[SPECIAL] What is Discipleship?
For a long time, the Church has majored in holding worship services and minored in discipleship and mission. Now that the Church has been scattered like never before as we enter into the “new normal”, will we seize the opportunity to restore the balance?
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, I am sharing Day 1 of the Everyday Disciple Challenge. This is the audio from the Live training we did online. I share a practical, working definition and framework of discipleship that will forever change the way you make disciples of Jesus.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The traditional Church approach to discipleship vs. the biblical (Jesus) approach.
- Why the difference between evangelism and discipleship is so important.
- How disciples made in community (not in a classroom) are a very different type of Christian.
- Simple homework and Action Steps you can take TODAY to get started with everyday discipleship in your life.
From this episode:
“In my experience, we have often done this whole process backwards. We expect people to first believe that what we tell them is true… next say a ‘Jesus in their heart’ prayer to be saved… and THEN we start to disciple them. But that is not what Jesus says here, nor is it what he modeled in his own life.“
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Everyday Disciple Challenge and Workshop – Register Now!
Transcript
What starts to unlock when you realize, wait a minute, maybe this whole evangelism leads to a special magic prayer, and then we're supposed to Disciple.
Caesar:What if that was all backwards?
Caesar:And what if it's really much more cyclical?
Caesar:And, and it happens in everyday life because if discipleship's the process of moving from unbelief to belief in every area of life, then guess what discipleship and the Gospel is gonna need to be experienced in all of life, not just sitting in rows for an hour or two, we're watching now a livestream when we kind of can fit it in what unlocks for you in your heart.
Caesar:Because this is pretty, I mean, for us, this altered, everything, this changed everything.
Caesar:We started to realize, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.
Caesar:All of life then is an opportunity for both evangelism and discipleship for our own hearts in community with others, but also with not yet believing friends.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, Discipleship as a lifestyle.
Announcer:This is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now here's your host Caesar.
Announcer:Kalinowski.
Caesar:Hey, Hey.
Caesar:Hey.
Caesar:Good to be with you.
Caesar:I hope your week is kicking off.
Caesar:Well, mine is wow.
Caesar:This is the beginning of a very big week.
Caesar:A very Busy week, but, uh, before I get into all that, uh, I will just tell you that I had a great weekend.
Caesar:I hope you did.
Caesar:And even though I was a little bit busy preparing for what I'm about to tell you about in the training that's happening all this week, I had a very, very nice relaxed weekend.
Caesar:It was great family, some community Tina and I even managed to fit in at date night.
Caesar:It was all great.
Caesar:It was awesome.
Caesar:Hope yours was great too.
Caesar:Today.
Caesar:I wanna share with you kind of a special episode.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Very special episode.
Caesar:This is day one of the everyday Disciple challenge embracing the new normal.
Caesar:And what I'm going to be teaching on is how the basic frameworks of discipleship in everyday life.
Caesar:Address everything that we're facing now with so many people, starting micro churches and smaller communities out in their homes and wanting to be in the neighborhood more and things like we've always called Missional communities, this training this week and the everyday Disciple challenge is gonna speak into and equip you for all of that.
Caesar:Maybe you even registered and you've been a part of it, but what we're doing is I'm doing training online this week on Facebook live.
Caesar:And I am walking through basic discipleship steps and frameworks for how you make disciples in everyday life.
Caesar:Are we really going back to where we were?
Caesar:I don't think so, but how do we make disciples in the future?
Caesar:That'll really last and work and transfer and, you know, disciples who will know how to make disciples.
Caesar:And so today, Was day one.
Caesar:And we talked about what is discipleship?
Caesar:And what I did was I gave a working definition and framework of discipleship that really, I think is transformational.
Caesar:It changed me, uh, in our lives when we started to understand what Jesus modeled and really the difference between discipleship and evangelism and how those two actually work together, that changed everything.
Caesar:And so what I wanna do is I wanna let you listen to the training from today and you'll hear me answering some questions and different things like that.
Caesar:And then I'm gonna come back at the end and I'll give you a few more thoughts and I'll tell you what else is happening, cuz this, like I said, this is a special week.
Caesar:And so I'm gonna be giving you part one today.
Caesar:I'm gonna give you part two tomorrow and the next day part three.
Caesar:So I'm gonna be with you a lot here in the Everyday Disciple Podcast, but for right now, let's go ahead and listen to day one of the everyday Disciple challenge.
Caesar:What is discipleship?
Caesar:I know your, your time is valuable.
Caesar:I'm I tend to talk fast already.
Caesar:I'm gonna try not to talk too fast as we get into this, but I do have a lot to cover.
Caesar:I wanna try to keep these training times about 40 minutes
Caesar:ish,
Caesar:each day.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Listen.
Caesar:A lot of years of preaching, I could go a little long.
Caesar:It could happen, but I'll try not to.
Caesar:And like I said said, I'll stay around longer to answer any questions.
Caesar:I wanna get us going.
Caesar:My goal is that today you would leave encouraged.
Caesar:You'd leave encouraged and you'd, you'd leave taking some very small steps.
Caesar:Like I said, head heart, hands, starting to take some very small steps in actions, believing that you can make disciples in everyday life and lead others to do the same.
Caesar:That's my goal.
Caesar:So let me tell you you're in the right place today.
Caesar:If you're busy.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:If you're busy and maybe you're experiencing your church, rhythms have changed and the people you do life with and people you lead maybe.
Caesar:Well, I know a lot of you are pastors and leaders in your churches.
