The Goal of Discipleship, Part 1

Never be satisfied with a sermon. Never be satisfied with just reading the Bible, because that won't change you.

It will only inform you. Dr. Tony Evans says the goal of discipleship isn't education, it's transformation, and even that's a job we can't do alone. God will do the transforming, but you have to be located in the place where the transforming occurs. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

It's an old saying, but it still holds true. God accepts us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. Today, Dr. Evans takes a look at the spiritual makeover process God uses to make us not only look different, but to be different.

Let's join him as he begins. Discipleship is that developmental process of the local church that seeks to bring Christians from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity so that they can replicate the process with someone else. God's goal for creating the church was to be the location where disciples are crafted and made. The goal of discipleship is spiritual transformation. Paul speaks of this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. He begins the first three verses of 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 explaining that those believers were the proof of his ministry because their lives were being changed.

If nobody's life is being changed at our church, then we have no ministry because the goal of the church is life transformation, not nice carpets and comfortable pews. It is the transformation of life. He uses as the context for this the Old Testament. And notice what he says in verse 14. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day the reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it was removed in Christ. He says in verse 13, not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

He's reciting something that happened in the Old Testament. Moses would climb up the mountain to be in God's presence, and when he was in God's presence, his face would change. His face would begin to glow because the glory of God would rub off on him, and so it was clear he was being changed. But then he would go down the mountain, and as he went down the mountain, the glow would fade. The further he got from God, the more the glow would leave. The closer he got to God, the more the glow would show.

So where he was in proximity to God would determine the change that took place on his face. Well, Paul uses that Old Testament incident with Moses to talk about the New Testament transformation God wants to make in your life and my life. The two key verses I want to focus on are verses 17 and 18. He says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Please pay attention to the first three words in verse 18, but we all. But we all. Now what that means is what I'm about to tell you, you're not an exception.

That whatever I'm getting ready to tell you, based on what Paul tells us, it applies to you, no matter how old you are, how young you are, your background, your mama, your daddy, your granddaddy, no matter what failures or successes you have in your life. But we all. So don't say, this applies not to me. It applies to everybody else.

But we all. So the transformation that God wants to make applies to all, and the way you get it is the same way everybody else gets it. So you're not a unique situation in a unique category with a unique problem having unique circumstances. Paul says, when it comes to God changing you, but we all.

So whatever I'm getting ready to tell you applies to you. He's talking about transformation. He says, We are the being transformed. The Greek word transformed is the word that we get our English word metamorphosis from, and it refers to changes taking place from the inside out. Let me explain what transformation is not. Transformation is not merely the accumulation of information. You could come to church from here till the cows come home and not be changed.

In fact, many of us have come to church from here till the cows come home and nothing is different. It's not that we haven't received information. It's we haven't received transformation. So you can have information without changing, information without transformation. Let me tell you what transformation also is not. It is not simply conforming to behavior modifications. See, a lot of us want to change what we do, but you can change what you do without being transformed.

In other words, you can do it on the outside without there being any difference on the inside. So many of us conform externally without being transformed. But the word transform means to be changed on the inside and it just shows up on the outside. So it's an internal change of the soul that works itself out in what you do in the body. He says that you are being transformed.

God wants to see every Christian here transform, not merely conform and not merely inform. He wants us to be transformed like a butterfly in a caterpillar's cocoon. The butterfly is inside the caterpillar cocoon. The butterfly is slow, slimy, and ugly, but inside there is a change, metamorphosizing, taking place, turning something slow, ugly, and slimy into something lovely, beautiful, multicolored that can get up off the ground and take flight. In every Christian, there's a butterfly trying to get out. But in order for it to get out, it must be transformed, not merely, no matter how much a caterpillar grunts and groans and strains. That doesn't make a butterfly come out.

It's because there is a cocooning process that metamorphosizes the caterpillar into something that it was not before. It reminds me of this thing of conform to the lady who said, you know, I'm glad I met Jesus, cuz before I met Jesus, I hated my uncle, and I said I'd never go to his funeral. But now that I met Jesus, I'd go to his funeral any day. That lady wasn't transformed. She was just conform. She was just gonna gonna change how she did what she did. God wants to change not only what you do, but the attitude you have about it, so that you not only don't do it, you don't even particularly want to do it anymore. See, that's when you know you've changed.

You know you've changed when your appetite is different, when your hunger changes. So God wants you to experience him at a transformation level. You know, once you've been to the Four Seasons, it's hard to settle for the Motel 6. You know, Motel 6 is nice that you didn't run into the Four Seasons, cuz what the Four Seasons does is it changes your hotel appetite. Now you want a little something, something more than what the Motel 6 can offer. Because so many Christians have settled for a Motel 6 Christianity, cuz they haven't experienced a Four Seasons experience.

