Dr Charles Stanley - The Demands of Discipleship

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1:03A Disciple is one who is continuously learning, continuously making application. A Disciple is one who is hungry and thirst the after the things of God. I simply ask you do you have a hunger for God? Do you have a thirst for Him? Do you want Him to carry you as deeply as He intends to carry you? What are your goals for this brand new year? If being determined to grow spiritually and follow Jesus more closely are on your list, we invite you to let us help. Today on InTouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we kick off a series of programs for 2025 that can help you understand and embrace what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Here's part one, The Demands of Discipleship. Discipleship is one of those scriptural words that we talk about, have heard about, have

2:04repeated many times, have read in Scripture and in books all of our life, and have little or no understanding of its true meaning. If I should ask you this morning, what is a disciple, more than likely, most people would begin to name Peter, James, John, Judas, Levi, or one of the other, twelve apostles. Our concept of discipleship is more than an idea or way of life all the way through the New Testament, you'll find that word. You'll find the word disciple and discipleship. When you come to the Great Commission, you and I read it in the King James version that says this. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. We can just quote that off just like that. We learned that in the first grade or while we were beginners, we could quote that in Sunday school. But it would be better had we learned that the way Jesus said it in the original which says, going therefore make disciples of all nations.

3:13And you see we have read it as it has been translated. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. And so we've sort of relegated that to missionaries and preachers and teachers and all kinds of church workers. But somehow we've not understood what Jesus meant. He said as you go, as you go where, as you go everywhere, you go. As you who apostles, preachers, no, every disciple. As you go therefore make disciples of all nations. When I read the New Testament, what God is saying concerning discipleship, I realize today while the church is collapsing all about us. While it is growing in areas, it is absolutely collapsing in other areas. While there's some that are on the cutting edge and the fire and the power of God is so evident, there are those that are drying up and withering like dead stalks, withering.

4:16How can the power of God wither? How can the presence of God in the presence of people? How can they wither spiritually but it's happening everywhere? And I believe there's a principle I've discovered as I read that book of Acts over and over and over again. That is, without discipleship, it is dis-ass stuff for the Church of God. Toyotas Easy Choice Sales Event is on. Whether you're looking for the performance of a camera, the versatility of a RAV4, the

5:16efficiency of a Corolla, or all electric driving in the BZ, there's a Toyota that's just right for you. And with great deals across the lineup, now's the time to find yours. And hurry, these deals won't last long. Toyotas Easy Choice Sales Event ends soon. We make it easy. Toyota, let's go places. Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown, grape-ary cotton candy grapes are 299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada dry or 7-up 12 ounce cans are 499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. If the concept of discipleship is not preached and taught and lived, it means ultimate dis-ass

6:17stuff for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look about us to see what's happening. And we wonder why. And I believe the reason is evident in the Word of God. Now listen carefully. Some of you are just sitting on ready and you're going to get it and you're going to say, God, that's exactly what I want. That's what I want you to do in my life. That's what I've been hungering and thirsting for. Any hungry believer will take what God has to offer. But do you know the group of people here this morning who will have the most difficulty with the concept of true discipleship? It is all of us who have been a Christian for 20, 30, 40, and 50 years. We will have the greatest difficulty with accepting and absorbing and listen, applying the concept of New Testament discipleship. We will have the most difficult time. Now watch this. Because we have grown up in churches where you go to church, you give your heart to

7:18Jesus, you just do some mechanical things like give and you go to Sunday's school class and you read the Bible and you pray and you serve on a committee, you serve as a decan, you teach the Sunday's school class. And we have a generation after generation after generation of the product of breeding and growing and producing churchmen who know everything about the facilities of a church, everything about how a church operates. All about programs, all about the system, but little are nothing about Jesus Christ and almost zero when it comes to what he meant about discipleship. Amen? Now that is the condition of the church. We have churchmen by the millions. We have few disciples and I go right back again to the pulpit. I believe there is responsibility primarily, rest upon the pulpit. It is not all there, but primarily that is where it rests.

