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.