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07.06.08

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SERMON SERIES: THE WORK OF THE CHURCH

PART 5: DISCIPLESHIP

JOSHUA 24:14-24; LUKE 14:25-35

Learning the Ropes

On the Job Training

It ‘s one of the most watched reality shows on television

Each week, millions of people tune in to see who makes the cut and who doesn’t
Who will be the one to hear the trademark words, “You’re fired!”?
These young, up-and-coming business professionals compete to win the career opportunity of a lifetime working alongside Donald Trump as ”The Apprentice”
Although they work together in teams to complete assigned projects as creatively, efficiently, and profitably as possible, they are competing against each other to be the one to hear those coveted words, “You’re hired!”

After each project, the losing team finds themselves in the boardroom face to face with the Donald to evaluate their performance and one of them knows they will be going home

But even the losers don’t go away empty handed
Although they didn’t gain the coveted prize of being called “The Apprentice,” they take with them the experience of having worked for Donald Trump, and the valuable lessons they’ve learned about how to survive in the business world
This on-the job-training will be invaluable to them in the future

Being An Apprentice

An apprentice is one who is learning a trade, art, or calling by practical experience from one who is skilled in that particular trade, art or calling

And there’s a difference between being an apprentice and simply being a student
A student can learn a whole lot of things that have no practical application
I’ve known several people who could be classified as “professional students,” taking class after class, earning yet another degree, and they’re too busy learning new stuff to apply what they’ve already learned
They’re involved in learning for learning’s sake, but never take advantage of opportunities to put their knowledge to use
The question asked by a lot of our school children may be a valid question: “Why do I have to learn this stuff?”
And I have too admit that, while I enjoyed math when I was in school and found advanced algebra and trigonometry challenging and interesting, I can’t think of one occasion when I’ve intentionally used it since I graduated from high school in 1973

Understand that I am not devaluing education

A good education is important because it broadens our experience and deepens our understanding of life
It also gives us the tools we need to live a better quality of life
But education is of little value unless we’re able to take what we’ve learned and use it,, unless we’re able to apply the skills we’ve gained in a beneficial way

The difference between being a student and being an apprentice is that an apprenticeship involves applied learning

The concept of apprenticeship has a long and rich history
All of the ancient trade and arts guilds of long ago were apprenticeship programs—the stonecutters guild, the carpenters guild, the artists guild, the masons guild, for example
An apprenticeship is a way of passing certain skills and tools on from one generation to the next, and some of our common surnames have grown out of a particular family association with a particular apprenticeship or guild
Smith, Carpenter, Mason, and Tanner are just a few examples
By taking on the family name, one would carry on the family business

This is what we’re called to do when we take on the name “Christian”

When we take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, we’re expected to become involved in the family business
We’re to be trained in the family business so that, one day, we can take it over
And we’re also to be involved in the hands-on training of others so they too can carry on the family business when we’re gone
The business of the family of God is discipleship

The Important Work of Discipleship

An Often Overlooked Task

Discipleship is the fifth core value of the church

It’s given to us by Jesus in the third part of his Great Commission, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
A primary responsibility of the church of Jesus Christ is to train people to be disciples of Jesus
Discipleship is very definitely an apprenticeship
While the word “disciple” literally means “student,” the implication is that we will not be involved in learning about Jesus just for learning’s sake—to increase our storehouse of knowledge—but that we will learn about Jesus so that we can be like Jesus, doing the things that Jesus did
To be a disciple of Jesus is to be involved in applied learning for the purpose of “taking over the family business”
It involves growing into a deeper level of maturity, expertise, and experience as we learn to apply the teachings of Jesus to our daily lives
So the church is called to teach and to train those who come to Jesus in faith so that they can use their faith in the day-to-day experiences of life

Training in discipleship is a natural outgrowth of the other four core values

As we worship God by offering to God the best of what we have, and experience God’s call and claim on our lives, this moves us to share God’s love in practical ways as we minister to the needs of others
Our ministry provides us with opportunities to share with others the story of our faith and invite them to experience that faith for themselves
When the invitation is accepted, we must do all we can to welcome the new believers into the family of God, and an important part of that welcoming is teaching them to use that faith in their lives, training and equipping them to go out as missionaries to live as Jesus lived and to share their experience of faith with others

Sadly, training in discipleship tends to be the weakest area of the church’s ministry

Too often we’re concerned more about saving souls than we are about making disciples
It becomes a numbers game
Our goal is simply to bring as many people in as possible without any thought to sending people out equipped to do ministry
In our culture, the measure of a good church is the number of members on the roll, when it should be the lives of people who are touched and changed by our mission and ministry out in the world

