a moment I thought I know what I do in my spare time. I hang out with my grandkids. They looked at me like yeah and what else.

That is kind of it. I really like to hang around with my grandkids. Because you know what. They energize me.

You see. I like to be with them. And I don't make them enter my world. I don't sit them you know behind the computer and say kids study these commentaries and give me some points.

No. I enter their world. I sit down and watch cartoons with them. I know all the characters names on Spongebob Squarepants.

Right. And we go get ice cream and we go to the playground and I watch them play and we talk together. And then we have interesting spiritual conversations too.

Last night we had a really interesting one. My granddaughter Allie was asking me about her rabbit that died. Will she see the rabbit again in heaven.

And then she wants to know she will have a pet wolf in heaven. And all these great questions. I love them though. But that energizes me. See that is good for me.

And it is good for us. Because some grandparents have houses where they have a lot of breakable things. Well I don't want the grandkids over because we have breakable things. Can I make a suggestion. Get rid of the breakable things and invite the grandkids over.

Ok. And if it will help I will come over and just break those things and we will get. Is this one of them. Yes. Ok. Grandkids come on.

And in the same way if we have a life that is not welcoming of new believers something is wrong. They need you. But listen to this. You need them. Why.

Because you will discover things you take for granted. Oh yeah I am going to heaven. Oh yeah you know the Word of God is true. Oh yeah Jesus is coming back. Oh yeah yeah.

Really. Because you talk about a new believer. You share these truths with them and they hear it for the first time and they are so excited and you rediscover it. The first time a child tries ice cream. I remember our son Jonathan I gave him ice cream when he was a newborn. Kathy was slightly horrified.

I think she was still nursing him. I gave him ice cream. Why did you do that. I said but he smiled. And he had a little baby didn't he. I gave him a little.

You know so I enjoyed that. I got to see that for the first time. First time a child sees snow. The first time a child walks on the sand.

The first time a child discovers something and that you take for granted goes in that wonderful. See they need you to stabilize them. You need them to revitalize you.

Because we begin to take these things for granted as I said and don't perhaps enjoy them as much as we ought to. And new believers are the lifeblood of the church and they are also the lifeblood of older Christians. Some churches grow by church transfer growth. Most of their congregants come from other churches. Harvest grows primarily from new convert growth.

And that is the best kind of growth by the way. And some churches they might be more Calvinistic or more on the Reformed side will not invite people to Christ in their services because they are afraid they are going to call the non-elect to Christ. Because they believe these people are predestined and they only want to see the predestined believe and they don't want to give false assurance to the non-elect.

I like what D.L. Moody said years ago. He said, Lord save the elect and then elect some more.

Ok. But here is the way I see it. God knows who is predestined. My job is to preach the gospel and invite people to Jesus Christ.

And we will keep doing that. And I don't have time to go into all these things but among the beliefs of those who are Reformed they would believe in total depravity. Which means that you are so depraved or so dead in your sin you can't respond to the gospel unless you have been predestined.

I disagree. I believe God has given us a free will and an ability to choose. And that is why so many verses appeal to the free will of man. Others would believe in the Reformed tradition. And I have many friends who are Reformed and love them but I disagree with them on these points.

They believe in irresistible grace. If God is calling you you cannot resist it because you are predestined. I am sorry.

Disagree. I think you can resist it. And harden your heart against God because of many verses that say that. And then others would say well there is limited atonement. Christ only died for the elect.

No. I don't believe that. I believe Christ died for the whole world.

And whosoever will believe in Him can be forgiven of their sin. Those are important distinctions. Those are important distinctions. Harvest is not a Reformed church. Nor are we an Arminian church as some would say. You are Arminians.

And it takes too long to go into what all of that means. But I know some Reformed people who are more passionate about evangelizing Arminians than they are about nonbelievers. We are not Calvinists. We are not Arminian.

We are biblicists at harvest. We believe in what the Bible says and we will go according to that. So we believe in predestination but we also believe in the free will of man. How can you believe in both? Because both are in the Bible. That is why we believe both. And we are an evangelistic church without apology. And we want to see people that don't know the Lord come to the Lord. That is our passion.

So discipling. We are all called to do this. Nobody gets off the hook nor should anyone want to get off the hook. Because this is a privilege. But it is also a responsibility.

And I think sometimes the reason we don't do it is because we are afraid of failure or we are afraid that we won't do a very good job at it. Listen. You know what a new believer needs more than anything else? They just need a friend. They don't need a Bible scholar.

Hey if you are a Bible scholar all the better. But they don't need that. They just need someone to show them what a real living breathing Christian looks like. And if you will take that new believer under your wing not only will you help them but you will help yourself. We are all called to do this.

But if we are honest a lot of us just don't. And I think we need to ask God to help us because He has commanded us to go. But what did Jesus say? All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations. Wait. I don't get the therefore. All power has been given unto me.

Therefore all the resources you need are given to you. So go. Just do it.

Enough talking about it. Just do it. Go lead someone to Christ. Help get them stabilized and do it again. And if you haven't done that find someone who is new in the faith and help them out and get them into your small group and bring them into your life and help them learn what it means to be a Christian. And you watch them grow spiritually and it will have a revitalizing effect on your life. Pastor Greg Laurie with great insight today on a new beginning from his message called Just Do It. And there's a final comment Pastor Greg wants to share from this study before we leave for the day so stay with us. We've been talking of the importance of the joy of bringing someone to the Lord. Can you think of someone who is instrumental in bringing you to the Lord?

Thank the Lord for them. If you've never taken that step you can do it today. Pastor Greg what would you say to the person listening who wants to do that right now?

