Understanding Discipleship: Commitment and Application

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.

The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in scripture.

So come along with me, let's study the Word of the week.

Pastor Josh here with another Word of the Week.

And actually we're going to be continuing on with the same word that we've been talking about now for quite some time, and that is the word discipleship.

And really what we've been looking at here in the study is the concept of discipleship.

What is discipleship?

It is the understanding of following Christ, being committed to Christ, and then showing others how to do the same.

And so In Matthew, chapter 28, when we find the Great Commission, we find the directive of God to make disciples, teaching them, demonstrating to them what it means to walk in truth.

We know that in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 2, Paul challenges Timothy to teach people what he has been taught from, from Paul to, to a very clear way so that they can teach other people, so that they can teach other people.

And that process goes on and on.

Later on second Timothy, chapter three, Paul explains, I believe it's in verse 10, the, the content of that teaching.

And it was basically the doctrine, yes, but also the lifestyle and the application of, of the teachings.

And so a part of discipleship is, yes, teaching facts about Scripture, but it's also teaching the application of those facts in Scripture to the actual life of the Christian.

Because we can't keep discipleship in the theoretical.

We have to apply it to real things that, that are happening to us in our life.

And putting feet to the teaching is essentially the application, and it's really the, the core of everything that we do as Christians is, is applying what we already know in our minds.

And, and that comes from a genuine nature of loving God.

Because what we see in the New Testament is that Jesus says that if we love him, we will keep his commandments, we will obey.

And so it is fostering or teaching the understanding of, of loving God with everything, with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

But it's also teaching people that loving God is serving God, loving God is obeying him.

Loving God is submitting ourselves to his will and his way in our life.

And so we have to, as Christians, when we're discipling folks, is to take time to demonstrate to them the Importance of not just knowing the truth, but applying the truth.

But the word I want to talk to you about in the umbrella of discipleship today is the word time.

Because to properly disciple someone, to properly lead someone to the truth of God, and to foster that growth in their life through the Spirit and through the Word, it takes time.

And so time management is important because time is short.

And the Bible says in, in the Old testament in Psalm 39 that, that life is short.

Verse Verse 4 of Psalm 39 says, Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how frail I am.

Behold, thou has made my days as a hand breath, and mine age is as nothing before thee.

Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

And so what the Bible is telling us in the Old Testament there is that life is short.

Our time is short.

And so we can either use that time for the cause of the kingdom, the cause of the gospel, or we can use that time for the things that bring us pleasure, that distract us, that entertain us.

We see that in the Old Testament.

We also see that teaching in the New testament.

James chapter 4, verse 14, it says this.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.

So you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.

So life is but a vapor.

It's like a little cloud of smoke that dissipates away.

And so the point of that is this.

We only have a certain amount of time here on this earth and we don't even know what that time is going to be.

We don't know if tomorrow is going to be guaranteed.

I mean, I hope that all of us live long, prosperous, healthy lives.

But the truth is is that that's beyond our understanding of whether or not that is going to be happening or not.

Our time on earth is short.

And in comparison to eternity, it's, it's minute, it's, it's a dot on the map.

And so what God tells us to do is to use our time wisely.

We know that in the book of ephesians, Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 15 says this.

See then that you walk circumspectly.

That idea of walking circumspectly means to look around, to notice things around you, to be aware of the opportunities that you have.

It says, not as fools, but as wise.

So the foolish thing to do as a believer is to walk around short sighted Focused on ourselves, focused on the material, focused on the things of this world, and missing out on the things around us.

And so, in contrast to that, being wise is to walk circumspectly, thinking about opportunities, to point people to Christ, to point people to the things of eternal value, and to disciple folks for the kingdom.

And so walk circumspectly not as foolish people, but as wise.

And that wisdom comes from God.

But then we see verse 16, and maybe you're familiar with this verse, it's a commonly quoted verse.

It says, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

And so that idea of redeeming is buying back, using, utilizing the time that we have for the things of God.

Why?

Because the days are evil, because the days are short, because we are marred by sin and our world is marred by sin.

And ultimately the judgment of God is coming.

And though we don't know what that time is, we know that it's getting closer.

And so what does that mean in the concept of discipleship?

Well, it means this, number one, we have a limited amount of time to impact people for the cause of the gospel.

So get busy, look for opportunities, and look for those open doors of discipleship.

Look for those open doors of the Gospel.

And when those doors are open, run through them, utilize that, redeem that time.

Because we know that the days are evil.

Psalm 90:12, it talks about numbering our days that, that we can grow in wisdom and, and over and over again.

The Bible reminds us to take note of the time that we have and not to waste it.

And so you can, you can pick out passages from the Old Testament and the New that remind us about that.

Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 11 says, he hath made everything beautiful in his time.

Also he has set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

So we ultimately understand that, that God, our creator, the one who knows all things, has created us as eternal beings.

