SPIRITUALLY DEAD

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we love with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we care about what He cares about.

Foundation • Framing Out Structure

Every person is born into this world spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). Those who receive Jesus are born again according to God’s purposes (Ephesians 2:4-9). The Holy Spirit moves in and the spiritually dead come to new spiritual life. They become spiritual infants (1 Peter 2:2-3). As they grow and mature, they move from the infant stage to the child stage, to the young adult stage, and finally to the parent stage, in which they disciple someone else through these same stages.

The chart works like this: The inner circle describes the stages of spiritual growth (DEAD INFANT -> CHILD -> YOUNG ADULT -> PARENT). People will reveal where they are by what they say and do.

The Spiritually Dead: The spiritually dead are characterized by their unbelief in Christ, which shows up in various ways, such as a rebellious attitude toward God. Because the sinful nature is allowed to rule in the heart of the spiritually dead, the relationships of an unbeliever tend to be shallow or broken.

The beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors of the spiritually dead include:

• Disbelief in the supernatural, or belief in many forms of the supernatural (multiple deities, interactions with the dead, superstitions, astrology, and so on)
• Disbelief in God (atheism) or belief in the possibility of God (agnosticism) or belief in a God that is different from the God of Scripture
• Belief in one God but many ways to get to Him
• Anger toward Christians or the church
• Ignorance and or confusion about God, Jesus, and the church
• Misinformed about spiritual/biblical truth; spiritual blindness
• Belief that the answers they are seeking lie in worldly prestige, power, fame, and so on
• A belief that they are as good as anyone else, so they don’t need a Savior
• A belief that they have done too much wrong and a fear that they can’t be saved
• A belief that what is right for you is right for you and what is right for another is right for him or her; there is no absolute truth — right or wrong

Some of the representative things the spiritually dead say:

• “I don’t believe there is a God.”
• “The Bible is just a bunch of myths.”
• “I don’t believe in miracles.”
• “Evolution explains away a need for God.”
• “God is just a crutch.”
• “I am not a Christian because Christians are responsible for all the wars in history.”
• “There are many ways to get to God.”
• “I don’t need to be saved since I am as good as anyone else.”
• “A good person gets to go to heaven and a bad person goes to hell.”
• “I believe in heaven, but there is no hell.”
• “I am a Christian because I go to church and I am a good person.”
• “There is no hell because God is a God of love.”
• “I have been a good person, so I will be okay.”
• “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”
• “There is no absolute right and wrong.”
• “I don’t know where I am going if I die.”
• “I believe in Jesus, but my friend is a Mormon. I told her it didn’t really matter as long as we believed in Jesus.”

Needs of the Spiritually Dead: Every person is unique (misinformed theology, atheists, polytheists, agnostics, spiritual PTSD, etc.). Despite the differences in their backgrounds, the needs of the spiritually dead are simple. Some of the things they need include:

• A secure relationship with a mature believer
• A picture of the real Jesus lived out in front of them
• Answers, evidences for Christianity, and answers to life’s hard questions
• An explanation of the gospel message
• An invitation to receive Christ

If we are to share our faith with the spiritually dead, we must build an ongoing relationship with them. As we do, we will discover their reasons for not being a Christian if we listen well. We must earn the right to speak into their lives so that we can deal with these issues one at a time. The best evidence for our faith is the kind of love we give to others.

WE SEEK A REPRODUCIBLE PROCESS (2)

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.

Foundation

INTENTIONAL LEADER - Jesus was intentional with His disciples. He modeled the importance of relationship in making disciples. Relationships are built by intentional leaders.

RELATIONAL ENVIRONMENT - Jesus modeled how in a good growth environment there are four essentials: shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice.

REPRODUCIBLE PROCESS - A reproducible process enables the next generation of intentional disciple leaders to understand what to do and how to do it. Jesus shared, connected, trained those who followed Him in ministry, and released His disciples to make disciples.