I would say that God is just a prayer away. You know it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. Frankly it doesn't even take hours.

It can happen so quickly. It just starts with you saying to God I know I'm a sinner. I know that you love me. I know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and pay for those sins and then to rise again from the dead and I want him to come into my life. So here's my question to you.

Have you done that yet? Because Jesus who did die on that cross and rose again from the dead three days later is alive and standing at the door of your life right now and he's knocking and he's saying if you'll hear my voice and open the door I will come in. Why don't you just stop whatever it is you're doing and pray this prayer with me. Say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I ask all of this in Jesus name.

Amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer the Bible promises that God has heard your prayer and has answered that prayer. The Bible says that we will confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God bless you.

You've made the right decision. The decision to follow Jesus Christ. Yeah yeah that's right and listen as you begin to live this new life we want to send you something to help you get started off right. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's an easy to understand translation plus hundreds and hundreds of study helps especially for those who are new to the faith.

It'll answer the questions you may have. So get in touch for your copy of the New Believers Bible. We'll send it free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. Well Pastor Greg we're excited to hear from so many people who tell us how they're enjoying the new animated cartoon series called The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. One listener said my granddaughter loved the first installment. She's watched it about five times already.

We can't wait for more. Let me ask you what cartoons did you watch the most when you were a kid? Can you remember?

Oh yeah sure. Well I watched all kinds of cartoons. I watched all the loony tunes because they were on television. You know Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. I really liked the Roadrunner and I don't know why I liked him so much but maybe there was less dialogue and just more funny things happening and Wile E. Coyote.

Yeah of course big fan of that. I also would watch all the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I love the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Hey Boo Boo. You know um and I also liked the Peanuts cartoons. They started to animate those in the 60s and I was a big fan of the Peanuts cartoon strip and I even corresponded by letter with Charles M. Schultz the creator of Peanuts and he graciously responded to me on more than one occasion. So I just liked all kinds of cartoons.

I also liked the Pink Panther. There was hardly any dialogue but I just thought it was a hilarious cartoon. In fact I downloaded it recently and I was showing it to my grandkids.

I'm not sure that it aged perfectly. They sort of looked at it rather quizzically like okay what but yes I watched so many cartoons on television and I was a real cartoon aficionado. Just yesterday I was showing one of the Ben Born Again cartoons on my phone to a lady who was not a native English speaker so sometimes there's a little bit of a communication breakdown but I tell you what that cartoon she understood everything. She understood it perfectly and was even repeating the words as they were unfolding and I was amazed at the power of art and animation to bridge the gap and reach someone who maybe wasn't familiar with English or also to reach a child and so I'm always looking for new ways to engage new people. As I've said before we want to reach unexpected people in unexpected places with an unexpected message so we do this through our films.

We do it through animation. We do it just through our general radio ministry. So often I'll have people say I was just flipping you know the dial on my radio and came across your program and they didn't even know they were listening to it first. They thought it was some kind of a really awful comedian speaking and then they realized it was a preacher but I've heard stories of these people coming to Christ and so it's sort of like fishing.

You just throw your nets out. You throw your line out just hoping you get a bite because there's so many people that are searching for truth and I want to go out there and get to where they are and reach them with the only truth that can change their life. So this month we're offering a special resource called the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book.

This is a brand new resource. We've had a version of it out for years but we have revisited it rebuilt it and redrawn it with these new characters Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog and we'll offer it to you for your gift of any size. This would be a great resource to share with your child or with your grandchild and I encourage you when you order this New Believers Growth Book that you are generous because that enables us to continue to come your way on our radio broadcast through our podcast through all of our other ways of communication and also through animation. So whatever you send will be used to continue to bring the gospel to our generation and in advance let me say thank you.

Yeah yeah that's right we're very grateful. So get in touch right away with your investment and as the Lord leads ask about becoming a Harvest Partner one of the faithful inner circle of our friends who support us each month and then let us thank you tangibly with our new Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. But we can only mention this a short time longer so get in touch right away.

You can call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg takes us to a revealing study in Matthew 5 based on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. But before we go today Pastor Greg closes this final message in his discipleship series this way. I would like to have a prayer now where all of us would ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us a passion to do this. And I would ask that you would pray a prayer with me where you're asking God to empower you. The Bible says you will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be witnesses unto me. And that's what we want to be witnesses.

We want to fulfill the Great Commission so we need this power. So let's pray for it in our lives right now. Let's all bow our heads. Father I pray for everyone here and I pray that we will seek to well just do this. That we will take steps of faith and just initiate conversations and look for people new in the faith and do everything we can to help them not only for their sake but for ours. So we don't reach spiritual stagnation.

So we don't find ourselves going backwards instead of forward. But Lord we can't do this on our own. We need help and we need power. And you have promised us power to be a witness and we are going to ask for it right now. Now everyone I am going to just lead you in a prayer. And I would ask you to just pray this prayer out loud after me. Again as I pray just pray this.

Lord Jesus. You have called me to go unto all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples. But I have not always done this Lord.

But I want to. So I need the power you offer. So fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me a holy boldness.

Like I have never known before. Give me a burden for lost people. Give me a heart for those that are new in the faith. Help me to make disciples. Father you have heard that prayer and now we all pray that you will seal it with your power. And even today we will just sense you are leading and look for those opportunities.

They are everywhere. And what a joy. What a privilege it is to see people grow in the faith. The next thing to seeing them come to Christ is seeing them grow in their faith.

They become spiritually mature. Lord you have called us to do this. Help us to start doing it. And we commit ourselves to you. And we ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen. you