Skip to content 15. Seven Habits of Highly Effective Disciple Makers - Part 1 Sep 7 · 27 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:09 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? Hallelujah. It is always a joy and a privilege to bring God's word into your homes. Again, this morning, we're gonna be studying a0:20 specific topic. Today, it's not an expository sermon, but rather a topical sermon, which I usually preach to the leaders in churches. And I want this to be a0:32 training for anyone who is in Christian ministry. Not only that, it is also a training for every Christian. Now this is what I'm titling this, 7 traits of0:43 highly effective disciple makers. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. I pray that the holy spirit be our teacher. Give us listening ears and a heart that is willing to obey0:54 mighty God. Lord, we know that we are on a journey, that we are continually being transformed into the likeness of Christ. And even today, I pray that the Holy Spirit will remind us of what it is that He is transforming1:05 towards. We thank You, Lord. In Jesus' name, and people of God said, amen and amen. As a church consultant, whenever I sit down with a leadership team of a church,1:17 I help them to understand what are some of the key things to look for in the life of the church. 1 of the most important things is you can either structure a church for growth1:29 or you can structure the church for help. See, what it means is many times, people are focused on growing, growing in numbers, growing the leaders, growing. It's always1:41 about growth oriented, performance oriented mindset. But on the other hand, what you need to do is to be able to think about how can I grow the leadership of the church into health? How can1:53 I get the core of the church, the people in the church to be healthy, healthy individuals who are following the Lord, healthy families that are serving together, healthy leadership teams?2:05 Now why I emphasize this is because healthy things grow. You don't have to go after growth. If you remain healthy, anything that is healthy will continue to grow. Growth2:17 is a byproduct. So that's why focus should be on the health of the church. For this, sometimes I've helped leadership to understand there are 7 stages of church life. I want you to capture this this2:29 morning. I know this may be very technical for some of you who may not be in leadership, but I want you to understand. When you look at a church, if it's a new start up, it's like a church planting. It's something that2:39 is a new work that is being established. It's the first stage called launch. But at some point, there is a divine momentum that comes in. It it may take a year. It may take a month. It may take a week,2:51 but there is an unction. There is a divine flow that takes place. And in that momentum, you need to it it it helps the church to grow. Now in that season of momentum, the3:03 leaders need to look at very critically in terms of what is it that causes us to grow. Now listen carefully. 20 percent of things you do costs us 80 percent of the growth,3:14 and 20 percent of what you focus on will cause 80 percent of the health. Not all that you do actually contributes to the growth. So when you become strategic in your thinking and put those strategic things in place, you3:25 enter into a strategic moment momentum. And in that strategic momentum, if it continues and you can sustain it and you keep re you keep adjusting the lenses through which you evaluate ministries, you keep3:37 refining what you do, you get into a sustained momentum. Now there are churches that have gone through phases like this, and then suddenly, they lose track of where they are. They lose sight of what is the3:49 mission. They become conflict ridden. They become very divisive and fragmented. As a result, what happens? They go into a maintenance mode. And once the church settles into a maintenance mode long4:01 enough, it enters into a preservation mode. In other words, it's all about position. It's all about people preserving what they can hold on to, and it becomes ends up in conflict. Finally, it dies4:12 a slow death of life support. Now I don't want you to just look at this as a way to gauge the church that you are in, but I want you to think about this. Because if you're a leader, if you're a4:24 pastor, God given responsibility for us is to develop the right lens through which we need to see. You need to evaluate where is the church currently in this season of our church life. The reason I'm saying this is4:35 because when I speak to the leaders, I help them to understand that there are strategic inflection points in each ministry. In other words, it's almost like a j curve, like a bell curve. The bell curve4:47 is there is a thing that is rising up. But at some point, it will start to flatten the curve, and at some point, it will start to decline if things just are left as it is. And in those4:59 strategic moments where the bell curve is about to change, in geometry, in calculus, it's called inflection points. But in business and in leadership, it is called it's it is called it's it's the strategic moments where5:11 you have to make certain adjustments. You've gotta revisit the