The Dawn Of Discipleship | William Carrol

let's pray together Lord Jesus we do give you thanks and praise you are truly God to us we thank you that you have made yourself known to us we know that it is impossible that you should not be who you are but we also know it's very very possible that we should not know it so we realize what it took to cause us to know that you are God to cause us to worship you as God to cause us to delight in you as God to cause us to live for you as God to recognize the awesome privilege of calling you God Lord we know that it took the blood of Christ to give us this understanding this knowledge this peace this joy this hope this capacity to worship you to love you to bless you to honor you God we adore you there are no words we simply bow our hearts bow our heads in your holy presence acknowledging you did not have to tell us that you exist it is a privilege to believe in God it is a privilege to worship God a privilege to follow God a privilege to love God a privilege to honor God what a joy it is to make mention of your name this morning the universe in all of its glory and splendor can't do what we're doing right now which is to verbally thank you and with understanding honor you and call you our Savior our Redeemer our God we bless you we bless you we bless you now we ask you to speak to us O God as only you can and as you've helped us to know that your God help us to understand the deep things of the great God who dwells in a light unapproachable the King immortal eternal invisible we love you we thank you in jesus name amen amen Oh praise God hallelujah hallelujah it is good to be home my age it's good to be anywhere ever it's good to be home it's good to be in the house of the Lord I'm always SuperDuper excited whenever faster car that gives me an invitation to stop by and say hi and I do thank God for pastor Carla thank God for pastor Therese you know where I am I'm out in Summit taking care of business as we do we have a few classes that we are engaged in obviously summertime so I'm learning to teach over the summer there's a class that I'm going to develop this autumn those of you who've not registered there's still time a class I'm going to develop this autumn called spiritual formation and basically it's simply a class on discipleship so I've been thinking a lot about it I've been praying a lot about it and I want to share some things with you on that topic this morning and what I've learned to do over the years is whenever you begin to develop an idea develop a topic the best thing to do is to begin at the beginning right so whenever I'm looking at a doctrine in the scripture I'll always try to go to Genesis first to find out where that doctrine begins because usually in the book of Genesis you're going to find some beginning somewhat something they call a germ or Ede of a doctrine and of course it develops over the course of time and over the course of the scripture sometimes we call that progressive revelation but at least it starts in Genesis right and so I have a message this morning that I call the dawn of discipleship now the reason why I call it the door of discipleship is because while we can go to certain passages in the scripture such as the Sermon on the Mount and so on and so forth and really develop the concept of what it means to be a Christian what it means to be a disciple of Christ I think if we start at the beginning we can at least get some some moorings we can find out where we are and then we can work on growing in that later on as time progresses so we'll start at Genesis and then maybe later on come back and do some of the teachings but for now let's start there now consider the fact that when God created you in persons he created us in His image and after his likeness that's what God said let us create the human persons in our image and after our likeness so we were created first and foremost to be in relationship with God right to reflect God in a sense to radiate God and to have reverence for God right because he created us that means we are entirely contingent upon him dependent upon him so we are people who recognize that by way of reference and because we are created in His image and after his likeness we are supposed to look like God that is to say when Christians are Christians when people are people in general but more specifically when Christians are Christians we are radiating Christ we are reflecting Christ in fact the Bible says that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit so sorry were to ask me what does it mean to be a Christian I'm now going to simply say a Christian is a belief because we are believers but we're more than that the Bible says that the devil's believe and tremble but so with more than believers and tonight it might say well are we followers surprised yes we are we're believers and we're followers of Christ but we're more than that because Jesus says any person having put their hand to the plow right and turning back is not worthy of being my disciple that means we can follow but you saw for a moment or two even Peter followed from afar but when the going got rough he began to deny that he even knew Jesus so we are believers but not just believers and we are followers but not just followers right and of course we could say no no we're not just believers we're not just followers we are worshipers and that's true we are worshipers but jesus said you know to the woman at the well that she worshiped but she didn't really know what she was worshiping so we can be worshipers but Jesus says that the father is looking for those who worship in spirit and in truth so we don't simply want to be believers we don't simply want to be followers we don't even simply want to be worshipers we want to be a specific kind of worshipper we want to be those who worship God in spirit and in truth and in my opinion that is what a disciple is now it's worship God in spirit and truth obviously means to be led by the spirit by the Holy Spirit in how we engage God and in how we address God now we already know that the Bible says that we have been preordained by God to be conformed to the