8:18I want us to talk about this amount of discipleship and this is just a beginning this morning of what it is all about. Now listen, listen carefully. It will be very, very easy for you to say to me or in your own mind, watch this. The devil do everything in his power to keep this from your mind. It will be easy for you to say, well I have heard that definition before. Well I have been knowing that is what the disciple is all about my life. Now watch this. The devil, if he can get you to think just for a moment, well I know what the disciple is, he will have you exactly where he wants you because you missed the whole point of the message. I want you to listen as if you had never known what the disciple is because more than likely I doubt if many people here really do. All I ask you to do is to give me your heart for a little while and ask God to speak to you and help you get in your heart, in your mind so you can apply what I am going to

9:20say. First thing I want to do is to define what a disciple is. Now the word disciple in the Greek is my faith taste which simply means a learner. It is a disciple according to the New Testament is a person first of all who learns the doctrine of his teacher and secondly equally important who shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons get fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts for 199 per pound limit 10 pounds and locally grown grape re cotton candy grapes are 299 per pound with digital coupon plus 24 packs of canada dry or 7 up 12 ounce cans are 499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. At Verbo we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support so

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11:24becomes a way of life for the one who's listening? Therefore a disciple is one who is learning from his teacher making application of in his life and thereby whose life is continuously growing and growing and growing. Now which says it is a contradiction in terms to talk about being a disciple and being spiritually stuck. A backsliding in your spiritual life. A disciple is one who is continuously learning, continuously making application. A disciple is one who is hungry and thirsty after the things of God. I simply ask you do you have a hunger for God? Do you have a thirst for Him? Do you want Him to carry you as deeply as He intends to carry you? Now discipleship, listen, a genuine New Testament disciple.

12:24Let me give you a simple definition of it. That's the word in the New Testament. That's the implication there. But a New Testament disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior who has yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord and who, listen, accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, you've done that. And through whom Jesus Christ is reproducing his life in the life of another. A New Testament disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, you've done that. Yeeled it to Him as Lord. He is King in your life. And through whom He is reproducing His life. He is King in your life. And through whom He is reproducing Himself in the life of another. That's the key. And this is where we have fallen short and hit zero in our score.

13:27He said, as you go to work, as you go home, as you go in your community, as you go to church, we are those who have accepted Christ as Savior, yielded to Him as Lord and through us He is reproducing His life through us in the life of someone else. That is the simple way Jesus intended to evangelize the whole known world. You know how we can do that? Simply putting into practice the definition I just gave you. Having accepted Jesus Christ as My Savior, having yielded to Him as My Lord, I will allow Him to reproduce His life through Me in the life of someone else. And when that someone else understands what it means to be saved, to have Him as Lord and that reproduction of another believer is His command from Jesus. That's how Jesus intended that the gospel reached the world.

14:29Isn't that simple? It is just that simple. Having accepted Him as My Savior, having yielded to Him as My Lord and allowing Him to reproduce through Me His life in the life of someone else. That is the God given command to every single believer, period. There is no exception to that. When I think of how far short we've fallen from that I could weep on the inside. Just refreshing my own mind and heart of what the Lord wanted to say through me today. God working in my own heart, speaking to my own life. And I had to confess to Him, dear God, how could I have been so blind so long when I began to realize the sudden picture of this thing? I have known it for a long time. But all of a sudden it hit me just like a ton of steel. This is the way He intends to evangelize the... It's Paul and America. Make it count. At the Ram Drive-In to Fall Sales Event, make it powerful with our strongest Ram 1500 ever.

