Rooted in Discipleship

Well, hey, good morning and welcome to Cross Church Elmarrage. If you're new, uh, joining us maybe first, second, third time, uh, my name is Tyler. I got to serve as location pastor here. We're so glad that you joined us. Uh, if we haven't gotten a chance to connect yet, I would love to connect with you. I'll be outside underneath the awning after service. So, feel free to swing by there so we can connect, maybe see some ways that we may may be able to partner together here in the future. Uh, if you have a Bible today, we're going to use it. So, pull that thing out. Colossians chapter 2. I'll let you flip there, click there, or make your way there to Colossians chapter 2. Um, as you do so, let me catch you up to speed. We're in this series that we've been calling Rooted and Ready. It's been a super helpful series as we've talked about ways that in our faith we can be rooted and steadfast but also ready for the mission that God has put in front of us. The truth being this, when God saves us, he doesn't save us just to sit on the sidelines. As a matter of fact, he saves us gives us skill sets and talents and abilities to be used for kingdom advance. So, it's important for us to be both rooted and ready. I heard this quote this past week um and I thought it was so helpful to what we're going to talk about today in this concept of disciplehip. Uh it's this quote it's a guy from from a guy I should say named Peter Jenkins in his book um he talks about his journey walking from one side of the United States to the other uh which is an incredible journey. He's one of a very very select few people that have actually successfully walked across the United States. And here's his quote. Talk is cheap and easy. Amen. So easy. Making dreams real takes hard, humble work. And he said, "My main purpose was to be where I was." As he talks about this idea, here's what he did. He explained that it's so easy for us in modern culture to think about how much faster we could be traveling by car, by motorcycle, by train, by airplane, you name it. We get places quickly. He said this was a forced slowdown for him and it required intentional steps every single day. One of the things that we find to be true about the process of disciplehip which we are talking about today is that disciplehip is very similar. It is a process that doesn't happen overnight. Uh there is no way that we can air fryer treat our disciplehip. All right. Anybody else love their air fryer? It's a gift from God. It's amazing. All right. Um here's the deal though. We can't put excuse me our disciplehip in the air fryer. There's no way to speed the process up. And Peter in his book talks about this idea that talk is cheap and easy. But it is the slow, methodical, consistent approach to working hard each day right where you are that gets you from where you're at to ultimately where you're called to be. And so let's read together in Colossians chapter 2 beginning in verse 6. It says this. So then just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him. Highlight, circle, underline. continue to walk in him. Verse seven, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught and overflowing with gratitude. Let's pray as we jump in together. God, we come before you. And God, we are so so thankful for the fact that as we walk through a text like this, um, we get to ask two things consistently. first that you would give us the wisdom to understand the words of the scripture, but second, God, that you would help us to have the conviction to take what we learned today and to begin to apply it to our lives this afternoon and that what we do on Sunday shapes who we are on Monday through Saturday. God, we pray all this in your name. Amen. Well, it's with that said that I want to hone in on that phrase, continue to walk in. With this understanding of sort of a visual of walking across America and the lengthy journey that that takes, I want to take that type of visual into the process of disciplehip. Now, I need to take just a minute to brag on you as cross church. Okay, here's how I want to brag on you. Most churches fall in two categories. Okay, just across the board. Churches either believe really strongly in evangelism or disciplehip. Evangelism is outreach, reaching new people, or disciplehip, which is the process of growing deeper. And most churches fall into one or the other category. Here's what I love about you as Cross Church. We collectively have said, "No, we're not picking either one. We're going to have both evangelism and disciplehip because here's what we know to be true. We need to reach people but we also need to teach people. It is about reaching and teaching. You cannot have one without the other. They are lock step. It is peanut butter and jelly. Right? It goes together. It is like French fries and mustard. Amen. >> Some of you weren't ready for that. All right. I had to throw you a little curveball there. Right. But but the evangelism and disciplehip, they go together. We need these two things in tandem. So, it's with that in mind that I want to call your attention to four things that this passage teaches us about disciplehip. The first one is