image of God by the Holy Spirit so if we've been conformed to then period end to be conformed to the image of God by the Holy Spirit we know that that's part of our worship experience allowing the Holy Spirit to little by little bring us from day to day from point to point from image to image from glory to glory from faith to faith from grace to grace more and more into the image of Jesus Christ secondarily we ought to be true now true doesn't simply mean honest and it doesn't simply mean to be intellectually accurate but it also means the way you would see a person who who's working with a bow and arrow right and they want that arrow to be true remember what sin is sin is to miss the mark right is to have a crooked arrow it's something that goes the wrong way a true hour is something that's gonna go straight right and it has to do with our practical life as well as our intellectual life now going back to Genesis we begin to see how God has ordained the Holy Spirit God the Holy Spirit to develop our character to make us disciples now begins as I mentioned before with this idea of God saying let us create human persons in our image after our likeness so begins with this concept first and foremost of the relationship that we have with God so all real discipleship has as its primary consideration true relationship so when we are in right relationship with God we are moving in the proper direction with regard to spiritual maturity spiritual formation and true Christian discipleship now again that relationship is a relationship of reflection and a relationship of reference so our relationship with God is different than our relationship with anyone else we have various kinds of relationships in our lives our relationship with God is a relationship of reference I like the idea that in our generation we have reminded ourselves that we are as Christian people not centered around a religious structure we're not centered around ritualism but we are centered around a relationship the thing that I don't want us to miss or to forget is that it is still a reverent relationship it's not simply the kind of relationship I have with my friends with my neighbors with husband wife with children and so on it's a well this is a very different kind of relationship it's one where we recognize that we are utterly and entirely dependent upon contingent upon this person who is our Creator you and I have got to remind ourselves irrespective of what unbelievers say there is no such thing as a natural and supernatural dichotomy everything is supernatural in other words God created this universe it did not create itself and God sustains the universe it does not sustain itself if God created it and God sustains it then it is supernatural if it is supernatural then we can readily expect things like miracles we can readily expect things like healings we can readily expect things like God coming through when there seems to be no other hope and there seems to be no other answer because there is no natural world in the sense that the unbeliever would suggest that is to say a world outside of God's influence that does not exist this is a lie that the enemy tries to bring into the mind of the Christian so that we don't expect miracles so that we don't expect the supernatural so that we think that the supernatural is an anomaly we think that the supernatural is something that doesn't happen and if it does it happens periodically but if God is perpetually sustaining the universe then the universe is perpetually under supernatural influence and if that's the case then we should always expect miracles we should always expect God to come through supernaturally we should always expect God to do something wonderful and if that's the case that we should always walk in reverence we should always walk in godly fear recognizing that we are utterly and totally dependent upon God but upon a good and a righteous and holy and a pure of God who loves us we can bow down to him and recognize our responsibility to reflect him and more because we're Christians we don't simply reflect God we radiate God in other words his light doesn't just bounce off of us and outward his light lives in us and comes forth from us so our first project then as disciples is to recognize that we are the light of the world we are that supernatural expression of God in the world as long as there is a Christian in the world this is a supernatural world as long as there is a church in the world there is a supernatural world as long as the Holy Spirit is in the world to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment there is a supernatural world as long as God has created the world and as long as God sustains the world there is a supernatural world so we recognize that reality and being a disciple means that we express the super nature of God because member we're no longer of the old nature we're of the new nature which is the super nature we are a supernatural people the more we understand that the more we begin to live that way the more we begin to express that you see we can now the world to tell us that we're hairless apes we can't allow the world to tell us that somehow we have emerged from the primordial ooze and that we have nothing else to offer we can't allow the world to tell us that was just so much chemicals and just so much meat so much flesh and baby 2000 98 cents worth of chemicals we cannot allow that because it is not true we are a supernatural people and when we walk in reverence and when we radiate Christ then we are the disciples of God hallelujah also besides this idea of relationship there is this idea of rest the Bible says that God took the man and the woman and he caused them literally it says in the original language caused them to rest in the midst of the garden and every Christian manifests the supernatural reality of God by walking in a peace that passes understanding Jesus says my peace I give you not as the world gives give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid one of the surest signs of the supernatural power of God and one of the surest signs of discipleship in the Christian life is that we refuse