Having Time with God

Quick question, What is the purpose of the Church?

Think about it.

Got and answer? Great! See if it's similar to mine.

The Church exists; 
 - To Worship God
 - To Share God's Love with the World
 - And to make Disciples

How did you do?

At the core of what the Church is, this is what we find, people who worshiped God, who shared his love in how they lived, and took the task of making disciples seriously. 

Discipleship is crazy important for the believer. Discipleship is where we learn and grow. It's that process where the Holy Spirit is at work teaching, instructing, convicting, refining, training, and shaping us to be more and more like Jesus. Discipleship was the same process that Jesus used to train the 12 men who later became known as the Apostles. (minus Judas) As believers, followers of Jesus, we too must become his disciples.

But, what is a disciple? Well, a disciple is a follower or student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher. In this case, Jesus is our teacher, leader, etc. We are the disciple.

In Matthew 28:19 & 20, Jesus says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

There's no guessing as to what Jesus is trying to say. It clear, go and make disciples, and teach them all that I have taught you.

You see, Jesus went out and found 12 guys; regular guys, who had jobs, and families, just doing what they were doing. Just your average Joe's. But Jesus went to them and made them his disciples. And for the next 3 years, he taught them what it would take to be his followers. When he left them, they did exactly what he told them to do. They made disciples. We see their work when we look in the book of Act. On the day the Church begins we find these words... "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:42

The, 'They' were the people who heard the gospel message of Jesus and believed. The became the disciples. The Apostles were Jesus' original Disciples. So in other words, when the people heard the message of Jesus, they committed themselves to everything that the Apostles were teaching. The church became disciples; they were passionately devoted to learning and growing.


I want to make disciples. More importantly, I want to make you a Disciple.

As we celebrate the joyful event of our kids heading back to school, I want to invite you to go back to school, as we learn how to become disciples; to be learners, students, followers of Jesus. To develop a deep desire to know more then we've ever known before. To experience God in an intimate and passionate way. And to live for Jesus, in ways you've never ever lived before.

Back to school means we're going to go back to the basics, back to where we can learn how to use the tools that Jesus left for us to use. Tools, that when properly used, can bring about a change so powerful in our lives, that it will be almost impossible for people to NOT see Jesus living inside of us.

Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to discuss the disciplines that Jesus impressed upon his disciples. These disciplines, when applied to our faith journey, open up the opportunities to grow and become more and more like Jesus.

Now this isn't some 5 step program to successful living. It's not a "Do this now and in 5 short weeks your entire life will turn around." It's not a get fixed, get rich, get made scheme. This is the practice of taking the principles we see lived out in Jesus' live and applying them to our lives as we seek to live our lives for God.


In fact, I would go as far as to say, these are more than a 'Jesus To Do List', these principles are really habits. In fact, we call them our H.A.B.I.T.S. Because what we desire is for these 5 disciplines to become part of your life.

Now I have talked about these habits. I've mentioned them in other sermons and blogs. And I addressed then earlier this year in my, 'And So It Begins' series. But I've yet to take the time to fully unpack the H.A.B.I.T.S. tool.

So here is what I hope to do. Over the next 6 weeks as we look at these habits, my goals is to do 2 things.

1. I want to show you how these habits are revealed in Jesus' life and why they are important. Then,
2. I want to give you the opportunity to see how they can and should look in your life.

Okay? So we'll first recognize the habits in Jesus' life. Then we'll look at how to develop the habits in our lives.

So what are these H.A.B.I.T.S.?

• H ~ Having Time With God...
  
• A ~ Accountability Relationships...
  
• B ~ Bible Memorization...
  
• I ~ Involvement within the life of the church...
  
• T ~ Tithing and Generous Giving...
  
• S ~ Study God's Word...
  

So be sure to join us as we unpack these disciplines and learn how we can apply them to our faith journey!

- jay