GYC 2007: Be

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Angelo Grasso and Justin Kim - One Step at a Time: Pathways to Spiritual Growth

Angelo Grasso

Spiritual Competence: the Elements of Growth

Every day is going to feel like Sabbath, just so you know.

Let's see, raise your hands if you are in high school.

If I should be seeing familiar faces, I apologize, but I don't think I see any familiar faces.

I am an instructor at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts.

I've never been here before, So it's really a privilege to be here to share with you all.

Precious Father in heaven, Lord this morning as we open your word, I pray that Your Spirit will be our teacher.

I pray, Father, that You will open before us the principles of true biblical discipleship.

And that, Father, we will make a commitment to follow You for the rest of our lives.

Alright, just to give you a little history, when I was 17 years old, I committed my life to Jesus.

I was an academy student, I'd gone through the whole high school experience, and when I was 17, during a summer of literature evangelism, God spoke to my heart and He said, I want you as my own.

And so at age 17, I completely committed my life to Christ.

And since then I've been on an adventure in my relationship with Jesus.

I would like to say that it's been all uphill in the sense that it's gotten from 1 victory to another victory to another victory to another victory.

In my journey with God, I have hit some brick walls.

In my journey, in my relationship with Christ, I have hit rock bottom.

And it's the principles of discipleship that have kept me on the path of salvation.

And I wanna share with you all during these 3 seminars some principles of discipleship that have allowed me to endure and to not give up.

The most essential principle about your Christian life is this.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus was telling His disciples the signs of His coming.

They asked, what would be the signs of your return?

He said, in the end time there will be wars and rumors of wars.

Jesus went on and He said, In the end times, nations shall rise against nation.

There will be famine and pestilence in diverse places.

Is there famine and pestilence in diverse places today?

Today in the world that we live in, thousands of children die every day from starvation and disease in this modern age that we live in.

So I believe that we are living in the end times.

Jesus went on to say that, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold.

He went on to say that, you, my disciples, will be persecuted.

And then Jesus says, 1 of my favorite passages, He says, But he that endures till the end will be saved.

To endure means to hold on through the rough times.

Today what we're going to do is we're going to profile the life of some disciples, the journey of discipleship, the journey of the biblical disciples, and we're going to talk about some of their successes and some of their failures, and just the principles of spiritual growth and discipleship.

So if you could turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4 starting with verse 17.

We're just going to start with the basic principle of discipleship and that is the call.

So, Matthew Chapter 4, starting with verse 17.

And in Matthew 4.17 you'll read that it says in there, And from that time Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And as He was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw 2 brothers, Simon and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And then the Bible says that immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

Let's just break down this call from the beginning.

Verse 17 says, From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So when did Jesus begin to preach this message of repentance?

This is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

When did Jesus begin to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven in His hand?

Now, this is gonna be interactive, so if you see the answer, if you wanna say something, just go ahead and say it.

That's right, so when John was cast into prison, after Jesus heard that John was cast into prison, He went to Galilee and He began to preach.

Now, what was the message that Jesus was preaching according to verse 17?

What was the exact message that Jesus was preaching?

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now those of you who are familiar with the New Testament, whose message does that sound similar to?

Actually, Jesus takes up the same exact message that John the Baptist was preaching before he was put into prison.

What is the difference between the message of Jesus and the message of John?

Now, it's the same exact words, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Deeper Still: Your Journey Toward the Heart of God

How many of you were here in the last seminar?

Just raise your hand real quick if you were here for the last seminar.

And I am an instructor at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts.

And I want to thank you all for being here.

It's a privilege to share God's Word with you.

Today we're going to continue our talk about spiritual growth during this seminar.

So before we begin, let's just bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Precious Father in Heaven, this morning, Lord, as we open Your Word, and Father, as we read a story that may feel familiar, I pray that You will open our eyes again, that Your Spirit will be our teacher, and that we will receive Your Word.

Okay, so we covered a lot last, I mean an hour ago, over the principles of discipleship.

And we started off by listing the 3 aspects of the call that Jesus makes to each 1 of us as his followers.

We read in Matthew chapter 4, 18 through 20, how Jesus came to these men.

