Video Transcript: Spiritual Development
Welcome back. We're continuing with our course developing great commission skills. We're dealing with skill number five, working with staff and leaders. Last time we looked at spiritual authority as a skill topic. But with this video, we're moving into spiritual development, which, of course, fosters spiritual authority. We'll be looking at the spiritual development of leaders so that they can, you know, deal with leadership from a posture of spiritual authority. So let me share with you my definition of leadership. This, of course, is leadership in the church. Leadership is taking responsibility for the spiritual development of others. I think it's important that we recognize that top level leadership in the church needs to be engaged, needs to be devoted to the spiritual development of people, very often the primary leadership in the church on the staff front, or the department head front, is concerned with running programs. A lot of times in the work of elders or deacons, we find that they're consumed with church management or church operational enterprises. So what we want to do is shy away from those two approaches and think of leadership as spiritual leadership that takes responsibility for the spiritual development of others now in the context of helping people develop spiritually. Yeah, we need to deal with management. We need to deal with organization. We need to deal with leading whatever our ministry areas or programs or departments might be, that's part of it. But the ultimate goal, what we're striving for, we're striving to develop people spiritually maturity in Christ, fullness of the maturity of Christ no longer tossed to and fro like children, as as Paul has indicated. Well, let me move to a particular grouping of disciplines that are central to helping people develop spiritually. And we're talking about the four disciplines of a great commission church. Now the four disciplines that we're going to talk about should be developed individually, but also should be developed corporately, in that they should, they should penetrate into all of the nooks and crannies of the church. So the idea of developing the four disciplines of a great commission church are coupled with the four disciplines of a great commission, person or individual, all right, so let's dive in. The first one is preemptive prayer. You're going to find that each of these four disciplines is captured in a two word phrase with a noun in a modifier. Well, the noun here, of course, is prayer. The modifier is preemptive prayer. It's a certain kind of prayer. Every church prays. Every Christian prays in one way or another, to one degree or another. So we're not suggesting that prayer isn't already a part of a person's life, that it's not already part of the corporate life of a church, but what I'm saying is that there's a particular strategic kind of prayer that we want to offer in the case of becoming a great commission church. So hold on to that for a moment, as a passage of scripture I want to share with you from Acts 2. Says this, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all gathered in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Now I'd like to suggest to you that that mighty rushing wind is still coming from
heaven. It moves the gospel into the harvest of souls where the Lost have been gathered, and it's in. That harvest that people will be redeemed, will be discovered, found, drawn into the family of God. Now preemptive prayer is prayer that is done in a particular way. It's to be used preemptively. So the question becomes, what is preemptive prayer? Well, one way of thinking of preemptive prayer is, it's prayer of the first resort. It's the first thing that we do. You know, for example, well, the word preemptive can be associated with a couple of other words, preeminence. Preeminence. You know, all of these carry the same basic connotation, just different figures of speech. But we're talking about prayer for the first resort. Preeminence. It's it. We're talking about superiority, preeminent. Mean, it's first in line. Preemptive means it's preceding something else, well preceding what Think of it this way, as we have discerned and developed our great commission vision, eventually we develop and articulate a great commission strategy. Now this strategy is going to call for certain things to be done, certain actions to be taken, certain strategies to be employed. Well, the idea of preemptive prayer is that in advance of all of the things that we're going to do, we're going to be in prayer. For example, let's say, in the area of youth ministry, some kind of event has been planned. Well, prior to that event, prayer is going to be laid out. Prayer for the event, prayer for the people working the event. Prayer for the development of the content of that event. Prayer for the hearts of youth out in the community to be open to receiving the invitation, something that will prompt them to attend and be part of this event. So you know, all across the board, we're praying in advance for that mighty rushing wind that is the Spirit of God to move through that event and in all manner of ways, making that event effective at providing some combination of outreach and evangelism and discipleship, which