The Disciple’s Service – Dr. Charles Stanley – Called to be a Disciple – Part 9
The Disciple’s Service – Dr. Charles Stanley – Called to be a Disciple – Part 9
Why do we go to church, worship God, read the Bible, or attend a small group? If the answer is not to equip ourselves to make a difference in the lives of others, then we may have missed the mark.
The disciple’s service, as described by Dr. Stanley, is to pour out one’s life into someone else. Jesus did not save you just to become a child of God, but also to become a channel for God that might bring other people into a relationship with Him.
In this message, Dr. Stanley encourages us to have a relationship with Jesus Christ first, and a relationship with someone else who can hold you accountable second. When these two relationships are solid in your life, you can pour your life into the life of someone else, and point them to the Lord.
This message is part of the series “Called to be a Disciple.”
with a message from God’s word here’s Charles Stanley would you turn please to Second Timothy Chapter 2 second Timothy Chapter 2 want us to read only two verses of that chapter we’re talking about the disciples personal Ministry and I believe it is delineated very clearly here in these two verses of 2 Timothy Chapter 2 two verses thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou Hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to Faithful Men Who Shall be able to teach
others also now how many times have you ever been the worship service could you count them how many times have you sat in a body class how many times have you been to Sunday school how many sermons do you suppose you’ve heard in your lifetime probably could not count them if you count it up all the times you’ve been to bible class all the times you’ve been to Sunday school class and all the sermons you’ve heard all of your life I doubt if you and I could count them but let me ask you this why have
you been doing all of that why go to Sunday school why I go to Bible classes why go to church and listen to sermons you say well no wait a minute I go to church to worship is that right it’s interesting to me that for years and years and years people can go to church listen to sermons go to Bible classes and yet in spite of that keep all of that to themselves and never tell anybody about it now when a person says to me but I to worship my friend if you worship God that means that you are acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord of
your life and when you acknowledge Him as Lord of your life that means you are in the daily habit of being obedient to God and if you are daily obeying God you’re going to be sharing what God is doing in your life and if you’re not sharing what God is doing in your life you’re not obeying God and if you’re not obeying God saying that your worship is a contradiction in terms now let’s just think about it for a moment let’s say that you live 20 more years and you go to church just twice a week for 20 more
years now that’s a whole lot of gospel isn’t it whole lot of preaching a whole lot of Bible study now what I want to ask is this how many people can you name or how many people can you even visualize for a moment whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life today how many names do you know are in heaven how many people do you know for sure are going to to Heaven directly as a result of your personal sharing your faith with them 100 would you believe 50 what about 25 10 five two [Music] one or nobody now listen you mean to tell me
that we’re coming to church week after week after week after week Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night three times a week in Sunday school that make it four times some of you in Bible studies two or three of those five six times a week somewhere along the way somebody must have taught that the Christian life is going to church and listening to sermons and fellowshipping with each other and worshiping God and going home and relaxing till next Sunday but when I read what Paul said to Timothy listen and the things that thou
Hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to Faithful Men Who Shall be able to teach others also what is this church going all about what is this Bible study all about what’s this listening to sermons all about what is this worshiping God all about if it is not about us equipping ourselves in order to share with someone else what we’ve heard in order that the same difference may be made in their life I want you to notice something if you’ll turn to Matthew chapter 20 I want you to notice something that
Jesus said and I want to distinguish between two words that I think uh they are the same word in the Greek but in our thinking I think we have uh distinguished between these two Matthew chapter 20 he says in verse 26 of this chapter but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister and whosoever be Chief among you let him be your servant even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many now I want us to go back and I want to show you something verse
26 but whosoever will be great among you let him be your deinos which is the same word from which we get the word Deacon or servant and the word is translated in the Greek servant whosoever be great among you let him be your servant verse 27 whosoever be Chief among you let him be your douah slave verse 28 even as the son of man came not to be ministered and here the Greek word is still a a um another form of it but the still the word is the ainos or servant unto but to be a servant and to give his life a ransom for many now you and I
