Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 168: The Art of Discipleship: Keeping Christ at the Center
What does it truly mean to be a disciple of Jesus in today's world? This question forms the heart of our exploration as we dive into a listener-submitted question about becoming better followers of Christ both individually and collectively.
The modern church faces a critical challenge—we've become increasingly focused on impressive programs, charismatic personalities, and polished presentations while sometimes losing sight of authentic discipleship. Through a thoughtful examination of Matthew 28:18-20, we unpack Jesus's original commission and discover that making disciples isn't about our impressiveness but about His authority working through us.
True discipleship requires vulnerability, transparency, and a willingness to walk alongside others in their messy, real-life journeys. When we present facades of perfection, we create barriers to the very connections Christ calls us to build. The art of discipleship is intimate, personal, and transformative—built on relationships rather than performances.
For individual believers, this means a radical reorientation of priorities. We serve not to elevate ourselves but to lift up Jesus. We share not to prove our spiritual superiority but to point to the One who has transformed our lives. As the episode powerfully states: "If people look at your life and you claim to be a Christian, and they see more of you than they see of Jesus, you're doing it wrong."
Ready to rediscover what it means to be and make disciples? Listen now, and don't forget to like, share and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This might be the best 15 minutes of your day—because real change happens fifteen minutes at a time.
Welcome to the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast with your host, pastor B. This podcast is designed to help you walk faithfully with God through the various trials and challenges this life presents. The truth of who we are is revealed in our lives in between Sundays. You will be inspired, challenged and equipped to live a victorious life that will bring glory to God himself. Come on, let's get started. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Living from Sunday to Sunday podcast. I am your host, pastor D. Thank you guys so much for listening and tuning in to today's episode. I believe that this is the best 15 minutes of your day, so make sure that you like, share and subscribe to the podcast, because real change happens 15 minutes at a time.
Speaker 1:So we are continuing our listener appreciation episodes where we're answering questions that were submitted to us, and if you want to have your question answered, you can listen to this podcast and either if you're watching on YouTube, you can place your questions in the comment section there, or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can put your question there in the comments and I promise that I will answer them. So this question comes from Brittany Mitchell and it's a pretty interesting one. She says how can we, as Christians, become better disciples? What is the church's role and what is our role as individuals? So I think one of the things if we want to just look at the church apart I believe that the church is the, is the teaching ground, it is the place where we, as believers, we come together to be trained, we come to be taught, we come to be encouraged, we come to worship together and we come to learn how to establish communities. Right, I don't believe that the church is, that the church makes up the entirety of one's walk with God, but I firmly believe that the church is very important and so, in terms of building or making better disciples, one of the things I think that we have to do, and I think over the last, I say, 15 to 20 years, I think we've lost the plot a little bit, um, as we must rely on the spirit of God more than our witty words in our creative programs. So, um, people are drawn to charismatic teachers, they're drawn to programs and concerts and all of these things. They are the hook many times, of a lot of popular churches. Me being a worship leader, I know how important music is and the experience of worship, how vital corporate worship is to the health of your soul, right. But I think whenever we focus more on the creativity of the program and we lose sight of what our message is message is If the program has more meat in it than the substance of the word, or the substance of prayer or the substance of just focusing on God I think we lose the impact. Because we're so focused on trying to be impressive, we're so focused on winning the eye and the ear of people that we don't take time to develop the heart of people.
Speaker 1:There is a art of discipleship. It is a very close-knit, very close knit, one-on-one, walking, hand-in-hand process, and that takes time, that takes investment, that takes the desire to be vulnerable and to expose yourself without the fear of slander, without the fear of libel, without the fear of judgment, and the church hasn't always been a great vehicle for that. There's a scripture that I want to look at real quickly. It's found in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And it says and Jesus came and said to them All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Verse 20 says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age, right? So Jesus first tells his disciples I want you to replicate what I've placed inside of you, and he gives these disciples confidence that they can do this because one, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, and I have taught you how to live. I've taught you how to live amongst people who disagree with you. I've taught you the matters of the heart versus the legalistic rituals of your customary environments. Right? So these are things that I taught you. And so what Jesus is saying is you have the power, and I believe that this directive that I'm giving to you is something that you can achieve, but you have to do it with my power. You have to do it to do it with my power. You have to do it using the authority that is given to me, that I will bestow upon you, and what Jesus did is, when he left, he did not leave us helpless right? The comforter, the Holy Spirit, was promised, and it was delivered in Acts, chapter two, and this is the power and the driving force behind the directive of making disciples right, and so I think we have to again rely on the spirit of God.