They were casting their nets into the sea when he came to them.

Now those of you who are here, let's test out your knowledge, your memory.

What did those nets represent to those men ultimately?

And so Jesus came and his call was, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

So the call of discipleship is a call to the redefinition of our identity.

No longer will we identify ourselves in what we do.

No longer will we identify ourselves in where we're from, who our parents are, or what our culture is.

But when we accept the call to discipleship, we find our identity ultimately in Jesus.

It doesn't mean we stop being from where we're from.

It doesn't mean we stop having the parents who we have.

It doesn't mean that we stop being Puerto Rican or Asian or Dominican or American.

It just means that we become those things for Christ.

So we talked about the 3 aspects of the call, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

What is the first aspect of the call, follow me, that is the call of the Savior.

That's right, so these men were casting their nets into the sea and Jesus came to them and He offers them another option.

He says, no longer do you have to toil at your nets, no longer do you have to try and find your identity in what you do or where you're from, but I'm giving you another option.

And that option is, I want you to find your identity in me.

And then Jesus says unto them, after he says, follow me, he says, and I will make you.

In other words, when we choose to say yes to the call to discipleship, Jesus promises that He will do a work in our hearts that will change us from what we were to what He wants us to be, the call of the sanctifier.

Jesus says, if you will just take this 1 principle and make it supreme, follow me, I will do a work in you.

I will make you the call of the sanctifier.

And then finally Jesus says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Jesus does not save us just for ourselves.

Ultimately, He saves us so that we can save others.

We read how in the book, Christ's Object Lessons, in the parable of the sower, how Jesus wants to reproduce His character in us in such a manner that when other people see us, they will be hearing the call of Jesus as it is in Christ.

We went through the parable of the sower.

Alright, and in the parable of the sower, we really don't have time to overview everything, but basically what we talked about was that the heart of discipleship is competence.

And we agreed that competence is not only the knowledge of how to do something, but the ability to do it well.

So competence is not only the knowledge of how to do something, but it's the ability to do it well.

And we talked about how, for example, at Atlantic Union College, we have a nursing program, and for all the nurses, you have to go through clinical rotations.

And those clinical rotations are basically where you have to go into the hospital and act like a nurse.

You have to do the things that a nurse does.

And so it's not enough for nursing majors just to be able to explain how to draw blood.

They have to actually be able to draw blood.

And we talked about how, you know, I was a theology major in college, and I wish that we could have the same kind of clinicals for future pastors.

Because a lot of times we theology majors, we pastors, we really know how to talk about how to get stuff done.

But a lot of times we don't really know how to do it.

We talked about how competence, the lack of competence in our church, is the cause for many of our woes as a church.

We talked about how the reason so many young people are leaving the church is because they don't believe Christianity works.

And the reason they don't believe Christianity works is because they don't see Christianity working in the lives of their teachers and their parents and those who profess godliness.

The results of incompetence have been devastating to our church.

Spiritual competence is the heart of discipleship.

Not only being able to talk the talk, but ultimately coming to the point where we can walk the walk of following Jesus.

So we talked about the core competencies of a disciple for Christ.

And how when Jesus talked about the prayer of the sower, He basically painted us a picture of a sower who went forth to sow.

And there was different kinds of grounds that it landed on.

We can't get into the grounds, because we're gonna get into our next lesson.

But basically the principle of the plant is this.

We have the roots, which represent the private life.

We have the plant, which represents the public walk.

And we have the fruit which represents the potential for what?

The potential for proliferation, which is just a fancy word for multiplication.

So these are the core competencies of a disciple for Christ.

The roots represent the private life because where do roots grow?

Under the ground, where you can't see them.

We talked about how roots provide 2 fundamental things for the plan.

And so our private life will determine the survival of our public walk.

We talked about how there was a certain soil that had rocks in it.

And those rocks, what those rocks did, was they prevented the roots from taking root.

They prevented them from going down deep.

They prevented them from gaining nourishment.

But in the parable it talked about how when the sun came, the plant withered away because it had no root.

And so we talked about how the rocks represent cherished sin in our private life.

Each 1 of us has a public walk and a private life.