Caesar:You're in the right place today.
Caesar:If everything seems changed and maybe more scattered than every, before you're in the right place.
Caesar:If you're trying to lead your small groups or community groups, Whatever you call them to live in new, more intentional rhythms.
Caesar:And maybe you're finding people think they're just a little too busy for it.
Caesar:What we're gonna teach you this week is gonna show you.
Caesar:No, actually all of this fits into everyday life.
Caesar:That's why we call it the everyday Disciple.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:So you're in the right place.
Caesar:If that's what you're trying to do.
Caesar:You're in the right place.
Caesar:If you're trying to learn how to lead your own family since you know, stuff at the building's not happening nearly as much, or maybe not at all for like the last nine months.
Caesar:And you're trying to really learn how to lead your own family in deeper discipleship, rhythms, and ways of growing in your faith that are natural and they include your kids and they include neighbors without it being weird or taking up all your time or slamming your schedule or any of that, you're in the right place for that too.
Caesar:And I have been in all those places.
Caesar:and I'm in some of those today with my wife, Tina and I she's right here too.
Caesar:You can say, hi, Tina.
Caesar:Hello.
Caesar:she's right here helping me and keeping track of some stuff.
Caesar:And so.
Caesar:More than anything you're in the right place today.
Caesar:If your love for Jesus and your love for making disciples and helping lead others deeper into an everyday faith is what's driving you.
Caesar:And I hope that you'll set time aside right now.
Caesar:You'll put it in your calendar to be with me live every day.
Caesar:I really do.
Caesar:There's a lot more energy.
Caesar:There's a lot more encouragement.
Caesar:You're gonna, we're gonna get to know other, you're gonna get to know others.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Along the way.
Caesar:And so I hope you'll take this really seriously.
Caesar:You'll turn off your cell phones right now.
Caesar:I hope that if you're finding this helpful that you'll share this out, like we're in a group right now, private group.
Caesar:So you can't, there is no click share, but you can share everyday Disciple dot com forward slash challenge.
Caesar:You can get on your Facebook page and just go, wow.
Caesar:Getting some great training today on discipleship.
Caesar:In everyday life, I'm loving it.
Caesar:You should check it out and they could still register.
Caesar:And then our system will start sending them the links and they can catch up on replays and things like that.
Caesar:So would you please share this?
Caesar:I, I would love it if you would.
Caesar:Tina and I have been 30 plus years.
Caesar:In church, in our lives, in, in all kinds of every strata of leadership and like not pay, but yet then God called us into full-time ministry.
Caesar:And then I became a pastor and all that, and we've always enjoyed the church and being a part of the church and, and weekend gatherings and all that kind of stuff.
Caesar:But it has changed.
Caesar:And.
Caesar:Even along the way in our best ever worship experiences and all that.
Caesar:And actually I used to be had a production at a megachurch.
Caesar:So putting on that weekend gathering was my thing.
Caesar:We always kind of.
Caesar:Long for the folks in our communities, in our small groups and are not yet believing friends to sort of move beyond a weekly gathering.
Caesar:So even though we were loving it, we always long for like, Hey, could, could we live this in everyday life?
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:And can we talk about it?
Caesar:Have a fluency of the Gospel makes sense.
Caesar:When we're talking about, you know, everybody's normal problems and joys and hopes and dreams and their kids moving out and sickness and new jobs.
Caesar:And, you know, is there a way to talk about the Gospel and Jesus and life in his kingdom?
Caesar:That is good news to people and makes sense in everyday life for me, for my family, for them as well.
Caesar:We always long for that.
Caesar:And you know what there is.
Caesar:There's good news.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And.
Caesar:I, I think it's what drove us over the years into the whole church planting thing.
Caesar:Tina and I became church planners back in 2004 when God first moved us out here to the Pacific Northwest, hard to believe in a long time, 17 years ago.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And we, we moved out here to see what would it be like if we lived like a family that sent as a missionary family to another country.
Caesar:But we'll live it like right here in Tacoma, Washington, what an adventure.
Caesar:And it turns out we do get to live like what we saw in the book of acts.
Caesar:Like we do get to live that way, sharing our things and our time and our resources and helping one another and all the things that we read in there.
Caesar:And we go, oh gosh, I want that to be real for me.
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:And maybe you sense that maybe you feel that more than ever right now as the big program in the meeting.
Caesar:And maybe now the live streaming out you're just going is okay.
Caesar:Maybe it's great.
Caesar:Or maybe you're not so stoked about it.
Caesar:I don't know.
Caesar:But is there more and, and how do we lead our people into that whole of life thing that Jesus did and how he made his disciples?
Caesar:I'll tell you there's freedom in it.
Caesar:And once you start to taste this and live this way, it kind of ruins you.
Caesar:We're kind of ruined for life and community and making disciples with others in the real time of things.
Caesar:And maybe you got tired of asking yourself these questions is our church really making a difference, transformational difference in people's lives?
Caesar:Or are we sort of filling like a consumer need?
Caesar:Cuz you know, Christians are supposed to go to church kind of thing.
Caesar:Maybe you're getting a little tired of that.
Caesar:Or maybe you got tired of asking yourself, are, am I, and are the leaders in our church?
Caesar:Are we modeling a lifestyle of discipleship that others would be able to draft in behind?
Caesar:And they would look at what it looks like to have.
Caesar:See the Gospel transforming every area of our life, not just our afterlife, like, are we living lives, worth imitating?
