The Disciple’s Fellowship – Dr. Charles Stanley – Called to be a Disciple – Part 10

Men and women have the highest honor that God can bestow on anyone, an honor that not even the angels in heaven enjoy. God has created mankind with the ability to and sole purpose of having fellowship with Him.

When Jesus ordained the 12 disciples, He sent them out to preach, heal sickness, and cast out demons. The ability to do those things was an incredible gift to receive from God. None of them, however, were first on the list of His purpose for their lives.

The disciples were ordained to “be with Him.” A disciple of Jesus is one who has a relationship with and spends time with Him.

In this message, Dr. Stanley explains what it means to have fellowship with God and how that fellowship can transform your life as a believer.

This message is part of the series “Called to be a Disciple.”

For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

with a message from God’s word here’s Charles Stanley would you turn please to mark 3: 1-15 this is the 10th message on discipleship and this one today how you apply this to your heart will either make all the others effective or ineffective and beginning in verse one and he entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there which had a withered hand and they watched him where that he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him and he said unto the man which had the withered hand stand forth

and he saith unto them is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil to save life or to kill but they held their peace and when he had looked around about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts he saith unto the man stretch forth thine hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other and the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the herodians against him how they might destroy him but Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to

the sea and a great multitude From Galilee followed him and from Judea and from Jerusalem and from aduma and from Beyond Jordan and they about Ty and siden a great multitude when they had heard what great things he did came unto him and he spake unto his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude lest they should throng him for he had healed many in so much that they pressed upon him for to touch him as many had plagues and unclean spirits when they saw him fell down before him and cried

saying Thou Art the Son of God and he straightly charged them that they should not make him known and he goeth up into a mountain and call unto him whom he would and they came unto him and he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach and to have power to heal sickness and to cast out Devils now we’ve talked about the badge of discipleship being loved we’ talked about the price of discipleship we’ve talked about the Detachment of discipleship the disciple in the world

the disciple in the word we talked aled about many facets of discipleship the ministry of the disciple of committing to Faithful Men those truths that have been committed to us that they in turn might commit the same faithful truths to others we said that a disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord and one through whom Jesus Christ is making himself available and transforming the lives of others out there whose lives we are touching A reproduction of the Life of Christ within us in the life of

someone else now when you think about discipleship and what’s involved in it as you read the scriptures there are so many facets of it that are here that most of us have never discovered and in reading this third chapter of Mark there’s a little phrase here that is the heart and the core of the effectiveness of any life of discipleship and it’s in verse 14 the Lord Jesus Christ having escaped the throngs because were about to crush him wanting to be healed and to be strengthened and so forth the

scripture says in verse 14 and he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach now the key that that says something about discipleship that probably you’ve not thought about and that is that he ordained 12 that they should be with him now what is he talking about he simply referring to his fellowship with those 12 Apostles and their fellowship with him fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely essential if discipleship is to be effective so I hope you get a pencil or piece of paper

because going to give you lots of things that you need to write down and remember and recall and be able to uh recall for yourself because what I want to discuss here is our fellowship with Jesus Christ as his disciples and the first thing I want you to notice here is the preeminence the preeminence of Fellowship in the call of the disciple look what he said and he ordained 12 that they should first be with him and secondly then go forth to preach him and remember what he said in John chapter 1 that before he came to this

earth he was already having fellowship with the Father John chapter 1 verse one says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the word with here means that he had a face-to-face relationship with the father that the Son and the father were fellowshipping together even before the beginning of this world he fellowshipped with the Father in heaven when he came to Earth he continued his fellowship with the father but he extended that Fellowship not only with the Father in heaven but also with men upon this earth now God

created you and me to have fellowship with himself somebody says oh but he created us to serve him listen he had multitudes innumerable hosts of angels to serve him he didn’t need you and me to serve him he created us to fellowship with him Having learned to fellowship with him we inter of course would desire to serve him he did not create Us in essence priority number one to serve him but first of all to fellowship with him therefore when he came to Earth he came the Lord Jesus Christ as the scripture say says here he came beginning in his

ministry to fellowship with a handful a small group of men now I want you to notice two or three things in this verse it says he ordained 12 that they should be with him he chose out of those who’d been following him 12 men whom he would disciple whom he would commit the great truths of the father teaching them in turn how to commit the same to Faithful Men that they in turn May train others and disciple others also he chose them for discipleship he ordained them now it’s interesting when you look at that word ordain in the

Greek it is the same word that means to make so what is he doing he made 12 disciples that what he made them to fellowship with him he set them apart first of all for fellowship and secondly for Ministry because you’ll notice the priority here he says he ordained them first of all that they should be with him Fellowship secondly that they should go forth and to preach therefore his priority in his relationship with these 12 men was fellowship before service fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ before Ministry for the Lord Jesus