Speaker 1:Secondly, I think we have to be as honest and as transparent as we can about our stories. A lot of people feel that the church is unrelatable because there's a facade and a level of perfection that we have it all together, that we have presented to the world, that most people who deal with life on an everyday basis. They can't relate to perfection, they can't relate to a buttoned up persona. But if we were much more intimate and much more open about our struggles, much more open about our, our failures and, of course, our successes as well, I think we would. We would be able to draw people with our integrity and draw people with our transparency. That again kind of encourages us to keep the main thing, the main thing which is Jesus Christ. We cannot one. That was clear about who he was, he was. He was clear about his commitment to serving the father. He was clear about disrupting the greedy agenda of the ruling class. Right, he was very, very clear about that. But yet sometimes what the church has done in error is that it has become its own machine. So it's become greedy, it's become overprotective of its name and its brand, and so it's done very, it's done a lot of harm to people.
Speaker 1:But this is the core thing that Jesus wants, right, jesus says this. He says and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Jesus wants to be reconciled back to man. That's the whole point of him coming to the earth. Right, god knew that he wanted a relationship with man, and so the only way to do that was through Jesus Christ. And so what Jesus is saying is if you lift me up, if you present me, present my love, my joy, my peace, and that my way is the best way for salvation, for you to be rescued from your sin, for you to not have sin dominate you in every area, you must present me, and if you lift me up, I will do the drawing. And, like I said somewhere along the lines, we've lost this plot.
Speaker 1:So, secondly, the second part of that question was what is the role of the individual in terms of making better disciples? Well, I think we have to remember who we do what we do and why we do what we do. Right, to whom do I serve God? I don't serve God for me to be rewarded personally. I don't do it so I can get stuff. I don't do it to make my name be brighter in light. Right, I am doing this to serve the Lord. We should do everything as unto the Lord. That's what scripture tells us, right? And so if we understand that it's not about us, right, it's not about us personally, but it's about our fellow man, then we'll be able to build community, one conversation at a time, being a disciple and making disciples.
Speaker 1:It's really simple, but we've kind of complicated it. It's simple like be kind, be forgiving, repent and say you're sorry when you're, when you mess up. Right, don't see yourself as greater than anyone. Right, we all fall short and we all need Jesus, we all need repentance. And even if I'm saved and I'm making an effort to live more and more like God, but that doesn't mean that I'm better than anyone else, right, it's not look at what I have and pity to you, because you don't know who Jesus is. That is opposite of what Jesus instructed us to do, right?
Speaker 1:So many of us, we want to be impressive, and that's our problem. The church wants to be impressive. We want, we want to win souls with the amount of money that we make. We want to win souls by showing how big our businesses are Right, and that is opposite of what Jesus has instructed us to do, and that is opposite of what Jesus has instructed us to do. We should seek to make impact, and the one way that you make impact is one on one. You can't make an impact on someone's lives if you don't know who they are, if if you're not vulnerable enough to allow people to see your struggles Right and know that both of you have found a common resolution in Jesus Christ, both of you are relying on the Holy Spirit to keep you holy and then surrendering to the Spirit.
Speaker 1:It does mean that you have to kill your flesh. It does mean that you have to go without. It does mean that you have to not do some things that you really, really want to do. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. It means that, no matter how I feel, no matter what temptations arise, my hope, my love and my dedication is to Jesus Christ himself. Whatever he is instructing me to do. I am doing everything I can to do that, and I lean on my church family to encourage me whenever I'm feeling down right. That is how we make disciples right. Again, we're not trying to prove how great we are, but we're simply trying to be more like Jesus and do it his way.
Speaker 1:Stop taking yourself so serious, especially taking yourself more serious than Jesus. Right? If people look at your life and you claim to be a Christian and they see more of you than they see of Jesus, you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong, right, it is not about us. It's really, really not right. Let's get it together's. Let's go back to the main thing, and the main thing is lifting up Jesus in every part of our lives and knowing that when we do that, jesus himself is enough to draw me not to the church, but draw men to him. And we, as the church, we can help in that discipleship day by day walk. That is our job, that's what we're called to do.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. That's all my time for today. Again, thank y'all so much for listening to today's episode. Make sure that you like, share and subscribe to this podcast. It's available everywhere where podcasts can be found Good Pods, apple Podcasts, spotify. Make sure that if you are enjoying this podcast and if it is blessing you, please share it with your family and friends. Let them know that this is the best 15 minutes of your day and until next week. We'll see you. When we see you, don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel, as well as this podcast, everywhere where they can be found. Have a great one.
