A DISCIPLING PEOPLE

Have you ever been lost before? I was lost once while camping at Mammoth Cave with some friends. I was getting bored so I thought I would go hiking alone to find the river. It was a huge mistake. It started getting dark outside. There were crazy animal sounds up in the trees. I started having even crazier thoughts in my mind.

The worst part of all is when I got back to the campsite they hadn’t even noticed I was missing. They didn’t even come looking for me. They were just laughing and eating their s’mores while I was lost and going crazy in the woods.

David Platt says, “There’s really only one thing worse than being lost. What’s worse is being lost when no one is trying to find you.” Sadly, we live in a world where people are lost without Jesus and no one is searching for them to share the good news of Jesus.

Our Church Covenant reads: “We will strive to bring up our children and any under our care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by a pure and loving example to seek the salvation of our family and friends.”

This part of our covenant has two parts: striving to reach the lost people among us and reaching the lost people outside our community. 

There are lost people that need to hear about Jesus inside our church community. They are the children of the families among us. All of the children of our church need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to see the love of Jesus when they gather with us. 

The covenant says that we are making a commitment to raise our own children to hear about Jesus. And we are committed to sharing Jesus with all the children of our community. You have heard the saying “It takes a village.” We believe “it takes a church” for our children to hear and see the good news of the gospel.

The second group that we are striving to reach are the lost people in our lives. We all have people in our lives that need to hear the gospel. Maybe it’s a family member that says they don’t believe in Jesus. Maybe it’s a Muslim coworker who thinks Jesus was just a good prophet. Maybe you have a neighbor that says they are not religious and who won’t respond to your invitations to come to church.

But are we burdened for the lost people in our lives? What about the people who don’t know they are even lost? Are we seeking to share the gospel with them? Are we numb to the fact that people all around us could die today and spend eternity in hell?

We are committing to seek and save the lost people in our lives together.  If you are burdened for a lost person in your family, let’s be burdened together that they would hear about Jesus. If you want to share Jesus, let’s pray for boldness for you to share. Because the only thing worse than a lost city is a lost city without a church looking for them.

Meditate on God’s Word

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  - Ephesians 6:4

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:16-20

Questions for Application

1. Why do we get distracted from the one mission that Jesus left us with “to make disciples of all nations?” Why are we not burdened for the lost? What are the things that you tend to put before His mission?
   
   
2. How can you seek to disciple the children in your home more faithfully? How can you seek to disciple all the children in our church more faithfully?
   
   
3. Who is the name of someone in your life that you want to tell about Jesus? Write their names down on notecards and commit to praying as a group for their salvation.

Close by praying as a group for the people that we desire to hear and receive the gospel.

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