Christ he ordained 12 that they should be with him now when you think about what’s involved in that we think of the conflict we had have in our mind because you see today we say that the man who’s really effective for God is the fellow who’s always busy and always on the go and the person whose priority is in serving Jesus Christ the priority for Effective discipleship is not service first but fellowship with Christ first because when our fellowship with him is right our service for him is going to be

effective you can serve God and be and be Barren and fruitless you cannot fellowship with him and be Barren and fruitless if the fellowship is right the service is going to be right and he said to them he ordained them first of all what that they would be with him same word as he uses in John chapter one in a face-to-face relationship and intimate fellowship and you see Fellowship is the giving the surrender of one’s personality to someone else when you have fellowship with someone of course there are degrees of Fellowship but the

fellowship that he intended for his disciples was this a fellowship whereby he and his disciples gave themselves to one another and often time when he was teaching others the scripture says that he would depart from the multitudes pull his disciples aside in the small group and he would unfold deep spiritual Riches of Truth to them he would not tell to the multitudes he first of all said his priority with the 12 was Fellowship not preaching Fellowship not casting out demons Fellowship not healing fellowship with a few not

fellowship with the multitudes and my friend don’t ever forget that that your Effectiveness for God is based on your fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ not our eloquence not our ability not our experience not our education not anything else before Fellowship fellowship before everything else so the preeminence of Fellowship in the call of Christ is evident here second thing I want you to notice is this and that is the purpose purpose of this Fellowship he says he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he

might send them forth to preach now what was that purpose I think there are two purposes here first of all a secondary purpose and then a primary purpose he called them made them his own in order to fellowship with him now his secondary purpose was that the Lord Jesus Christ might have an intimate group with which he could B unburden his heart share himself unfold his life and pour out his soul to that group of men now everybody needs that because you see no Man was created to be an island God made us a people to Fellowship one with the other

because you see he made us to fellowship with him it is absolutely essential and primary but he knew that fellowship with each other likewise is essential too a well-rounded life remember what the Bible says about Adam when he saw him in the Garden of Eden he looked looked at him he was in an absolutely perfect garden everything was absolutely perfect like a holy perfect God could create it and when he looked upon Adam he said it’s not good that Adam be alone so he created a woman to live with Adam because he wanted Adam to experience the

intimate Fellowship that is the next thing to fellowship with God and that is the fellowship of a husband and a wife now I want you to listen young people you listening sex won’t cut it don’t ever forget that because you see he created us for a giving of ourselves one to the other it isn’t some physical act it is an absolutely Indescribable emotional experience where two people who love each other can literally give themselves away totally to one another and unless any Marriage Act unless any Act of sex includes the

intimacy and the the warmth and the tenderness of Oneness with each other there is something missing and the something is the core and the Heart of it all don’t ever forget that now when God gave adam Eve he gave Eve to Adam for fellowship and to make him whole and complete now watch this you my dear brother are not complete in your spiritual life unless you’re fellowshipping with the Lord and my friend if you’re not a Christian your life is not whole you have a tremendous vacuum in your life and and that vacuum

can only be filled with the presence of God you may try to fill it with wealth you may try to fill it with prominence and Prestige you may try to fill it with things the only substance that can fill and fulfill and satisfy the vacuum of your heart is a warm intimate personal private relationship with Jesus Christ and nothing else so you see the purpose here is secondary is that they might have fellowship with each other what was the primary purpose the primary purpose of this Fellowship was preparation for Ministry now watch this secondary

purpose was that he and the disciples may have fellowship with each other he needed to give himself away to them there in the Garden of Gethsemane when he knew the cross was only hours away he called them aside then he called three of those intimate friends Peter James and John to go with him just a little bit further more than likely he probably shared some things with Peter James and John he did not even share with the rest of those Apostles all of us need friendship and fellowship somebody wh with whom we can pour out our heart and

believe and trust and know that they will keep our confidence primary purpose for that Fellowship was preparation for Ministry now watch this he says in verse 14 he ordained 12 that is he made them his own set them apart that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to do what to preach or to proclaim the message of the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ now listen no man no woman is fit to serve God until first of all he or she has learned to fellowship with him he said he sent them forth to preach and my

friend any preacher or any preaching that is not first of all based on private intimate personal fellowship with Jesus Christ will be light and frothy and people will starve to death listening to preaching that has not been built and soaked and baptized in private fellowship with Jesus Christ and my friend for you who are watching television if you don’t like what your preacher is doing pray for him don’t criticize him just pray for him because every man of God needs the people of God to pray for him and you see the greatest

need in the preacher’s life is warm intimate personal private relationship with Jesus Christ and that is the only kind of man who can feed any flock and Jesus knew that he said to them preparation for service first of all must be preceded by private fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ the second thing I want you to notice he says they were to go forth and preach and to have power have power to heal have power to cast out demons now listen people talk about having power with God and so often someone says well

you know I I want Power with God you know what they want they want a shortcut to power there is no such thing as having power with god without have first of all having fellowship with God there’s no such thing as having power and influence with men until first of all you’ve got power with God he’s not going to give power to any person’s life who bypasses him and substitutes service for the priority in the believer’s life which is fellowship with Jesus Christ and you want to know why churches are

