According to the U.S. News and World Report, in a lifetime the average American will spend:
Six months sitting at stoplights
Eight months opening junk mail
One year looking for misplaced objects
2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls
4 years doing housework
5 years waiting in line
6 years eating.
Now, I don’t know how they know that or how
they go about figuring that but it’s probably pretty close. Do you know what
that tells me? It tells me that life takes time. We are only give a certain
amount, a finite number of minutes, hours and days so we need to make the most
of them because we know that some of them are going to have to be spent opening
junk mail and looking for lost stuff whether we want to or not.
Some things we enjoy doing and time goes by
quickly and some things…not so much. I remember being a little boy in church on
Sunday morning asking my mother, “How much longer?” Which is what some
of you are already thinking this morning. But she would always answer, “Not
much more.” When I was a little boy, if I wasn’t playing, I was bored.
A few years ago, I got talked into going to
Bass Hall for a performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet. What was I thinking? It
was going for about 5 minutes and I said to my friends, “Seriously? Nobody
even says anything? They just dance around? There’s no action, no karate,
nothing blows up?” So, in my opinion, just say no to the Nutcracker.
That’s not how I want to spend my time.
Time is precious and because time is precious
nothing says, “I love you” like spending time with someone. Here we
are, smack in the middle of our emphasis on making disciples and we get to the
part that is going to mean some serious time requirements on our part. We talk
a lot about loving people around here and this is where you can prove that
talk. Do you really love people or is that just church talk? We have been focused for the last few weeks
on how Jesus made disciples and what a disciple is and how we, too, can make
disciples. We have seen that Jesus would first attract people and then
He would model what a disciple is. Today we see how Jesus would teach
them, what He taught and what we can do to make disciples in the same way.
Have you ever thought about why Jesus only had
12 main disciples? Yes, at any one time, there might have been hundreds or
thousands of disciples listening to and learning from Jesus but His focus was mainly
on the 12. Some people think it relates to the 12 tribes of Israel but I don’t
know, maybe He picked 12 because that was about the most that anybody can work
with at any one time.
Also, He spent three years with them. Have you
ever wondered why it took so long? I mean, this is Jesus. Why didn’t He just
impart His knowledge to them with the wave of His hand and go on to the next
bunch? Again, I don’t know for sure, but I believe He wanted to model what making
disciples was going to look like for us.
Do you think Jesus got tired? Do you think He
got frustrated with His disciples? Do you think He ever wanted to just tell God
the Father, “Hey, let’s go on to Plan B because these guys aren’t getting
it.”? If you don’t think Jesus ever felt like that, I invite you to
turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 17. In Matthew
17 we see the incredible story of Jesus taking three of the disciples up
the mountain for a literal mountain top experience. Jesus takes Peter, James
and John up a high mountain where Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah met
them there and God the Father voiced audibly His approval of His Son Jesus.
What an incredible time that must have been! There was so much happening and so
much symbolism and needed encouragement for Jesus that it must have been an
amazing time!
Then…they come back down the mountain and, as
so often happens after a mountain top experience, they come back to chaos and
sickness and pain and confusion. Some of you can relate to that situation. So,
let’s pick up as Jesus and the 3 disciples step off the mountain and in verse
14 of Matthew chapter 17 we see there is a crowd waiting for them. When
they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before
him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and
is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the
water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal
him.” 17 “You unbelieving and perverse
generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall
I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to
me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy,
and he was healed at that moment. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus
in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move
from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
I have great respect for good teachers; for
those who go above and beyond to help students that don’t learn at the same
pace as the other students. I can remember a few that helped me but Mrs.
Robbins comes quickly to mind. Mrs. Robbins was my 1st grade teacher
and I remember her making me a custom set of flash cards to help me learn math.
She hand wrote a bunch of cards that had 1 plus 1 or 2 plus 2 on the front with
the answer on the back. I don’t have the cards anymore so I don’t remember what
the number was on the back but you get my point. Mrs. Robbins spent extra time
with me so that I would succeed.