Caesar:You can be, we get to, and as leaders, oh, if, if not us then who maybe you've wondered for a long time, what do our kids think Christianity is all about?
Caesar:Do they think it's about going to church instead of being the church?
Caesar:Do they see the Gospel as something that's primarily about our afterlife or do they see it as, oh my gosh, it's the good news of who God is and what he's done in through Christ.
Caesar:And what's now true of us and how we get to live.
Caesar:Those gatherings on the weekend are a great celebration, but we've got six days and 22 hours, besides that, like, what do your kids think this faith and Christianity is all about and what will they think it's about when they're adults and raising their kids, right?
Caesar:That, that, that always weighed heavily on us.
Caesar:And you might also be wondering, are we truly making disciples in everyday life who can that know how to make more disciples of Jesus?
Caesar:Through what we're currently doing either with our weekend program or, you know, it was, well, we used to do some training.
Caesar:It all got broke.
Caesar:Well, how about we give you ways to do it in everyday life this week?
Caesar:So hopefully this is all resonating, cuz like I said, I've been in all those places.
Caesar:That's, what's driven us with others and the help of so many people and guided by the spirit of God to really dig into how do Jesus make disciples and how do we pass that on to our kids and, and others so that as we make disciples, they know how to make disciples.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Listen, I wanna share my screen and get into a little more of this, the deeper part of the training end of this.
Caesar:I think we're all on the same page here.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Great.
Caesar:So here we are.
Caesar:Day one.
Caesar:What is discipleship?
Caesar:Let me show you.
Caesar:This is my family team.
Caesar:K.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:We've always well for the long, longest time we've been referred to as team K.
Caesar:Kalinowski right.
Caesar:That's our last name and that's a big deal to us.
Caesar:We really, really love it.
Caesar:These, this is my family and kids.
Caesar:You can see my kids on the left there.
Caesar:This is a few years ago.
Caesar:They're they've grown up now, started having their own families.
Caesar:That's Caesar and Kristen and Justine down the bottom right there.
Caesar:That's a few years back when Kristen got married, that was her wedding.
Caesar:There's my wife, Tina and I, a little vacation.
Caesar:And that's my tattoo right there.
Caesar:That's my family crest, our family, I guess a zillion years ago, back in Poland was part of the royalty class or something like that.
Caesar:And so we actually have a crest.
Caesar:Someday.
Caesar:I can tell you what all those symbols mean.
Caesar:It's very important to us, but it's a
Caesar:big
Caesar:deal being a part of team K.
Caesar:And when Tina and I were younger parents and just starting to raise our kids, like I kind of was saying a little while ago, we, God was changing our lives and we loved being part of the church and stepping up to of in every way we possibly could.
Caesar:But we got to a point where we were kind of starting to wonder.
Caesar:Is this transferring to our kids.
Caesar:And is this all there is like, it felt like it was Sunday to Sunday, pretty hard.
Caesar:And now that seems broken.
Caesar:So what does that leave us?
Caesar:And then eventually God called me into full-time pastoring and Tina also into full-time ministry at, at a megachurch, very large church, thousands of people on the weekend.
Caesar:And I ultimately be became, uh, the international min ministries.
Caesar:Pastor was one of my roles there and I increasingly felt it hard.
Caesar:And harder to go back and forth from out in the field, cuz like we were working with people all over the world, but we were working like in Sudan during the war and in Sierra Leone during the civil war there and people just, you know, atrocities happening in Burma during the wars there, we were working where the church had nothing where they literally had no things.
Caesar:Yet they had great joy, you know, I think about now we're also flipped out and kind of complaining about our lockdowns and our what's our government doing, you know, what's the social distancing thing, what are they doing next?
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:And we're kind of really upset about it.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:I'll tell you what I've been with.
Caesar:People who they're in war zones and they have nothing, and they don't have a church building and they haven't eaten in a week.
Caesar:And they're not sure when they're gonna feed their kids next, but they have Jesus and, and they're full of joy.
Caesar:And as I would be there and be the church, then I'd come home back to my beautiful suburban existence here in the states.
Caesar:And, and.
Caesar:I would go, out, here we are.
Caesar:You know, guys are on the roof and in the parking lot with their orange cones and best parking people, and I'm in charge of production of the big, you know, kind of weekend show.
Caesar:And it's like stage lights up left camera four, little more smoke on the right, you know, that kind of stuff.
Caesar:And I was just like, wow, could we have the joy they have in Christ?
Caesar:And could we like they live?
Caesar:And like we lived the last few weeks or months with them, like in, when we were in the field, could we live that way here too?
Caesar:And it got increasingly harder as I would go on these trips and come home.
Caesar:The contrast between what I saw in the book of acts, how beautiful that was, how these people with nothing were living, how beautiful that was.
Caesar:And yet then how caught up.
Caesar:We were being super busy with trying to pull off this service and live streams and all that.
Caesar:Well now that's all changed even further.
Caesar:I, what if we lived out every day, like we do on these missions trips.
Caesar:But at home in our neighborhood does discipleship and mission.
Caesar:And the mission is always discipleship by the way.
Caesar:Does that fit into regular everyday life?
Caesar:Like it does overseas.
Caesar:Yeah, it really does.
Caesar:And since then, and since God's given us this experience, we've worked training and coaching people in discipleship and living lives on Missional over the world.
Caesar:And we've helped start hundreds of Missional communities and planted multiple churches.
Caesar:And I've been training people to live this way and do Disciple shipping community for over 20 years.
Caesar:Now it's hard to believe.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:It's hard to believe.
