Can I affect eternity? Making Disciples in Christ

When I was a little boy I remember being in a restaurant with my parents.  My mom saw someone she knew.  She began talking with them and wanted me to say “hello” to them.  I immediately slipped behind my mom while looking down to the floor making sure I didn’t make accidental eye contact.  I didn’t say anything.  I am an introvert through-and-through.  After a long day of meeting people, sometimes I get exhausted.  After a week of this it can be difficult for me to do anything on a Friday night except lay in the bed and grunt whenever someone in my family asks me something.
 
I’m the same guy who was very insecure during junior high and high school.  I gave up on many things because I was concerned about what people would think of me.  In high school I found it very difficult to bring up any conversation at all.  I remember sitting in the pew in our Baptist church one Sunday morning.  As I was listening to the pastor preach I thought to myself, “I could never do what he’s doing!” 
 
In college I came to believe the gospel for myself.  I learned that when I believed the gospel, I was in Christ:  “13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14.  He was going to change me in ways I hadn’t even imagined.  It wasn’t going to be my abilities, skills or personality getting the job done.  Paul said, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
 
I began to believe what God said about me rather than believe what I thought about myself.  Christ was in me!  We can either believe what God says about us or we can believe what we think about ourselves. 
 
In Exodus 3:11 God told Moses that he would be the deliverer of Israel.  Listen to Moses’ response: “11 But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’”  First of all, notice that Moses didn’t accept the identity that God had given him.  Second of all, notice that Moses didn’t say, “How do I do it?”  He asked, “Who am I…?”  Oftentimes, the reason we don’t embrace our mission from God is because we haven’t accepted our identity from him.  I have found that if a Christian accepts their identity in Christ, then they will be more inclined to accept their mission from God.
 
After Moses, you find the story of King Saul in 1 Samuel.  God used Samuel to anoint Saul as king over Israel: “15 Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed this to Samuel: 16 ‘About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.’” (1 Samuel 9:15–16)  What was Saul’s response to God’s anointing, to the new identity that God given him?  In 1 Samuel 9:21 it says, “Saul answered, ‘But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?’” Once again, just like Moses, his response was not, “How is this going to happen?  Please give me the details of the way this is going to work?”  Instead he said, “am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?”  In other words, he was saying, “Who am I…?”  He was so used to the way that he saw himself that he was numb to the way that God saw him.  What happened when he didn’t embrace his new identity?  In 1 Samuel 10:20-22 we read, “20 When Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. 21 Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was chosen. Finally Saul son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. 22 So they inquired further of the LORD, ‘Has the man come here yet?’ And the LORD said, ‘Yes, he has hidden himself among the baggage.’”  Because Saul hadn’t embraced his new calling and his new identity, he hid.  He hid behind his momma. Apparently, he hid so well that only God knew where he was.  This guy would have been extremely good at hide-and-go-seek.
 
We can affect eternity.  We can affect eternity not just because Jesus commanded it.  We can affect eternity because that's who we are.  Affecting eternity involves sharing Jesus and making disciples.  In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, we see what is true about those who are in Christ.  This term “in Christ” refers to those who have believed the gospel for their salvation.  Once that happened, God placed that person “in Christ.”  As you read it, take note of what is true about the person who is “in Christ.”  If you are “in Christ”, then these things are true about you as well, regardless of your age, personality or weaknesses.  “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
 
In this passage Paul is not just talking about the paid missionary or the pastor or the evangelist.  He said, “if anyone is in Christ”.  He doesn’t say, “If you were a good Christian this week then these things are true about you.”  He doesn’t say, “If you have an outgoing personality then these things are true about you.” He doesn't say, "If you're old enough then these things are true about you."
 
So, what is true about those who are in Christ?  In verse seventeen it says that we’ve become “a new creation”.  You are not who you used to be.  Whether you felt a change or not, there really was a change.  Verse twenty one says that we’ve become “the righteousness of God”.  This morning, when you woke up, you might not have felt like “the righteousness of God”.  You may have felt like God wasn’t pleased with you at all because of the sinful things you did the day before.  Believe me, I can relate.  On the cross Jesus took our sin, and now, we can take his righteousness.  We appear to God as righteous because we are “in Christ”, not because of how good we’ve been.  That takes a lot of pressure off of us to perform.  Here’s the ironic thing.  If you don’t open your mouth to share Jesus today, you’re still righteous.  Again, it’s not because of your performance in anything that you are righteous in God’s eyes.
 