vision, revisit the culture, revisit your team, and to help position yourself to be able to move to the next level that God has for us. So these are things5:23 that you and I, we need to recognize. Albert Einstein said it this way. It's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, isn't it?5:35 You can't keep doing the same thing year after year and expect that somehow this year, things will be different. Now look at another person, Henry Ford. What did he say? If you always do what you've always done, you will5:46 always get what you've always got. That's quite a mouthful. But think about this. There's wisdom in this. That in other words, you and I, we need to take pay attention to not just keep repeating the same thing over and5:58 over again. Because in the church world, faithfulness is seen as doing the same thing over and over again. But it's not like that. You and I, we need to take stock of what is the Holy Spirit saying in this season. What6:08 is the season in which the church is going? As a leader, we need to recognize the season as well as discern the voice of God, the sound of what God is speaking, and then give leadership to that. Now this is6:20 important. So when whenever we are walking with leaders, the 1 of the core things we focus on is the heart of the leader. See, whenever you whether you're a parent working with your6:32 children or whether you're a businessman working with your team, it we always address the behavior. We always focus on the external behavior, the conduct, because the conduct is what you6:44 can see. But can I humbly, say this? You not only pay attention to the conduct, because the conduct sometimes reveals the character, but you gotta pay attention to the condition of heart. This is what I call the 3 c's of6:56 coaching. You gotta look at the conduct, and you gotta evaluate the con the character. And beyond beyond the character, you gotta discern what is going on in their heart. Whether it's your whether you're parenting7:08 teenagers or whether you're leading a team in your business or whether you're leading a church ministry, condition of the heart is important. That's why I said don't focus on growth. Growth is a bright product. Focus7:19 on health. Healthy leaders, healthy individuals, healthy families, when they continue to come together and put their heart and their soul together to grow and to build, God will bless7:31 that work. I want you to pay attention to what I'm saying here. That's why I wanna talk about the 7 traits of highly effective disciple makers in this video because7:43 I want you to catch what are some of the traits that that causes a person to truly embrace the mission of Jesus Christ. See, we are in a business of converting people. Correct?7:55 We convert people threefold. I want you to convert them to Christ. I want them to I want you to convert them to the church, and I also want you to convert them to the cause. What I mean by8:07 convert, you know, convert meaning that you are changing the cause. You're bringing alignment to their life, and you're bringing them to Christ. So when you're connecting them to Christ, you're making them to convert and8:18 make Christ the lord of their life. At the same time, you're converting them to a church. In other words, you're connecting them to a local church. In other words, you're helping them to embrace the vision and the8:28 culture and the values that govern a local church. Now this is important. But most importantly, you're not only connecting them to Christ and to the church, but you're connecting them to the cause of Jesus Christ.8:39 And the core mission that Christ has left for us is to make disciples of all nations, beginning at our home. So I wanna be authentic in my discipleship. I wanna disciple my wife, my children at the same8:51 time. I wanna bring on my journey a few key individuals whose hearts the Lord has touched, and I want to intentionally disciple them. So what makes an effective disciple maker? There are9:03 7 traits I want you to see. So if you're a zone shepherd leading a group of life group leaders, I want you to listen to me carefully. When you sit down with your life group leaders, these are the 7 things I look for in9:15 life group leaders, and I want you to cultivate in them constantly. You keep reminding them, bringing them back to that place to keep cultivating and growing in these 7 traits. If you are a life group leader,9:27 this is what I look for in you, and I pray that God will cultivate in this. So it applies to a zone shepherd. It applies to a pastor. It applies to a life group leader, but it also applies to every individual in the9:39 church because you and I are called to be an effective disciple maker. Hallelujah. So let's begin. Number 1. Firstly, the first trait is holy spirit filled.9:51 The word of God is very clear that the Christian life is a supernatural life. See, you and I cannot live the Christian life without willpower. We will fail. The flesh cannot10:03 live out the gospel mandate. The Bible says very clearly, love your enemies. Not just love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Do you know how many people lose their joy in10:14 the church world because someone criticized them, someone tear them down, someone did