this. It's that disciplehip starts with salvation. Disciplehip starts with salvation. You can't begin to teach someone or disciple them until you have reached someone. It is important that we understand salvation is the starting line. Salvation begins the process. John chapter 3 16 one of the most famous verses in the all the Bible says it this way that God so loved the world in this way that he gave his one and only son that everyone everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. You see the truth here is that salvation is a free gift given to all in order that by his sacrifice we would be made right with God. And see, God just shows us this in the most incredible display of love in the history of the world. And it starts the process of disciplehip. Now, I don't know about you guys, um, but I understand the concept of running races. Anybody ever ran a race before? Good. A lot of you have ran races. Okay. Um, good. I ran one race and that was enough for me. It was good. All right. No need to prove anything. All right. Um, but here's what I've noticed about running races. There's something unique about running races. When you run a race, never in the history of my life have I seen a trophy given out at the start line of a race. Where do they give out trophies at races? At the finish line. You see, the trophy isn't given at the start line. It's given at the finish line. Because the goal is not to start, but to finish. That is why as we understand this process of disciplehip, I'm going to teach you some big words. Okay, but you are smart and you got this. All right, lock in. All right, here it is. Disciplehip starts with the process of salvation. Salvation is us saying yes to Jesus and beginning a relationship with him. That begins the process. and from the process of salvation to the process of glorification which is when we end up glorified in our glorified bodies in heaven for eternity. So in between those two salvation and glorification is the lifelong process of sanctification. And if I could just give you a visual for the process of sanctification, it is us being laid before the God of the heavens and him slowly transforming us into more and more of his image on a daily basis. That means that our thoughts begin to be his thoughts. Our actions begin to be his actions. That we begin to begin just living in lock step with the instructions of scripture. And this process of sanctification is a result of disciplehip. You see, here's what we find to be true as you look at scripture. In Psalm chapter 1, we talked about this idea of bearing fruit. One of my favorite fruits in all of the world is green apples. I love green apples, right? Here's what I know about apples. Apples are a fruit that takes some investment. Here's why. It doesn't happen overnight to go from a seed planted in the ground to an apple tree sprouting and producing fruit. That takes years upon years upon years to get the desired fruits. And much the same way for you and I. The understanding of disciplehip is that disciplehip starts at salvation, but it takes a lifetime to accomplish. And if I could just add sort of a secondary note to this, one of the things that I find to be so incredible about scripture is that it is the one place where there is never a finish line this side of eternity. Our Christian faith has no finish line this side of eternity. You can retire from work and be done with work, but there is no way for us to retire or be done growing in our faith. This lifelong process continues until the moment of glorification. So if you still have breath in your lungs and a pulse in your heart, then you still have places to go and grow. So we understand first that disciplehip starts with salvation. The second thing that we must understand is this that disciplehip creates deep roots. Disciplehip creates deep roots. Now, as an Arizonan, I've noticed something about the green trees that we have around. All right, the green trees that we have here in Arizona are really popular. All right, here's why I found that they're very popular. They grow very quickly. However, almost as quickly as they grow, they fall. All right, now here's my sort of brain. This is the way my brain works. I wanted to figure out why. So, I started looking it up. We've been in the series Rooted and Ready. So, we're talking about trees. I'm like, I just wonder why those trees don't last. Here's why. For Arizona in specific, those trees adapt to their environment. One of the things unique to the environment in Arizona is that we do a lot of sort of surface level irrigation. Most irrigation is a few inches underground at best. Now, here's what happens for those trees. Per my friend Jim and I as we discussed this, one of the issues with those trees is that because our irrigation is mainly surface level, the roots of those trees grow sideways and shallow, they do not grow deep consistent roots. So that means anytime monsoons come, they blow over. They can't withstand the pressure because they do not have deep roots. And for you and I, the reminder today is this. As we look at scripture, that we should be rooted and built up. Now, what what you should notice about this is that having deep