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The Call of Jesus
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Welcome to this lesson 24:
How To Grow Up.
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Last time we talked about the different
spiritual levels we see in the Bible.
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We talked about being babies,
newborn,
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how to grow up and become
children in the faith,
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and then become parents in the faith.
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We need to go out and find
a person of peace, as Jesus is talking about,
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something we've looked at
in this series "The Call of Jesus".
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But when we find that person of peace
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we need to know
how to share the gospel with them,
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so they can be truly born again.
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But, we also need to help them
to grow up.
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We need to help them to become
mature in Christ.
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Like in a family, what we see in a family
is that...
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In a family there should be babies.
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In the natural family.
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But they should not remain
as babies.
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They should grow up.
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And by time, they should, actually,
grow up so much
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that they leave the home
and go out and get their own family.
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And now we are not parents
but grandparents.
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As it is in the natural,
God wanted to be in the spiritual.
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When I take a look at the church
today, I just want to say:
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It is sad to see how far away
we have come from
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what God wants us to be,
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how few that are really growing up
and seeing good fruit
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in their everyday life.
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There are so many people today
in churches who just,
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sad to say, continue being
spiritual babies the rest of their life.
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Why? Why is it like that?
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Could it be that we lack
discipleship?
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I believe that is one of it.
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But the truth is also that...
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many people in the church
are not born again yet.
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I want to read a quote here from my book
"The Call of Jesus" in this chapter.
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"When a person is truly born again,
you will see it in their life.
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There will be fruit in their life
that will show they are a new creation.
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When there is fruit in a person's life,
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they need milk so they can grow up
and mature;
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however, if the fruit in not there,
that means they are not born again,
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and they need something much
stronger then milk."
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When a person is born again,
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we looked at last time,
that person needs milk.
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But if a person is not truly
born again,
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they need something
much stronger then milk.
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What is that?
Blood.
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The blood of Jesus.
They need to be born again.
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Because when they are born again,
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the life is being transformed,
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not from outside in,
but from inside out.
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1 John 3:6-10 is saying this:
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"No one who lives in Him
keeps on sinning.
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No one who continues to sin
has either seen Him or known Him.
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Dear children, do not let anyone
lead you astray.
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The one who does what is right
is righteous, just as He is righteous.
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The one who does what is sinful
is of the devil,
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because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning.
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The reason the Son of God appeared
was to destroy the works of the devil.
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No one who is born of God will
continue in sin,
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because God's seed remains in them;
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they cannot go on sinning,
because they have been born of God.
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This is how we know who's the children
of God and who's the children of the devil;
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anyone who does not do what is right
is not God's children,
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nor is anyone who does not love
their brothers or sisters."
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What we see here is...
the Bible is very, very clear
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that everyone who is truly born again
do not go on sinning.
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The seed of God is inside of them
and they cannot go on sinning.
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We also read that they love their brothers,
those who are born again.
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If those things are missing
in a person's life,
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if people are living in sin,
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if people don't have the love
to be with other believers...
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Why? Why is it missing?
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Could it be because they are not
truly born again?
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You know we can know a tree
by its fruit.
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And if this is not there,
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if the longing to live a holy life,
if the desire to love their brothers
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and being with other people
is missing in a person's life,
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you cannot disciple a person like that
into maturity. Why?
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Because they are not born again yet.
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And therefore, when we talk about
how to grow children up,
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what we need to always start with
is the gospel.
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We need to always go back to the gospel
and keep it simple.
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Preach the gospel, even to those
who come to churches,
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even to those who come
into your fellowships.
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Because if you have a person
and you see something is missing,
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what is missing is just revealing
a deeper problem.
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And what is that?
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That is the root.
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You know we can know a tree
by its fruit.
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If a tree, for example, produces
oranges,
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and you want the tree to produce
apples instead,
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the solution is not to take down
all the oranges
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and tell the tree:
You have to stop producing oranges!
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You need to start producing
apples! What is wrong with you, tree?
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No, the tree just produces
what it is.
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Orange tree produces oranges.
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Apple tree produces apples.
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A tree produces what it is.
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The same is with a person.
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If you have a person
who is living in sin,
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if you have a person
who is not longing for the fellowship,
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then I want to encourage you...
