pt BR Timothy Seminary Unit 12

hello and welcome to unit 12 living a life of Maximum Impact I'm Professor Timothy Moore and this is the course Christian spirituality and today we're going to look at the potential of what God wants to do and I believe the potential of what he wants to do in each of your lives in each of our lives uh exceeds and abounds all that we can ask or think in fact that's what his word says and we're going to see that in just a moment I want to look at um three quick passages that illustrate what God

wants to do what I believe he wants to do uh in an exponential way in in and through each of our lives and the first is Matthew Chapter 13 and this is the first time Jesus talks about the Mustard Seed he talks about it in in a couple of other places but um here in Matthew 13 He says here's another illust ation Jesus uses the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field I wish I had a mustard seed you can look it up online it's a tiny little seed it's the

smallest of all seeds the Bible says but it becomes the largest of garden plants it grows into a tree and birds come and make nest in its branches and so another passage where he talks about the mustard seeds Matthew chapter 17 and he says says in verse 20 you don't have enough faith I tell you the truth if you had Faith even as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain move from here to there and it would move nothing would be impossible in Ephesians 3:20 the Apostle Paul says now all glory

to God who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish and I would like for you all who are watching this lecture to actually say out loud the word words infinitely more that's what God wants to do he can accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever ever amen and let's make that our prayer that's Paul's prayer in Ephesians and so we we're just we just want to say Lord glory glory to you father because

you are able to do infinitely more than we could ever even ask or think according to your great power at work within us Lord glory to you through the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever amen amen this this lesson is about learning to think exponentially it's learning to think in a way that goes beyond the normal limitations and before I get into the illustrations that are on the presentation here uh I have an apple here and that reminds me um it reminds me of a time in my life uh 34

years ago I was uh licensed and ordained to Ministry and and I I became a pastor but a few years into that journey I felt like God was calling me to to multiply churches to plant churches that had the DNA to plant other churches and it was very difficult for the church I was serving at the time which was Woodland Hills Church in Ashville North Carolina we'd experienced some beautiful uh wonderful work of God there and the church had grown exponentially and sent out many missionaries and um it was a place that a pastor could

be blessed and comfortable for the rest of his life and the Lord called me to go start new churches and so the church was kind of confused and so I bought uh several bags of of apples uh enough to give everybody an apple and there's a lot of people coming there's uh hundreds and hundreds of people we bought several bags of apples we gave everybody an apple and and this is the illustration that I use to help them understand why God was calling me to start churches that would multiply um I asked them what they

were holding in their hand everybody said an apple and I said is that the fruit of an apple tree everyone said yes and then I read a definition of fruit and that definition uh went something like this it's just something that I I found in the dictionary and it it said um that fruit is is that which a fruit tree is designed to produce it's it's what it's supposed to produce and I said is this what an apple tree is supposed to produce and and after I said that I had actually scored the the Apple

but you couldn't see it and I kind of gave it a little karate chop and I popped it open into two pieces where they could see the seeds and I said what's an apple tree supposed to produce and then a few people started saying a tree and a an apple tree is supposed to produce another apple tree and I said yeah but but there are there are six seeds in this apple and they said well it can produce six trees and I said is is that all it's supposed to produce is that all I could

do with those six seeds there were silence for a minute and then a young man said you could have a whole Orchard and then somebody else said you could have several Orchards and so they started to see beyond what they were holding in in their hand what they're holding in their hand represented the church that we were in but the church is designed and Believers are designed to uh to plant and produce exponentially and we can do that and we can do that in in ways that um that don't feel burdensome it doesn't feel like

you have to work 70 80 hours a week and have your nose to the grindstone all the time we're going to see how God can work exponentially through our lives in the context of what Jesus said when he when he told his disciples my yoke is easy and my burden is light a yoke is the purpose the assignment that the Lord gives us and Jesus said my assignment my yoke my work for you is e easy and my burden is light how can that be well we're going to see uh I want to ask you

this question and maybe some of you remember this from um maybe an economics class that you've taken uh I think I heard it even in high school it was a math class but uh the question was would you rather have a million dollars right now today or a penny that doubles every day for 30 days like you can get $1 million in a check right now or they can give you this uh this penny that when it multiplies when it goes from one penny to Two Penny every penny after that for 30 days doubles every