roots isn't optional. It is about be rooted and built up. We don't just get to get built up with a platform, a stage, a ministry, whatever the case may be without being rooted. We must be rooted and built up. Scripture continues by saying rooted and built up in him. That means that the source for where we begin to be rooted is in our faith. It allows us to withstand the trials, the monsoons of life. And if I could put it in a phrase, I would say that a faith that isn't rooted will get booted because it has to rhyme, right? That's how we're going to remember it. A faith that isn't rooted will get booted. All right? Anytime the winds come or the rains come, it will not withstand. So, here's my encouragement to you today. Build up a great deep root irrigation system. Here's what you should do. You should build systems and structures in your life that help you to grow a deep robust faith that can withstand. That means that you have intentional time you spend in scripture that you go through the process of having self-evaluation allowing others to speak into your lives in order that you create through disciplehip deep roots. Third thing I want you to see as we walk through this text is this. Disciplehip involves learning. Disciplehip involves learning. The interesting thing about disciplehip is that it is an active process. Is not a process that is passive whereby we sit and watch it happen in front of us. Disciplehip involves learning. In verse 7 of Colossians chapter 2, it says this, establishing the faith just as you were taught, you must be taught. And so you and I should be getting teaching. That's why as a church we believe in the four Ps that we should pray, praise, preach. Yeah, in order matters. Pray, praise, preach, and practice. Right? So, we have the four Ps and they are all necessary. All right? Pray, praise, preach, and practice. We need to pray. We need to praise God. But we also need to receive preaching. Now, here's what is very interesting about the process of learning. In order to learn something, you have to admit that you don't know it all. It requires humility. That means this. If you and I collectively are going to grow in our faith, we have to be willing to be humble enough to admit that we don't know it all. That means that we sit under the authority of other people's teaching. This past week, I went through the process with all of our other location pastors in the Cross Church Collective of sitting together for three days of meetings and it was a huge blessing and it was just so many great stories that came out of it. But one of the things I was challenged with is how much I still have to learn. I was taught by a lot of different people in different areas. The one area that challenged me the most. All right, I'll be honest with you. Confession time. Uh, in one of our sessions, we had one of our location pastors was teaching about AI, and I thought the whole time how much I wish we could go back to 2005. Anybody out there agree? All right, good. All right, we're on the same page. Uh, but we're learning about AI, and now it's not one of those things that we can avoid. We just have to learn how to use it. Um, and so we were talking about how we use it in our environment. and he spoke about the process of how this guy uses an AI bot to control all of his other AI bots that are doing background work for him during the week. And that just made my brain hurt just thinking about it. But I had to admit that I didn't know what was happening. So I in order to learn had to be humbled enough. It didn't take much. I was just trying to log into the system and he's already off on multiple tangents. Understand this very clearly. When it comes to our Christian faith, disciplehip involves learning. Learning is the result of us intentionally investing in the material. As a matter of fact, Psalm chapter 1 would say that we should delight in the Lord's instruction. Delight in the Lord's instruction. That means that we have a joyful spirit when it comes to studying scripture. that we are excited and looking forward to spending time in the Bible as opposed to dreading it and treating it like a checklist item. We should be people that are excited to see what God has to say for us. Reminds me of a phrase that I heard, remember your train. I don't know if you've heard that phrase before. It originates from a 1795 Russian military field training manual. You'd say, "Pastor T, why does that matter whatsoever?" Well, it actually shapes some of the way that we live our lives today, at least as a nation. You see, the direct translation for the phrase remember your training actually better translates hard training means easy battles or difficult in training as easy in battle. That is to say this idea that if you do the difficult things in training and learning and preparing when the battle comes, when the difficult moment comes, it will seem easy because you prepared because you learned and invested. You were discipled in those skills. As a matter of fact, the Navy Seals have modernized that statement and graphically said it in this way. Sweat more in training, bleed less in battle. And and here's the phrase that we should understand