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16:32this morning who is saved, who cannot do what I'm talking about. Amen? Not a one of us. Every single one of us can do it. Yeah, that's what a disciple is. Now, let's talk about this matter of the drift of the New Testament church from home. That's the definition. What about the drift? All the way back in the New Testament day, when Jesus talked about discipleship, he talked to a group of people who followed him. Now, he was not nearly as interested in people's response in some way, as often times we are, because when he talked about discipleship, he didn't have the same response that we do when we talk about other things. Now, watch this. Today we talk about membership. We talk about salvation. We talk about all kinds of things. When Jesus got through the Scripture, says, therefore I sit unto you that no man can come on the me, except that we're given to him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

17:35And I believe that in many churches in America, before they'll ever grow and get fired up for God, that's got to be a purging and a pruning and a cleansing and the doctrine of obedience to God. That is the heart and the core of discipleship. When they saw what he was saying, having healed, having fed them and all the rest, when he got down to obeying him, the Scripture says that the vast majority of them turned and walked away and he said to his apostles, will you also turn and walk away? The discipleship is more than believing in Jesus Christ. So that. Jesus with his disciples, he taught them in order to reproduce his life through them to others. Then you come to the early New Testament church and if you'll turn that to Acts chapter 11 from among them, what you'll notice something. The Scripture says that Annie Ark was a great center of the Christian faith. Verse 25 says, then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Paul and when he had found him,

18:38he brought him to Annie Ark and he came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with a church and taught many people and the disciples were called Christians first in Annie Ark. Now listen, those who had believed in Jesus Christ were called disciples. That's how they knew each other. They were disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the pagans in Antioch, as they watched the influence and the witness in the testimony and the way of life of these who were disciples, they are the ones the Scripture says, who tagged them, Christianity, that is, followers of Jesus. Those whom they saw who were attempting to interpret the life of Christ. Now a disciple is one who has received Jesus Christ is saved. He has revealed it to him as long and is available for the Holy Spirit to reproduce the life of Christ through him in the life of someone else.

19:38Discipleship is not optional, it is mandatory upon every believer. Now suppose you could place a discipleship in three stages that is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ first of all, learning of him and then having his life reproduce through your life in the life of someone else. But that new testament church, discipleship to them was very, very simple. They knew exactly what was involved. When I turned to the fifth and sixth chapters of Acts, the last verse, the 42nd verse, the 5th chapter of Acts says, and daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ in chapter 6 verse 1 says, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied. Verse 7 says, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. What were they doing? Here's what they were doing. They had accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. They had yielded to him as the resurrected Lord and they were preaching in the church house

20:41and they were going from house to house and they were doing what? They were allowing Jesus Christ. Kitchen and bathroom professionals know what goes behind the tile matters. That's why trade pros trust Fiber cement, Party Backer Board to keep tile firmly in place, resist cracking, and help block moisture. Chosen in over 40 million kitchen and bathrooms, Party Backer Board, what the best build on. Shop now at participating Home Depot, Lowe's, and floor into core stores. For more information, visit JamesHearty.com slash Hearty Backer. It's to reproduce himself in the lives of people all over Jerusalem and the Bible says that disciples were being multiplied everywhere. Why? They understood the true meaning of discipleship. That when you give your heart to Jesus, you are saved to large ship for reproduction. It is not optional.

21:42It is mandatory. They are reproducing through us of the life of Jesus Christ in the life of someone else. That is not only sharing my faith with them, but building that person up in the faith, instructing them how to do the same thing for someone else. What have we done? We've said come forward. Sign a card, be baptized, and my friend the churches today that are dying and the churches that are doing nothing but getting members. That is a disaster to tell a man come give your heart to Jesus and sit and listen to me preach. That is disastrous because Jesus saved that man to reproduce himself through him. What I'm asking you today is this. When and how and to whom and in whom has Christ been able to reproduce his life because of the life you've lived. That's what it's all about. He says, make disciples of all nations not optional command, mandatory upon every single

22:44believer. But the church today has watered it down. And what do we have? We have a watered down church that's lost its power. It is no longer exercising and experiencing the supernatural work of God. And there are bright flames here and there all over the world. But for the most part the church has lost the understanding of disciples here. And because it has we have scores of millions of people in Christendom who are ignorant of the Word of God. And that's why they're willing to do anything and choose any kind of liberal theology because they're not disciples. They're just believers. My friend you can be a believer but if you're not doing what second him is a chapter 2 verse 2 says my friend you're not a disciple of Jesus. And that is not optional. It is mandatory. It is a command. Follow me. Thee my disciple. Listen to what he says. Second him with the chapter 2. Let's begin in verse 1. Now therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