They settle for getting by rather than being transformed by the new experience. He says you are being transformed. Please notice carefully again what he says in verse 18. You are being transformed.

Notice what he didn't say. You are transforming. He says you are being, something else is transforming you.

So I want to take some of the weight off of you right now. You don't have to transform you. You have to be transformed. That means something else is turning you inside out.

Something else is doing a number on you. Something else is creating the transformation. You are being transformed.

So if you want to change, God has a way of changing you, making you the Christian He wants you to be, which is the goal of discipleship, if you will adhere to this process. Now if I am being transformed, if something else is transforming me, then I need to know what the something else is and how the something else works. When Moses was being changed in the Old Testament and the glow hit his face, God brought about the glow, but Moses had to do one thing. He had to climb up the mountain.

See, he had to go to where the glow was in order to get the glow. God will do the transforming, but you have to be located in the place where the transforming occurs. In other words, you have to position yourself for transformation.

You don't have to do the transforming, but you have to post yourself in the location of where the transforming occurs. Dr. Evans will give us an example of that transformational positioning when he continues our message in just a moment. Don't go away. If you've been encouraged by connecting with the Urban Alternative, whether it's online or on the air, we want to ask you to give your very best year-end gift to help keep that encouragement coming your way and going out to others as well. Your financial support is vital to helping meet our year-end challenge amount to ensure this outreach remains strong so that more people like you can continue to be encouraged by God's Word in the year ahead. Please visit TonyEvans.org to give today. That's TonyEvans.org. You know, Tony has said that the more people who meet Jesus, the more lives will be transformed.

It's a simple equation, and it's the driving purpose behind this ministry. Visit TonyEvans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 and make a contribution to help keep the Word moving forward. And when you do, we'll say thanks by sending you an audio compilation we're calling The Top 24 of 2024. It's a giant two-volume set of the most popular messages presented this year, covering subjects like overcoming challenges, making the most of life's opportunities, trusting God in times of trouble, and much more. And if you make your donation right away, we'll also send you The Greatest Gift, a new Christmas music collection from Dr. Evans' son and renowned gospel artist Anthony Evans. The Greatest Gift and The Top 24 of 2024 are available to you with our thanks. Just make your contribution online at TonyEvans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222. And when you do, ask about how to upgrade this deal with an added bonus of the Tony Evans Study Bible.

I'll repeat that contact information for you after Dr. Evans brings us part two of today's lesson. Let's join him once again. A water skier doesn't ski himself or herself, but they position themselves behind the powerboat, and the powerboat pulls them along the water. But unless they position themselves, they don't get to ski. God wants to take you somewhere.

He wants to take me somewhere. But unless we position ourselves, we'll stay stuck in the same place, same seat, same problem, same habit, same defeats, and we won't go anywhere because we're not being transformed, because instead of being with God on the mountain, we're with the people in the valley. So we're not posted for transformation. But he says, but we are, so you are no exception, are being transformed. Transformed into what? He says, into the same image. The word image means resemblance or likeness or replication of. God's goal in transforming us is to make us look like Jesus. He wants to clone Christ in his people.

That's why Scripture calls Christ the firstborn of many brethren. God wants a lot of little Jesuses running around, so he wants to turn you in to a Jesus look-alike. We have a picture in our home. It's a picture of me in black and white when I was 18 years old.

Right next to it, a picture of Anthony in color when he was 18 years old. But we look like brothers in the picture. But the reason we look like brothers, even though we're a generation apart, is because I have shared with him my DNA. Even though Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, and we are generations apart from when he was alive, when you accepted Christ, he deposited in you the DNA of Jesus Christ. So he expects his DNA to show up in your soul so that you and I look like he looked in attitudes and actions, in character and in content. He wants us to respond like Jesus would respond if Jesus was in the same situation we were in, act like Jesus would act if Jesus was doing the same things we were doing, relate like Jesus would relate if Jesus was relating in the same circumstance we are relating.

He wants the DNA of Jesus to show up in us so we are transformed into his very likeness, resemblance, or image. He says if you want to be changed, here's what you need. He says you need a mirror.

Verse 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed. He says if you want to be transformed, you need a mirror. Now what is a mirror for? It's for a reflection of you. That's what a mirror does.

It shows you you. See, you have never seen your face. You have never seen your face.

You can't see your face. Now you may think you look like Denzel or Halle Berry, but a mirror will bring you back to reality. The goal of a mirror is to let you see how things really are. It's to reflect back to you you.