Jesus, the Disciple-maker, not only shared the truth about Himself with His disciples but also offered an opportunity for them to connect with Him. He spent time with them, building a genuine relationship, so He could train them to carry on the work of changing the world.

He replaced their old ideas of reality with the truth. He taught them in a variety of ways as he created a relational environment by shepherding them, by being transparent, and by holding them accountable.

As the disciples grew spiritually, Jesus gave them opportunities to put what they were learning into practice. This is how He trained them to minister to the people who came to hear Him. As they became more confident, He sent the disciples out two by two.

At the end of His time on earth, Jesus did what every good disciple-maker does. He sent His disciples out on their own to make disciples themselves who could, in turn, make disciples themselves.
In the book of Acts, Peter, Philip, Paul and others all followed a similar reproducible process. The believers in the early church knew they were supposed to make converts (who were baptized) and make disciples (who were able to reproduce). These disciple-makers were intentional; they knew how to be intentional in a relational environment, living out a process that could be followed by others.

OUR PART • THEIR PART • GOD’S PART

There are three important pieces in every situation where God would use us (at home- marriage/family/neighborhood ; at work, ).

1. GOD’S PART • First, God Himself is working. He precedes us in seeing a person’s heart and knowing the need. He is the One who changes hearts.
2. OUR PART • Second, we are a tool in His hands. We ask God to help us see opportunities and make the most of them by sharing, connecting, training for ministry, and the releasing of disciples.
3. THEIR PART • Third, the person God is working on must respond to Him and to us. As disciple-makers, we need to remember that we cannot do God’s part, nor can we do the other person’s part. We can do only our part.

Our job is to pray that God will act and then to watch for Him to do so. God is drawing people to Himself, and He will use us if we will allow Him to (Col.4.2-6).

WE SEEK A REPRODUCIBLE, GUIDED PROCESS!

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.

Foundation

Successful discipleship involves a Reproducible Process. Jesus was a great disciple-maker because He taught His disciples how to reproduce the discipleship process in others. During the time He was with the disciples, He always kept in mind the end goal. He wanted disciples who knew the truth, who were changed from the inside out, and who would have some very important skills. As they matured and developed spiritually, He allowed them to practice what He was teaching them. This reproducible process is called Guided Practice.

If you look closely at the stories in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), you can see Jesus implementing a sequential, reproducible process.

1. At first Jesus directed His disciples to collect food to feed the five thousand and collect the leftover fish and bread (Matthew 14:19-20).
2. Later, Jesus directed them to more complex assignments as they grew stronger spiritually: He sent them out by twos to minister (Mark 6:7-12). When they returned from their mission, He debriefed them (Mark 6:30-31).
3. Finally, at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He entrusted them to make disciples of others. He sent them out to do what He had done with them (see Matthew 28:19-20).

Great disciple-makers will always take their followers through a process. It starts with:

• “You watch; I do” and moves to;
• “Let’s do it together” and then to;
• “You do; I watch.”
• Finally, emerging disciple starts this same process with someone else — this is the Reproducible Process.

Everyone starts at the same place, and then as we are in relationship for the purpose of discipleship, our gifts and callings begin to emerge. Everyone needs a place to practice what they are being taught.

Guided practice works best in relationships (1 on 1, small groups, etc.) The writer of most of the New Testament, Paul explained is role in 2 Timothy 2:1-2.

At New Beginnings Church we want to go through this process with everyone, from our staff and leadership team on down (Ephesians 2:10). Most small-group leaders start out in a small group, where they learn and watch the small-group leader. Eventually, some become apprentices to the small-group leader and co-led the small group. Apprentices meet with the intentional leader for debriefing and any needed training. Finally, they lead a small group of their own.

We hope and pray to take hundreds of small-group leaders through this reproducible process of guided practice. The destination for the reproducible, guided process is the Glory of God. Whether a disciple eventually leads a small groups, or takes his reproducible, disciple making experiences to the mission field, or serves as a disciple maker on a church staff, or maybe even planting a church of their own.

WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE.

Vision

When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People!

• When we spend time with Jesus
• When His Holy Spirit resides in us
• We cannot help but care about what He cares about.

WE ARE BECOMING MORE TRANSPARENT

Vision

- When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we spend time with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we cannot help but care about what He cares about.”

Foundation

Jesus modeled the importance of relationship in making disciples. He was intentional with His disciples. He invested His life in them. He understood that more is “caught” than “ taught.” Discipleship requires conversation, modeling, encouragement, debriefing, and practice, all of which need to happen in the context of relationship. The point about the need for relationship has been made. Relationships are built by intentional leaders.

What makes a relational environment? Again, Jesus remains our standard how to create a relational environment. Jesus modeled how in a good growth environment there are four shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice.

Last week we examined Shepherding. A shepherd must take care of vulnerable lambs (spiritual infants). They don’t realize they need spiritual protection. Shepherds lead their sheep to water and make sure they have spiritual food to eat. They protect their sheep from danger and from those who would love to cut them away from the flock and lead them astray.

This week we examine transparency. Transparent people don’t pretend to be something they are not; they allow others to see them for who they really are. They are not hypocrites. They understand that we all struggle, so when they are struggling, they don’t hide it. Who we see is who they are: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Jesus was as transparent as He could be. He was not ashamed to show what was going on inside.

• He wept openly (John 11:35).
• He got angry (Mark 11:15-16).
• He experienced emotional pain, and He told His disciples about it (Mark 14:33-34; John 12:27).
• He was discouraged and amazed at the hard hearts of men (Matthew 11:20; Mark 6:6; 8:21).
• He went to the Cross and seemed to be afraid (Matthew 26:39).
• He was tempted in every way that we are, but He never gave into temptation (Hebrews 4:15).
• He felt discouraged and challenged at times (Matthew 17:17; John 12:36-37), but He kept going.

Jesus knows His disciples are going to experience difficulties. He doesn’t want us to have any illusions about that. We should desire the same for one another. Disciples are supposed to do the Christian life together. That is what it means to be a Christian, and that is especially what it means to be spiritually mature. When we disciples are transparent about our struggles, our tough circumstances, and our sin, we are saying to one another, “We are in this struggle together. I struggle too. I trust you enough to share my inner battles and you can trust me too.”

Christians fail; we ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9) if we have wronged someone, we do our best to make things right, and then we move on.

James tells us to confess our sins to one another and be healed (James 5:16). When we confess our sins with other disciples, we — and they — learn that everyone struggles. We all struggle with our sin nature. We all stumble in what we say, think, and do. We all live in a broken world that causes us pain. It is a part of the human condition.

When we are transparent about our struggles, we take them from the darkness, where the Enemy can distort them, and bring them into the light. Our Enemy loves to distort our struggles. He also loves to tell us we are so bad no-one will accept us. He loves to tell believers that we are too unworthy or uneducated to share our faith. (Revelation 12:10) If he can convince us to hide our areas of struggle, he wins.

An intentional leader creates an authentic, transparent, safe environment; where people can be shepherded.

WE ARE DEVELOPING SHEPHERDS!

Vision

- When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we spend time with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we cannot help but care about what He cares about.”

Foundation

- Jesus modeled the importance of relationship in making disciples. He was intentional with His disciples. He invested His life in them. He understood that more is “caught” than “ taught.” Discipleship requires conversation, modeling, encouragement, debriefing, and practice, all of which need to happen in the context of relationship. The point about the need for relationship has been made. Relationships are built by intentional leaders.

Foundation

What makes a relational environment? Again, Jesus remains our standard how to create a relational environment. Jesus modeled how in good growth environment there is shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice.