think of two words Minister and servant now they both come from the same word and that is the word douas which means a slave and the other one is diakos which means servant but what is he saying he’s saying in essence the same thing but we don’t think the same way now watch this when we think of service we think of assistance we think of helping we think of performing Duty that we serve the Lord in a certain way but the word ministry or Minister though the same Greek word is there in our thinking we
don’t think the same thing we think in terms of service down here and Ministry up here and probably because we have felt that way that’s the way we have reacted because in our concept of service we think that service is primarily just activity and if if a person serves an institution an organization or even God by carrying out activity then he’s serving the lord but our very concept of ministry and our thinking is beyond that that Ministry involves a person’s emotions that Ministry speaks of love and personal
involvement Ministry speaks of reaching down to a person’s need now both of them mean the same thing as far as God is concern but in our thinking we don’t think that way and so for most people they say well I serve the Lord Lord and in their thinking they’ve got that thing down here where uh it is uh easily acceptable to them I serve the Lord because I preach or sing in the choir or serve as a deacon or or take up offering or I’m an usher I’m a Sunday school teacher so we look for some activity in
which we can involve ourselves and we say I’m serving the lord but now listen the New Testament word for service and Ministry and New Testament word for slavery means a personal involvement of the heart if it is going to be true Ministry true service the heart must be in it so that God is not pleased with just a noninvolved service that is I do my duty and leave I perform my responsibility but I have no personal heart involvement if there is no love if there’s no personal involvement if my emotions do
not get in that thing if I’m not giving myself away to him or to somebody else we’ve missed the point of ministry and a disciple is one who does not only think in terms of service as far as activi is involved but also Ministry giving of himself to someone else in order to build up the other now we said a disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord and one through whom Jesus Christ is reproducing his life in and through Us in the life of someone else it is impossible to be a disciple and
merely come listen to sermons sit in Bible studies and serve God at a distance with no heart no soul no pouring out of one’s life into the life of someone else now listen carefully all the sermon listening in the world all the church attendance in the world without personal involvement in building up someone else’s life is missing the point of what God Said all of this is about why am I to worship God not only to become more and more aware of the fact who he is how great he is but also what he requires of me and
my friend listen it is hypocrisy to come to church and simply listen to sermons and say well I got enough to get me through next Sunday I’ll make it to them and keep it to myself you see that is a contradiction of the whole concept of the Christian experience and you my dear brother and sister would not be a Christian this morning if the generation before us had done what many of us are doing because the gospel would have died with the last generation unless they had practiced what Paul said to Timothy you
must practice to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and that is to carry on to share to involve yourself with someone else that that person in turn may share himself with someone else now the scripture says that Jesus came primarily for two reasons he says in this 20th chapter of Matthew that he came to give himself a ransom for many but before he could do that he came to reveal the father now watch this he came to reveal the father look in John chapter 17 in his prayer with his disciples before he was crucified the next
morning if you’ll notice in verse four of John chapter 17 the scripture says I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 17 verse4 he said I finished the work which you gave me to do and verse six says what that was I have manifested thy name unto these men verse 8 says I’ve given unto them The Words which thou gavest me verse 14 says I have given them Thy word Jesus came to reveal the father having revealed the father to lay down his life a ransom for
men that having realized that God is a heavenly father who loves them and sent his son Jesus Christ to die for them they could be redeemed now listen if God sent his son Jesus Christ to reveal the father and he did that notice if you will what he says in verse 18 as thou has sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world look in Chapter 2 same book chapter 20th John verse 21 then said Jesus unto them again peace be unto you chapter 20: 21 listen as my father hath sent me even so send I you
why do you think he saved you dear brother he did not save you simply to keep you out of hell he saved you not only to make you a child of God fit for heaven he saved you to make you not only a child but a channel and if you’re child and not Channel you’re only half of what God intended for you to be and you see if I’m only a child of God with my name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and I’m not a channel through which someone else may become the same I’m on only living half of what
