Conversations: Discipleship In All Of Life

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How might you begin to pay attention to ongoing normal life opportunities for discipleship, reoccurring situations or interactions do you have throughout the week that allows you to show others?

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God's true heart and character.

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Once you decide to take full advantage of these chances to disciple others from unbelief to belief about God, you'll start to notice how more and more of your daily life and conversations take on new meaning.

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I mean, we can always keep living our life in separate segments where there's my spiritual life and practices.

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And then there's my everyday life where I'm on my own schedule and managing my kingdom for my glory and my effective.

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The scandal of the gospel is that you're perfectly loved by God, either way.

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And that freezes up to join him on his mission and receive his guidance and grace, everywhere we go.

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That's good news

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. Announcer: Welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality.

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and an integrated Faith that naturally fits into every area of life.

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In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.

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And now here's your host Caesar Kalinowski

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I hope you had an amazing week so far.

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Mine's been pretty solid.

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I can't complain last weekend, Tina and I were in Detroit or in the Detroit area.

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And wow.

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Uh, I remember opening up my phone in the morning, had to take a screenshot of it because it said it was four degrees.

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And some of you were hearing this and going like that's enough.

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And I told that to somebody this week and they said, oh, no, uh, it was 22 below here.

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Like what?

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That's not human.

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Anyway, we had a great time.

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While we were in Detroit, we were with two different groups that we were doing some training with and they were both amazing and humble.

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And one of them, we did a full day sort of Everyday Disciple workshop with, and then on Sunday, got to be with a community of friends.

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You know who you are.

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You're.

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And talk about identity and talk about the story of God and all that.

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What a blast, what a blessing and how fun it was to be with brothers and sisters that are living on mission, really digging into all of this as a lifestyle.

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I it's my it's my favorite thing to do.

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It's such a pleasure.

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And what a privilege to do.

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If that sounds fun to you and you ever want me or me and Tina both together to come and help you train and equip your people for Everyday discipleship and mission, just let me know.

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You can email me or hit me up on social media.

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We do that all the time.

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We don't have unlimited slots because we're pretty busy here in our own neighborhood and with other things and coaching and all the things we are doing.

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But we'd love to come and see you and help you move the ball.

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As it were.

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Usually we're told that when we do like one of those Everyday Disciple workshops, they say like that just helped us move our people forward six months in a weekend.

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So how awesome is that?

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Well, let us know if we can serve you in any way at all.

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Like.

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Hey favored ask, would you please share this podcast with others that you love and you're doing ministry and mission with last week when we were in Detroit, while we were there with the folks and doing the training.

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So many people came up to tell me how much they enjoy this podcast.

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And they're naming off favorite episodes and this, that, and the other, which also shows me that their leaders have passed along this podcast to them as an ongoing way of discipling and training their people for discipleship.

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So would you do that for me and for your folks today?

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Maybe now, just pause this if you need to, but share the podcast regularly, or even ask your folks, Hey, let's start listening to this and discussing it together.

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And by the way, too, if you need the best resources for your Missional Community, small groups, transitioning people towards mission and all that.

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I don't forget about my friends over at Missio publishing.

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They have, I think, the best resources available for doing that in community and giving you reproducible tools.

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So others can continue to do the same if you've not yet or not in a while.

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Check them out.

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Please go over to Missio publishing.com.

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M I S S I O publishing.com.

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There's a lot of cool stuff over there.

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And again, I'm excited, a couple of my new books coming out this year through Missio as well.

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Okay.

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Let's get to today's topic.

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Here's what I want to be thinking about.

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And this is there again, a foundational set of conversations we're doing.

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And so some of these things you go, yeah, I've heard them, or you mentioned them all a whole lot on the podcast and that's because you just can't leave the foundational stuff.

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We don't, I'm going to suggest you want to keep having these types of conversations.

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So here's what I want to think about today.

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The gospel is not just the beginning of.

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Of our Christian life or someone's Christian life.

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That's not the gospel serves as that purpose.

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And then now you're in, right.

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And it's how you start.

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And it's how you obtain your ticket to heaven.

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And that's what the gospel is about.

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Know our discipleship and the gospel has implications for all of life today, right now here.

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And think about this.

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We are actually in reality, always in discipleship.

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people are watching.

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People are listening to our words.

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They see our actions.

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Uh, have you thought about that?

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You'll hear a lot more about that in the episode of.

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Now today we're continuing in this conversations series series of conversations.

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There's 10 of them.

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This is number six, go back.

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If you haven't heard them all yet, or even relisten to them, but this is number six.

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And what we're, these are conversations that we've had so many times with people as we make disciples and help lead them on mission or help people transition to a lifestyle of discipleship.

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Important conversations that we have a lot and you will be as well.

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So this one today I'll be sharing a conversation about how discipleship should and does and will affect all of life, not just spiritual things and where we'll spend our afterlife.

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This is a conversation between a married couple Frank and Sally and Sally is just getting back from a trip to the grocery store.

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Take alisten.

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I'm so sorry, Frank.

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I hate being late.