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before you go deep, deep, deep in
and try to disciple them,
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and draw them out, and:
Come on, you need to stop sinning.
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Come on, you need to come
to the fellowship.
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Come on, you need to...
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because you'll get exhausted in that,
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than rather take the time to sit down
with them and share the gospel.
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Because when people truly
get that life... Hallelujah!
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They don't need anyone
around them to:
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Come on! You have to live holy!
Come on! You have to have the fellowship!
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And I remember that.
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I was 19 years old
when I gave my life to God.
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I was the first one in my family
who gave his life to God.
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I had no, like families, and many friends.
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I had one friend who was a Christian.
I had no one else.
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Right away, without even really
being in church ever,
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when I got born again,
the first thing happened...
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What was that?
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It was what we read.
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One of the first things that
happened was I could not go on sinning.
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I could not. Like, when I did things
I was used to do,
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that were sin, I just felt it inside of me.
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The seed of God was inside of me.
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I could not go on sinning.
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And I know for my sake,
I did not need a lifted finger and say:
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Hey, you are not allowed to do this.
You have to do this. You have to do this.
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No. I did not need it. Why?
Because the seed was inside of me.
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God was there.
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As we read before.
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Another thing was: I was longing
for fellowship with my new families.
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I was longing for fellowship.
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A guy like me, who was born again,
when I was longing for fellowship,
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I needed more than just one day a week...
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to go in and just meet,
Sunday was not enough.
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I needed more.
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And I wanted to live holy,
but in the beginning I fell
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and I did wrong things,
and I felt condemned,
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and there I also needed somebody
around me,
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more than one day a week.
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And in my life God gave me
somebody.
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He gave me my father-in-law
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who became my spiritual father,
who was there for me.
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And my father-in-law helped me
to grow up.
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He never sat down with me
and said:
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Torben, now we will have a teaching.
This week we are talking about this,
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next week we are talking about this,
third week we are talking about this...
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No, my teaching,
the teaching he gave me, milk he gave me,
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was on the couch, with him,
sitting beside me.
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I was sitting there with my Bible,
and I was hungry.
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And I asked a lot of questions:
What about this? What about this?
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What about this? What about this?
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And when I was fighting
he was always there.
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When I was doubting and
asking questions - he was there.
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This is what a newborn believer needs.
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They don't need to just come to a meeting.
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They need family.
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They need 24/7...
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somebody who is there,
who is ready to share life with them.
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And this is how we really see
children grow up and become strong.
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In 1 Corinthians 4:14-16
Paul is saying this:
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"I am writing this not to shame you
but to warn you as my dear children.
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Even if you had ten thousand
guardians in Christ,
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you do not have many fathers,
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for in Jesus Christ I became
your father through the gospel.
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Therefore I urge you to imitate me."
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There was many guardians, or many leaders,
let's say like that, in the church today.
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But there are not many fathers.
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Paul was really a father for
some of those people,
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and I encourage you out there, when it comes
to how to grow people up in Christ,
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when a person is a newborn and
experience Christ,
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they need more than to just be invited
to a meeting.
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They long for fellowship.
They want to live holy.
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They need somebody who can just
be there for them,
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somebody who can share life
with them,
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somebody who can love them.
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They need more then just to be
invited to a church.
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They need to be invited
to a cup of coffee, or for a dinner.
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And this is what I encourage you
to do.
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When you start to work with people...
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and you start to see people come to Christ,
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open up your home.
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Invite them for a dinner.
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Sit down with them in the sofa.
Talk about life.
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And there answer some of those questions
people often don't get answered in the church.
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I know when I was a newborn believer
and sat in my father-in-law's to be house,
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he did not put up a teaching,
as I said,
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but he answered those questions
I had in that moment.
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Hey, I'm fighting with this.
What about this?
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What about this?
What about this?
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And he gave me so much more,
to have somebody
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to answer those questions
I had in that moment,
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than going to hear a sermon 45 minutes,
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with something that was not
working in my life.
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But I want to say, it is not always easy
to find those right people,
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people who are mature,
who want to help people.
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It is not easy outside the church
or inside the church.
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I remember some years ago, I was
in a city and I led some people to Christ.
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There was no church in that city,
but there was a small group
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of Christians gathering.