God requires of me as a Believer now listen if that be true all the sermon hearing all the Bible studies and all the teaching in the world if we are not channels and not only children we are disobeying God in a very very critical area of the Christian life because listen suppose for example that your family would only be taught Daddy what you teach them no training outside the family and you refused or failed to teach your children the Gospel of Jesus Christ they would be Pagan your grandchildren would be Pagan your great
great grandchildren on down the line the gospel is spread from mouth to mouth in the book of Acts every single time somebody’s saved every single time somebody uh receives Jesus Christ it is by the witness of some human instrumentality and even in cornelius’s house for example it was the angel who came and spoke to him but it was Peter who came to share with him the message of redemption whereby he was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit what I’m saying to you is this I’m either going to be a child and a channel and obey God
or I’m going to be a child and no channel and live in Disobedience now I want you to notice this passage here in uh Second Timothy turn back there for a moment if you will because here is the personal Ministry of the disciple clarified beautifully for us now he says first of all three things I want you to notice we’re talking about a disciple and his personal Ministry first of all the equipment of a disciple and there are three things involved here first of all the equipment of a disciple is a personal relationship look in Chapter 2
now verse one Paul said to Timothy thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus he said therefore my son be strong he said my son what is he implying he is implying a personal relationship between Paul and Timothy now for anyone to carry on a personal Ministry he must be equipped and the first part of that equipment is a personal relationship with someone else first of all with the Lord Jesus Christ and secondly with someone else if you and I are going to be true Disciples of Jesus Christ we need to have a
relationship with someone else who can build us up who can strengthen us while we are in turn doing the same for someone else now if you’re a strong Christian and in and a long ways in your maturity you are having a relationship it may be with your wife it may be with a friend it may be with a pastor it may be with somebody on your job it may be with your uh your father or your mother but you are having a relationship and in that relationship you are sharing what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in your life and you see discipleship implies a
relationship because as a disciple you are going to become a channel to someone else likewise If You’re Going to Be an Effective channel in someone else’s life there must be a continuous filling in your own life so a personal relationship is involved here you just imagine the kind of relationship that Paul had with Timothy teaching him instructing him rooting him grounding him interpreting for him translating for him the experiences of his life so that he would have understanding of exactly what God
was doing to him and through him and for him a personal relationship second thing I want you to notice is there is the presence of power in the life of that disciple who is fully equipped thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus now if you read that it says be enable abled be empowered in the grace that is in Christ Jesus if you and I are going to be true Disciples of Jesus Christ not only must our equipment be a relationship with him that is vital and sweet and ever growing and ever deepening but a relationship
with someone else where we can pour out our heart share our faith share our burdens share our heartaches share our Joys but likewise there must be the possession of the Holy ho Spirit the empowerment of the spirit of God you see if our life is going to be effective and if it’s going to make any real difference now watch this if it’s going to make any real lasting difference what we say and what we do and what we share must be done in the power under the unction of in the wisdom of in the knowledge of the Holy
Spirit if it is simply man-made knowledge if it is simply man’s Wisdom it will just roll across the brain through the ears and that’s it but if it is the working of the Holy Spirit what does he do he takes what you believe and what you say and what God has convicted you of and he drives it into the human heart puts a cap on it Waters it cultivates it and causes it to grow in someone else’s life friend if you and I mean business now get this if we mean business for God we are not going to attempt to live the Christian Life or to
minister to others without being filled with the spirit of God he says be ye continuously being filled with the holy spirit that is not optional and you and I are under command by God to be filled with his Spirit in order that not only will our child relationship be right but our CH relationship will be effective and you see if that relationship is not right this won’t be effective but if I am filled with the holy spirit that means he’s controlling my relationship to him if he’s controlling my relationship to him he’s
going to make effective and fruitfully and control my relationship with other people the disciple must be one who recognizes that the source of everything he finds is in the grace of God and his enablement his empowering his unction his enduement his fullness is the work of the spirit equipping him listen equipping him not to be happy but equipping him to Be an Effective Channel listen is it not a shame and a disgrace to God that men would live 10 15 20 years as a child of God and their Channel be plugged for 20 years and
