Practice #1: Relationship #1 - September 5, 2010

Discipling Relationships
There’s No Place Like Home

Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (NIV)
 1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Christians can experience lasting discipleship in their homes by relying upon four key relationships that God created in families.

Heart Relationship
-   We cannot give what we do not possess
-   We are handing off a relationship with God to others
-   Our heart is the executive center of our very being
-   Focus on behavior can miss the heart entirely

Spontaneous Relationships
-   Jesus used teachable moments often
-   Teachable moments occur when hearts are open and curious
-   Spontaneous relationships have to be spotted and accessed
-   Quality relationships spring out of time spent together

Routine Relationships
-   Routines are not bad
-   Routines build life rhythms
-   Routines can serve as memorials
-   Routine investments outweigh crash courses in anything

Community Relationships
-   Discipling the generation that is yet to come
-   Supportive relationships reinforce faith
-   Supportive relationships provide alternate modeling
-   The church is God’s family – Generations


Questions to Ponder

1.  What relationships do I think are essential for me to grow as a follower of Christ?
2.  When I think of disciple making do I think more program, system, class, or way of life? Why?
3.  How could my “home” make one step to become more of a relational environment for making disciples?
4.  Which of the four relationships am I growing in? Which of the four am I struggling with?

Practice: Relationship 1.4 - September 27, 2009

Practices #1 – Relationship
1.4 – Why Don’t I Want To?

Why don’t I want to get in to the kind of relationships the Bible outlines?

Proverbs 16:25 (New International Version)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Matthew 7:21-23 (New International Version)
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
God’s Will is not a Secret:

Romans 12:1-2 (New International Version)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Matthew 22:37-40 (New International Version)
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 5:22-24 (New International Version)
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Mark 12:32-34 (New International Version)
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Some Common Excuses for Not Getting into Relationship:

1.    I don’t need people.
Hebrews 3:12-13 (New International Version)
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

Hebrews 10:25 (New International Version)
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

2.    I am afraid of people

2 Timothy 1:7 (New International Version)
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

•    So, if God doesn’t give that spirit to us, then who does?

3.    I have been hurt too many times
1 John 1:7 (New International Version)
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

John 8:36 (New International Version)
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (New International Version)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

4.    I don’t understand these people
Hebrews 4:14-16 (New International Version)
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

5.    I am not good enough

Matthew 10:18-20 (New International Version)
On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

**Relationship with others says more about Who you believe God is than who you believe you are or who you believe others are.

Practice: Relationship 1.2 - September 13, 2009

Practices #1 – Relationship
#2 Accountability – Dealing with the Hidden Agenda

Ephesians 6:10-14a (New International Version)
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…

We have to remember the truth of our situation:

Philippians 4:8 (New International Version)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

The Realities of Accountability:

1.    We don’t belong here

1 Peter 2:11 (New International Version)
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

Romans 8:18-23 (New International Version)
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

2.    We learn through obedience, not information.

James 1:23-25 (New International Version)
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

3.    Accountability helps us stay obedient.

Proverbs 27:17 (New International Version)
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 15:22 (New International Version)
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 12:15 (New International Version)
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 13:20 (New International Version)
He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

4.    The Christian life demands growth – not compliance.

Isaiah 29:13 (New International Version)
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”

•    Accountability is not Disclosure!

•    Accountability is not Transference!

5.    Accountability is Empowering Someone to Grow – Really!
Ecclesiastes 4:10 (New International Version)
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Psalm 32:1-2 (New International Version)
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him 
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

Accountability helps us stay focused on what is true, so that we can grow.

Where do I start?