23:46Listen 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. That is discipleship. And did you know that all the coming to church in the world is no substitute for that? All the worship in the world is no substitute for that. There is no substitute for reproducing the life of Christ in the life of someone else. Now listen. Jesus offers men a way of life. That is that a man's walk. The way he walks where he goes. But he says that his walk is a way of life that is characterized by the reproduction of the life of Jesus. Now friend, he is saying that a disciples one whose way of life is characterized by reproduction of the life of Jesus in the life of the man that whom he speaks.

24:48And I want to ask you this morning, do you want to be a disciple? Do you just want to sit and take it easy and miss the best God's God? I believe enough people who mean business for God who will take what has been said today, hundred, think over it, look at what they've said they are, what they know they are, what they ought to be doing, what they've chosen as options, what they know now to be mandatory in their life, and that there is no substitute. I believe God will do something in your life, my friend, if you will allow him the privilege of reproduction of history through you. Dr. Stanley's message challenged those of us who are believers to honestly consider what it means to be a disciple. We need to continually ask ourselves if we are truly allowing Christ to reproduce his life through us into the lives of others.

25:50To listen again, click on the link today on radio at intouch.org and to learn more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, search the resources on our website. If you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order it from our online store. The title is The Demands of Discipleship. It's also included in his teaching set, Call to Be a Disciple. Our web address again is intouch.org or call or text 1-800-intouch. You can also write to us at intouch. Post office box, 7900, Atlanta, Georgia, 303-57. Jesus said, follow me. While that sentence is light on words, the content contains significant weight. Today's moment with Charles Stanley is just ahead. Does your prayer life need a jumpstart? With the intouch praying with purpose cards, the time you spend talking with God will take on a whole new level of energy and intimacy. Beautifully designed and easy to use or to share with a friend.

26:53There are prayers to lift up each day of the month along with corresponding Bible verses and more. For your set of praying with purpose cards, call 1-800-intouch or go to intouch.org-store. We all know that prayer can change lives and people pray in many different ways. Whatever method we choose, the good news is that God hears the prayer of His followers. Prayer is God's loving invitation to be in constant communion with Him. Pray like this. A 32-page booklet from Intouch Ministries is set to equip you with the tools to make prayer truly yours. To order your booklet, visit intouch.org slash pray like this. From the pastor's heart is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley to receive in-touches from the pastor's heart letter, call 1-800-intouch or visit intouch.org slash pastor's heart.

27:56You're listening to In-touch. What's become different since you became a Christian? And what did Jesus mean when He said, follow me? Here's a moment with Charles Stanley. I was preaching one Sunday at the first bed of church in Miami where I used to pass the church. I finished there. Three students came to me and I mean they attacked me vigorously and I just stood there and listened to him. They said, well, this young man spoke up, he said, first of all, he said, I've been saved and there's nothing in the Bible demands in a change. There's been no change in my life. I said, what a man. I said, sit down here, minute dear brother, because 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, therefore, for a man being Christ, he is spanking brand new. And you mean to tell me? So we went on that conversation for a while. Well, let me tell you something. Now, you watch this. It is an amount of just believing. It is the surrender of the heart and the more I read that New Testament, I don't see any indication where Jesus ever said, if you will believe on me, you can do anything you want

28:59to. What did He say? He said, believe me and what? Follow me. And follow me is wrapped up in one word and that is obedience to believe Him is going to result if I mean business in obeying God. You can learn more about how to develop a lifestyle of obeying Jesus at intouch.org. And if you are encouraged and equipped today to boldly live out your faith in Christ, we'd like to know. Next week on Intouch, Christians aren't people who simply go to church. Other people who through faith are growing in Christ-like character. Our series called to be a disciple continues next weekend on Intouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of Intouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia and remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.