day and uh and so you probably won't be able to see this but I'm going to put that chart of what happens with that Penny up there and the first day you have one penny so second day you have two pennies third day four 8 16 32 and at at the 12th day you got $20 and 48 cents and you're like man I should have taken that million dollars but here's what happens when the next 12 days when you get down to the 24th day you have 83,8 1868 cents well that's still a lot less

not even 10% of of of a million dollars right and you think oh man I made the wrong decision but look what happens between 25 and 30 at the end of 30 days you have 5,368 79 12 cents if you have a penny that doubles every day for 30 days and so you have well over five times what you would have received if they wrote you wrote a a check for a million dollars and so I I want you to see and begin to understand the exponential thinking that is the way the kingdom of God

functions is designed to function in our lives and in the world so let's watch this video about the power of multiplication would you rather be given $1 million or one penny doubled every day for 30 days you remember this question from math class right this is when we all learned the power of compound interest and exponential growth at the end of 30 days that doubled Penny becomes just over $5 million turns out the same concept applies to missions imagine you filled a football stadium with 100,000 people for a gospel Outreach event and 20% of them

came to know Christ that day 20,000 people would come into the kingdom if you did that every day for a year over 7 million people would come to Faith that sounds pretty great right here's the question though if you kept that pace of 7 million people each year how long would it take to reach the world's population of 8 billion people over for 1,000 years 1,095 to be exact a 100,000 person Outreach event every day for a thousand years from a pure number standpoint Mass evangelism will not reach the world for Christ in our lifetime

what about a different strategy inspired by that original math problem instead of preaching to 100,000 people every day suppose you made one disciple each year focused on their development and equipped them to make their own new disciple every year at the end of the first year you would have two followers of Jesus you and your disciple at the end of the second year you would have four 8 the third year 16 the 4th and so on 32 6428 how many years would it take to disciple the world using this strategy 34 years do the math

something profound happens when we take a multiplication mindset in the Great Commission Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit he continues by instructing us to teach those disciples to obey everything he commanded us what was his final command go and make disciples so our role is to make disciples that obey the command to make disciples that obey the command to make disciples we're to go to All Nations and make discipl making disciples that's multiplication reach

the few in order order to reach the many what if you didn't feel the burden to preach to an entire Village or city or country but instead were faithful to the simple multiplication principles of the Great Commission the entire world could be discipled in our generation if we started with just one what about you how might God want you to be involved in making disciples that make disciples and seeing movements of Jesus among every tribe tongue people and Nation would you rather fill a stadium every day for the next thousand years or commit to making

one disciple this year let's do this together until all have heard starting with discipling one so who's your [Music] one isn't that amazing it's absolutely eye openening to see how God can use just this intentionality of becoming a disciplemaker who focuses on making a disciple just one disciple and if each disciple becomes a disciplemaker we could reach the entire world and make disciples out of the entire world in in less than 40 years that's an amazing thing and we need to keep that mindset so we don't have to fill up stadiums full of a 100,000

people if we could do that every single day it would take it would take more than 10 lifetimes to reach the world but if we just be made discipl makers we could reach the entire planet in one Lifetime and far less than one lifetime so um let's shift a little bit now to um what I call the kingdom Continuum this is a mindset shift for the local church that will help a a local church become uh a multiplier of discipl makers but there's a shift in mentality that that has to happen there are there are

churches some churches that are Kingdom driven but more that are what I call consumer driven and there needs to be a shift from the consumer side of the Continuum to the kingdom side of the Continuum and I just want to give you some distinctives of each first a consumer-driven church is focused on goods and services like what can we provide people that that is uh valuable to to that person to that parent to that child uh to that grandparent what programs can we provide that's consumer-driven the kingdom driven church is U focused on making disciples

and more clearly discipl makers um the consumer-driven church has performers uh the staff really function as performers we have to have the best musicians we have to have the best preachers we have to have the best program leaders and so the the staff really function as those who perform and in a kingdom driven Church the staff equips Ephesians chapter 4 teaches us that our job is to equip Believers for their works of service equip Christians for Ministry in a consumer-driven church the people that attend that church are primarily Spectators they come they sit they consume

whatever we're giving them and uh and and that's it they may contribute uh some uh they may give give a little money they may uh serve in in as a greeter or something of that capacity but primarily their Spectators and the kingdom driven Church their Partners in Philippians chapter 1 Paul tells the people of the church you have become my partners in the gospel and so in Kingdom driven Church the people who attend the church and the people who believe that who who who kind of attach to that church as their spiritual family they become