I want you to get the whole picture of what
Jesus was doing with His disciples. In Matthew chapter 10 we see that
Jesus had given His disciples (the 12 main ones) the authority to drive out
evil spirits and to heal diseases. He set them up for success. He had
shown them what to do. He gave them the authority to do it and He set them up
to succeed at it.
We see that 1) He attracted them then
2) He modeled how to do it and 3) here we see Jesus really teaching
them how to be His disciples; literally how to be more like Jesus. But did you
notice what He has done after He did all of that. He left them alone just long
enough so they could fail. He allowed them to fail as part of the
teaching process. Why would He do that? Did He not care about them? Were they
getting on His nerves and He needed some time away? No, it’s just that there is
no better teacher than failure.
In which scenario is more learned, in the
games you win or the games you lose? In which locker room is found the
real men of character; the winners’ locker room or the losers’? In Philippians
4 Paul says, “Not that I am speaking of
being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be
content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and
hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who
strengthens me.” ESV
The great old commentator Matthew Henry said
that Christ permitted His disciples to fail to keep them humble, and to show
their dependence upon Him, that without Him they could do nothing. Don’t
you know that Christ still wants to teach us that without Him we can do nothing
but with Him, all things are possible? Proverbs 24:16 says
that even though a righteous man falls seven times he gets back up again.
Jesus then tops all of this off with a
beautiful and powerful illustration about faith moving
mountains. Jesus often taught them with stories and parables and
illustrations to help them learn and here in verse 20 He uses something
that would seem to be over-the-top impossible and says if you just have faith
you can move that mountain from here to there. Now, we all know that Jesus was
exaggerating here a little bit, right? He didn’t really mean mountains
would move if we believed hard enough did He? Do you really believe that
the impossible is made possible with God? Oh, yes! Amen!
That’s what we are all supposed to say, isn’t it? We, as good church
members, nod and shout, “That’s right, pastor! Preach that!”
But in the back of our minds we all have our doubts.
Admit it! You want to believe but you
are, like this boy’s father who says in other accounts, “Lord, I believe but
help my unbelief.” You have never seen mountains move. You’ve
never heard of mountains moving so is it just a farce? Is it a pipe dream
to believe it could happen? Are we fooling ourselves as we play church
every Sunday? Well, for some of you that very well may be true but let me tell
you where you will see mountains moved. I could spend some time telling
you the amazing true story I heard a while back about the church that
was at the base of a mountain and needed more room to grow but they couldn’t
because the mountain was in the way. So they prayed and the next day a company
contacted them and offered to pay them $100,000 if the church would allow the
company to move the dirt from the mountain over to where they needed the dirt
to be.
Yes, there really are true stories about
literal mountains being moved but let me tell you about how you will more than
likely see your mountain moved. I’m not saying that God won’t move a
literal mountain for you but how many of us really need it to happen? But
how many of us need miracles just as big in our lives? Do you know where
you are going to see miracles like that happen? When you find
your ministry in or out of the church; when you go
on missions with the church and when you
take responsibility for some aspect of the church.
Hopefully at this point in the disciple-making
process we have been modeling faith to other disciples. They see that we
believe that mountains can move but it’s probably not until we are actively
doing what God has called us individually to do that we really start to see
miracles. Yes, I said the “M” word: miracle. No, I have never seen
a mountain move but I have seen addicts and alcoholics quit cold turkey because
of someone’s ministry to them. Do you want to see a mountain move or do
you want to see that?
I was preaching years ago on the street in Mexico
one night on a mission trip with Jody Kennedy when 3 drunken Mariachi singers
came up and interrupted the service and when they finally were quiet they heard
the Gospel translated and all 3 accepted Jesus right there. Do you want
to see a pile of dirt move or do you want to see that?
