Disciplemaking - Lesson 5

Joe Handley and Mary Jo Wilson
Disciplemaking
EM520-05
Heart of Discipleship
Lesson Transcript

Joe Handley [00:00:00] Hi friends. Welcome to our second section with Making Disciples, cause we're excited to be together and I'm enjoying working with Mary Jo as we walk through this course together, this section, we really want to talk about the great command, loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and a little bit about loving others as ourself. We're going to dig into that pretty deep. And you know, this course is meant to be an opportunity for you to dig deep in the Word of God. So while we have a few course textbooks for you, we really want you to spend time in Scripture. And this first section, what we want to really talk about is our love relationship with God abiding in Christ and how critical this is, that love component of the great command, because that's where discipleship all begins. So we're going to be unpacking that over the course of the next few minutes here, and I think you're really going to enjoy it. And then interestingly enough, to me, this is a core component to our work with Asian access. We call it living in a love relationship with God. And when I first came to Asian Access, I thought, isn't that kind of a no brainer for all Christians? You know, why do we emphasize this? Because every church, an organization that's a Christian, you know, should be focused on this. Holy cow. Was I shocked when I started meeting our alumni and people going through the process of learning about discipleship with Asian access, person after person after person said the single most powerful thing of going through the Asian access experience was this refreshing love relationship with God. I don't know about you, but in my life, in ministry, my life, my walk with God, you sort of get into these ruts after a while, and the longer you're in ministry in particular, you get caught in the weeds and a little lost and you can actually lose your first love. And so what we want to talk about in this first section or the second section is really this love relationship with God and the importance of abiding in Christ.

Mary Jo Wilson [00:02:34] You bet. I am really blessed that when I first became a Christian, my mentor, this was part of his heart and soul and had the love relationship with Jesus was really at the center of who he was. And I learned that by his example and his life. And so that I think that is really sustained my faith through all of these years. And you're right, certainly it is easy to get caught in the weeds and we diverge at times and it's great to be brought back to that. And so this really is that that the foundation of everything else. And so it's it's a really important and I've enjoyed talking with some of our leaders and how transformative it's been for them. Now as we go into this, we also see how it forms us, the love relationship, it forms us, and then it brings power to our life. And so it's just really that critical piece. And when we will go into some teaching videos, but before we go into teaching videos, we want to emphasize the focus on the Word of God. And it's really in Scripture that understanding who God is and forming and understanding what he's done for us, and that that becomes a basis, a lot of that for our love relationship with God. And so we're focusing on John 14 verses 15 to chapter 15, verse 27, and the section on abiding. And so what we would like you to do is first, your first textbook is your Bible is to get at your Bible. And in one sitting, not just that passage, but get the full context. And we'd like you to read John 13 to 17 and read through those chapters and go ahead and read through that those five chapters in one sitting and do that a couple of times. And then if you can go into this section of John 14 and read that core passage several times, five times, just just read that over and over. But we'd ask that when you're reading that, especially that you're alert to read it in God's presence, that you pray to God, speak to me through your Word, and that you're sitting with God in God's presence, that you're not just in your head, but you're really engaging your heart, your spirit, listening to him as you read this passage. And then after you have done that, you've really soaked in the word. You've got the context you focused in with God, and you read that core passage. Then we'd like you to look at what Michael Card, how he comments on that section. And so if you could start read the introduction to Michael Card, understand his approach, a little introduction to the Gospel of John, and then get into that core section and read what Michael has to contribute to that. And we think that will just bring another layer in your learning.

Joe Handley [00:05:21] Friends, we can't emphasize enough the importance of God's Word. We want you to know how important that is. And while we have these other, of course, books, Michael guard work by Dallas Willard and Bob Logan, the main element here is the Bible. And so please dig deep into this passage for this section and the upcoming sections. And soon we're going to start to unpack John 15 and the importance of abiding in Christ. But we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to soak ourselves in the Word of God. So let's enjoy together and see where God takes us.