Partners In The Gospel in a consumer-driven church um people are consumers they're looking for what they can get out of this experience here what can they do for me and in a kingdom driven Church they're primarily contributors how how can I serve how can I contribute how can I um make my family better my church family in a consumer-driven church it's uh it's really motivated by preferences what kind of music do people like what kind of preaching do people want to hear what kind of programs do they want for their children for their youth for

senior adults and uh and what do they what do they want want people to wear what do they want people to um you know it's it's about wants and preferences and the kingdom driven church is about Pathways it's about providing Pathways for people to grow in their faith and not just be disciples but become discipl makers because that is the Great Commission from our Lord that he gave in Matthew chapter 28 18-20 Jesus came and told his disciples I have been given all authority in heaven and on Earth therefore go and make disciples of all

the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and holy spirit teaching these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this I'm with you always even to the end of the age uh I was teaching a class recently and I and I asked the students who is Jesus giving this commission to and everyone in the class said I think he's giving it to everybody to to every believer and that's correct he is he so every single believer not just me not just you as

a Seminary Student a Ministry leader or future Ministry leader but every single person that decides to believe in Jesus Jesus is G giving this commission make disciples and so he doesn't say be disciples he says make disciples and so the Fulfillment of that is not living as a disciple the Fulfillment is becoming a disciple maker and so um if we're going to have the Maximum Impact that God wants his church to have that God wants to see happen through our lives individually and in the church collectively our focus our job has to CH has to

uh we have to laser focus on creating discipl makers we need a pathway a clear pathway to a person coming to Christ and then ultimately becoming a disciplemaker so let's talk about that first what is a disciple we have to Define it if that if that's going to be uh what we're aiming at first we have to Define what a disciple is and uh and the way I do that personally and I believe biblically is um a disciple is a follower of Jesus committed to a devotional life a relational life a missional life with Christ

I believe that every verse in the Bible about being a disciple of Jesus Christ fits in one of those three categories having a devotional life with Jesus relational life and missional life and the distinctives those are the distinctives of a disciple devotional relational and missional and expanding on that a devotional life uh the phrase that I believe encapsulates that best is time with Jesus and so in intentional time with the Lord it may look like daily waking up in the morning and uh and uh getting a cup of coffee or your your morning beverage of

choice and you're sitting there you open your Bible and you you you say Lord I want to just spend this time with you and I want you to open my eyes to what you want me to see from your word and uh you read a chapter of the Bible now I'm just saying this is one way that it can happen but the intentional time must happen that's your devotional life with Jesus and so having intentional time with him where you ask him to speak to you where you're in his word and you are in prayer

and um and that's expressive prayer where you talk to him but it's also Listening Prayer because Jesus said my sheep hear my voice I know them and they follow me he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches and so we need to also listen if it's two or three minutes of silence we ought to say Lord speak to our hearts after we spend time with him in his word we pray we listen Maybe we listen to a worship song which is another form of prayer if we're listening

to a a worship song and connecting with him and we're especially if we're singing it to him if we're singing A A Hymn like How Great Thou Art that's a prayer oh Lord my God when I an awesome Wonder consider all the worlds your hands have made and so you're you're talking to God you're just either listening to the song and making it a part of your prayer life but you're interacting with the Lord this is time with Christ and that's devotional life uh your devotional life uh carries on throughout the day and and and

your devotional life really is the vertical relational experience with Jesus but it flows into your relational life with others in your life your family your co-workers um your friends your church family and so um there's an intentionality to devotional life and then there's an intentionality spiritually in the relational life and I think what encapsulates that better this time with followers of Jesus the Bible tells us to do that to spend time with spiritual friends and uh help one another be encouraged and grow in our journey with Christ and that may look like a small group

uh we call those groups impact groups at our church and people come together they share um celebrations and challenges and they pray for one another they share what the Lord has been showing them through their devotional time in his word and in prayer and they also uh talk about how they can share Christ and show Christ in the community and that's the next piece being missional and that's time helping others know Jesus in some way exposing people to the love and the light of Jesus together so time with Jesus devotional time with followers of Jesus

