Small Group, Huge Lessons - Part 1

Small Groups Asian-Style

The typical small group meets to study Scripture, to pray, and to fellowship, which are all wonderful things, but small groups - discipleship - is so much more than this. Enter small groups Asian-style. The global disciple-making pastor at Brook Hills spent several years serving in Central Asia, and this semester, he shared the story of two young Muslim men whom he was able to introduce to Christ. After their conversion, our pastor challenged them to make a list of 100 people whom they personally knew, and when they brought their list to him, he told them to circle the names of the five people least likely to kill them if they told them about their conversion. And prayerfully, they began to approach these people and to share Christ with them.

This is discipleship.

You don't need a seminary degree to disciple others. You don't have to be a pastor to evangelize others. As you are growing in the faith, use what you know and share it with people.

I've never been into track and field sports, but I do know that in relay races, teammates pass the baton to each other during the course of the race. This is what we're to do as Christians - pass the baton of what we know. We are to relay the Gospel to others, relay what God is teaching us, and relay what we know of Scripture.

"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 28:19-20).

The Great Commission is not optional.

If you're not investing your life in discipling others (understanding that discipleship begins with evangelism), then evaluate your relationship with God because you are directly disobeying Him. We are to multiply the Gospel by making disicples with our lives. Are you doing this?

The World Drama

We do not know when the world drama will end. We don’t even know what act we’re in. Only the Author knows when the curtain will close, and all we can do is play our role well and help others do the same. For at the end, we are told that the Author will comment on our performance. Therefore, it is crucial that we play our role well.

What the Dead Have Said...About Death

"Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14).

"The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass" (Isaiah 40:7).

"Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath" (Psalm 39:5)!

In Learning in War-Time, C. S. Lewis states that the great Christians of the past "thought it good for us always to be reminded of our mortality." Knowledge of the curtain's closing and ignorance of when that will take place should affect how we play our part.

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12).

Your Quality of Life

What are you living for now?
Why should you keep the future ever before you?

We cannot know when our life or the world drama will end. We can only be prepared each day to meet that end, to live now in light of that end. It's the unexpected, the unknown, that should motivate us to act, to live, and to truly be present in the present that we are currently experiencing. We aren't promised a tomorrow on this earth. We have the breath that is currently entering and exiting our lungs - beyond that, anything can happen at any time. God has numbered our days, and only He knows how long they are.

God is the one Who was, Who is, and Who is to come. You're one of approximately 7 billion people who is right now, and you're only here because He ordained it. You're only here for a blip of time. Are you making it count? What are you doing with your blip?

At the same time, we are immortal beings, and we will experience eternity in one of two places. Does your life now reflect where you'll spend eternity?

If you're headed to an eternity with Christ in Heaven but you aren't abiding with Him now, you aren't living a life of obedience to Him now, you aren't praising Him now, then what makes you think you want an eternity of that? If you are not doing it now, then why are you even in a relationship with Him? If you don't want to marry the person you're dating, then why are you even dating them? Are you just selfish and want the security? Are you simply after the fire insurance? Man-up and commit. And if you're not willing to commit, then you're not ready to become a Christian.

Being a Christian means that God is the LORD of your life. He's the One in charge. He calls the shots. He's the proverbial driver who drives your life. This is why Paul so often called himself a bondslave to the Lord. When he became a Christian, he was choosing to make the Lord His Master. Do you live as though Christ is your Master, or do you have delusions of grandeur and consider yourself the master of your life? Christ is sovereign. You're not. He's infinitely wise. You're not. So do the smart thing and submit to Him. Submit to the Author of your life, the Author of the world drama, for He knows the plot of the whole play.

Live for Eternity Now

This past August, I had eye surgery, and it has totally changed my perception and how I view everything, literally. This is what knowledge of life's brevity should do to us. It should change our perception on life. We should live differently because how we view everything has changed.

How we spend time changes.
How we treat people changes.
How we use our money changes.
What we value changes.
Has it changed for you?

We should live with eternity stamped on our eyeballs. I want to live for the eternal. I don't want for my life to be wasted. I want the Author of this drama to be pleased with me and with the part that I've played.

When the curtain closes, what will be His verdict of your role and how you played it?

Longing and Living

Remember the old Coca-Cola commercials when someone would take a sip of an ice-cold Coke then loudly sigh with contentment? The intended point was to demonstrate that drinking Coca-Cola offers great satisfaction. While I am a fan of a good ole' fashioned bottled coke, I am well aware that it does not satisfy or make me content. If anything, it just tastes good and brings on the calories.

Evelyn Underhill once explained that there are three great longings of the human soul:
1. A longing for a place to belong
2. A longing to be loved
3. A longing to be clean

These cravings lead people to join everything from sports teams to churches. They motivate many women to watch chick flicks and to dream about their wedding and their knight in shining armor. They incite individuals to give alms, make pilgrimages to holy places, to confess their sins, and to do good deeds.

Ultimately, what we long for is Christ, and we will only know satisfaction and contentment when we know Him.
Only in Him do we find true acceptance and membership in His family.
Only in Him do we find One who loves us unconditionally.
Only in Him do we find forgiveness of sins.

He satisfies our hunger. He fulfills our longing.

"For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things" (Ps. 107:9).

Are you seeking your satisfaction in Him? Whether you are longing for a significant other, a job, more money, etc., it won't bring you joy or contentment. It is a poor substitute for Christ. Furthermore, if you are looking to things or people instead of Christ, you will be consumed with your pursuit of them because you will always have to obtain something more in order to finally be content. It's a fruitless endeavor because you will never attain satisfaction apart from Christ.

What do you spend your time thinking about? What directs your life? What do you long for and in who/what are you seeking to fulfill that craving? Are you living for the temporal or for the eternal? Who is your life centered on - God or yourself?

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand." Only Christ is a solid Rock, a sure foundation. Take a lesson from the foolish man and build your life on Christ. Seek Him instead of things or people. He is what you need.

Even as a believer who is trying to be God-centered, it is so easy to be distracted and to satiate ourselves with a diet that is sub-par. I've traveled to many impoverished areas in Asia and have seen people who eat loads of rice but are malnourished. While their stomachs do not growl, they fill themselves with food that does not benefit them. Food that does not sustain them. In his sermon "The Weight of Glory," C. S. Lewis states, "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased." Are you filling yourself with that which nourishes, or are you "far too easily pleased" with a fare that lacks nutritional value for your soul?

It is also so easy to become consumed with looking to the future, longing for so many things to happen, that you miss out on where God has you right now. In a letter to his wife, Jim Elliot penned the words, "Let not our longing slay the appetite for our living." God has you where you are right now for a reason.

Be present. Be seeking Christ. Be content with where He has placed you and with what He has given you. Long and live for Christ.