You may think your hair is straight until you look in the mirror, but what the mirror will do is the mirror will show you you as you really are. Now when he refers to the mirror, we know from the previous verse what he's talking about. He says when Moses is red, a veil lies over their face. When Moses is red, Moses is the Old Testament.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. He's saying when the Bible is red, he says the people are unchanged because there is a veil over their face. So watch this. If you're gonna be transformed, you need a mirror, but the mirror, when you go to it, you must go to it without a veil, he says. He says you must go unveiled. Now I performed hundreds of weddings, and in many of those weddings, the bride comes down the center aisle with a veil. When the bride comes with a veil, her face is covered, which means you cannot fully see what she really looks like because it's camouflaged with the veil.

But when I say, I now pronounce you husband and wife, and now the husband can salute the bride, he lifts the veil so we can see her as she really is. He says it's possible to read the Bible with a veiled face. And if you read the Bible with a veiled face, it says you remain unchanged. The reason why a lot of Christians come to church every week and nothing is different, they addictions don't get any better, their anger control doesn't get any better, their violent temperance don't get any better, their alcoholism doesn't get any better, their pornography dependency doesn't get any better, their whatever it happens to be doesn't get any better, even though they're listening to the Word, reading the Word, hearing the Word, is they are approaching it with a veil over their face. And he says if you read the Word with a veil, you remain unchanged. He says, but we all, watch this, with unveiled face. That means that you must approach the Word of God honestly.

No cover-ups. You don't approach God's Word as though you're all that. You approach it and say, God, I give you permission to show me me as you see me, not as my homies see me, not as my husband or wife sees me, not as my work friends see me. What do you see when you look at me? Mirror?

Let me let you talk to me. You see, the problem with church is most folk come to church with veiled faces. We dress up. We clean up.

We look the part. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Got a Bible. And we approach church with a veiled face. So when the Word of God goes out, you don't really see what it's trying to say, cuz we got the cover-up going on. We got the Christianese going on that says, I'm not as bad as he is.

I'm not as bad as she is. You must unveil your face. It's interesting sometimes that I'm preaching to look out and I make a point and somebody's punching their neighbor.

He's talking to you. No, you must come with an unveiled face. When you open the Bible in the morning for your devotions, you must come with an unveiled face. You must give God permission to tell you the truth about you, because God will not talk to you about you as long as you got a cover-up. As long as you say to God, God, forgive me for my sins today.

See, that's general and you can stay veiled behind that. But if you say, God, right now, I want to go to that computer and turn on that pornography. That's how I feel right now and I want to tell you the truth.

Right now, God, I want to vent my anger and I want to cuss like a sailor. I'm gonna take the veil off, you know. I'm gonna put the veil on when I'm in church, because I don't want everybody else to know how ugly I am.

But right now, before your word, I am going to come clean. Unless you come with an unveiled face, it says you remain unchanged. Cause see, God knows what the real deal is. He knows what you're really thinking, how you're really feeling, what you want to do, how bad you want to do it. And he says, if you bring that hiding stuff to me, being in front of the Bible will not change you. You must come to the mirror. The mirror of His Word.

That's what His Word is. The mirror of His Word, and you must come giving Him full permission to expose, full permission to reveal. Dr. Tony Evans, with an encouraging word today on the goal of discipleship.

He'll return with a closing thought in just a moment. First though, I encourage you to take advantage of our special year-end package, The Top 24 of 2024, which includes two dozen of the most popular messages presented this year, plus the exciting new Christmas album release from Anthony Evans entitled, The Greatest Gift. This package is yours with our thanks when you support our work here on the radio and on television, as well as with pastors, their families, and churches around the world. Make the arrangements today by visiting tonyevans.org. You'll have the opportunity to upgrade this deal by adding the Tony Evans Study Bible, or look for other great life-changing gifts for the people you care about. That's tonyevans.org, or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222.

Caterpillars may seem slow, slimy, and unattractive, but within them lies the incredible potential to one day transform into beautiful butterflies that can quite literally take flight. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will continue to examine God's purpose for discipleship in our lives, but right now he's back with this important thought to close our program for today. A lot of people exist but don't feel like they're living. The good news of the gospel is Jesus came to give you life. That is, the experience of God's reality operating within you. That's what the Bible calls eternal life. So He gives you heaven as a location, but eternal life is an experience, and He gives it to you for free.

That's what grace is about. It's a gift. You can't earn it.

You can't buy it. You can't be religious enough to get it, but you can receive it. And so God offers the opportunity for you right now to receive the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life, which will set in motion a whole life long experience of growing in the knowledge of God. So let's get this thing started right now by you going to Jesus Christ and saying to Him, Lord Jesus, I believe You died on the cross in my place for my sin. I now accept You as my personal substitute. Come into my life. I receive You now as my only Savior. I receive the gift of eternal life that You promised to give me if I came to You for it. Thank you for your salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.