Verse eighteen says that we’ve been given “the ministry of reconciliation”.  This is a way to serve God.  We serve God by seeing people reconciled to him.  We do this by sharing the “message of reconciliation”.  This is God’s message through the scriptures in which the gospel is a part of.  The “message of reconciliation” is found in all 66 books of the Bible.  But there is a basic message that we all need to learn to share…just the simple gospel message.  The word “ministry” comes from the Greek word that could also be translated as “service”.  Serving God involves doing physical things to help people as well as sharing the message of reconciliation.
 
In verse twenty Paul says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”  We are God’s representatives on this Earth.  As wild as it sounds, we are speaking on “Christ’s behalf”.  Not only have we been given a new identity, we’ve been given a new mission.
 
Do you believe that these things are true about yourself?  From my own experience, some days are better than others.  Some days I believe these things whole-heartedly, but some days I don’t.  It really helps to be in community with people who believe these things about themselves.  If you’re in a smaller, interactive community of people that are sharing their faith on a regular basis, then this will help you in your efforts to share your faith.  You’ll hear stories of what God has done.  If your faith doesn’t feel hot, but someone else’s faith is hot, then it can spread to you.  We might be doing things individually, but who are your teammates in this church?         
 
Not long after Miriam and I got married we decided we wanted to get a dog.  One day we went to a dog pound to see if we could find any dogs that we liked.  We found one dog that we really liked.  His name was Blue.  That was the name the previous owners had given him.  He had one blue eye and one brown eye.  We decided we wanted him so we paid the money to the dog pound.  We took him home to be a part of our small family, which was just Miriam and I at the time.  Then we gave him a new name, Cletus. 
 
These are the same things that God has done for us.  He purchased us with his blood.  Peter says that we weren’t purchased with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19).  God adopted us into his family (Ephesians 1:5).  We’ve also been given a new name, or a new identity (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). 
 
When we changed his name to Cletus he didn’t realize that we were talking to him.  He was used to being called “Blue”.  That’s what he was told over-and-over.  We didn’t give up.  We kept telling him his new name.  After a while, he recognized that we were talking to him!  When you read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, you might not think that God is talking to you.  Don’t give up!  Keep going back to the scriptures and ask God to show you each day who you are in his eyes.  After a while, you just might recognize that he’s talking to you!
 
Years later I was wondering if Cletus remembered his old name.  “Hey, Blue!  Come here, Blue!” I said, expecting some kind of response.  Instead, he kept lying on the floor.  If his chest wasn’t moving up and down I would have thought that he was dead.  In many ways, this is what Satan, this world, and our flesh does to us.  They call us by our old name.  They remind us of our ineffective personality.  They remind us of our previous sins.  They remind us of our old way of life.  We need to be in an interactive community so that we can remind each other of our true identity.
 
At some point, we all need to decide if we believe the things that are said about us in 2 Corinthians 5, and other places in scripture as well.  We need to have a moment, or moments, when we decide to take God at his word.  I also think that God can use experiences to wake us up. 
 
In 1997 I was sitting in my dorm at NC State.  I was working on homework when I heard this strange noise.  It sounded like someone yelling.  A few minutes later I saw an ambulance driving across the grass behind my dorm, heading over towards the dorm next to us.  I walked outside then down the breezeway to find out what was going on.  And there, on the asphalt, I saw a white sheet draped over a dead body.  Through the newspaper I found out that the student jumped off the top of Sullivan Hall.  That’s a twelve story building!  Apparently, he killed himself because of bad grades.
 
After I graduated, I went on staff with our church.  I was given the assignment to reach out to Lee Hall and Sullivan Hall.  We had done events that gave us access to the contact information of many students.  I went to door-after-door-after-door.  I’m guessing I had over 60 people to meet.  After quite a few days of this I started getting tired and I wasn’t seeing much fruit from it.  I needed motivation.  I made my way to the twelfth floor of Sullivan Hall.  I walked down the breezeway to the spot that the student jumped from.  There was half a wall along the breezeway so I had to climb up about a foot to look over.  As soon as I looked down I started getting dizzy, nervous and I got a weird feeling in my stomach.  I couldn’t believe that a person would jump from that spot.  What would drive a person to the point of jumping off that building?  There must have been some deep depression, disappointment and lack of hope inside of him.  It made me wonder if there was somebody else in those dorms that were struggling with those same things?  I was tired and disappointed with my efforts but I knew that God was going to help me affect peoples’ eternity.  So, I went on, more motivated.
 