to worry we refuse to fear did you realize that the fear of the Lord is very very jealous and the fear of God will not share his temple with any other kind of fear and if you walk in godly fear you won't fear anything else hallelujah and the true disciples of God allow the holy spirit to give us a peace that passes understanding allows us to rest in God to recognize that even in the process that we go through remember we talked about this progressive revelation is also progressive sanctification that is to say we are growing in our understanding and unlearning and we're growing in our capacity to apply these things and to express these things in our everyday life but as we grow we rest we don't say I'm not gonna rest until everything is perfect we say I'm gonna trust in Christ as I grow as I develop I'm not going to allow the devil to lie to me one day of my life I'm not going to allow the devil to say to me I'm not this enough or I'm not that enough because he's never going to stop I talk to my students sometimes and I say if you're gonna wait until the lies stop before you can begin to believe truth you're gonna be waiting for a long time because the devil's not gonna stop lying you may as well clean the truth you may as well begin to practice truth he made it swell beginning to love truth because if you're waiting for the devil to stop lying to you before you begin to embrace truth yeah you're gonna be waiting for awhile embrace truth you are who God says you are you are the disciples of Christ the people of God this is not a pep talk this is an onward march because we got a lot of things to do in this generation our goal is not to come to church on Sunday morning to feel good we got some Wars to fight we got some lives to say hallelujah we have to make a difference in this generation and you and I can't fight we can't wage war unless we're at peace there's something about this way of Christianity there's something about Christian discipleship that says we are never really at peace unless we are waging war and we can never wage war unless we're actually at peace see if I'm not fighting for souls I can't find any peace I'm not making a difference in my generation there's nothing that can relax me but at the same time if there's not an inner peace that passes understanding and if there's not peace between me and my brothers and sisters in this house there's not much I can do out there so we have to be a people who recognize the peace of God a people who recognize that true warriors have an inner peace and people who are truly at peace are the ones are willing to take up their arms and fight the good fight if you and I are looking for peace that is evasive of spiritual warfare then we're not reading our Bibles right because from Genesis straight through to Revelation it is war and in the midst of that war there is peace that's the Christian life that's the life of the disciple you and I can't rewrite it it is what it is and then besides relationship at rest there's responsibility that God gives to every disciple remember he gives them two levels of responsibility the first he tells them to to guard the garden and to cultivate it that's what it says in the original language guarded and cultivated because they were here in the garden but the earth had been already impacted by the fall of the enemy remember the enemy was already in the earth serpent was already in the earth they were supposed to guard the garden they were supposed to have dominion over all of the animals now as they are guarding the garden this responsibility there are regulations within the garden regarding the trees of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree at the center of the garden which was achieved life now here's what's going on God is asking them on one level to get to know everything that he's provided for them he said of every tree that I provided for you you must freely partake understand the first commandment God gave to human persons was not a negative commandment it was a positive you must eat what I've given you we just saw that in the communion take heed this is me for you the same thing partake of everything that I provided for you because that's huge in discipleship so we partake of God's Word we partake of communion we partake in prayer of his voice we partake of one another's friendship what another's community you partake we don't allow ourselves to go hungry because thank you so much because when you go hungry then you'll eat anything right Institute if they had followed the first part of the commandment they might not have felt to the second part I've every tree of the garden you must certainly eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat right now sure the knowledge of good and evil represents this idea can you trust God yes or no that's all in this because when when the enemy comes he's not trying to confuse them with a whole lot of this man he's simply saying you can't trust God I know he told you this but this is true this is the real deal it's basically saying you have to choose for yourself whether or not God is good or whether or not God is evil that's the whole question of the chair that I was a good and evil it's got good yes or no that was the only thing that they had that's all they had to engage it now if they had recognized their responsibility there were three things that God was asking to do with regard to these these regulations that he gave them get to know God remember we started off with this idea of relationship so that you can know whether or not God is good right get to know him understand him right but also recognize the limitations of your reasoning capacity so that as you begin to evaluate things it is time to evaluate all kinds of things right he's some to cultivate the garden so they're looking at all the vegetation they're probably the first in a very well since the first scientists right because and looking at the garden they find out how it grows they're being able to keep it from weeding up and so on and so forth they're cultivating it keeping it from going bad later on he would tell them to name the animals so again