I have seen people who can’t teach or preach
or barely string 2 sentences together but who can sing or watch children or
take out the trash so that somebody else can not be distracted and hear the
life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then it might not be that day or
the next but then some day some person lays down their booze, their needle or
gun or whatever it is and takes up the Bible and starts to make disciples of
Jesus just like they have been taught and I would rather see that than watch
the Teton Mountain range dance a jig!
But here is the really cool part because I
know what you’re thinking. You are thinking you can’t do that. You
can’t teach. You can’t preach. You can’t go on a mission trip
because you can’t afford it, you don’t have time, that’s not your gift,
somebody is already doing it, blah, blah, blah…and you are absolutely
right. You can’t do it. I would encourage you to think, in fact
make a list of all the reasons why you can’t do some ministry; why you can’t donate
to the food pantry or write to the inmates on the jail ministry list or even
visit them; why you can’t babysit the babies or teach the kids or give to the
church or just participate in the discipleship process that goes on around the
tables Sunday nights and Thursday nights. Make a list of all the reasons why you
can’t start a prayer ministry or clean bathrooms or take some responsibility
around here for the sake of the Kingdom. Then you take that list to God in
prayer and you start to tell Him about it and you watch how He says, “I
got this” to every single one. When you say you can’t speak well He will
bring to mind someone like Moses in Exodus 4:10. When
you say you can’t afford it, well, get ready because there are too many in the
Bible to mention who were dirt poor but did what God called them to do,
including Jesus Himself.
When you think you don’t have the talent or
ability or tools, just look up Shamgar in Judges 3:31 who
saved all of Israel with the oxgoad he happened to have in his hand. See,
none of your reasons or excuses are going to hold water if God has called you
to do something because if you could do it on your own, it wouldn’t be faith
and you wouldn’t need God.
As your church family, we are going to do our
best to set you up for success. We will do anything we can to facilitate
your ministry, help you go on mission or help with your responsibility but do
you know what is probably going to happen? You’re going to fail.
I’m going to fail. All of us fail. But God isn’t calling you to be
the perfect teacher of disciples. Jesus did that job. All we are
supposed to do is learn from Jesus and then share and encourage with others
what we have learned. A stay-at-home or even stay-at-church Christian is not
making disciples. Just showing up here for an hour or two a week isn’t
going to cut it when Jesus asks you if you did what He told you to do in the
Great Commission. What are you going to say? “I sat nice and
quiet in the pew during worship on Sunday morning.”
Look at verse 17 again there
in Matthew chapter 17. Jesus says, “You unbelieving and perverse generation.” He’s not
speaking to His disciples here. He is talking to the others gathered
around and I would dare say He is speaking to us as well. I looked up
what that word “perverse” means. I didn’t look in the dictionary. I
looked in my big concordance because I wanted to see how Jesus meant it.
It originally means to twist something. To pervert something is to twist
it. You don’t change it completely. It’s just twisted a little and
that’s what we do so often with things to make them suit us.
We pervert love into just sex and we pervert
time into money and we pervert worship into church and we do that because it’s
easier and it saves us time. Just going to church isn’t being a
disciple-maker. Making disciples takes time. There is no way around
that. What is God calling you to do today? Is there a ministry you
need to be a part of or even start? Is there a mission that you need to
go on around the community or around the world? Is there a responsibility
you need to take on for the glory of the Kingdom?
It takes time and you may even fail but that
is all part of making disciples and that is what we are all called to do.
You know, there is really only one requirement to being a disciple; only one
thing you have to do or be before you can really start learning from Jesus and
then sharing and encouraging others with what you have learned. Jesus simply
said, “Follow Me.” “Believe in Me.” It means to put your faith and
trust in Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life; to agree with Him that there
is no way to Heaven except through Him so you simply approach the Creator of
the universe in repentance and ask for your sins to be forgiven. We know
that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
Then we leave our sins with Him to forgive and
we trade Him our sins for His righteousness and His peace and His joy in this
life and life with Him for eternity. Have you done that? Today is the day
of salvation. Don’t wait another day because you may not have the time.
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