The Four Great Invitations - Go Make Disciples, Part 1

As I've traveled in recent months, I keep meeting people with the same question, and they say, I'm confused. I don't know about my purpose. I just don't get where God is and what He wants me to do with my life.

If that's you, stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. We're coming to the end of his newest series, The Four Great Invitations, Lessons from My First Fifty Years with Jesus. For the past several programs, Chip shared the first three invitations Jesus calls us to receive, Come to Me, Follow Me, and Abide in Me. For these last two programs, Chip will focus on the final invitation that's actually more of a mission for every believer. And be sure to join us after the teaching, as Chip talks a little bit more about discovering that calling and how God created us for a purpose.

You won't want to miss that. Well, if you have a Bible handy, go down to Colossians chapter 1, beginning in verse 13, as we join Chip for today's talk. The final invitation is to go and make disciples. And I thought of who invites us really determines how we respond a lot of times. Like this morning, I got an invitation from Macy's, 40% off only today.

I get that about three or four times a week. I don't know, maybe I got something for Teresa ages ago or not yet today, but I'm sure I'll get a phone call and it'll have a number I don't recognize. And if I ever do answer it, it's going to tell me on a tape recording of some great opportunity if I would visit some place and listen to some, right?

And I just delete it. And I thought to myself as we get ready to wrap this up, maybe we should take just a moment and remember who's making these four great invitations. Speaking of the Father, it says, He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins. And then it describes who has given us the invitation to come, to follow, and to abide.

This is who is making the invitation to each one of us this morning. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation. For by Him, all things were created, whether in the heavens or on earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is also the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He might have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness, the fullness of deity to dwell in Him.

And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself were the things on earth or heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. What I got thinking was, boy, that brings a sobriety to these invitations. I put it this way, it's an unspeakable privilege to join Jesus in His rescue mission to bring life and light and love to a broken world. Now that's one of those sentences, right? Think about how messed up our world is.

Think about real needs, I mean people that you know. Think of neighbors, think of what's happened in the last couple of years, think of the culture and Jesus is inviting you to join Him on the unspeakable privilege to rescue people, to bring them where they would have life, that they would see the light, that they would experience love. And so this is an amazing invitation and that's what we're gonna talk about right after the resurrection. I love this line, He said to His disciples even before the ascension and all the rest, He says, as the Father has sent Me, I'm sending you.

Think of that. When the triune God saw all the world and all the needs in His heart of love, He sent Jesus and now Jesus says to us, just as the Father sent Me to bring light and love and to care and to rescue, I'm sending you. And then we get the formal invitation in Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20. The context here is that He's already appeared to 500 eyewitnesses and in verse 18 He says, all power or an authority has been given to Me in heaven and in earth. In your notes, just write the word power. When we say we're gonna go make disciples, everything you need, all the resources, that word for power or authorities, circle it.

We get our word dynamite. Everything you need to be and to do, all He wants you to do is available. And then here's the invitation, actually a command. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in order that they could watch online, in order they could agree with what Jesus, wait a second, I think I read that wrong. Teaching them to observe, to live out everything that I taught you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Everything you need, all the resources as you say, I've come to Jesus. I really am following Him. I'm learning and abiding. Okay, I want to be a part of the team that does for others what you did for me.

I've got all the power I need and I'll never do this alone. And after Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount what it meant to be a genuine follower and how different it was from how people were thinking, in the next little section, I actually, it comes out of Luke chapter 6 verses 39 because it raises the question like, how do you do that, right? I mean, how do you make disciples and what are we supposed to do?

What's it look like and how do you know if you're successful? In verse 39, he says, and Jesus gave this parable. He said, if a blind man is leading a blind man, they'll both fall into the ditch.

And then he went on to say, verse 40, if a student when he's fully grown or a disciple when you're fully trained, you become just like your teacher. And then the last part was, you hypocrites, why are you seeing, you know, the speck in other people's eyes? Stop it. Quit judging other people. Take the plank out of your eye and then we often forget, then go back and take the speck out of theirs. And as I've thought about that passage, I've thought about probably what I've learned the most over the years in terms of go and make disciples is you can't impart what you don't possess.

That's the picture. If you're blind, if you don't know what a disciple is, if you're not on that path, you can't take anyone with you. And then I love the second line, more is caught than taught. You know, if you're a parent, by the way, this is a big memo. If you have small kids, listen really carefully. If you have older ones, pray hard and do as much repair as you can, your kids are never gonna do what you say. They're gonna catch who you really are. Your values are not what you profess, your values are not what you intellectually believe, your values aren't even your very best intentions. Your kids are going to catch what really matters to you.

