(service starts at 1:27 of the video)
We’ve started a new teaching series, “Come, Follow Me”, that will focus on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Phil offered us one definition last week; and Rusty expanded upon it this week:
A Disciple is one who follows Jesus as a natural outflow of love for Christ and others; one who is being transformed through relationship with Christ and with others; one who is intentional in pursuing God in all avenues of life; and one who seeks to encourage others to follow Jesus.
- What hesitations or concerns do you have about the idea of being “a disciple of Jesus”?
- On the flip side, what stirs your curiosity or excitement about this idea of being “a disciple of Jesus”?
Rusty’s main teaching point was “Before being called to make disciples or anything else, we are called to be with Jesus.”
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.Mark 3:13-15
- How do you respond to the idea that the first thing to which we are called is to be with Jesus?
Skye Jethani’s book With: Reimagining The Way You Relate To God outlines five ways of relating to God. Jethani says that how we understand God ultimately informs how we understand our identities.
- Life Under God: You experience life as a despicable sinner, living under the constant threat of God’s wrath and punishment, and so you constantly try to appease God through strict obedience to moral and ritual commands.
- Life Over God: You experience life as an autonomous manager who has been given a divine manual for operating your life and world, and your fate will ultimately rest upon how well you implement God’s principles and instructions.
- Life From God: You experience life as a consumer, discontent with unmet desires and longings. Your relationship with God is focused on Him blessing you and fulfilling your expectations.
- Life For God: You experience life as a servant, created to fulfill a great mission. Your sense of value is inexorably linked to what you are able to accomplish and the magnitude of your impact on the world.
- Life With God: You experience life as a beloved child; a person of unspeakable worth to the One whose love you cannot earn and whose pleasure you cannot repel. You live your life in relation to being with God. Your significance and hope is not how you perform, or what you do, but with whom you do it.
- Which one of these ways of relating to God describes you these days, or over the course of your life?
- What will look/feel/be different in your life as you learn more and more to just be with God?
Both Rusty and Phil taught that “Discipleship is a call to me, but it is a journey of we.” Our spiritual journeys are meant to happen in relationship with other disciples.
- How can we pray for you this week? Is there a lie or distortion you need freedom from? Do you need encouragement to initiate a change in how you relate to God? Is there a practical idea you want to try or share with someone else?