There were six Christians gathering.
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And I tried to take some of those
new believers into that group,
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but it was not easy, because in that
small group there was six people,
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and when I looked at them, there were
two who were amazing,
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who loved Jesus, amazing, on fire,
it just came out of them always.
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Another two were more neutral,
and like: who are they?
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They are good and not bad,
but they love Jesus, so it's fine.
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But then there were two that were
worse poison ever.
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Two very religious people who just
take out every life out of a new believer.
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It was very difficult for me, because how
do I bring people to that small group,
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and I wanted them to connect
with those two,
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or maybe those two,
but not with those two.
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And it's not easy.
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Since I had those experiences,
I stopped just...
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taking people to church,
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because I did never know who
they will meet in church.
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So, instead of just saying:
come to church
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and let them connect with everyone,
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because one of the first one
I really led to church,
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she connected with wrong people
in church,
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people who were living lukewarm,
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and they ended up going to city,
and that girl fell away again,
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because they were out drinking.
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We see so many things today.
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It's better, instead of just
leading people to church,
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to just lead them to one or two
people who are on fire.
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And I hope that is you,
that you are on fire.
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That you will take the time
to meet with people.
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Or, if you cannot, than find somebody
else who live the life, who's on fire,
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and try to introduce those new believers
to them.
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Somebody who can help,
somebody who can take care of them,
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somebody who can help them grow up.
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And I believe this is how it should be
for all of us.
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I know it's not always easy,
because who to connect with,
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but I've also seen it again and again
that God is in control.
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So, if you don't have anyone,
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then start to pray that God will send
the right one to those people.
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And this is what He did with me.
When I look at my own life,
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I did not have anyone who could help me,
who could take care of me,
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but then God gave me my father-in-law.
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It was not just accident.
It was God who ordained it.
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It was God who took care of it.
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I remember one night we were
in a meeting, a prophetic meeting.
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A prophet called him up and said:
you have one son.
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He said: No, I have three daughters.
You have a son.
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No, I have three daughters.
You have a son.
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No, I have three daughters.
You have a son.
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He's like a son for you and your
job is to be there for your son.
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And he knew who he was
talking about.
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Me.
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So, God has called my father-in-law
to be there for me.
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My father-in-law is not a big minister.
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He's not somebody who's
speaking in churches and who's all over.
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This is not also what you need
and what other people out there need.
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We do not need a big minister who
doesn't have time to take care of people.
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We need people who have time.
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We need people who can just give
what God has given them.
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And I share much more about that
in my book "The Call of Jesus",
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where I talk about how
we can be there for other people.
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And if we don't have anyone ourselves,
what we can do,
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and how we can pray and ask God
to lead us to somebody.
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So I want to say this:
when we start to work with discipleship,
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the best discipleship is to become
family and friends with people,
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to walk with people,
to share life with people.
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To be there especially for those
new people who come to faith.
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The best teaching how do you get
people to grow up
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is just to sit down with them
in a sofa, over the coffee table,
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listen to their life,
listen to their story,
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listen to what they are fighting with
right now,
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what are they struggling with,
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what questions do they have,
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what did they read in the Bible
during the week, they don't understand,
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and then be for them and
answer their questions.
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And then pray for them.
And then help them.
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This is how we get people to grow up.
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Not to just invite them to a meeting
and give them 45 minutes of teaching.
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No. Invite them to your home.
Go to their home.
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Be there for them.
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And I encourage you,
if you start to do that,
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if everyone start to do that,
when we reach people,
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and we take the time, and again,
we don't need a big minister.
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You don't have to be a pastor
who's doing all of it.
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It's something you and me can do,
each of us.
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We can help people.
We can take care of them.
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So this is how it is.
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Be there. Love people.
Invest in them. Spend time with them.
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And this is how we get people to grow up.
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And then you will see fruit in their life.
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Next time I'm going to do a video here
called "Dear Pastors and Leaders",
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because next time I want to talk to all of you
who are pastors and leaders out there.
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I'm not against the church.
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But I want to challenge you.
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I want to challenge you to really
take the call of Jesus
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and give it to the people in the church,
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and see a movement from God,
there where you are.
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So, I look forward to see you next time.
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Bye-bye!
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The Call of Jesus