How you think about time, how you think about money, how you think about different people, how you think about different races, how you think about all the issues of life, they just catch it. And so when you want to go on discipleship, we have to, the last one, we have to be what we want those that we're leading to become. And so that's always the first step. And where I would get stuck on this, I was probably, I don't know how many years, I was a pastor way over 10 years.

Boy, maybe closer to 15 or 20. And I would meet with other pastors and I would say, you know, I'm trying to learn and grow and Jesus said, go make disciples, what? So how do you define a disciple? And we get a bunch of pastors around, we say, well, you know, in some circles, well, they come to a morning service, an evening service, they give 10% and they kind of help out at the church, okay?

Other people as well, they've had this experience or that experience and okay. And what I realized was I literally had the chance in one of my former lives to go all around the world and meet pastors all around the world. And I said, just tell me, if someone walked up to you and said, I prayed, Jesus lives in me now, I've got the next three to five years marked off, I will do whatever you want me to do, I'll come to whatever meetings, I'll learn whatever. Would you give me the clear pathway and could you tell me what it is and when I'm a mature disciple of Christ?

I really wanted to. And I'd like to say that they just would pull out, you know, like their phone or something and say, oh yeah, this is our plan. About 98 out of 100 pastors said, well, we invite them to church and we get some programs and we tell them here's some next steps.

I said, well, how do you know when they're mature? And so it was about, I don't know, a little over 15 years ago, I was in another life and I was training pastors in Nigeria. It was really hard because they speak English but not my English. Well, when Naseem was giving the announcements, I thought to myself, someone finally speaks almost as fast as me, you know?

And I thought, I love this, you know? And they said, no, this is Nigeria, you need to speak very slowly. And so I tried to speak very slowly and I had 12 sessions on how to grow a high impact church and I'm in session number one and it's a really mixed group.

So on the front row, there's a guy with an iPad and on the front row, a guy who's barefooted and they've come from all over, lots of them. And the first one was on the purpose of the church is to make disciples. And so I went for this definition and it was like, you've all had a conversation with either a small group or another person or maybe a bit larger group and you're thinking, they don't get it. I'm not getting through. And I thought, oh my, I'm speaking slow which is killing me and I'm gonna have to do this 11 more times.

If we don't get on the same page, I'm gonna go nuts and this is worthless. And I thought, oh, what am I gonna do? And so I said, stop. This is one of maybe the second or third most mystic experience I've ever had with Jesus. I said, do you see that brother right there on the front row? I said, if he went online and there was a server in heaven and he went heaven.com slash disciple, do you know what would come right on his computer so we would know?

And like 3,000 pastors go. And I'm thinking, I wonder what I'm gonna say next because none of this is in my notes. And I heard out of my mouth say, becoming a Romans 12 Christian. Now, not to be fair, the Holy Spirit had memorized that chapter, I'd actually taught it before, but never. I said, well, forget those notes I gave you, open your Bible and so I will say to you, open your notes in the middle. And all of Romans 12 is right there.

And I'm gonna tell you why I wanna share it with you. Because what I realized was, a disciple's not someone who does spiritual activities. I mean, the people that fasted, prayed, right, down to the herbs and spices, they gave, they were super religious.

The harshest words that ever came out of Jesus' mouth was to religious people. And we're no different. Chapter one is here, right? One through three, the problem of man. We've all sinned and fall short of God's glory. Chapter four and five, the solution. Christ died in our place and we receive him by faith.

Chapter six through eight, how do you live this life? It's the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Chapters nine through 11, sort of a little parenthesis that says, if you're a Jew that's believed in Jesus, I just want you to know that as a nation, God took you out of the game because you fumbled the ball. I'm over-spiritualizing a bit here.

And he's got a plan for you to get back in the game later, but I want you to understand what's happening. He's a sovereign God, his purposes will be fulfilled for the land and all the promises he made to David. And now we're at chapter 12, therefore, and in chapter 12, what he does, he gives an executive summary of what a disciple is. Will Durant describes the Apostle Paul as the most brilliant mind in the first century. And we know he had some special relationship with Jesus after he came to Christ. We know he had an intellect that was unbelievable. And I believe chapter 12, he took the Sermon on the Mount and all he learned and all this, and for a sort of Greek mindset like us, he said, okay, let me give you the profile of a disciple.