relational time helping others know Jesus missional now that is a disciple but we need a pathway and we need a pathway according to the Great Commission not just to make a disciple but to produce a discipl maker that's what God that's the step that we've got to get to that ends up making this exponential it ends up making this a multiplied impact and so let's talk about that the B the the primary Med for for the church in uh the New Testament is a family we are a family of faith and so I want to

uh just look at different stages of Life uh in the family and the first stage is um birth it's New Birth uh and what needs to happen in each of these stages for there to be progress for this to be a pathway and and as we think about the stages of um of family life how does this relate to becoming a disciplemaker being what Jesus said that we're supposed to be a new birth has to happen people have to come to Christ and so a a spiritual Birth has to happen John chapter 3 when Nicodemus

comes to Jesus and he's asking him you know uh questions about spiritual life Jesus said you must be born again you must be born again there has to be new birth and so um in order for New Birth to happen and and I realize I'm mixing the two metaphors in the New Testament but the family metaphor and the uh agricultural metaphor are the two big metaphors of spiritual life in the New Testament and so uh in order for New Birth to happen the ground has to be tilled the seeds have to be planted they have

to be watered they have to be fertilized they have to be tended to and then New Birth New Life happens the seeds germinate and uh in essence are birthed out of the ground and so the Bible teaches that the gospel is like the seed that gets planted and then New Birth Earth happens after that seed is planted and and so uh there are many ways for that to happen go back if you need to to um our first four lessons and see what Jesus wants to do uh what Jesus has done for us rather and

get equipped in the The Gospel those three circles that we looked at that video that we had get fluent in the gospel and um and then um the easiest way to expose people to the gospel is through Hospitality or service that's what I found in 34 years of planting churches if people um intentionally create uh a welcoming space this is what it means to to do Hospitality Outreach create a welcoming space uh and and have a commitment to listen and learn about someone else's life and then um ask that person where where's Jesus fitting into

your story right now and then just listen to where they are and they may say I'm really not sure but you know I'm here and I'm kind of seeking where he may fit into my story and then you follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit from there and when it's appropriate you share those those three circles you share the essentials of the Gospel with that person and when they embrace that by faith the Bible says they're born again New Birth into God's family happens and so um after that stage there's infancy and what are the

three things that need to happen uh in that stage of infancy and by the way we have six kids um and uh and a couple of grandkids and so so I think I'm a bit of an expert on these stages of family life life um I know in infancy there's there are lots of things but three things have to happen an infant needs to be fed they need to be nurtured and they need to be given an identity um an infant can't feed himself or herself they're dependent on the mother's milk uh they're and once

they graduate from the mother's milk they're dependent on someone putting the food in their mouths while they sit in a high chair um and and then they have to be nurtured and that means uh attachments need to happen because of Love uh a nurturing love creates a healthy attachment uh with that child and then the identity is given you give them a name and when you have loving parents loving grandparents uh that and and they say that child's name uh they begin to respond to it very early on I remember our first granddaughter um when

into the house I was talking to my son Jacob his wife Chantel my granddaughter's name is Hadley uh we were all talking for just a moment and then I said there's our Hadley and I don't know how old she maybe four months five months at the most and when I said there's our Hadley she turned looked and smiled because she had her own identity and she was learning what uh her identity her given identity was and and she was reacting to that well we want to see that child progress and so they Pro progress from

infancy to Childhood or they should right if they don't it's tragic but think about this in the church people come to Christ they need to be fed they need to be nurtured in love their relationship with Christ and they need to start understanding the new identity that they are given because they belong to Christ and then they've got to go beyond that if they're going to become discipl makers they have to move into childhood and in childhood the three great needs are they need to be led they need to learn to feed themselves and they

start serving um let's just stick with my granddaughter uh she's she's five now that and um and so when she was about three I noticed that the focus really shifted uh to her parents teaching her leading her to be kind to the kids she was playing with and then sometime between three and four her sister Laney May was born and so she really had to be taught how to be gentle and kind with her new little baby sister and so she needed to be led parented but she started feeding herself uh she was still in

her high chair during a lot of that time but her food was put in front of her and she was pretty messy with it like if if you know you gave her something like spaghetti or pizza she was going to be wearing it was going to be in her hair but she was feeding herself and um she started serving when my when my wife uh went to keep her and Lany may she sent me a picture actually was a little video of Hadley standing up on a chair beside her washing dishes with her and she