Caesar:Now, let me get deeper into, I'm gonna take a little sip here.
Caesar:Let me get deeper into the training here before I do here on the Facebook comments you're tracking with me.
Caesar:Does any of this sound like you, can you relate to like what I've been saying and this kinda longing for more?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Just put into comments of like, heck yeah.
Caesar:Or amen or yes, I do.
Caesar:yeah.
Caesar:I know you do I know you do.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Let me get into the next thing.
Caesar:Now, for many of us the thought about going out and evangelizing people can seem like something kind of scary and uncomfortable.
Caesar:And I know as like, if we're pastors and professional people, like we're kind of used to doing it up in the pulpit or like in a controlled environment, but a lot of pastors will say, yeah, not so much in my real life though.
Caesar:And, and the average
Caesar:person,
Caesar:sometimes it seems a little scary and uncomfortable.
Caesar:Most folks I know would prefer to avoid evangelism altogether.
Caesar:And none of us love this guy, Bullhorn guy who stands on the street and hollers at people to repent.
Caesar:I know this is a little corny picture here, but I I've seen this guy too many times.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And truthfully, I think many or maybe most Christians don't share their faith, which is part of discipleship.
Caesar:I, I think most Christians don't share their faith with any regularity.
Caesar:Because they somehow know that they're not all that fluent in the language of the Gospel.
Caesar:They don't really know how to speak in ways that don't seem churchy or sound like good news for their bad people's bad news right now.
Caesar:Like it doesn't sound like just a message about people's afterlife.
Caesar:Most people don't really know how to speak that.
Caesar:They kinda have a bunch of churchy language, but they know it doesn't translate very well today to their neighbors and friends and what they have to say.
Caesar:Doesn't sound that like good news and almost no one I know sets out to look and sounds stupid or be rejected.
Caesar:So most people then just don't say anything.
Caesar:They kinda biggest thing they'll do maybe is go like, well, you know, they, dad loves me and he loves you too.
Caesar:And so you should come to church on Sunday.
Caesar:Well, now they can't even invite him to that.
Caesar:and that was never getting done anyway.
Caesar:But check this out in scripture, it says, but if so, if no one's Evangel, right?
Caesar:It says Roman's 10 here, but how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him and how can they believe in him if they've never heard about him and how can they hear about him?
Caesar:Unless someone tells them.
Caesar:See, we believe this to be true.
Caesar:So if almost no one's evangelizing and that sort of fails safe of, well, I'll just get him to church and let the pastor do it.
Caesar:That's kind of broken and over.
Caesar:And we've seen that declining over the years.
Caesar:Anyway.
Caesar:Then how are we ever gonna see people come to faith in Christ and be discipled in Jesus?
Caesar:And how do we Disciple people there again, if we not clear and fluent in the Gospel now it's interesting cuz we believe this Romans 10, 14 yet.
Caesar:Interesting.
Caesar:Interestingly Jesus command to us.
Caesar:The great commission in Matthew 28 was actually, it wasn't get out and evangelize and hand out lots of tracks.
Caesar:It was to go and make disciples who make disciples.
Caesar:We've all heard this and seen this, and I've got up on my wall right here in my office.
Caesar:Go and make disciples all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son.
Caesar:Of the holy spirit and teach them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now notice this is the great commission.
Caesar:Nobody argues with this, not hopefully in our church, but nothing here from Jesus mentioned about evangelism.
Caesar:So, so which is it, which is more important evangelism or discipleship.
Caesar:Hmm, let's take a look at this, cuz this is gonna start to reframe what discipleship really is all about.
Caesar:And I think it'll begin to change discipleship in everyday life for you in some pretty radical ways.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now for many, uh, for many of us, we see evangelism as what happens.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:The words, events, activities, et cetera, that brings us or others to the point of belief or faith in Jesus.
Caesar:That's what we, that's.
Caesar:What we see evangelism is, might be words.
Caesar:It might be someone preaching.
Caesar:It might be a track.
Caesar:It might be a message they heard online and evangelism is what brings us to faith.
Caesar:Now in contrast, we usually understand discipleship to be the process for growth in our Christian life.
Caesar:After we've come to faith.
Caesar:That's how I was taught.
Caesar:That's how I was brought up in church.
Caesar:Sorta
Caesar:like evangelism gets us in the door and then the work of discipleship begins.
Caesar:Traditionally, I guess it looks something like this, right?
Caesar:You're moving along, continuing in your continuum, in your life and through evangelism, you come to a point of conversion
Caesar:. And then the discipleship kicks in or let's hope it does.
Caesar:Like, not a lot of churches do discipleship very well or very often, but let's take a little bit closer.
Caesar:Look, I wonder if maybe we've been missing something in this, another word for faith.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:People come to faith in other word for faith is believe, and the Bible clearly teaches us that all sin.
Caesar:Comes from not believing what is true about God.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Faith belief, sin comes from not believing.
Caesar:What's true about God, Romans 1423 says that.
Caesar:So discipleship or what is sometimes called sanctification is this process of moving from unbelief to belief about what is true of God and the Gospel in absolutely every area of my life.
Caesar:Jesus described it this way.
Caesar:He said,
Caesar:if
Caesar:you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Pretty clear.
Caesar:Let me pull up some scripture here.
Caesar:If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Caesar:And then he goes on.
Caesar:He says, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:That's pretty interesting to me.
Caesar:If you hold to my teachings, then you're really my Disciple.