Tonight we examine Shepherding. A shepherd must take care of vulnerable lambs (spiritual infants). Lambs, with infant faith, need help to grow up. They don’t know the danger of spiritual war and that they have a new Enemy, who wants to kill and destroy them (John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8). They don’t realize they need spiritual protection. Shepherds lead their sheep to water and make sure they have spiritual food to eat. They protect their sheep from danger and from those who would love to cut them away from the flock and lead them astray. If a sheep is missing, the shepherd goes looking for it. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was a great protector of His sheep, His group of disciples.

Foundation

- Likewise, as shepherds of God’s sheep, disciple-makers must also protect the sheep in our care. That means if we are leading a small group, we should follow up with those who are absent and do our best to ensure that everyone in the class is present. It requires work and commitment to chase the strays, bind up the wounded and hurting, and lead and feed those we are shepherding. True disciple-makers do all we can to guide those we disciple to safety and maturity.

WE ARE BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS!

Metaphor

- The building process -> planning -> foundation -> framing -> rough in -> etc.

Each of us are planning, digging & pouring a foundation, building a framework, in the construction of something bigger than ourselves.

Vision

- When we say we are building men we mean we are building disciples of Jesus. Matthew 4:19 is the mission. What is the cause of Christ? People! When we spend time with Jesus — when His Holy Spirit resides in us — we cannot help but care about what He cares about.”

• Following Christ (head). A disciple has surrendered to Jesus as Savior and Lord of his life. A disciple is one who says, “I know He is Lord and Savior and I accept Him as my authority.”
• Being changed by Jesus (heart). Jesus said we would know a tree by its fruit (see Matthew 7:17-20). He did not mean perfect fruit; He meant growing fruit. As we spend time following Jesus, He changes us internally — He changes who we are.
• Committed to Jesus’ mission - Making Disciples (hands). Jesus saved us for a purpose. Some believe we are given a “get out of jail free” card and are free to do what we want with our lives — not true. God’s mission is now our mission, and we recognize that we are responsible for our own slice of history. Our hands are for His service.

Foundation

- Jesus modeled the importance of relationship in the way He taught His disciples. Jesus relationship with His disciples was the conduit by which He could deliver all that they needed. Jesus was intentional with His disciples. He invested His life in the Twelve. He chose to be in relationship with His disciples because He understood that more is “caught” than taught.”

Discipleship requires real teaching and real learning. It requires conversation, modeling, encouragement, debriefing, and practice, all of which need to happen in the context of relationship.

Matthew 22:37-40 [Jesus] He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important[b] command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.

John 13:34-35 [Jesus] “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The men in this room must demonstrate this kind of love Christ talked about. True relationships with other disciples can give us the support and accountability we need to change and grow in our love for God and others.

True relationship gives nonbelievers a picture of what Jesus can do in and for them. Jesus really does offer us peace, and it is like water to a thirsty soul. Most men know they need love. It’s just that most men are looking in all the wrong places (drugs & alcohol addiction, sexual experiences, money, etc.).

When they see they can find in our church what they know they need, their hearts soften and doors are opened.

Foundation

- Discipleship requires real teaching and real learning. It requires conversation, modeling, encouragement, debriefing, and practice, all of which need to happen in the context of relationship.

Without relationship between believers, there is no model to follow, no authenticity, no accountability, no application, and no support for the journey. These things come through personal contact. And because that relational context for learning is lacking, life change is much rarer than it should be among Christians today.

Schedule:

6:30 - Early arrival time (ping pong, billiards, etc.)

6:40 - Large Group Time - (Phil, Sankie, Terry, etc.)

7:00 - Small Group Time

8:00 - “Sent!”

Guidelines for NBMen Group Time

We are creating an environment that is secure for authenticity, clarity, and growing closer in relationship with each other and with God.

In this room we have men fighting alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography addiction, marital problems, aloneness, financial failure, and a number of other problem too many to list.

• We are not going to allow our pasts to define us, or to direct our futures.
• We are not going to be satisfied with shallow, anonymous, slow/no spiritual growth.
• We are going to care enough to hear another man's story and respond with genuine spiritual support.