dead why preachers are dead things just dying everywhere because men have substituted things and service and activity for the one thing that is absolutely essential to service and power and Effectiveness and that is simply being quiet before God there is no substitute for that and he said to them he ordained them first of all to be with him then to serve him because he knew what would happen if they traed off to serve him without first of all understanding what was going on now listen how in the world can you as a Sunday school teacher or I as a

pastor feed anybody if first of all my heart is not fed you say oh but I come listen to your preaching that feeds me it may feed you to some degree but my friend no meal listen no meal is well-rounded until first of all you have been alone with God by yourself you know why a lot of people won’t get by them M themselves they don’t like what they see they don’t like what they hear they don’t like what they feel and a man with a guilty conscience stinging him continuously does not like to be alone and you see lots of people

say well I don’t like to be by myself I wonder why I can tell you why if your heart is right with God you want to be alone with him for there is no Fellowship to equal that anywhere on this side of heaven and Jesus said to them if you’re going to be fit for Ministry if you’re going to be prepared for service first of all your own heart must be prepared in fellowship with him now the 32nd chapter of Genesis is an account of Jacob alone with the lord wrestling with him and I think the promise that God gave to Jacob is the

promise he gives to every single one of his children who will believe him and Obey him Genesis 32 you remember in verse 24 that Jacob was left alone and there Wrestled a man with him all night long to the breaking of the day and he just refused to let God go until he blessed him and notice if you will in verse 28 God said to him thy name shall no boy be called Jacob but Israel for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and you Jacob have prevailed now where did he get his power with God where did he get his power with men he

didn’t get that running up and down the land he received that power in quiet intimate Fellowship wrestling With God all night having God search his heart expose his heart convict him of his sins show him what his needs were and then in quiet Serenity just the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself away to Jacob he says if you’re going to have power with God and power with men that must be true now you remember also in Matthew chapter 17 when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking with his disciples and uh turn

that just for a moment if you will let me show you something interesting you remember that they’d been up on the Mount of transfiguration they had come down and the disciples had been serving the lord ministering and a a father brought a son to the disciples for him to be healed and they couldn’t heal him now they had seen hundreds and thousands of people heal but here was a little lad and they had approached this kind of problem before he needed to have demons cast out of him and the scripture said that they tried and they couldn’t

do it now watch this they tried and they couldn’t do it and they were so embarrassed after Jesus had rebuked the devil the verse 19 says then came the disciples to Jesus apart that is private and said to him why couldn’t we do it we’ve done it before why couldn’t we do it again and listen to what Jesus said Jesus said to them because of your unbelief but verily I say to you if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you shall say to this mountain move hence the Y place and it shall remove and nothing shall be

impossible unto you how be it that is this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer you know what he was saying to them here’s what had happened they’d been healing and preaching and proclaiming the gospel and they made the tragic mistake of trusting in yesterday’s Fellowship for today’s power and They Came Upon a situation and they couldn’t heal him it was not that God had not given them the power they had run out of steam run out of power run out of authority run out of energy and they were trying

to do God’s work today in yesterday’s energy the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ who’s going to be effective for him understands that every day he needs a fresh new energizing from God he doesn’t get that from reading books he gets it from fellowship from being quiet from being alone with him and Jesus said preparation for Ministry prerequisite to that part of the preparation is fellowship with him now when you and I look around us today and we see churches that are active we see people that are

active and they’re just going and going and going and going and caught in the cycle of activity and yet how many times they say well I don’t see anything happening much I don’t see any fruit why is my life so Barren why is it that nothing ever happen Supernatural in my life why is it since I’m a church M and I’ve been baptized I read the Bible once in a while and I pray sometime I go to church and I listen to sermons why is my life not effective I’ll tell you why listen I’ve met a lot of people in my

life great ones and those who had no reputation but I’ve never met I have never met in all of my life a man or a woman whose life was effective for God who did not have a time of quietness set alone and set aside for God in their daily activity never and my friend listen L you can wear yourself out for God in activity needlessly may I say you can wear yourself out with God in activity and be as Barren and as fruitless as a desert I mean nothing and Jesus said priority number one is not activity but fellowship with

him and he says the purpose of that Fellowship is preparation for the ministry preparation for service begins not with activity but with being quiet before the Lord Jesus Christ now I want you to notice something else here and that is the problem of the fellowship now we said first of all it’s preeminent in the life of the disciples secondly the purpose of it is preparation for Ministry and the third is the problem we face what is that problem first of all it is this we have the mistaken idea of what our priorities are you see nobody

told most of us that priority number one in serving God is doing nothing he said now wait a minute that’s a contradiction no it’s not priority number one in serving God’s doing nothing but being quiet and listening to him speak and move and search and feel and re-energize your heart and you see everything in the human watch this everything in the human mind just is repelled by this we say the world’s going to hell people need to be saved lives need to be changed activity must go on work must proceed progress

must be made so what do we do we sit down and we be quiet and we just listen and the carnal-minded man says man you’ll never get it done sitting down doing nothing now I didn’t say how long you sit you see that’s the key you watch this the key to Effectiveness in serving God is the word balance now watch this there not only must be service for God if it’s all service you’re going to get out of balance any man who gets out of balance before long is going to have a curvature of his Spirit did you get