are the three movements of our church. So we start off with preemptive prayer. Now let's move to number two, basic Bible. Now, once again, I'm going to share these two questions with you from basic Bible. What does God say about this in his word? What Does God mean by what he says in His Word? Now, here's my observation. I have found that in the 21st century church, there is a great deal of biblical illiteracy. Folks just don't know the Bible now on a let's call it an objective theological level, they understand that the Bible is the Word of God. They probably affirm that they have perhaps favorite verses of the Bible that they respond to. They they might read the Bible, they listen to sermons, they hear teachings, but they don't really subjectively know how to get into the Bible and mine out the truth about the various things in their lives that they're working through. Let me give you an example. In the course of my ministry life, I have had many occasions where I've been in a conversation with a young man who has become disenchanted with his marriage, and so he might say something to me, like, I just don't think that I'm really in Love with my wife anymore, and I'm not happy. Certainly God, God wants me to be happy, right? Well, he's thinking that, as a
Christian man, God wants me to be happy. He wants me to be fulfilled. And I'm not really being fulfilled in this relationship with. My wife at this point, so he's looking to me to grant him some kind of permission, perhaps to leave his wife, to pursue his happiness, as it were. Well, what this indicates is that this person, though claiming to be a follower of Christ doesn't know what the Bible says, because there's no, there's no biblical promise of happiness. There is a biblical promise of joy, but that is of a very different genre than the kind of happiness that he's speaking of. And so what, what I would do in a case like this is I would say, well, there really isn't anything in Scripture about your being happy. You are to be content in whatever circumstance, and there is a deep seated joy that you can experience when you're in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. So what you're telling me by being quote, unhappy is your relationship with the Lord is probably struggling right now. But what I'd really like to talk to you about is what it means, what it means to be a godly husband, a biblical husband. So let's, let's take a look at Acts. Ephesians 4:21 submit to one another, one another, out of reverence for Christ. Wives submit to your husbands, etc, etc. But then we get to the husband. Husband, love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. So let me ask you a question. Do you think that the love that you have for your wife is the same kind of love that Jesus Christ had for his church, a love of sacrifice? Well, obviously, the answer is probably no, and that leads us into a different kind of conversation. Well, the idea of basic Bible is that we as individuals and we as congregations need to get back to the basics of reading, studying, knowing, applying the Bible to our everyday lives, in our everyday situations, we need to become people of the word biblical literacy needs to thrive, and so we want to promote this discipline of basic Bible as one of those things that's going to help us develop spiritually. Now let's move to discipline number three, cost commitment, a great commission church is a sacrificially committed church. Now the tendency in our day is to lower the bar of commitment. Sometimes we are concerned that if we set the bar high, that it will discourage people from being part of the church, that we might lose people because we perhaps have too high an expectation of their commitment to the Lord, but perhaps you're familiar with the phrase that says, Ask for a high commitment and you get a high commitment. Ask for a low commitment and you get no commitment. Now I'm not quoting that as scripture, because it's not in the Bible, but I do believe that it speaks it speaks truth. It rings true in my my soul, in my mind, the truth is following after Christ is quite demanding, quite demanding. Let me share a couple of things. In Galatians, Paul writes, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap. So if we sow a low commitment, what are we going to get? Low return? That's not what it's about. Try this on for size. From Matthew the teaching of Jesus. He says this, whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever does not
take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now, does that sound like a low commitment? I think not. I think not so. What is the point? Well, the point is