Caesar:So if, if you'll walk in my ways, that's what disciples do.
Caesar:Then you'll come to know the truth that sets you free.
Caesar:In Jesus' view.
Caesar:This whole thing starts with learning to follow him, to walk in his ways to be as disciples, to live in his ways.
Caesar:And as we enter that says, and as a result of it, our lives are transformed and then we're set free, set free from guilt and shame and the way to sin.
Caesar:This is what discipleship's all about.
Caesar:According to Jesus here in John eight, we are discipled to the truth that sets us free.
Caesar:But in my experience, we've often done this whole thing backwards.
Caesar:We expect people to first believe what we tell them is truth.
Caesar:And oftentimes we argue about it.
Caesar:We build walls between us cuz you know, we're so emphatic about it.
Caesar:And then we expect them to believe that.
Caesar:And then next they're to say this Jesus in their heart, prayer to be saved.
Caesar:And you'll never find that in scripture, anywhere or Jesus ever doing that.
Caesar:And then we start to Disciple them.
Caesar:But that's not what Jesus says here, nor is it what he modeled with his life.
Caesar:Did Jesus call his disciples to follow him and do life with him and walk in his ways after they got saved?
Caesar:No.
Caesar:No.
Caesar:In fact, in Matthew, 28 later, Jesus Ascension after his death and resurrection, it says the in disciples who were still alive were, were, there were with him.
Caesar:They're watching as he ascended.
Caesar:Some still did not believe so clearly Jesus, didn't call Christians to say a prayer, inviting him into his heart.
Caesar:And then he tried to Disciple him.
Caesar:He called them to come be with me, walk in my ways, then you'll know the truth.
Caesar:That sets you free.
Caesar:Jesus actually never discipled Christians.
Caesar:There weren't any yet.
Caesar:There weren't any.
Caesar:He called them to walk in his ways for three years, as they came to know the truth, experience the kingdom, this is what led to their transformation and their freedom.
Caesar:So then I wonder does what Jesus say here and what he modeled with his life.
Caesar:Does it look more like this discipleship leads to knowing the truth that sets us free?
Caesar:Discipleship leads to the truth, walking in Jesus ways, in his words, leads to the truth that sets us free.
Caesar:This is really, really important.
Caesar:I just wanna like, sort of pull off to the side for a second.
Caesar:Don't assume that the first move in a person's life from unbelief to belief happens in their life is it's always around the issue of their ultimate and utter sinfulness and their need for a savior.
Caesar:We always assume that like, we gotta just hammer people with their sinfulness and hell and that's their first move from unbelief to belief.
Caesar:Remember all sin comes from unbelief and we, we assume that it starts there, but as we engage people and treat them like family, often their first shifts in belief may in the areas of trust, like who God is, what kind of father really is.
Caesar:And grace and God's abundant generosity as he, as they start to experience that through us and in community.
Caesar:I'll bet if you're honest with yourselves, all of us, our own faith journey had many shifts in belief from unbelief to belief about who God is and what he had done in and through his son.
Caesar:Jesus, before we came to believe we needed saving from our own sin and rebellious right.
Caesar:Choices in life.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:We really did most people, most of us were not just running head long into sin and bang.
Caesar:We just, we heard somebody talk about something and boom, most people truth of the matter is we were probably in relationship and little by little, we had some shifts moving from unbelief to belief about what's true about God, about ourselves, about the consequences of our choice is all that.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:We see that whether we're talking about our own
Caesar:hearts
Caesar:or the hearts and lives of our friends and neighbors, the process of discipleship really evangelism in its Truest sense can begin long before a confession of faith.
Caesar:And it continues throughout our entire lives.
Caesar:This is what it means to say that the Gospel saves and sanctifies us.
Caesar:And then it goes on from there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Goes on from there.
Caesar:So then Paul says here, just as you received Christ, as Lord continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught.
Caesar:So Jesus, as you walk in my ways and you'll come to know this truth, Paul saying, then the same way that you came to know this truth, continue to live your lives in him, rooted in him, built up in him, strengthening him.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:In the same way that we've come to put our faith in Jesus, by hearing and experiencing the Gospel and community, we will also to continue.
Caesar:We'll also continue to grow and mature by the light of that same Gospel.
Caesar:It's a lifelong process.
Caesar:In other words, we're always in need of evangelism Gospeling of our hearts and fact discipleship can really simply be understood as the ongoing evangelizing or Gospeling of our hearts.
Caesar:So maybe in fact what scripture teaches and what Jesus modeled most fully looks like this discipleship leads to the truth that sets us free in transformation through the Gospel.
Caesar:And that's what discipleship is.
Caesar:And it's more of an ongoing loop.
Caesar:Remember Jesus never discipled Christians.
Caesar:There weren't any, he invited them to walk in his ways as he good news them about the kingdom.
Caesar:You've heard it said, but I say, you think my father's this way?
Caesar:No, this is what's true about him.
Caesar:And you know what?
Caesar:This is, what's true of you as image bears, then as they were set free, a Paul said, keep doing that, keep doing that.
Caesar:And, and that's what Jesus did too.
Caesar:So I think this is maybe a little bit more accurate and you know, you know what it really, and it's my strong opinion and experience that evangelism and discipleship was never meant to be two separate activities or practices, maybe the way you were raised, the way I was certainly raised, I don't think they were ever meant to be so bifurcated.
Caesar:So separated discipleship is process of moving from unbelief to belief in the Gospel in every area of life.
Caesar:And there's no true discipleship.