then did not like them, someone did not appreciate them. I want you to listen to me. You and I are supposed to even love our10:26 enemies to be able to pray and bless those who curse you. Now listen to me carefully. This cannot be done in the flesh. This has to be done by the power of the spirit. That's why10:38 Christian life begins as a surrender to Christ, and let it be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Look how they chose leaders in their New Testament church. Acts chapter 6 and verse 3, the bible says,10:49 therefore, brothers, pick out from among you 7 men of good reputation, full of the spirit, and full of wisdom. I want you to listen to me carefully. People were chosen11:01 to serve food in the cafeteria in the early church. They were doing morning tea. They were doing ushering duties. They were just doing ministry of helps. These are11:13 not people who are standing in the pulpit to preach. These are people who are serving cup of noodles and and tea for the people. I want you to listen. They chose men who are full of good reputation,11:25 full of the spirit, and full of wisdom. That was the characteristic of a leader in the church. A believer ought to be walking full of the spirit because you can't11:37 serve like Christ did unless you have the fullness of the spirit that Christ had. Look at verse 5. The Bible says he goes on to say, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and11:49 full of the holy spirit. I love it. In another passage of scripture in Acts chapter 11 and verse 24, the Bible actually speaks about Barnabas. You and I know what the word Barnabas means. Barnabas means son of12:00 encouragement. Barabas, son of encouragement. This Barnabas, the Bible says, was a good man. He was full of the holy Spirit and of faith.12:12 Hallelujah. I want you to think about this. Leaders in the church, leaders, whether you're leading a small group or a zone or you're leading the whole ministry or you're leading your family, people ought to be able to12:23 say that he is full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom. This is what Bill Bright said. Every day can be an exciting adventure for the Christian who knows reality of12:35 being filled with the Holy Spirit, who lives constantly, moment by moment, under his gracious direction. Wow. When you live consciously, moment by moment, constantly being12:47 led by the spirit, and you are waiting for his promptings, how beautiful your life would be. It's an adventure of faith. Praise god. That's what the Bible says. When you're full of the spirit, you walk by12:59 the spirit. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16 says, I walk I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. You won't have struggles with the flesh. It's not that you won't have struggles with13:11 the flesh. You won't allow the temptations of the flesh to overcome you. You won't allow the pressures of this life to overcome you. In other words, when you are walking in step with the Holy Spirit, when you're full of13:22 the Holy Spirit, you will not gravitate towards fulfilling the desires of the flesh. As a result, you can't handle persecutions. You can't handle pressures of life. You can handle13:34 tribulations, and you will be able to handle the temptations. That's why I want you to pay attention to this. This is important. What are you full of? Consider this13:46 morning. You know, Hudson Taylor used to fill a glass cup with water and put it on his podium. And when he's preaching about walking in the fullness, he will bang the13:57 table and and the pulpit very hard with his fist, and what the cup will spill over. And he will highlight, only when you go through times of trouble, when you go14:09 through times of criticism, times of discouragement, that is where what is inside will come out. So if you're not full of the spirit, you won't be able to walk in the spirit. Your flesh will dominate, and your life14:21 will be filled with temptations and yielding to temptations. Listen to me carefully. D. L. Moody said this. I firmly believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of selfishness and14:32 ambition and self seeking and everything that is contrary to God's law, the Holy Spirit will come and fill every corner of our hearts. Isn't that true? If you can moment14:44 if you can take your heart and empty it of selfishness, not only that, empty it of ambition and self seeking and everything that is contrary to the God's law.14:56 The Bible says the Holy Spirit will come and fill you. Is that right? He won't fill you unless you empty the self out. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18.15:08 I want you to read this text together with me. Come on. 3 2 1. Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. Listen carefully. It is a15:20 command. Not only be filled with the spirit is a command. It is a continuous command. It is a continuous command to be filled with the spirit.15:32 What does it mean to be filled continually with the spirit? It means this, that you allow the spirit to control your life. When a person consumes wine,15:44 wine intoxicates their body. And as a result, that's a chemical imbalance that takes place. As a result, what happens is they become intoxicated. They're controlled by the influence of15:56 wine. The same thing happens when the Holy Spirit comes, and he you yield more and more yourself to the Holy Spirit. He now influences your life. In other words, he controls your16:08 life. Hallelujah. Now this is a passive voice. In other words, this is done to you. It is not how do I how do I fill myself with the Holy Spirit? You can't fill yourself with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills16:20 you the moment you follow SOS. You know what is SOS? It's a cry for help. What's a SOS? It is surrender obedience to the scriptures. It16:32 is scripture, obedience, surrender. In other words, you come back to the Lord and you say, Lord, here, I hold on to your word. And And as your word says, I come and ask for you, and I and you obey. Live a life of16:43 surrender and live a life of obedience, and the Holy Spirit will fill you. And the word of God here is continuous. Continuously, he fills you. Hallelujah. I want to capture I want you to capture16:55 this. See, some of my Pentecostal friends will probably think of this as be filled with the spirit means, when I wake up in the morning, I'm empty. I need to be filled, filled, filled, filled, filled of the17:07 holy spirit. In other words, you and I, we we talk about, Lord, fill me with more of your spirit. Can I humbly say this? Spirit is not a thing. Spirit holy spirit is a person.17:19 He's a person. It's a personality. It's a spirit. You can't have more of him. You can only have I can't I can't say, I want to have more of Jesus. Jesus is a person.17:31 Holy Spirit is a person. So how can I have more of the Holy Spirit? The flip side is the truth. I can't have more of the Holy Spirit, but rather the Holy Spirit can have more of me. See,17:43 this is the key. If you truly want to be a effective highly effective disciple maker, highly effective pastor, highly effective leader of a church, all you need to do is to allow the holy spirit to have more of you. So17:54 the key question to ask is, how much of you does the holy Spirit have? It's not how much of the Holy Spirit do you have, it's how much of you does the Holy Spirit have. Are you yielding on a day to day18:06 basis? Are you taking the scriptures and living it out? Are you living a life of surrender? Moment by moment, you want him to lead you, and if you can overcome the desires of your flesh, that is a clear sign you are18:17 under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. Praise God. The second trait is holy. Now why I added the second trait? Because I want you to see this together as a18:28 as a string pearls. You gotta be empowered by the Holy Spirit. You gotta live a Holy Spirit filled life, and that Holy Spirit filled life will lead to godliness. In other words, holiness.18:40 Now you and I know that we are positionally holy. The Bible says that Christ Jesus is our holiness. His position before God is our acceptance. We are justified by faith, not by our works. So18:52 when you talk about holiness, we gotta talk about the positional holiness and also the conditional holiness. In other words, positionally, I'm already holy, but practically speaking, I need to be changed and transformed19:04 into his likeness every single day. That's why holiness in the Bible when when the Bible speaks about holiness, it's not addressing that you are already positionally holy. Many times, it's practically allowing the19:15 holiness of God to change your life. So listen to this. First Peter chapter 1 and verse 14 to verse 16. Let's read it together. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions19:27 of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy, where? In all your conduct. Circle that 3 words. In all your19:38 conduct, be holy. He's not talking to you about positional holiness. He's talking about your practical, outworking holiness in every aspect of your life, in your thought life, in your private life, in your family19:50 life, in your ministry life, in your handling of finances, in your handling of every temptation that you live a life that is called holy. But he who called you is holy.20:02 You also be holy in all your conduct. Verse 16. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Hallelujah. Now you and I, we need to understand what is holiness. You20:14 know, when I was growing up in India, people wear white and white, white shirt, white pants to church. Women wear white saris, and they don't wear any jewelry. The church20:26 I come from is a very, it's an orthodox Pentecostal church. So they don't wear any jewelry. They don't have any TV at home. They're they're people who, want to live and display to the world a set apart20:37 life. And many times, when you look at their life, they dress simply. So when you look externally, you look at them and you go, wow, their hair is in the right20:49 place, right haircut, hairstyle, or their dress code is nice, or the way they're not too they don't flaunt their wealth. All these things, you look at it, and21:01 you go, They must be holy. But can I humbly say this? That's not how holiness is measured. Holiness is measured by only 1 thing in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. It is about how set apart21:13 you are for the use of the master. Read with me in the scripture. First Peter chapter 1, Sorry. Timothy chapter 2 and verse 21 and 22. Read this together with me.21:25 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every21:37 good work. I want you to circle that. Useful to the master of the house. That is what is called holy. Holy means that you are living a set apart life where the21:48 master, the king Jesus, is able to use you for his glory, your time, your talent, your treasures, your territories. Every aspect of your life is come under the lordship of Jesus, and he can22:00 use every aspect of your life for his glory and for the good of his kingdom. That is holiness. This is what Chuck's Chuck Colson said, holiness in the22:12 everyday business of every Christian. Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and the things we do hour by hour, day by22:24 day. Listen to it. It affects the way you live your life. It affects the way you make your decisions, how you spend your time, how you spend your holidays, how you spend your free time, how you spend your22:35 treasures, where do you invest. All these things come back to the place of call be holy. Hallelujah. I wanna give you a quote. I want you to take this down. When you22:47 know you are set apart for a purpose and for a person, it will impact everything you do. I want you to pay attention to the 2 things I highlighted22:59 here. When you know you are set apart for a purpose, every vessel is set apart for a purpose, for a honorable use, and for a person. Sometimes certain things are23:11 only used by certain people, and it's for a person. It will impact everything you do. Your life is for his glory, and your life is for his purpose, and your life is to23:23 please Jesus, the 1 who died for you and gave himself completely for you. So second Timothy chapter 2 verse 21 says, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, and23:35 ready for every good work. But at the same time, it also has to have a practical outworking of holiness in our conduct. That's why in verse 22,23:47 he says, so flee youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call a la on the Lord from a pure heart. 3 words I want you to capture23:58 here. Flee youthful lust. In other words, leave those temptations, leave those kind of desires, that wrongful, sinful affections, fatal attractions of the heart, unworthy pursuits,24:10 ungodly loves. You have to come and flee out of it. If you know that your computer is causing you to sin, visit sites that you should not visit. If your phone is tempting you to go to those kind of sites24:22 that you shouldn't go, those adult sites that you shouldn't be part of, you should put some measures in place because the Bible says flee. What does it mean to flee? It means that you and I24:33 cannot take the power of darkness too darkness too lightly. You can't say, yeah. I can overcome. And you're so tempted. You're so filled with inner raging that you go and visit these sites. I want you to listen to me24:45 carefully. How are you keeping yourself accountable? The Bible says, flee. Secondly, it says, pursue, remove, replace. You know, the when you when you don't have anything to24:57 do, idle time is devil's workshop, isn't it? That's what they say. In other words, when you don't have anything to do, where does your time go? You it goes into your weakness. That's why you gotta have a person25:08 who is wanting to live a holy life. He takes control, takes charge of every aspect of his life, including his downtime. Because the downtime can either be a powerhouse where25:20 you are refreshed in worship and praise of God, or you can fall into the pitfall of temptations. So listen carefully. You and I, we need to understand. Flee and then pursue. But then I love this word that25:32 Paul writes. He says, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. In other words, with flee, pursue with. With, meaning, who are you doing life25:44 together with? Who is keeping you accountable? I know most men who are watching me in this would say, I'm tempted, pastor. I'm going through this, pastor. You know, in these past few months, I've been counseling pastors25:55 who are being tempted to do sinful things, leaders, church leaders who are going through living a double life. This is important for you and I to understand who is keeping you accountable.26:08 Who can step in and ask you that question? That's why if you're in a leadership of a church, you need to keep yourself accountable. Invite accountability. Invite people to hold you accountable. If you're especially26:19 struggling with a sinful habit, don't leave it because we have already heard how people have been damaged. Reputation has been damaged. Ministries have been destroyed. Families are now in greater pain26:31 and turmoil when things surface, when fault lines appear, when the double life is exposed. I want you to listen to me carefully. 1 of the core things that I want you to pay attention to26:43 is don't live a life where your wife or your husband or your children will be embarrassed. I take to heart this every26:55 single day, and I want you to listen to me carefully. If you're a man struggling with sexual sin, listen.
Paul Jeyachandran
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