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I was in line at the grocery store waiting to checkout and the people in front of me were taking forever to pay for their groceries.

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First, they tried a credit card that was not working, it was declined or something.

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And then they started counting out a small mountain of bills and a pocket full of changeonly to be $3 short.

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So they stood there trying to decide what to put back.

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I was already running late to pick up the kids from band practice.

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So I freaked out a little bit.

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I don't know.

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I mean, not crazily.

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Sounds rough.

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I've been there honey too many times.

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So what happened?

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Well, the people all around me in line noticed me fidgeting, checking my watch and sighing heavily.

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I think I had a pretty frustrated, angry face going on there.

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The teller noticed it too.

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I made them all feel terrible.

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Like they were ruining my day.

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I know that face, Sally.

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Anyway, I was pretty embarrassed by my actions afterwards.

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What was going on in my heart that I got so freaked out over a few minutes.

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Difference.

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shesh.

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I got to relax.

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Well, this is kind of like what we were talking about the other night.

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Like it or not Sal, we are always in discipleship mode.

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People are either seeing us live a life centered on self.

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Like we're God of this world, or they're seeing and experiencing our lives, submitted to the spirit and live for others.

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So the folksahead of you in line, weren't discipled toward knowing what God is truly like in that moment by watching you, Hey, Hey, are you trying to make me feel worse, Frank?

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No, not at all.

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In fact, I'm trying to encourage you, sweetie.

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Like we talked about our discipleship moving from unbelief to belief about what is true of God in every area of life is always happening.

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You experienced that today.

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So just to be sure I don't miss it helped me see what was really going on today.

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That led me to freak out on those poor people.

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Well, I wasn't there and I could never know exactly what was going on inside of that head of yours, but I'll take a stab at it.

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Ooh, bad choice of words.

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Anyway, when we're in patient with us.

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We're not believing that God is sovereign over our days and actions.

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We end up expecting others to play according to our timeline.

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And when they don't comply, we get frustrated sounds about right.

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But when we believe that God is great and managing the world for his glory, including my time in the grocery store, we don't have to try and control others.

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We can relax the pressures is off.

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Okay.

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So during those few minutes in line, God was using that to disciple my heart concerning time and patience with others.

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Those are both discipleship issues.

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I'm obviously still learning.

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I'm glad though, not for those people, having to experience my little meltdown, but that God is pursuing all of that muck in my life.

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Even while I'm in line at the grocery store, Frank continued.

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Sweetie this process of ongoing discipleship touches every single aspect of who we are.

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The good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection has huge ramifications for all of life.

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Not just our afterlife, how we spend our time, our money, where we find our passions and ultimately our identity all impacted by the gospel.

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Our discipleship is a lifelong process.

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Today, the spirit reminded you of what was true concerning God's greatness over your schedule, and that you can trust him and love others.

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He's got you discipleship.

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Then that touches all of who we are, would require a community of people around us who can see the times that we're living out of unbelief.

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And then lovingly remind us.

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Show us the truth.

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This really couldn't happen very well in a classroom.

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It needs to happen.

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On going in the normal stuff and conversations of life.

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Is that right?

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Frank, for sure.

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Sal, the others in our Missional Community need us and we need them together.

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God is forming and reforming our hearts and lives to look and be more like Jesus.

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Well, cool.

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Next time I'm in line at the grocery store.

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I'll be more careful and maybe carry my Bible.

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Just kidding.

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Wow.

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That short conversation is pretty fun, but it's pretty packed.

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There are so many core issues and beliefs about discipleship happening in there.

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Did you catch that?

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I mean, first they're talking about here.

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We're always in discipleship mode.

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Have you thought much about that?

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That's both freeing.

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And a little scary it's freeing in that discipleship.

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Isn't a set of classes that we have to set up or programmatic things or whatever, right.

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It doesn't have to always be that organized.

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It's always happening.

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That's freeing because if we're living out of belief and we're living for God's glory, then everything going on, we go, there's an opportunity to show others what he's like.

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But it's also a little scary too, because everybody's paying attention and watching.

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So there's a perspective.

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So that gets covered there.

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That's super important.

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I wanted to make sure you didn't miss.

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That is a key thing.

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And, and making disciples and helping your people make disciples realizing this is a game changer.

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It changes everything.

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Cause we always tend to bifurcate discipleship and put it in a box all by itself.

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Just like we do with our spirituality or our Christianity or whatever.

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But that's not the case.

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We are always in discipleship mode.

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We are either showing people what God's really like, or we're showing people what it looks like for me to try to be God.

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Another thing that was in that conversation, don't miss it is that discipleship involves the real time process of moving from unbelief to belief in the gospel, in every area of life, identity and a hard time usage and all that stuff.

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And out of our.

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Or our beliefs, our actions flow.

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See, see what was going on there.

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She's flipping out a little bit, Sally's flipping out a little bit at the grocery store and that wasn't just because she was running late.

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It was because of what was going on in her heart behind her.

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And that kind of leads to my next point.

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Don't miss it.

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That discussion also models, how a short conversation that is super gospel fluent\ can sound Frank, helped her get to the thing behind the thing and what was really going on in her heart while in line at the grocery store.