So are you ready? 11 chapters are all about what? Grace, it's the gospel. Based on grace, totally what God does, and then you'll notice, look in your notes, discipleship is always relational, it's not about performance. First relationship, there's five, go down through, circle the word God, right, in your notes. Go down, circle the word world, go down one more time, circle the word yourself, then circle believers, then circle non-believers. All I want you to know is it's about grace, it's about relationships.

I can't go through it all. But what I wanna do is just give you a quick postcard that you could say, okay, I've come, I'm following Jesus, I'm abiding and learning, and he says, go make disciples. I want you to say, oh, this is what a disciple is.

Notice what it says. Relationship with God is surrender to God. Therefore, I urge you, my brothers and sisters in view of God's great mercy, those 11 chapters, the work of Christ, the resurrection, offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual service of worship. And so what he's saying is for normal followers making disciples, you have to be one before you can help others. The word offer, put a little box around offer in your notes.

It's in a tense in the Greek that is, it's punctiliar, it happens in a point of time. You've already come to know Christ and a certain day at a certain time, you say, Lord, I surrender all that I am and all that I have. My family, my money, my career, my location, my future. You fill in the top of the purchase order and you say, this is what I want you to do.

I've already signed my name at the bottom. I may struggle with that and maybe difficult for me, but I want you to know I'm fully surrendered to you. Here's the question that it answers. How do you give God what he wants the most?

Do you remember who he is? All the fullness of deity dwells. God is inviting you and he says, this is what I want. More than your religiosity, way more than your money, more than this, more than that.

He wants you, all of you. That's your spiritual service of worship. But your spiritual service of worship of the mind has some big competition. And so the next he says, what's a disciple look like in relationship to the world?

And this isn't the physical world, this is the world system. Notice it says, do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you, just a regular ordinary person, you, me, you could test, approve, experience, demonstrate what God's will looks like in a normal human being.

His will is good, acceptable, and perfect. And so the fact of the matter is, remember we talked about those things that are barriers to abiding, distractions, disoriented desires, all those kind of things. Do you remember when Jesus was tempted by the enemy and he quoted God's word, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, or in our language, sex, status, salary, or pleasure, power, possessions. There's a world system that pops up on my phone, every commercial, most every movie, and it says, significance and meaning is when I get enough money or when I'm prettier or more handsome or I run this company or I go public.

You fill it in, but it promises that. And the world system is a mistress seeking to seduce you away from the love of God. First John would take this and say, if any man loves the world, any woman loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

So we're in a battle that's always tugging. And he says, you know, you're separate, by the way, progressively, three steps forward, two steps backwards, but progressively you are doing two things. You're saying no to that value system and yes to your mind gets renewed.

Remember abiding? And you start to renew your mind and instead of your life being conformed to what this is, your life little by little gets conformed to what God says. The third relationship is our relationship with ourself. And here a disciple isn't just surrendered to God or progressively separate from the world's values. You have a sober self assessment. He says, for by the grace of God, I say to every one of you, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but rather think of yourself with a sober. I mean, literally it means to not be drunk, have an accurate perception of yourself.

How? According to the measure of your faith. It's that word in this particular case is the measure of what God says about you. Do you grasp the identity issues that people struggle with today?

And it's not people out there, I mean it's us. I mean, do you know what your strengths are? Do you know what your weaknesses are? Are you comfortable realizing that you don't have it all together? That I'm insecure, you're insecure, everyone struggles? The apostle Paul is saying, here's the deal.

Most all of us in many opportunities will pose and we'll either try to be someone else or we'll try to reflect that we know more or act more and we do it because we're insecure. And he says, a disciple gets it. You understand, you know, these are the strengths that I gave you and then you don't have to be embarrassed.

These are weaknesses that you have. And then he goes on to say that, you know, just as we have many members in a physical body, so we are one body in Christ, we're individually members of one another. And he says, I want you to just have an accurate view of yourself. Here's the measure of my faith. On this day, at this moment, I'm deeply loved by God. I've been sealed by the Spirit.

He's deposited gifts in me. My eternity is absolutely sealed. I know where I'm going and I know why based on what Christ did and I've received that by faith. God has a tremendous plan for my life and he knows that I will struggle and he's patient and he's loving. But here he says, you need to know what your strengths and gifts are because there's other people, their strengths independently connect with yours and there's this amazing joy that comes when you belong and where you fit.

If verse one tells us how in the world do we give God what he wants the most, verse two tells us how do we get the very best from God. And verses three through eight answers this question, how do you ever come to grips with the real you? How do you get where instead of if I was only taller, if I was only prettier, if I was only more this, if I was only smarter, if I, people spend their life chasing phantoms.