that we need to learn in our faith so that when we have opportunities, when we have moments to display our faith that we are prepared for those moments. I put it to you this way that this process of learning is lifelong and it requires a humble teachable spirit. Fourth thing I want you to see about disciplehip is this. Disciplehip produces humility. Disciplehip produces humility. One of the things I noticed about this passage is that the end uses this phrase overflowing with gratitude. Or if you read in the English Standard Version, it's overflowing with humility. And it is an assumption that when we become mature in our faith, humility or gratitude is required. And here's the thing I think we need to sort of test in our daily lives. If the people we assume to be spiritually mature are not those that have humility and gratitude, then maybe their current spiritual state doesn't match what scripture says. We should as we grow in our spiritual maturity, as we grow in our disciplehip, we should be left with humility and gratitude. Here's what happens though in the church, the modern church, not just our church, but across the world. We get so far from our salvation that we think we have it all figured out. And what we oftenimes need is to remember our start. and it will keep us in a position of humility. As a matter of fact, I was thinking this past week about my salvation moment, my starting line. I was a young boy in church, much like we have young kids in our church and it's such a blessing to have them. Uh I was in church and I'll never forget it was a Monday night of a revival week service. The pastor finished preaching and as he finished preaching, he made an altar call and during the altar call I said, "That's me." and looked to my mom to go forward because she was blocking the aisle. She must have been worried about me running away. All right. So, she was blocking the aisle and I went to go and she said, "No, no, no. We'll talk about this later." And I will never forget to this day looking at my mom and saying, "No, we need to do this right now." She took me down front. We met the youth pastor, Tim. He took me to a side room that was painted with a Noah's Art mural back when murals were like super popular. And I'll never forget sitting in that room, hearing the gospel clearly described to me, not knowing all the ins and outs of theology, but knowing that I was a sinner and I needed Jesus gift. You see, that was my start. And I oftenimes need to be humbled to realize I didn't have it all together when I gave my life to Jesus. And it is only by the grace of God that I get to stand where I stand today. For us in the room, we need to be reminded that a position of humility is a mark of spiritual maturity. So as we think about the process of disciplehip, we should think about the reality and the truth of the fact that humility is paramount to disciplehip. And here's my prayer for us as a church. that right here on the corner of Poria and Elm Mirage, our church would be a church that loves Jesus and that we would be a people that love our city enough to go and make Jesus known, to share with our neighbors, to share with our co-workers, to pray for our friends, to invest in our family members for the sake of the gospel. And that's what leads to us as a collective of churches rolling out this brand new thing called a disciplehip pathway. All right, so you'll see a slide on the screen here in just a second. Um, and you can actually take out your phones if you're comfortable with this and scan the QR code. I'm going to walk you through this disciplehip pathway model. Um, it's it's really helpful stuff and it's something that you're going to begin to see more and more. Um, I do feel like you're all taking my picture, which is a little odd, but I know you're scanning the QR code. All right, you just threw me for a loop a little bit. Um, and so it's this process of disciplehip and this disciplehip pathway that we are engaging in to help you and I become all that God has called us to be. We have a big mission and a vision of making Jesus known across our city, state, and world. And it's going to take a clear disciplehip pathway to do that. So, I just want to describe it for you. Three stations in our disciplehip pathway. The first station that we should all strive to get to is being a rooted Christian. And you would say, "Pastor, what on earth is a rooted Christian?" Well, let me exactly tell you what that looks like. It is someone who's been saved, baptized, attended pizza with a pastor, taken a step of membership in a local church, gotten connected to a Bible group, and completed the rooted material. Some of you in the room have actually completed this material. And so, if you've taken all of these steps, congratulations. Pat yourself on the back. You are a rooted Christian. This is the first step in this process. The second step or the second station in this process is all of the things it takes to be a rooted Christian plus completing an evangelism training course that we'll roll out later this fall called Ready to Share. Here's the truth. Once you are rooted in your faith, you are prepared to share about your faith. And so, if you