Caesar:Without the Gospel at the center of it all.
Caesar:And if evangelism is the applying of the Gospel, the good news to every area of our life, then discipleship's actually happening.
Caesar:You catch that if evangelism, the we're Evangel, good news is being applied in our lives and in others, in every area of life, then discipleship is happening because we're helping people move from unbelief to belief.
Caesar:You know what, and when that's not accomplished, nor does it exist apart from one another.
Caesar:See what I'm saying?
Caesar:Like it can't, you can't come to faith outside the good news, but you won't be transformed and move from unbelief to belief in every area of life without the Gospel.
Caesar:That's why I think this is a little bit more accurate way of seeing and understanding this.
Caesar:When, when, excuse me, when we began to, you know, give ourselves permission to believe what Jesus said and modeled in this area were set free.
Caesar:You really will be.
Caesar:This has been like altering for Tina and I, and for many, many, many people that we've discipled see evangelism is no longer in icky, weird or fearful sort task that we're supposed to do.
Caesar:Something we have to engage in.
Caesar:Discipleships moved outta the classroom.
Caesar:And it starts to incorporate all of life and it's full of the Gospel.
Caesar:And we start to invite people to walk in the ways of Jesus with us, with our family, our community, while the gospel's proclaimed and experienced, and it's lived out and it therefore accomplishes Jesus full command.
Caesar:If you'll walking my ways, you'll come to know the truth and you'll get set free.
Caesar:I'll tell you the pressure's off brothers and sisters, the pressure's off discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in the Gospel in every area of life.
Caesar:I think you wanna write this down or take a screen grab of this or something.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in light of the Gospel Gospel in every area of life, not just about our afterlife.
Caesar:there's no true discipleship happening without the Gospel at the center, everything.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Let me ask you, how's this hitting your heart?
Caesar:Like what starts to unlock when you realize, wait a minute, maybe this whole evangelism leads to a special magic prayer, and then we're supposed to Disciple.
Caesar:What if that was all backwards?
Caesar:And what if it's really much more cyclical?
Caesar:And it happens in everyday life because if discipleships the process of moving from unbelief to belief in every area of life, Then guess what discipleship and the Gospel is gonna need to be experienced in all of life, not just sitting in rows for an hour or two, or watching now a live stream when we kind of can fit it in what unlocks for you in your heart?
Caesar:Like what are you experiencing?
Caesar:Cause this is pretty, I mean, for us, this altered, everything, this changed everything.
Caesar:We started to realize, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.
Caesar:All of life then is an opportunity for both evangelism and discipleship.
Caesar:For our own hearts in community with others, but also with not yet believing friends.
Caesar:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar:This is foundational and this will start to change everything in life.
Caesar:Let me just tell you too, don't discount the discipling of the saints.
Caesar:you know what I mean by that, like don't discount the discipling of Christians because most have never been discipled in light of the Gospel.
Caesar:And how it speaks into and transforms all of life.
Caesar:We, they haven't.
Caesar:I can tell you so many stories there.
Caesar:There's a friend of mine, Greg.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Here in town and years and years and years ago
Caesar:we
Caesar:met Greg.
Caesar:And he had had him and his wife, both had kind of had some little sort of faith experience much, much earlier in life, maybe in high school or something, but they were far far from it and really struggling to figure out now they had a, you know, starting to have babies and all this and this guy, Greg, through hanging out with us in community.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Having the good news, the Gospel applied in every area of life.
Caesar:By the way, I can remember the night for him, the dime dropped.
Caesar:And he was like, whoa, this is what the kingdom's like.
Caesar:And we're starting to experience truth and beauty and sharing everything that happened while he was literally at one of our homes playing poker.
Caesar:It was poker night, Texas Holdem night, right through community.
Caesar:Let me just tell you that guy, Greg grew and grew in community.
Caesar:I was able to personally Disciple him for years at meals, working in the yard, working with homeless people at the gym.
Caesar:Like I had him join the gym and come with me all that.
Caesar:Now he is leading the ministry that we're all connected to here in, in Tacoma, area.
Caesar:That, that works with homeless people.
Caesar:And we've got 32 units of housing, both transitional and for homeless people and it's low cost and, and it it's, and there's all kinds of equipping that comes with this.
Caesar:And, and they're grafted into Gospel community.
Caesar:Greg leads all that.
Caesar:I can tell you, young and old people who were in church for years and years and years, but they had sort of been given a Gospel about their afterlife.
Caesar:They had said a prayer many, many years ago and they were kinda waiting to go to heaven.
Caesar:And then when they finally started to be discipled from unbelief to belief in every year of life, they started to experience spiritual freedom.
Caesar:Like never before and peace in their relationships with people no longer.
Caesar:Was it icky and weird, like, oh, I'm supposed to go out and share my faith or my sister doesn't know Jesus.
Caesar:I gotta, I gotta really get back in there.
Caesar:I know she never wants to talk about it.
Caesar:She's angry.
Caesar:Like no.
Caesar:Now we're helping people learn to walk in his ways.
Caesar:And the good news as our Gospel fluency grows is leaking out into everything like the pressure's off.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Eric says, this is a long cultural change in the formal church setting it.
Caesar:It's turning the cruise ship around into a battleship.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I'll tell you though.
Caesar:I've had pastors where I've had the same conversation.
Caesar:They, and like you could see, they kind of go white and they go, wait a minute.
Caesar:If what you're saying is true and I can see it in scripture and I can see what Jesus modeled.