Each 1 of us has the face that we present to others and the person who we really are when nobody's watching.

Rock Bottom: Getting Back on the Path

Precious Father in Heaven, Lord we thank you again for your word and now as we talk about Peter I pray that his life will be a living example for us.

Lord speak to us about your love and reveal Your character to us today.

In the name of Your precious Son we pray, Amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 22, verses 31 through 34.

And Jesus knows that He's about to be betrayed.

And He's about to spend this last moment with His disciples.

If you ever want to read some of the most moving words of Christ, read the last moments of His time with His disciples.

These are the moments where He wants to share the most important thing He can with them.

Because He knows that He's going away and He wants them to remember the last words.

And so here we have Luke chapter 22, they've sat down for the supper, Jesus showed them the service of humility by washing their feet.

And now the disciples were starting to dispute among themselves about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God.

Because you see, Jesus, just a few days before, had entered Jerusalem on a donkey in the triumphal entry.

And the disciples were so excited, because they knew that they were gonna be on part of the leadership team.

They knew that when the new kingdom was gonna be ushered in, that they were gonna be able to stand on stage.

Maybe someone else would get to give a nice little speech.

Maybe someone else would get to wear a name tag that had a special thing on it like, disciple, or special disciple.

And so they started to dispute among themselves.

When God establishes, when Jesus establishes His new kingdom, who, what's going to be the hierarchy?

Who's going to be the public relations director?

And they started to argue amongst themselves.

They had a misunderstanding of the nature of the Kingdom.

And so here Jesus is trying to explain to them what's really going to happen.

He's trying to explain to them that He's going to be betrayed, that they're going to forsake Him.

And let's pick up the story in verse 29, I'm sorry, verse 31.

And It says, And the Lord said to Peter, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.

And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.

But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

And he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny 3 times that you know me." Peter stands up and he says to Jesus, Jesus, I will go to prison and death for you.

Basically what Peter's telling Jesus is that I love you.

But the kind of love that Peter was professing for Jesus, what kind of love do you think he was professing for Jesus?

In other words, he was professing the kind of love that says, greater love has no man than this, that he what?

And so Peter stands up and he says, Jesus, I agape you.

But is there a difference between love and sentiment?

In other words, Peter was professing agape, but he didn't really have agape.

A lot of times we think that we have love for God, but really all we have is sentiment.

In other words, we appreciate God, we are moved by God, we really enjoy being around people who also appreciate and enjoy God?

But are we really willing to live for God?

Agape love means this, I would rather die than dishonor you.

That is the kind of love that God has for us.

And that is the kind of love that He's asking from each 1 of His disciples.

And the greatest manifestation of this love here on earth, 1 of the greatest manifestations of this love here on earth is a commitment called marriage.

Let's talk about the marriage commitment.

Because the Marriage commitment is a commitment to agape love.

And it's the kind of commitment that Jesus is asking from each 1 of his disciples.

When is it that a couple crosses the line from singlehood, single life, to married life?

I asked my wife to marry me in 2002, and she said yes.

Now, What if the day after I proposed to her and she said yes?

She called me on the phone and she said, Listen, you know what?

I know that I said yes yesterday, but I slept on it and I woke up and I really don't think you're the 1 for me.

If she truly in her heart did not feel like I was the 1 for her, she needs to tell me that I'm not the 1 for her.

Now what if 2 months into the engagement we've actually picked out and reserved the church and the reception hall?

What if 2 months into the engagement we've already picked out the invitations and the colors.

She calls me on the phone, she says, You know what, I've been thinking about it and I'm not ready to marry you.

What if 2 weeks before the wedding, invitations are sent, tuxedos and dresses are ordered, People have purchased tickets.

My wife comes to me, oh, my Kathy comes to me and says, listen, I know it's 2 weeks before the wedding and everything, but I can't marry you.

It'd be kind of messed up, but it would not be wrong.

What if the day of the wedding I am standing there with my tuxedo waiting for the doors to open and I get a little note, Oh, you know what?

What if while the preacher is preaching his marriage sermon, she says, I can't do it.

What if when they're singing the unity song and they're joining the candle and she said, I can't do it, would that be wrong?

Justin Kim