God’s People Telling Others

Listen to the sermon here.

Yesterday was part 2 in introducing our sermon series on Disciple-Making Mission. In part 1, we stressed that disciple-making starts with gospel transformation. It doesn’t start with things we have to do, it starts with who we are and whose we are.

Yesterday, we saw a couple of things in particular in 1 Peter 2.9:

The first half of the verse says that we are God’s chosen and dearly loved people. The second half of the verse tells us that the end purpose of God is the glory and worship of God. And those two ideas aren’t independent of each other. They are joined together by the word “that” to make 1 much bigger idea. Peter isn’t only saying that we are the people of God or that God’s end purpose is his glory. Peter is telling the church that the primary way God is accomplishing the end purpose of his glory is through his chosen people telling others. 

We also saw that what propels us to make disciples is passion for God and compassion for people. Jesus modeled both for us, and if we are lacking in either, that is a heart issue that needs to be rooted out by the gospel. So again, disciple-making mission starts with gospel transformation, and gospel transformation propels us toward telling others about Jesus.

Then we looked at 4 key areas we are asking God to grow our church family as we faithfully take steps to obey in the area of making disciples:

1. Discipling & being discipled
   We want to see the majority of our church either discipling someone toward faith (if lost) or maturity (believers) and/or being discipled ourselves.
2. Living missionally
   Learning to see our everyday rhythms, and the people in them, as the places and people that Jesus has sent us to as disciple-making missionaries.
3. Pray, give, and go
   The end goal of making disciples is the ends of the earth (Mt. 28.19-20). We want everyone in our church involved in that by either praying for our missionaries, giving toward the nations, or going on trips or being sent long-term.
4. Meet the neighbors
   God moved us into a new neighborhood and part of town on purpose, and we want to spend the next year meeting our neighbors, telling them about Jesus, and inviting them into gospel community.

Questions for discussion:

1. As you read through 1 Peter 2.9-10 and listen to the sermon, what do you sense the Lord saying to you? What about to our church?
2. What things from the passage encourage you? Are there some things that challenge you?
3. What about disciple-making feels scary, overwhelming, or challenging to you?
4. How does the gospel speak to those obstacles?
5. How do the ideas of passion for God and compassion for people resonate with you? How would you rate your level of each one?
6. Are there other ideas from the sermon that stuck out to you?
7. What would faithful response or obedience to what God is saying look like?