they're categorizing the animals finding out the animals that belong in the garden and animals that don't belong in the garden naming them each one by I'm sure by their characteristics and so on and so forth so getting to know them that's why the Bible says the enemy was more subtle than serving was more subtle than any other animal to get to know them to understand what's around you because that's what disciples do remember Jesus had a problem with some of his people by saying you know the people of this age are wiser in their generation than the people of light you know and he says they ought to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves and so they can discern the sign of the skies and the weather but they can't discern the sign of the time it's trying to tell him no you need to know what's going on in the world around you so you partake of everything that God has provided for you all the things that we understand as far as spiritual things but you also know what's going on in your world right so he tells them to cultivate the garden name all the animals and protect what's yours right and then begin to branch out have Dominion be fruitful multiply be fruitful basically means you know produce after your own kind so it deals with quality and quantity right the Bible tells us to bear fruit right but it talks about it in two ways admit it talks about us is having the fruit of the Spirit and it talks about us as reproducing ourselves evangelism and so on and so forth so they're given these responsibilities just like every disciple is given and to kind of put it all in a nutshell it's listen know your God know yourself know what God has provided for you know your community and know your limitations right so as far as when it comes down to discerning for yourself what's good and evil there's some things you can understand another things you have to lift up your hands and say God knows God knows I'm not in the position as a pot to tell the Potter that he ought to do this and he ought to do that so I'm not in the position to judge God but I am in a position to look at the things that he told me to look at and evaluate those things so the flora and the fauna and things of that nature he tells me to evaluate the vegetation I do that if it tells me to evaluate the animal life I do that and so on and so forth if it tells me to check my own heart with regard to the truth and I will do good and evil I'll do that and so on and so forth but that's what disciples do so when you look at the book of Genesis if you look at it right and you and I try to look at the Bible the way it's supposed to be looked at we try to read it the way it was supposed to be read they were gonna find out even at those very early stages that these things are not fables right they're not fairytales are not mystical things they're right they're super duper practical but they're also supernatural because they come from God but they come from God since in human context so we can't understand them right so now as Christians we have to ask ourselves a very basic question are we open to being disciples because a disciple is defined by God through the scriptures and when manifested it is the supernatural element in this generation when disciples are functioning as disciples excuse me we're not simply believers we're not simply followers and we are not people who worship in ways that may or may not resemble the scriptural direction but we worship in spirit and the truth and when we do that people begin to realize that there is still God that God still sits above the circle of the earth hallelujah that heaven is still his throne and earth is still his footstool and irrespective of what people might say this is not a post-christian generation because that would have to mean that Christ is no longer king and I've heard some people say you know III have Jesus as my savior but not a not as my Lord and I just said no no you you can get that back with you you can have them as Lord and not a savior in other words every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Jesus Christ is Lord of all whether a person wants him or not [Applause] the question is whether or not they will allow him to save them the question is whether or not they will allow him to be their Savior everybody who call Jesus Lord whether they be sheep or whether they be gold whether they go to heaven or whether they go to hell everybody everybody everybody everybody everybody everybody everybody everybody will call Jesus Lord question is whether or not they're gonna have the privilege the honor the joy of calling them Savior for us as disciples we want to do everything that we can to give as many people as possible the privilege of knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior we want them to see what it looks like when Jesus saves people we want them to recognize that what we have is not just a religion and that what we have is not confined to these four walls and that what we have is not simply confined to our hearts but it radiates from our hearts and it impacts this world and that we have as much right if not more to impact this world and to make our presence known as anybody in this generation and that the Christian movement will not be silent [Applause] hallelujah that the disciples of God will not allow ourselves to become politically correct hallelujah but that we're going to keep on preaching we're gonna keep on teaching we're gonna keep on evangelizing we're gonna keep on healing we're gonna keep on feeding the hungry we're gonna keep on clothing the naked we're gonna keep on visiting the sick and be imprisoned gonna keep on casting out Devils we're gonna continue to get in the way of the adversary we're gonna continue to say the things that God has told us to say and to do the things that God has told us to do we're not gonna stop no matter what happens we're not afraid of the devil we're not afraid of the grave we're not afraid of the threats we have a responsibility in this generation we are the disciples of God we have heard the voice of the Most High and we have a commission from the Great God there is something that