I'm telling you one of the most liberating thing that ever happens in your life. And you know when you start sharing these are my strengths but these are my weaknesses, it doesn't repel people. Most of us live with what I call a hologram mentality and by the way I've done this in spades. You know especially if you come from an alcoholic family you kind of learn where the pressures are and you learn how to please people and so you learn to act different ways and say different things because this group or that group or at work or over here and then what you do is you present this persona, I call it a hologram. And if you're really really good at it here's the tragedy, people start loving the persona. What you realize they don't really know you.

The most human experience of the greatest power I've ever experienced in my life is to sit across the table first and foremost with my wife and then with some very very close friends where they have seen the good, the bad and some really really ugly and accept and love me just for who I am. That's being a follower. It just frees you. You'll know the truth and the truth will.

Yeah. And so the Apostle Paul wants these disciples to understand that this is normative. This is what a disciple looks like heaven.com slash disciple.

You're surrendered to God, you're separate from the world's values and by the way that's three steps forward again and a couple backwards sometimes four backwards like we all mess up and then you get this sober self-assessment and then you say well where do I fit in the body? He goes well he lists seven specific gifts and he says these are these are your core motivations. We're all told to obey all those things in verses six through eight but he says if it's teaching man focus on that. If it's exhortation man do that counseling encourage me. If it's leader be diligent. If it's giving be generous.

If it's merciful do it with compassion. If it's proclaiming God's Word hey go for it. You know what it's like to be some of you do to be in a church to be in a small group to feel like I'm accepted for me I belong and as you bring what you bring and others bring what they bring God does something really beautiful through us. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message Go Make Disciples which is from our series The Four Great Invitations.

Chip will be back with us in studio shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. Do you have a mentor? That one person with lots of life know-how who you trust for wisdom and guidance? Well if not in this series Chip will be that mentor for us as he shares some vital lessons he's learned through five decades of walking with Jesus and he'll unpack how his experiences relate to four essential invitations Jesus challenged his disciples with throughout the Gospels.

Don't miss how these biblical insights can encourage motivate and comfort you through all aspects of life. Learn more about this series by going to livingontheedge.org that's livingontheedge.org. Well before we go any further Chip's joined me in studio to share a quick word.

Hey I want to take just a minute to ask you something really important. If you've been impacted by this ministry would you please pray about partnering with Living on the Edge in a new way right now. Nearly everything we do is dependent on contributions from partners like you.

Our ability to reach people through radio online or our app sharing and developing small group resources providing broadcasts that are international in Asia in the Middle East and literally dark places around the globe. Please pray how you might be able to come alongside and be a partner to Living on the Edge to help us reach people with the truth of God's Word. Thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do.

Thanks Chip. Well as you've heard God has called this ministry to help Christians really live like Christians both here in the U.S. and all around the world. So if you'd like to help us fulfill that mission we'd love to have you join the team by becoming a monthly partner. Set up a recurring donation at livingontheedge.org or via the Chip Ingram app. Or you can now text donate to 74141.

That's the word donate to 74141. Chip as you wrapped up your talk today you were encouraging believers to do a sober self-assessment of their walk with God. And part of that is better understanding how God has created us and the unique gifts we've been given. Unpack why that's important.

Absolutely Dave. If you don't know how you've been gifted it's very difficult to understand your purpose. Right. I often say you know if you walked into a workshop and there was a saw and a hammer and a level and a bunch of machines like a lathe you wouldn't have to guess like I wonder what the person does who walks in here.

Right. It's a carpenter a cabinet maker. So all the tools tell you who the person is and God has given us tools. He's given us spiritual gifts and natural talents and those things are given because they fit with the purpose that God has given for us. I mean when you discover how you're designed and made it gives you some real marching orders and clarity about next steps to discover your purpose.

We've created a tool called The Real You. It will help you understand your spiritual gifts. It'll help you understand where you fit on a team. It's going to give you insight into how God made you. I mean if you've done some of the Enneagram and stuff like that this is so much more advanced that will really help you understand this is the person that God has made and then give you some pathways to discover what your purpose is.

Dave maybe you could tell everyone how to get a hold of this. Be glad to Chip. To learn more about The Real You go to therealyou.org. Through this free online assessment you'll learn more about your thinking patterns, passions, motivations and how you fit on a team. It only takes about 20 minutes and then as Chip said The Real You will give you some helpful suggestions to put your gifts into practice. Again to sign up go to therealyou.org. That's the real you dot o-r-g or text real to 74141. That's the word real r-e-a-l to 74141. We'll listen in next time as Chip wraps up our newest series The Four Great Invitations. Until then I'm Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.