was singing while she was washing dishes with Mimi is what she calls my wife her grandmother so she starts to serve she she picks up her toys she helps with the dishes that's childhood that's spiritual childhood when they're being led they are feeding themselves El and they're serving the family in some capacity and that's what it looks like when the disciple is moving through the pathway and they're in the childhood stage but tragically a lot of people never make make it to that stage I've known Christians that have been Christians for 30 40 years and

they're still looking to be fed they want someone to feed them and nurture them and remind them about their ident identity but they don't want to feed themselves and they're not serving and it is tragic it should be the tragic exception in churches and not the norm and they should move from this childhood to young adult and then the young adult stage these three things are the focus uh the first thing we call call GPS and uh GPS is gifts passions and story so um they need to start learning um the way God has specifically

shaped them to make an impact in the world for the for his glory and um they need to learn what they're passionate about like if um they should be ask questions like if you could solve one problem in the world today what would it be if you could make a difference and make an impact in the world what two things would you change and and listen to them and ask why and and hear their heart that's their passion and then their story they need to be able to communicate so clearly how Jesus became the hero

of their story and how Jesus wants to make a difference in other people's lives and come into their story so um that's the first thing the second thing is they need to be prepared for battle because this life is not a dance all the time it's a battle it's a spiritual battle and there are forces of evil uh in this world the Bible says they will be assailed by the lust of the eyes the lust of the Flesh and the pride of life in 1 Peter chapter 5 says their adversary the Devil roams about like

a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour they need to know Luke 10:19 they need to know that they have some Authority in Christ they have authority over the evil one they uh can walk Jesus said you will walk among the snakes and scorpions and crush them and not be injured and he said I'm talking about demons he literally says what he's talking about and he said you can walk among those snakes and scorpions and crush them and not be injured and he says don't Rejoice over this though Rejoice that your names are written in

heaven registered in heaven but they need to learn Ephesians chapter 6 they need to learn how to how to do spiritual battle and pray spiritual warfare prayers for others and for themselves because their lives as adults will have challenge multiple challenges and they have to be prepared for battle and the and the third thing is they need to be prepared to launch in the young adult uh phase they've got to be prepared to launch and and by that in discipleship we mean um they they need to know that God has called them to start new

kingdom Ventures God has called them to assignments to callings and they have to uh have a listening heart and spend time with God and let him speak to their hearts about what he wants them to go do and in a in a um family if there's a failure to launch and the child's still there at 30 years of age if there's not some extreme disability it's a tragedy it's a tragedy and so they're supposed to move through young adulthood to Parenthood and the three things that parents do is they guide they equip and they launch

formally they formally send and and and by formal sending I mean what and when and where is determined it's it's completely determined and there some formal way of sending out those from Young adulthood into adulthood but that's not the that's not the final thing the final thing is parent grandparenting and so we're talking about disciplemakers if if people got to the parenthood stage of discipl making wow they're guiding these these uh uh people in that young adult phase that young adulthood phase they're equipping they're launching them out this is where churches are being started new

Ministries are being started and and and the discipl making is exponential but it goes beyond that to spiritual grandparenting and the spiritual grandparents are the ones who are careful to pass on the pathway that's what I'm doing with you right now I'm a grandpa I'm 34 years into being a pastor and a missionary I'm a physical Grandpa in my family I'm a grandfather in the church and so I'm passing on the pathway of discipl making to others I pass on the pathway the spiritual grandparent guides the multiplication offers wisdom things to avoid things to do

in the in in this process of multiplication and then the third thing that grandparents do is they encourage encourage and support the parents because parents get weary and so when you are training and launching out people to start Ministries and start churches uh it can be challenging and wearisome and those people that are training others to do that need a Godly and wise grandparent to encourage and support them as they're doing that this is a metal metaphor for a pathway of discipl making this is how we make uh an impact in the world that is

exponential and um I was so blessed to have spiritual grandparents in my life that helped me to become a all go all the way through the stages become a parent and now become a grandparent myself um there are with with the um with the mission agency that I started impact multipli there are now hundreds of new churches around the world but my spiritual grandparents um actually started thousands of churches around the world and so uh I've got a ways to go and so my prayer for you is that you won't stop here this is not

the fruit of an apple tree and another tree is not the fruit of the apple tree orchards are the fruit of the apple tree and what has to happen in order for us to have Orchards one thing become a discipl maker