Commitment to the great commission is a commitment to discipleship.

Discipleship is the key to becoming who God has called us to be.

Discipleship unlocks the best life in Christ.

Discipleship is the path to spiritual prosperity in a wicked and adulterous world.

Discipleship provides the substance for a victorious life.

Discipleship makes us more like Christ than anything else for the believers.
 
I say to our young people today, nothing and no one can get you to the place you are aspiring for like discipleship.

David was a teenage boy keeping his father’s sheep going nowhere fast until he committed himself to a life of discipleship.

• 2 Sam. 7:8, “Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the LORD of host, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel."

Josiah as an eight-year-old boy who committed his life to God through discipleship became king of Israel.

• 2 King 22: 11, “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes.”

• Tearing of his clothes was his disgust with the spiritual condition of Israel and this eight-year-old boy reformed a nation.

Esther a teenage Jewish girl because of discipleship risks her life to save her people from destruction.

• Esther 4:16, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days"

• A teenage girl because of discipleship became queen of the Persian Empire

• In a culture where women had no rights, she was elevated because of discipleship to save her people.

I said all of that to say to our children, our youth, and our young adults, the commandment of discipleship is to you and for you too.

Vs. 20, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

The great commission is a commandment from God in three stages; evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship and all three must be fulfilled by the whole body of Christ.

Young people and those of us that’s not so young, we are to be engaged in evangelism, fellowship and discipleship

Discipleship is the process of being educated with the word of God

• Sunday school is where discipleship takes place.

• Awana is where discipleship takes place.

• Children church is where discipleship takes place.

• Corporate worship is where discipleship takes place.

Parents and grandparents God had commanded us to encourage and lead our children to discipleship.

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

• Train indicates teaching.

• Train in the Hebrew is to place of the palate, to give a taste of God.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
 

Commitment to Discipleship
 

I.     Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to God’s plan and purpose for our lives.

II.    Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to spiritual maturity.

III.   Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to oral teaching and practical living.

Greater Hopewell if we are going to save our children from the ills of this culture of destruction, we must encourage discipleship.

If we are going to save our children from jail or the grave, we must encourage discipleship.

If your children are disrespectful and disobedient, we need to encourage discipleship.

Discipleship is the educational aspect of the responsibility of the whole church.
 

I.     Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to God’s plan and purpose for our lives.

1. God’s plan is to make us like Christ.

• Rom. 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conform to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren."

2. God’s plan is to make us victorious in life.

• Phil. 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.”

3. God’s purpose is to use us for his glory.

• Luke 2:49, “And he said unto them, how is it that you sought me? Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?"

II.    Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to spiritual maturity.

1. Spiritual development is essential to godly living.

   • Luke 2:52, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with man and God.”

   • Jesus grew physically and spiritually.

2. Spiritual maturity provides power to resist peer pressure.

• Dan. 3:18, “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

3. Spiritual maturity provides courage to stand up for God.

• I Sam. 17:45, “Then said David to the Philistine, thou come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield; but I come top thee in the name of the LORD of host, the God of the armies, who thou have defied.”

III.   Commitment to discipleship is a commitment to oral teaching and practical living.

Teaching is the Gr. word didasko which has inherent in it the calculation of the increase in understanding of the student and the obeying of what has been taught.

The idea is when he or she has been taught something  they are doing the thing they have been taught.

a. Every believer is a teacher in one sense whether through oral communication or practical living.

• The first teacher a child has is their parents.

• The parent may be a good teacher or a bad teacher.

b. The church is to partner with parents in teaching biblical truths that transforms the life of the teacher and student.

• Deut. 31:12, “Gather the people together, men, and women, and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law."

c. Teaching and being taught fulfills the great commission.

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

• Discipleship is our obedience to God’s word.

• Discipleship is our assurance that God is with us.

• Discipleship draws the presence of God everywhere we go.

• Discipleship connects us to God through his word and fills us with his presence.

Young people, we need the Lord in our lives, every day and in every way.

• In the schoolhouse.

• On the football field.

• On the baseball field.

• On the basketball court.

Discipleship brings us closer to God!
Discipleship brings God closer to us!