STATS: ABOUT MODERN DAY CHRISTIANS
- The majority of christians only read their Bible 4 times a year or less.
- Only 26% of believers read their Bible on a regular basis four times or more a week.
- 88% of Americans said they own a Bible.
- 80% believe The Bible is sacred.
- 61% wish they read more
- An average household has 4.4 bibles. We just don’t read them.
- Fewer than half of all adults can name the 4 Gospels.
- Over 60% of Americans can’t name even 5 of the 10 commandments.
- 82% of all Americans believe that, “God helps those who help themselves”, is a Bible verse. ( An individual who believes that will find salvation by grace through faith to be An impossible concept to Digest.)
- More than half of all Americans agree with that statement, and they believe that there are many ways to eternal life.
- The major reason people reject the Christian faith is because they believe that The Bible has errors which causes them to reject the bible’s authority and be filled with doubt.
D.G: Discipleship Group: A small group of disciples that meet weekly for the purpose of being taught the Word of God, fellowship, prayer, care and being developed into a disciple making leader that lives like Jesus and teaches others to do the same.
FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: JESUS HAS COMMANDED ALL BELIEVERS TO GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES.
This is called the “Great Commission”. He did not say make believers, fans, visitors, church members, religious observers, but disciples. Making disciples is not more than a philosophy it is a direct command from the greatest authority in the universe – Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20 (AMP) 18 Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”
HOW DO WE EFFECTIVELY MAKE DISCIPLES?
Commission: the act of committing or entrusting a person or group with a particular action or responsibility.
A. DISCIPLE MAKING IS MORE THAN A PHILOSOPHY THAT WE BELIEVE IN, IT IS A COMMAND THAT WE MUST TAKE ACTION ON.
To make disciples we must Go!
Go: (poreuo) depart, travel (literally and figuratively), walk, go on a journey, go out of our way, get out of our comfort zones, dedicate our lives to. (Go to their homes, neighborhoods, city, nation, meet at Starbucks, in the break room or on zoom, etc. . ,
Mark 16:20 (NLT) And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.
B. WE WILL NEVER GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES IF WE DON’T PERSONALLY ACCEPT THE CALL AND MAKE A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO GO.
This is the main thing. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. Every other goal needs to be vetted by the mission to make disciples. If we are not personally and organizationally making disciples we have dropped the ball. God is asking who can I send? May we respond- Send me!
Isaiah 6:8 (NLT) Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
Everyone of us needs to get a God vision for God’s mission. Until we accept the call and get a vision and set goals to make disciples we will never succeed at it and we will eventually perish.
Christian’s and churches all over the world are perishing, backsliding, falling away, no longer seeing the supernatural, closing doors, falling for demonic doctrines, loosing their faith, and the next generation because they have not made Disciple making their top priority. Until we set goals in this area we are not yet serious about disciple making.
Quote: Dr David Yonggi Chou “ The number one requirement for having real and unlimited church growth is setting goals. When you don’t have a vision or set goals, you don’t produce anything. A dream, a vision. a goal, is the basic material that the Holy Spirit uses to build anything for you.
A. WITHOUT A VISION TO MAKE DISCIPLES WE WILL PERISH AND NOT SUCCEED AT MAKING DISCIPLES.
- We will never succeed or see growth in any areas that we do not have vision for. Vision is seeing and believing in what can be.
Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law (follows instructions), happy is he.
Vision: (hazon) divine communication (the language of the Holy Spirit is Vision, dreams, prophetic site, revelation), prophetic book.
Dictionary def: the act or power of anticipation that which will come to be an experience in which a person sees vividly in the mind other than the influence of God, what is going to happen with the faith and plan to bring it to pass. Conception and mental picture of a reality that does not presently exist.
Illustration: Dr. David Yonggi Chou Goal setting. @ 1st goal was a church with 150 members. (After a year he achieved Goal.) @ 2nd year Goal was 300 @ 3rd year Goal 600 @ 1961 he set goal of 3000 members by 1964 he achieved goal. @ set goal at 10x 30,000, the 50k, then 70k, by 1979 he reached a membership of 100k. He set goal of 1million by 1993 the church had 700,000 members and reached up to 830k by 2007.
Question: What is your 90 day D.G Goal? And what is the 90 day date? Is the goal – By 90 days I will launch my first D.G? In 90 days I will have 12 disciples in my D.G. In 90 days everyone in my D.G will have completed Holy Warriors 1 and 2. In 90 days I will have developed and launched A D.G leader. In 90 days I will launch 12 D.G’s in my network. In 90 days I will have 144 D.G leaders in my network.
Until our disciples are making disciples they are not fully developed. Let’s get them to accept and equip them them for call to be disciples that make disciples.
A. EARLY BELIEVERS/DISCIPLES MET IN SMALL HOME GROUPS DAILY TO STUDY THE TEACHINGS THEY WERE RECEIVING, TO FELLOWSHIP, AND TO PRAY.
These were the early D.G’s and it led to the Lord adding new disciples to the church daily. Wherever believers come together and the Word is being taught people are going to be saved and disciples made.
Acts 2:41-47 (NLT) 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals including the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. 43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. … 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
B. WHEREVER THE WORD IS TAUGHT DISCIPLES INCREASE.
Acts 6:7 (EHV) The word of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly. Also a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.
Train them to be disciples that make disciples.
A. A TRUE DISCIPLE OBEYS THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS.
John 8:31 (GNT) So Jesus said to those who believed in him, “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples;
B. MATURE DISCIPLES NOT ONLY OBEY THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS THEY TEACH OTHERS THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS.
2 Timothy 2:2 (ERV) 2 What you have heard me teach publicly you should teach to others. Share these teachings with people you can trust. Then they will be able to teach others these same things.
C. LET’S ALL SET A 90 DAY TO MAKE GREAT DISCIPLES.
A great disciple is one who lives and teaches the commands of Jesus.
Matthew 5:19 (NLT) … anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Called: (kaleo) To be named, to give a name to, to bear the title of, to be called out loud, to be announced as.
Great: (megas) Strong, Great power, great rank, in number, large, abundant, excellent, important, greatly blessed, big, mighty, very wide.
Mega: Are you sure that equals 1 million units.
REMINDER: Please take attendance in the Way World Outreach app.