Caesar:We've been doing this whole thing backwards.
Caesar:Forever.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's how I felt.
Caesar:And now we feel so free because it's, every area of life is now available for discipleship and evangelism.
Caesar:It's not some big icky presentational thing, or here's nine courses, uh, you know, nine lessons.
Caesar:We're gonna sit down and that's how you get Disciple.
Caesar:So, you know, some head stuff.
Caesar:Now I want you to get set free in every area of life.
Caesar:Like Jesus is said, here's something I also want you to write down and maybe take a screen grab of.
Caesar:The kingdom of God expands at the speed of relationship.
Caesar:And then the Gospel moves along the pathways of trust.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:The kingdom of God expands outward at the speed of our relationships.
Caesar:And then the Gospel, the good news that sets us free moves along the pathways of trust we build within relationships.
Caesar:Discipleship can and must be happening in all of everyday life.
Caesar:Just like Jesus did with his disciples, just like Jesus did with his disciples.
Caesar:See, this is pretty transformational.
Caesar:Isn't it?
Caesar:It starts to rewire.
Caesar:Well, what is discipleship?
Caesar:What is evangelism?
Caesar:They're all part of the same continuum.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:We start to walk in Jesus ways.
Caesar:We start to get set free.
Caesar:Increasingly in this area, like our finances, our marriage, our identity, our parenting, our afterlife, our atonement needs the thing behind the thing, our sin for anxiety, for the way we've treated others for wounds for hurts in our life.
Caesar:As we walk in the ways of Jesus, you'll come to know the truth of who God is and what he's accomplished in Christ.
Caesar:And what's now true of you, your true identity, and you'll get set free and you'll get set free in all these different areas and start to experience spiritual freedom.
Caesar:And peace in your relationships.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:This is what it's about.
Caesar:Discipleship is not, I gotta get people, a bunch of head knowledge, it's transformation.
Caesar:It's moving from unbelief in light of the Gospel to belief in every area of life.
Caesar:That really, really is so wow.
Caesar:Pretty heavy, right?
Caesar:Pretty heavy.
Caesar:And I'll tell you is, is just, we're all faced with like the future of the church and where are we gonna go?
Caesar:And we can't gather as much, I wanna say, listen, We've needed this course, correction.
Caesar:I think I sent you an email that said, listen, we have majored in sort of weekend services and, and putting on the gathering when we've minored in discipleship in all of life.
Caesar:And so I kind of rejoice right now, like, like that God in his sovereignty is allowing this pandemic and all to change our perspectives for many.
Caesar:Like, I, I wanna encourage you.
Caesar:Don't pray that everything will go back to the way it used to be.
Caesar:It's not going to by everyone's estimation life and the way we gather and attendance at church gatherings, all that stuff's changed forever, but discipleship was always meant to be an all of life experience and it can, and it does fit into a, all the normal rhythms of our everyday life.
Caesar:We're gonna talk about that.
Caesar:Increasingly as we move through the training.
Caesar:And it, it really isn't COVID dependent or, oh, we, we could do everything you're saying Caesar except for this.
Caesar:No, you'll see.
Caesar:It's not every area of life is still happening for you.
Caesar:All the good news, the bad news in your life, in your friends, life, hope, pain, challenges, parenting, marriage issues.
Caesar:That's all still real.
Caesar:And it all needs the Gospel and the Gospel can set us free.
Caesar:I'm gonna show you how to do this, not just over zoom and all, but in the rhythms of everyday life as we move forward, I really will.
Caesar:I'm gonna continue to show you that.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And so, listen, I'm gonna in a second here, I'm gonna review what we've learned today.
Caesar:I'm gonna give you some homework.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Some simple little homework to kinda start to prompt your heart, by the way, you're gonna know it's every, anything I teach goes kind of head.
Caesar:There's some stuff that we missed in scripture, heart.
Caesar:Hands, and then we're gonna start trying some new things.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And I won't move too fast for you.
Caesar:I promise.
Caesar:, we've trained so many people in this and we're gonna help you.
Caesar:You're gonna love it.
Caesar:And we will not get ahead of you and you can do the same thing with others, by the way, you know, I'm gonna be sending you an email with replay links, to all this and real easy links to find where to post your homework and all things.
Caesar:But I, I wanna encourage you if you're leading others.
Caesar:If you've got small groups in your church, Even if you just got friends in a small group with you or whatever, would you invite them to watch the replay together with you and then hop on a zoom call and discuss this stuff?
Caesar:Like, let this be your free training going forward.
Caesar:I know a lot of you right now are tuned in cuz that's exactly what happened.
Caesar:Someone invited you to join them.
Caesar:And maybe like now in a little while here or tonight, you're gonna hop off and you're gonna talk about it.
Caesar:And you're gonna push on it and you're gonna go, oh, this is weird, right?
Caesar:Or this is scary.
Caesar:Or like this is freeing or any of that.
Caesar:So I, I wanna encourage you to do that.
Caesar:So in a little bit here, I'm gonna show you where to post your homework.
Caesar:I'm gonna tell you what the homework is now.
Caesar:I got prizes for you.
Caesar:I got prizes for you.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:If you'll post your homework and just give me like five more minutes, I'll tell you what the homework is.
Caesar:And I'll tell you all about how you could win some of these prizes.
Caesar:And I'm just doing this to keep you motivated, to give you that little extra, uh, a little over the hill.
Caesar:Like I wanna engage this and I'm gonna do my homework and I'm gonna post it so that I can get some feedback on it.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So, let me just go back real quick to my screen share.