We are going to live for eternity, whether it be in heaven with him or obviously in hell, in, in our rebellion.

But no doubt we have to understand in our lives that we are eternal beings.

And so there, there is more at stake than just the time that we have here on this earth.

But the only time that we have to invest into that eternity is the time that we have here on this earth.

And so the, the, the days are evil, yes, but we know that we have plenty of opportunities to serve God and to love God and to ultimately demonstrate our obedience to him through making disciples.

And so it takes time.

It takes time management, it takes planning, it takes an opportunity to be ready to sacrifice our time.

And we're going to talk about for the next few weeks some things that we need to give over to the Lord to best minister to people in discipleship.

And the first thing that we're going to talk about is our time.

One of the gifts that we can give to the Lord and also to others in discipleship is our time.

And our time is valuable.

What is it?

What is it?

The.

The phrase time is money?

We.

We know the reason why time is money is because our time is valuable.

We only have a limited amount of it.

And so are we going to be willing to say, you know what?

I am going to love a person enough to give them my time.

And that's sometimes hard, sometimes very hard, to sacrifice our time for someone else.

Why?

Because our time is valuable.

And we think we need to get these things done.

But when God sets something in our path for us to use as an opportunity for discipleship, the Bible says that we need to invest that.

There's a parable in the book of Matthew, Matthew, chapter 25 talks about the parable of the talents.

And essentially what happens here is that the.

The Lord the Master gives these servants a denomination of money and a certain amount of money, and they're called to utilize that in the time that he is away.

And when he comes back, the two servants that invested the time well and saw that that money grow, that investment grow, those are the ones that were called faithful.

Well done now, good and faithful servant.

And the one who didn't invest that money, the one who took that money and buried it in the ground, that was the one that the Lord condemned because of his lack of investment in the time that he had.

And so the parable of the talents and all of these other passages of scripture speak really in a very clear way about laboring, working for the Lord faithfully until he comes back.

We should be diligent.

We should use the time that God has allowed for us to.

To serve not ourselves, but to serve him.

Matthew chapter six speaks about where our heart is.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.

This is Matthew 6, verse 19.

Where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

And so the Bible speaks very clearly there about this idea that what are we going to invest in?

Are we going to invest in the things that we have here on this earth that we hold so tightly to, are we going to invest into the things of eternal value?

And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is impacting others for, for him in the name of the truth of God.

And then in Matthew 6:21, it says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

So whatever you treasure, that's where your heart's going to be.

So if you treasure the Gospel, your heart's going to be in the gospel.

If you treasure discipleship, your heart will be in discipleship.

If you treasure the importance of reaching people for Christ, your heart is going to be there reaching people for Christ.

And so may our hearts be set towards the things of God so that our investments are set into the things of God.

And we're not just talking about financial investments, even though that could be the case in this case, we're talking about our time we're going to get later on to other elements of, of our lives.

But at this point in time, we're looking at the, the importance of investing our time, sacrificing our time for others, and sometimes ministering to people in discipleship does take a lot of time and it can get somewhat frustrating because of the fact that, hey, you know what?

I taught that person something before and yet they haven't gotten it.

We gotta go back.

But that time is valuable because it's truly that time that is needed to see people come to Christ and follow Christ.

And so may we set our affections on the things above things of the Lord and set our time on the things of God and be able to walk circumspectly looking for those opportunities to redeem the time or utilize the time for the cause of the Gospel to those around us.

And so discipleship takes time, discipleship takes sacrifice.

Discipleship in, in many ways can be, can be a wearisome process because our bodies get weary in serving, our bodies get weary in well doing.

But the Bible says In Galatians, chapter 6, verse 9, don't get weary and well doing, because in due season we will reap if we faint.

Not.

So think about that today.

Think about where you're investing your time is.

Is our time being spent in the things of God?

Is our time being set in the things of our own desires?

And if our desires align with God's desires, that's fantastic.

But the problem is sometimes that our desires will contradict the things of God.

And therefore we must die to ourselves.

We must die to our flesh.

We must die to the things of this world and submit ourselves to the work of the Lord in discipleship.

So may we be disciples today, following Christ to the best of our ability.

Well, we thank you for listening to this podcast.

We're going to continue on with this series of the Word of the Week next week with another thought on discipleship.

And when we get done with that, we will continue on talking about different things, different elements within Scripture that can help us understand what it means to follow Christ truly in accordance to His Word.

Well, thank you so much.

I appreciate you listening and would really appreciate if you would share this podcast with someone that you know, someone that you love.

And hopefully it'll be a blessing to them as it's a blessing to me as I continue to push forward the Word.

Here on the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, we want to proclaim the world to the world, I should say, the truth of God in every way.

Well, God bless you.

Take care.

Have a wonderful week.

Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

If you have any questions about the podcast or more about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to Scripture.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

We'll talk to you soon.