God is still doing in this generation and there is still a people of the Great God whoever commissioned upon their lives who will not be silent in this generation who will not stop talking about their Jesus who will not stop blessing his name who will not stop calling him Savior who will not stop calling him Redeemer who will not stop calling him deliverer who will not stop calling him the great of the mighty God then his name be praised forever that is people be known in this generation as that people who have taken the baton from the generation before and our insistent upon passing it on to the next Jesus will be glorified his name will be praying hallelujah is going his glory his glory will be seen I want to pray with you this morning because the enemy wants to shut us down he said I don't mind y'all get loud in y'all's building but just stay in yours building but no no no no no revival is gonna flow through these doors like a stream flowing through the streets of this city oh yeah cuz we have something to say we have something to contribute that we have a responsibility we are the disciples of God a supernatural people the people who bear witness that there is such an one is God brothers and sisters this is our pedigree it is our legacy it is our destiny it is our heritage we are the sons and daughters of the Great God hallelujah hallelujah let's stand together in the house of the Lord [Applause] I want to pray with you this morning if you say I just want to be salt and light even if you don't exactly know right now what that entails you might not know exactly how God is going to use you or you might know exactly how God is going to use you or how he's using you it doesn't matter if you simply say I want to be salt and light I want to be a true disciple of Christ and you and I know that that's a work of the Holy Spirit it's not about us clinching our fists and gritting our teeth and then saying I'm gonna make this happen no God the spirit remember we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ by the spirit you say brother but well I I just want I just want to walk with Jesus in a way that reminds people in this generation that there's actually hope and this actually helped but it is actually God I just want to pray for strength and you want to pray for Brotherhood and sisterhood hey you wouldn't be reminded that you're not alone in this journey and you want to remind somebody that they're not alone then whether you're here in this main sanctuary whether you are online with us whether you're in the and ciliary or the annex whether you say well you need to stand you do what you need to do if you're watching at home you do what you need to do but you commit to allowing the Spirit that cause Christ to radiate from you in such a way that God cannot be denied in this generation this is not a post-christian generation there is no such thing as a post-christian generation there is no such thing as a natural world this is God's world still this is still a supernatural world and we are God's people hallelujah if God is speaking to you brothers and sisters please come to the front of this auditorium we're gonna pray together in the name of that great and holy Savior Jesus Christ amen amen praise God look around you the garage you're not alone but sometimes you walk through the streets of this city and I imagine you feel like am I the only one left you know see Elijah in the days of auld well well God's people remind the only one left but around the time defendant one of the awesome things about the altar call one of the things that I love about it it's a reminder that you're not fighting this battle by yourself then we're fighting together [Applause] and if you ever want proof that this is a supernatural family look at the diversity the cultures the nations the people's you can't get that outside they try and try and try but it doesn't happen we are a supernatural people we are the people of God we are truly brothers and sisters truly family truly family we are making a difference in this world if we weren't here I can't even imagine when this world would look like we're here and we make it a difference hallelujah hallelujah let's pray father in Jesus Holy Name we acknowledge you as God what a joy it is to call upon your name to know that you hear us we know that you hear us because our cry comes from you you are in us causing us to cry Abba Father we couldn't even expect you to hear us unless you already heard us we absolutely love you and we love the thought that we can represent you in this generation we love the thought that we can be salt and light in this world we know you haven't given up in on this world because we're still here you haven't turned your back on this generation because you still have a people in this generation you still have a church here you haven't given up on our communities you haven't given up on our families you haven't given up on our loved ones because we're still here and you're still here what I pray for my brothers and my sisters a blessing beyond measure blessing of the favored blessing of the beloved a supernatural touch from God sharpen our sense of your presence our sense of your great calling on our lives our commission in this generation take away from us any unnecessary pressure that doesn't come from you but I'm rest and a peace that comes from God hallelujah so that we can do what we do as naturally and it's supernaturally as you've decided and as you have designed go to lay your hand upon each one cause your name to be glorious in our midst and that revival flow through these doors as these doors open at the end of this service that revival flow through these streets as we go to our various places our homes and our workplaces in our schools and everywhere we go let revival flow through these streets as your people walk these streets Oh God in Jesus name and we will thank you for it and we will bless you for it in Jesus Holy Name we pray amen

Channel: Times Square Church

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Id: ZkgnxtLgWD8

Length: 45min 32sec (2732 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2019