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09-06-09... A Disciple's Portfolio: The High Calling of Stewardship

To wrap up our series on discipleship, we're looking at a big issue that informs ... well, everything. This week we work toward an understanding of God owning everything, the aim that He has for His "stuff," and how to go to work for that end. As we end this series, remember that our discussion of discipleship isn't over because we hope that it will be a theme that under girds just about everything we do.

One of our Summer interns at C!C, Jill Blackstock brings the Word to us this week regarding how a disciple should use their speech. Modeling ourselves after Jesus, we have the opportunity to shape our speech in such a way that we build others up, adding to their comfort, spirit, and courage. Through Ephesians 4, we receive a strong challenge to bring our speech in-line with being children of Light.

This week our series on characteristics we should own as disciples of Jesus continues with Alex, one of our interns, speaking on Victory Over Sin. The Bible teaches that in Christ we are new creations, and there is a freedom in that to separate us from sin and secure for us the blessings of righteousness. This week we take a look at sin, separating from sin and the tools we've been given to secure the victory.

Few things connect us with each other more than telling and listening to stories. The Bible is a collection of stories of how God interacts with and redeems mankind. For the Christian, no story is as life shaping as that of this redemption, how one came to know and trust Jesus. The story of God's redeeming you and me through Jesus and the impact that it has on our lives is one of the greatest tools we will ever have in sharing the Good News. This week we look at how we can see God's power displayed through our stories.

The Bible proclaims Jesus to be Lord and Saviour, we partake in the "Lord's Supper," and we pray, "Dear Lord, ..." but what does it mean for Jesus to be "Lord?" On the heels of talking about Salvation, we now turn our focus to Lordship--whether or not there is evidence to support our submitting control of areas of our life to Jesus. Here we explore the basis, the meaning, and the promises of the Lordship of Jesus.

This week begins a practical step in discipleship. We are going to look at a handful of aspects/skills that disciples of Jesus should own and display. The first topic is that of salvation. One's understanding, owning and being able to articulate salvation is maybe the most important aspect of following Jesus. All of human history revolves around God's redemption and understanding our salvation in Jesus as a part of that plan is absolutely vital to our faith and ministry. You can KNOW that you are saved in Jesus--here's how.

The Apostle Paul provides us a wonderful case study in Christian Community and the its connection to Discipleship. Through his life and letters we see what creates Christian Unity/Community, ways that we find Christian Community, and also ways that nurture Christian Community. The hope is that we can continually grow in our mutual dependence on the Spirit and our mutual encouragement as brothers and sisters.

With help from the work of Herb Hodges and his book, "TallyHo the Fox," we break the commission up into seven parts. In this week, part two of the series, we look at making disciples, enlisting them into the family of God, teaching them Christ's commands and the incredible promise that Jesus gives upon our obedience in this area. Lord make us into a group that has a heart that beats for the nations to know You and engages our world in an effort to make that happen!

We now move from talking about discipleship in terms of our following Jesus as His disciple to reaching out and teaching other people to do the same. We'll be taking a thorough look over two weeks at the Great Commission in an effort to grasp the weigh of Jesus powerful mandate. With help from the work of Herb Hodges and his book, "TallyHo the Fox," we break the commission up into seven parts. This week we look at the first three as we call all believers to enter the harvest fields and work for the discipling of the nations!

Jesus leveled some harsh rebukes to the religious leaders of His day revealing them to be hypocrites (a word that comes from referring to actors who play a part of someone or something that they're not from behind a mask.) Unfortunately this critique is sometimes aimed at Christians today. In an effort to hold true to Jesus' teachings, to be genuine and to show ourselves to be His disciples, we look at three hypocritical areas from Matthew chapter 6.

An abstract definition of a term gives us accurate information, but a functional definition grips our attention and gives us an opportunity (and often a compulsion) to respond. This week we explore part of Jesus' functional definition of being His disciple. We break down some of what it means to be "salt" and "light."

Our world constantly encourages along a frenzied race to pursue happiness, but do we ever really catch it? In Matthew 5 Jesus describes his disciples as having attained a full happiness. Jesus describes for us some significant components of the nature of "good" as He describes being blessed--being happy. Listen as we explore some about this passage and how Jesus' picture of the happy disciple relates to us.
[To hear Pastor Jason's lead-in to the Pastoral Team nominations and the connection to discipleship from the end of the May 10 sermon--click here.]

This week Dan MacFarlane takes the lead in the quest to understand our status and calling in Jesus. He leads us through the two primary motivations of a disciple. Then he discusses five marks of fellowship with Jesus which could also be viewed as stages of discipleship. Listen for where you are in the stages and pray for ways to grow in fellowship with Jesus as one of His beloved disciples.

Renown writer, pastor, theologian activist and man of God Dietrich Bonhoeffer stressed the importance of owning a "costly grace" as opposed to a "cheap grace." Here we explore the subtle distinctions between costly grace and cheap grace in an effort to value God's grace, see how grace necessarily pours out in discipleship, and keep grace "amazing."

The book of James tells us that faith without deeds is dead. Having just spend many weeks leading up to the triumph of Easter and wondrous message of salvation through faith in Jesus, what comes next? Jesus' call to his disciples was "Come, follow me." The call required action--and so it is with us. Faith leads to works; belief leads to obedience; grace leads to discipleship. This week begins our focus on discipleship, what it means to be people in process toward being more like Jesus. As followers of Jesus we need to see things like He sees them, love what He loves, hate what He hates. As we learn this we show ourselves to be His disciples. This course, though, doesn't just happen all of a sudden, all by itself. It's a process, and it starts with spiritual vision. Join us as we begin this exploration of discipleship.