A while later we had done an ice cream social outside those dorms.  I got the contact info for a student named Erik.  The very next day I went by his dorm room.  When he opened the door he had the look of shock on his face.  Years later he told me that he never expected anyone to contact him.  That’s why he was so shocked.  I shared the gospel with him and got to know him.  We started hanging out a lot.  He had a lot of trouble accepting God’s grace.  As we went through the scriptures he finally was able to accept God’s grace and come into a relationship with Jesus. 
 
As I discipled Erik he began growing, eventually becoming a leader.  I was able to meet Jennifer in the same dorm.  Later, Erik and Jennifer would get married.  While he was a student, he met a student named Keegan.  He got him involved with the church and discipled him in pretty much the same way I discipled Erik.  Years later, Erik, Keegan, and Daryn moved to Charlotte to plant our sister church there.  Our last two mission trips to Charlotte, Erik and I teamed up.  We saw one person saved each time we went sharing.  At a conference last September Keegan introduced me to a couple guys that he was discipling.  We had the connection of many generations of disciples.  Keegan and Erik both are married and have children.  Their families are centered around Christ.  As I think back to my experiences in Lee and Sullivan Hall I’m glad I didn’t give up. 
 
It’s amazing to see what God has done through the years.  But I began to wonder about four years ago, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to see something like this happen not over a period of years, but over a period of a year, or even shorter.  Even though I was very experienced in discipleship and evangelism I decided to be humble and learn an approach that was new to me.  Various leaders in the Southeast region of our church network got me started.  I began to see that it was possible, with God’s help, to make generations of disciples in a shorter period of time.  Many people don’t know what to say when they share Jesus with their friends.  They don’t know how to disciple someone.  I’m helping people gain more confidence to share Jesus.  We’ve also streamlined the process for someone to get their friends to read the Bible with them.  We don’t want to make someone feel like they have to know a lot about the Bible, or that they have to spend a lot of time preparing for a Bible study.  We don’t want to communicate that they need to have a certain level of spiritual maturity before they do God’s will.  People in the church today spend so much time doing all kinds of activities, but very few know how to share Jesus or make disciples.  Over the past four years I’ve gotten more non-Christians reading the Bible with me than ever before. 
 
On Tuesday nights a small group of us meet to help one another take the next step in their walk with the Lord.  This Tuesday we’ll meet from 7:00-8:00 here in this building.  We’ll go over a little bit more about our identity in Christ.  We’ll also practice how to have gospel conversations with your friends, co-workers and neighbors.  This isn’t about going out on campus or knocking on doors to meet strangers.  You’ll be learning how to navigate conversations with the people you know.  You’ll learn how to take baby steps, or as big of a step as you want.  There will also be time for you to share, if you feel comfortable sharing.  You can share what you think would make this group an even better experience.  We’ll be inviting students we know to be a part of this as well.
 
If you’re thinking like I was about four years ago, “I already know how to share the gospel.  I already know how to make disciples.”, then consider this.  Do the people you’re discipling know how to share Jesus and disciple others?  Do their disciples know how to do the same thing?  Most people, especially those who are new believers, don’t have the experience or Bible knowledge that some of us do.  We need to be a servant to these young believers.  If my goal is to just reach my neighbors then I’m not going to be too concerned about this issue.  But, if my goal is to reach all the residents and students in this area then I would be concerned about this issue. 
 
After I first started following Christ I was terrified about the idea of sharing Jesus.  If someone talked with me about making disciples who are making disciples who are making disciples, I would have been like, “What in the world are you talking about?  I just want to get up enough courage to say something.”  Every single one of us has limitations.  So, if you feel limited, then you’ll fit in with us just fine.
 
Also, I definitely understand the limitations that we all can have.  I’ve experienced limitations in my own life.  If you can’t join us, then I can keep in touch through phone or text.  I can send you a couple of resources.  I just want to meet you where you’re at.  I’m doing what I’m doing in order to serve, not build up a big meeting.
 
Maybe you already have a group of friends that you feel more comfortable being a part of.  Then consider coming to this time in order to learn how to turn your group of friends into a group that wants to affect eternity.