Caesar:And I'll, we'll just review kind of like what we learned today.
Caesar:Here's what we learned.
Caesar:Jesus taught and modeled discipleship that preceded people, becoming Christians, by the way, that's our, like, that's our big thing.
Caesar:Like I want them to be a Christian, you know, Jesus never used that term.
Caesar:And when it finally got used of his follow, it was a negative I'm not saying we can't use it.
Caesar:I'm just saying Jesus taught and modeled a very different way of life.
Caesar:His discipling began at the point of relationship and it preceded them ever coming to believe in him and follow him and understand and receive his spirit.
Caesar:Think about that.
Caesar:We also learned today discipleship and evangelism are not two separate things.
Caesar:When done correctly.
Caesar:They're really interconnected in much more cyclical.
Caesar:Next discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in the Gospel in absolutely every area of life.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Key and discipleship must to be effective.
Caesar:If it's gonna be in every area of life that the Gospel effects, then it must and can take place in all of our everyday life together.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:All of our everyday life together.
Caesar:So let me tell you what your homework for today is, and then I'm gonna let you go or I'll answer any questions you have.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Here's your first question.
Caesar:And I'm gonna post these questions under this homework, little post, but here's the first one.
Caesar:Have you ever been fully discipled in a way that the Gospel was applied to unbelief in every area of your life with others?
Caesar:Yes or no.
Caesar:And don't get hung up with the word every, okay.
Caesar:Some people, when I've asked this question, they get all semantically locked up, like every single, like, you know what I'm saying?
Caesar:Instead of just like, here's a message about something that happened 2000 years ago, you gotta believe that and say a prayer.
Caesar:Then you it's focused on your afterlife.
Caesar:How many of you were discipled in a way with others in community where they walked with you?
Caesar:And the good news of the Gospel was applied to every area of your life.
Caesar:And you moved from unbelief to belief and you got set free.
Caesar:And you grew in relationships and spiritual freedom?
Caesar:Yes or no.
Caesar:Is that how you were discipled?
Caesar:I'm gonna guess like, if like me not so much.
Caesar:okay.
Caesar:Second question.
Caesar:Part of the homework, what's been the biggest barrier for you making disciples of Jesus in everyday life as a lifestyle.
Caesar:So not a set of classes that happen in the church building or nine weeks, and it's over head knowledge transfer, but what's been your biggest barrier.
Caesar:For you, your family, with others of making disciples of Jesus in everyday life as a lifestyle, like what we're gonna teach you here this week, just let me know this.
Caesar:And then why, why is that the barrier?
Caesar:And I kinda wanna encourage you don't blame everything on COVID cuz that's a recent thing and helping people move from unbelief to belief
Caesar:. In light of the Gospel in every area of life.
Caesar:And what's true of God and how he is and his glory that can all happen in so many ways.
Caesar:And I'm gonna be giving you tons of examples as we go forward.
Caesar:But for right now, this is your homework.
Caesar:Have you been discipled in this all of life way in the Gospel?
Caesar:And what's been a big barrier from you living this way with others as a lifestyle.
Caesar:Oh, wow.
Caesar:I hope that hits your heart.
Caesar:And the way it's hitting a lot of people, like the amount of comments that float in, I'm recording this right after coming off, doing the live, cuz I wanted to get this ch this training up to you as well in the podcast.
Caesar:I can't tell you the hundreds and hundreds of comments that have come in and it ranges from, oh my gosh, this is so freeing and transforming me already to a lot of pushback.
Caesar:Because some of us, our hearts wanna hold on they wanna hold on to the past and, or quite doctrinal dogmatic head sort of based discipling instead of all of life.
Caesar:And I understand that cuz I've been there, but hopefully this is helping to reframe how evangelism and discipleship fits together and how discipleship truly is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in light of the Gospel in everyday.
Caesar:Life in every area of life, then we're gonna have to start thinking about discipleship that happens in everyday life, not just sitting, uh, in rows together in silence, primarily or in a class once in a while, but like soaking in to daily life, the way Jesus did it.
Caesar:I hope that helps.
Caesar:I hope that's changing you a little bit now tomorrow.
Caesar:Depending when you're listening to this, but tomorrow day two of the everyday Disciple challenge, I'm gonna share that training with you too.
Caesar:And we're gonna be talking about our Gospel identity and this becomes additionally foundational stuff, because understanding how our true identity changes us, changes our motivations.
Caesar:And it really will cuz so many people are asking like, well, I don't know, can I help people do this?
Caesar:But the reason we find it to be hard for ourselves, for our families and even in leading others, Is because we've maybe not fully understand our identity and that changes everything that changes our motivations and how we get to live, but that'll be tomorrow.
Caesar:So I hope you'll join me for that.
Caesar:Have a great day.
Caesar:Please join us over there in the Facebook group for everyday Disciple, you can jump in still there.
Caesar:Come join the group and you can watch these trainings at 11:00 AM.
Caesar:Pacific time.
Caesar:That's like Seattle or Los Angeles time for the next several days.
Caesar:Okay, please feel free.
Caesar:Join us in there.
Caesar:Join the discussion.
Caesar:I'm giving out homework, uh, and I'm giving out prizes for those who do homework, all that stuff.
Caesar:You can go over to there.
Caesar:You can find it real quickly by going to everyday Disciple dot com slash Facebook.
Caesar:That'll take you right into the group.
Caesar:All right, we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Announcer:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday Disciple dot com.