Video Transcript: The Heart of a Disciple Maker
David - So as you're walking through this journey with somebody else, or a small group of people, I think one of the things that's really key that we want to emphasize over and over again, is that this is not just, okay, lessons, walk through check off, we've covered that we've covered that now we've made disciples, this is really sharing life with somebody, and the root of that, and what this whole lesson is about as loving somebody else. I mean, you're in disciplemaking, there's a real sense in which you're laying down your life. For somebody else, you're saying, I pray for you, I want to be vulnerable with you, I want to I want to do whatever I can to serve you to help you grow in Christ and make disciples of Christ eventually in your own life. And so that whole process just permeated with love. But that means it's not always easy, either. I mean,
Francis - what's hard? For some people, I don't know the way you are, but I'm very task driven. Like, if I'm reading a book, I want to get through it. Like, I just want to finish it. And so it's easy for me if I had these lessons where I go, Okay, we got to get through lesson three. And I get so focused on Okay, I got him through it, I come to believe that we forget what Scripture teaches is love, love, like Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. You could do all these religious acts like I Corinthians 13 says, but if you don't have love, you're a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. So I think it's a good time to think through the people you're leading and going, do I care about them? Do I love that I really pray for them this week.
David - Yeah, and to really check yourself in that process continually. But I can think of times where I've been walking through some kind of material with somebody, and we're just walking through it, and they start to share something that's even it's kind of open a window into some deep struggle in their life. And then I'm thinking, Alright, what's the next question we got to get through? And that's where I gotta pause and say, No, this point is not. And we're kind of programmed to that to do that to think through, okay. Discipleship is what happens in an hour, hour and a half meeting once a week, as opposed to No, this is, this is a foundational time where you walk into the Word together. But this is, this is a bridge into sharing life on all kinds of different levels, even even when people are walking through, especially when people walk into difficulties.
Francis - Yeah, like I was. I was in San Francisco, just walking the streets. And this guy comes up to me, he goes, Francis, you know, and I started hearing his story. He had just got out of prison, he was in a halfway house. And he was telling about how they were doing the DVD series Crazy Love in prison. And so he knew my face and everything else. I'm like, wow, that's, that's kind of crazy. But I started hanging out with this guy, because he was telling me a story about how he is trying to get a job. And no one wants to hire him because he spent the
last six years in prison. He's married, he's got two kids, and he just got his wife pregnant. Again, he's going, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I only got a few more months in this place. And, and this is unique, because a lot of times I'm busy, and I just want to get past a conversation. But the more I got to know this guy, like, the Lord really gave me a love for him. And so then it was like, when I'm supposed to love him, like myself, and, and so it's like, okay, well, I'm going to help you figure this out, I'll find a place for you to live and, and I'll find a job. We'll figure this out together, and I'm going to help you with the word because I just love this guy. And pretty soon as like, I can't find anywhere from the live, it's like, okay, come on, you guys just all move in with us. You know, and so it's just been this process, and it's been life, it's been, you know, seeing the way he interacts with his wife and, and him getting to see how I interact with my wife. It's like, he sees how I raised my kids, it's, It's life on life, it's about love. And that's the heart is, at the core of it is I love this guy, I want to see him walk with the Lord, I want him to have a right relationship with other people with his own children. And, and that's the heart of this.
David - So you might invite me come out on the streets and invite them into your home to live with you. So that's one way this could play out or also, the big picture is invite them into your life. Like, expose them to your life, with all of its inconsistencies. It's not again, that anybody's ever got all this figured out. But this is a picture of laying down your life as loving somebody. So how are you praying for the people that you're discipling? How are you? How are you serving them? And how are you inviting them into your life in an intentional way that you're showing them what the life of Christ looks like in action? Make sure that's central not just going through a lesson.
Francis - Yeah, don't don't feel bad if you're going wow, I'm not really loving because I've caught myself so many times doing that. In fact, I have in the, you know, in my Bible, these questions I asked before I speak and the number two question is do I even love these people? Because I'll just sometimes get up there and do my thing. Seeing and not even care. I have the heart and so I gotta remind myself and God man, I'm supposed to love them. And so understand we all struggle with this. It's a supernatural thing. We gotta pray Lord make me more loving. So throughout the week I'm thinking about this person that I'm teaching and truly loving them in a supernatural way.