attended this summer our evangelism training, you actually got the early stages of that ready to share class. So, great job. You're ahead of the curve. All right. you're doing great. And so it's about being a rooted Christian, attending a ready to share class so that you're able to share your faith and being someone who consistently and faithfully serves in local ministries of the church. One of the truths that we use um a statement as a matter of fact in our pizza with a pastor membership class is we use the phrase that God didn't call you to sit, soak, and sour, but to serve. That's a bigger statement than just saying we need you to fill a role on a Sunday. It's saying God has equipped you perfectly for some area of service to the local church because that's God's design for the church. And so the understanding here is that if you are going to be ready for mission, you are a rooted Christian who's completed ready to share and serves faithfully in a ministry. And then the third layer to it, the third station if you will, is getting ready for leadership. This is important and this is one that here at Cross Church Elmarrage we take seriously. There is a reason that even in our first two two and a half years of being a church, we've already sent out two brand new churches. And Lord willing, we'll send out more here in the next couple of years. We believe that God is preparing people in this room for leadership for the sake of the mission. So what does it look like to be ready for leadership? It's someone who is ready for mission and does two more things. It is someone who is a faithful giver. Now notice there's not a dollar or percentage number there. It's because we're not concerned with the percentage or the number. However, one of the things that we find to be true and believe in deeply is that if we are willing to invest our financial resources in something, it matters to us. It absolutely matters to us. And so being ready for leadership means being a faithful giver and completing a residency or an internship training because we firmly believe and not just God calling people to ministry of leadership but training them in that process. And so someone who is ready for leadership is someone who's been a part of one of our residencies or internships and has gone through that process is a faithful giver and is ready for mission. And so you'll see it more about that in the coming months. But I want to encourage you with this. It's this understanding that our pathway is designed so that you and I can fulfill what God has established for us. So I want to ask you a question in the form of a key thought today. How do you personally become rooted and ready? I think that's a very fair and natural conclusion for us to come to. How do you become rooted and ready? Three very simple things I'm going to encourage you to do starting today. Number one, finish the rooted material. You'll have an opportunity to sign up for groups to be a part of a different rooted study, but that is the starting line and the jumping off point for you becoming a rooted Christian, and it's absolutely valuable. It's a 10-week study that will change the way you follow Jesus. So, finish rooted. The second one is that I want to encourage you to find a rhythm for spiritual growth. Not everyone is a cookie cutter perfect fit for every spiritual growth strategy. Find a way that you can read the Bible where it works for you. Maybe it's in the morning, maybe it's in the evening, maybe it's physically reading it, maybe it's listening to it. Whatever it is, find a rhythm for spiritual growth. And the third and final step in this process of how you can become rooted and ready is to foster a relationship. And you fostering a relationship means you creating a system of relationships that give you disciplehip consistently. That means you find others who know and love Jesus and care about you and can call you out when you do dumb things because I love you and sometimes we do dumb things. Amen. And we need others to call us out and point us to Jesus. But also we need to be a people who walk alongside others in our family and church community and to point them to Jesus. So foster a relationship for the sake of disciplehip. Let me pray for us as we prepare to enter into some extended worship. God, we come before you. And God, as we come before you, it is our hope and prayer that you would help us, each and every one of us, regardless of age, background, stage, or situation, to be a people that takes steps towards disciplehip. God, I pray that you would help us to be a church that believes in reaching and teaching, of investing in our community and of all of the blessings of evangelism, but also practically living out the principles of disciplehip as well. God, at the end of the day, our prayer is that here at Cross Church, you would create a community that is both deep and wide, that continues to reach our city, but continues to grow in our faith. God, I pray that you give us a stance of humility that would help us to be teachable, coachable in order that we can be all that you have called us to be. God, we pray all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue to worship.