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And it was good news to her.

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It encouraged.

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It was simple and powerful.

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And like I said, it was good news to Sally.

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There's a little example of how sometimes a very short conversation can be full of the gospel.

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So now not only was being in line, both discipling others to what God's like or to what it's like to not trust him maybe with our time, but it was also, God was working on her heart.

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And now her conversation with her husband about it is another layer of the gospel being unpacked man.

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That is so cool.

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See what I'm saying?

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We're always in discipleship mode, we are always in discipleship mode, but do we notice it?

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And then another thing don't miss this here is we tend to think that everything going on in our life or that the things that we do to disciple others, or, you know, have them around or whatever are always about the other person and what they're learning or what they'll see or what they'll experience.

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But the truth is God is using everything in our lives, including all of our best laid plans and engaging people or inviting them into stuff or whatever he's using all of that to move us from unbelief to belief and conform us to Jesus as well.

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I've found that oftentimes what I think is happening or I'm trying to do with, or for someone else is actually God working on me.

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He had it planned all along to teach me something to shape and mold me, but in my sort of pride and self focus, I'm working on my disciple-making in my neighborhood outreach stuff and my People of Peace stuff.

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And I'm thinking everything, how it goes or doesn't go well or whatever is all about them.

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And I didn't do it.

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Right.

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Whatever.

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And the guy's like, no, no, no.

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That was, you were beating to me and I'm using it to shape you.

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I'm helping move you from unbelief to belief.

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I'm drawing you in closer to me to trust me.

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Yeah.

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So there's so much in that little short conversation, I encourage you to go back and hear it again.

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It's that good.

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Now this conversation and all the ones in this series are critical set of topics to grapple with and have conversations about.

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If we want to see our church really engaged in mission and discipleship as our primary focus.

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You know, moving well beyond classes and head knowledge.

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And if you're interested in getting a little help with that, or learn in a full framework and having all the tools to do that and have a way to pass that on to others.

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So your disciples make disciples.

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It's exactly what we coached.

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I bring it up almost every episode, but I'd love to tell you more about the coaching and gets you into a coaching relationship with Tina and I, it's powerful.

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It'll mark your marriage.

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It'll mark your parenting and it'll certainly mark your disciple-making and those that you make disciples of, or you lead in disciple-making.

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So to learn more about that and to get ahold of us, just go to Everyday Disciple dot.

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Forward slash coaching.

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And there'll be plenty of information there and a little way to maybe set up a call or something so we can talk through all that.

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All right.

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Now let's get to the big three takeaways from today's topic

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. I always like to give you these sort of summarize things.

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If you're at the gym or on the road or whatever, you can't write it down, I'll also send them to you in a printable PDF for free.

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Just go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash big three, and you can download that.

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So here's the big three for this week.

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Number one, how might you begin to pay attention to ongoing normal life opportunities for discipleship?

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What reoccurring situations or interactions do you have throughout the week that allows you to show others God's true, heart and character.

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Once you decided to take full advantage of these chances to disciple others from unbelief to belief about God, you'll start to notice how more and more of your daily life and conversations take on new meaning.

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You're always in discipleship mode.

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Go for it.

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Number two.

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Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.

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And only a few find it.

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Jesus told his followers this, and in some ways I think it perfectly illustrates the opportunity before us to see all of life as an opportunity to glorify God and grow in peace and relationship with him and others and helping others.

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See what he's really.

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I mean, we can always keep living our life in separate segments where there's my spiritual life and practices.

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And then there's my everyday life where I'm on my own schedule and managing my kingdom for my glory and my effectiveness.

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The scandal of the gospel is that you're perfectly loved by God, either way.

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And that frees us up to join him on his mission and receive his guidance and grace, everywhere we go.

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That's good news.

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Number three, don't miss it.

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God is using everything in our lives to move us from unbelief to belief and make us more and more like his son, Jesus discipleship, and our ongoing maturity is happening even as, and especially as we disciple others, if you want to become a mature disciple of Jesus, then go and make disciples of Jesus.

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It's amazing how that.

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Okay.

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And as I wrap up for the day here, don't forget to go and check out Everyday.

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Disciple dot com forward slash coaching.

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At least take a look at it.

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Maybe hop on a phone call.

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There's no obligation or anything.

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Just see if it's a good fit for you.

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For us, get you into a coaching cohort with us and help you learn how to make discipleship part of your everyday life and grow in your spiritual freedom and relational.

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Connection with God and others.

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All right, well, that's it for today.

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Join me again.

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Next time.

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As we continue on in our conversation series, we're going to hear a conversation about gospel communities on mission.

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Maybe you call them missional communities or what.

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But we're going to talk about those three components, gospel, community, and mission, because in order to make fully mature disciples of Jesus, it takes all three.

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And you'll hear how we must live within a gospel centered community together on mission for this to happen, a one-on-one discipleship or our nine week set of classes.

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We will not get it done.

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I think you're going to love that.

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I'll talk to you soon.

Announcer: 00:20:10

Thanks for joining us today.

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For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.