We’ve made Christian faith far too easy

We define faith simply as believing in Jesus, when we ought to define it as living for Jesus
We have low expectations for those who come into the faith and even those expectations are not very clearly defined
So what we’ve done is created an audience of “spectator Christians,” curious followers who show up because they find what we do interesting
Since our expectations are low and not clearly defined, there’s no real commitment
They may be committed to listening and learning, but there is no commitment to following and doing

It’s to this issue of commitment that both Joshua and Jesus speak in our texts

Both of them issue a challenge to their listeners to commit to discipleship, and both of them give a clear indication of what discipleship is all about
Each of these passages share three common points

Discipleship involves loyalty
Discipleship is costly
Discipleship requires total commitment

Discipleship Involves Loyalty

Joshua’s words begin prior to our reading, and there he gives the Israelites a history of all God has done for them

This history is what motivated his call to them to choose
This call to choose is a call to loyalty
By the actions of the past, God has demonstrated God’s loyalty to them, so now it was time for Israel to demonstrate their loyalty to God
“Choose for yourselves whom you will serve…but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua had made his choice and pledged his loyalty, but there were a variety of choices out there
Discipleship requires loyalty
God had chosen them and was faithful to that choice, but they must also choose—they must decide to whom they would be loyal

There are a variety of things competing for our loyalty today; there’s a whole host of gods we can serve

Our commitments and obligations to others often compete for attention, so we must choose what or who is first place in our lives
Jesus drives this point home in a dramatic way by saying, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus is, in no way, instructing us to abandon our responsibility and our loyalty to our family and friends
What he’s saying is that when our loyalty to others conflicts with our loyalty and responsibility to God, God must come first
Indeed, God must come first in all things, and if we aren’t willing to put God first, we can’t be true disciples
God requires our utmost loyalty so that we may serve God fully

Discipleship Is Costly

But before we pledge our loyalty to God too quickly, we need to have a clear understanding of what it will cost us because discipleship is costly

Salvation is free, but it is not cheap
This is why Joshua urges the Israelites to let go of the other gods their ancestors worshipped in the past, and to bury the gods they acquired from other nations as they journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land
But not only must they forsake those other gods, they must also pay the price of leaving behind their past behavior
They can’t be disciples of God and live in the sins of their past

Jesus addresses this point through his stories of the building of the tower and the king going to war

It’s foolish for us to ever begin something unless we know we can complete it
We need to consider the cost
We need to understand what Jesus requires and make the commitment to carry it through to the end

In our culture, we approach faith and salvation from a consumer mentality

When we purchase something, we believe that we own it, that it is ours to keep
Since everything has a price, we also believe that we can purchase our own salvation
But faith isn’t something to be bought, it’s something to be invested in
So Jesus’ challenge to us is to invest ourselves in discipleship
When we invest ourselves as disciples of Jesus, we’ll reap the benefits that that investment will bring

Discipleship Requires Total Commitment

Only through total commitment will we reap the benefits of our investment

We must stay the course
That’s why Joshua repeatedly challenged Israel’s response to his challenge to choose
It was important that they understand the cost and recognize the seriousness of their decision
They couldn’t continue to run here and there chasing after other gods
It had to be either all or nothing
They couldn’t be content simply being superficial followers
Faithfulness to God requires a total commitment to discipleship

Notice that these words of Jesus were addressed to the crowds

Everywhere Jesus went, large crowds gathered
But many of these were merely curiosity seekers—Jesus was the fad of the day, and they wanted to be in with the right crowd
But we see their level of commitment as Jesus faced the cross
From Sunday morning to Friday morning, this crowd was transformed from a crowd of cheering supporters into a murderous mob, and they were complicit in his death
To them Jesus says, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
The sign of total commitment is to be willing to die for Jesus’ sake
That commitment is what makes one a true disciple

Superficial Followers or True Disciples

It seems today that many of those who attend church are superficial followers rather than true disciples

It’s not their fault because many churches do a very poor job at providing training in discipleship
We’re content simply to get them in and we’re afraid that if we require too much we might drive them away
But by not requiring enough and not providing the training that’s needed to live the Christian life, we make it easy for people to slip away unnoticed

I close today with the membership covenant that Rick Warren uses in the Saddleback Valley Community Church

Each new member must sign this covenant in order to join the church
The covenant’s four main points read as follows:

I will protect the unity of my church by acting in love toward other members, by refusing gossip, by following the leaders
I will share the responsibility of my church by praying for its growth, by inviting the un-churched to attend, by warmly welcoming those who visit
I will serve the ministry of my church by discovering my gifts and talents, by being equipped to serve by my pastor, by developing a servant’s heart
I will support the testimony of my church by attending faithfully, by living a godly life, by giving regularly

The church will do well in training disciples when its goals and expectations are clearly defined