the bar of commitment for following Christ is actually set very, very high, very high, as the hymn exclaims, Jesus paid it all, All to Him. I owe. Jesus gave us his everything, and He requires of us our everything. Now, to be clear, we don't purchase our salvation. Our salvation was purchased for us by the blood of Christ, His death on the cross as penalty for our sins, and Jesus was raised from the dead as the first fruit of the resurrection, guaranteeing that we will be raised into eternal life. Now, the expectation is very high. We are to lose our lives for the cause of Christ, for the sake of Christ, so we're not doing anyone a favor in the church by allowing them to believe that following after Christ is not a costly venture. So we need to be encouraging people to step up and be willing to make that sacrifice, make that commitment, give their all to the Lord, and as Paul has said, all for the glory of God, cost commitment. Now the final of these four is called missional multiplication. Missional multiplication, a great commission church is a multiplying church. So you know, when we put all these pieces together, what do we see? A great commission church is a praying Church. The Great Commission church is a church of the Bible. The Great Commission church is a highly committed Church. The Great Commission, church is a multiplying church, and the same applies to us as individuals. Now the decree, as we've said earlier, of the original covenant in Genesis 1 be fruitful and multiply. And that sets us off on this path that culminates in Revelation with, behold a multitude. And we ask that question, you know, how are we going to get how is God going to get his family from the multiply of Genesis to the multitude of Revelation? And the answer is, the answer is, he's going to get us there through the multiplying of the kingdom. And in part, we're going to multiply through spiritual development. As people who are coming into the faith are becoming people of prayer, people of the Bible, people of a high level commitment, and people who multiply go and make disciples, baptizing teaching obedience to the commands of Christ. Now my observation is that most churches acknowledge the need and desire to reach people in the harvest, but few make doing so a ministry priority, but a great commission church truly does. Now, in order to move from intent to spiritual development strategy, what needs to happen? Well, how is this impact going to be developed? How is this how is the impact of the Great Commission in disciples developed? How is the impact of the Great Commission through disciples going to be developed now, as we answer that question, we begin to engender spiritual development. Now, one of the ways that we can help people to grow in terms of of the impact of the Great Commission in them, as well as the impact of the Great Commission through them, is through these four disciplines of preemptive prayer, basic Bible, cost, commitment and missional multiplication. The harvest is plentiful. The laborers
are few. We want to send skilled laborers into the harvest. Skilled laborers in part are laborers who have developed spiritually through prayer, through Bible, through commitment, through multiplication, now working with staff and leaders centers on establishing a core of spiritual development among staff and leaders. You see, staff and leaders are not just there to take on responsibility for the spiritual development of others, they also need to take responsibility for the spiritual development of themselves. So let me comment for a moment about leading spiritual development in the church. The place that we need to start as leaders, as individual leaders, is we need to start with leadership of self. I need to take responsibility for my own spiritual development, and I need to move forward in that endeavor. Secondly, we need to become leaders in our homes. Whatever our household situation is, perhaps we're married, perhaps there are kids in the house. Perhaps you're a single person living with two or three other single folks in some kind of living arrangement, but whatever your household situation is, you begin to take leadership for the spiritual development of the folks that you live with. So leadership of yourself, first, leadership of those you live with. Second, then we move further into the leadership of the congregation, if you've established a solid foundation of self leading coupled with leading in the home, and now you begin to be qualified to lead in the church, lead in the congregation, taking spiritual responsibility for those around you now, if in your leadership position, a pastoral position, you've got responsibility to help those that are part of your congregation develop spiritually. And then finally, leadership in the community, part of going and making disciples is looking outside of the church, into the community, into the community, and recognizing that folks that are out there in the community need to be developed spiritually. First and foremost, they need the gospel. They need to come to Christ, and once they cross that starting line of salvation, they then need to be grounded in the faith and moved to greater maturity. How are they going to be grounded in the faith? Well, there's going to be a lot of prayer, there's going to be a lot of Bible. We're going to challenge folks to a high level of commitment, and they are going to grow and grow to the point that they become missional multipliers, the four disciplines of a great commission, church, preemptive prayer, basic Bible, cost commitment, missional multiplication. Now that wraps up our video on spiritual development. Next time we're going to continue looking at working with staff and leaders, and our attention is going to focus on strong relationships. So in the meantime, I pray for God's blessing as you continue your studies, as you continue your ministries in the name of Jesus, amen,