Bulletins - Eagles Nest Church

- - 2 Timothy 3:16–17ESV
Most kingdoms are built through wars, wealth, political power, and big ideas.
But Jesus told his followers to build his church one disciple at a time.
Nobody looks at two people sitting across from each other with an open Bible and thinks,
"That's how you change the world."
But that's exactly what Jesus told his followers to do.
The last thing he commanded before he ascended was to make disciples.
Not to build institutions or seize cultural influence.
To make disciples.
And it fits with what He taught them in Matthew 13.
In that chapter, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed,
which is the smallest seed a farmer would plant.
But over time it grows into something so large that birds come and nest in its branches.
The point isn't just that Christ’s movement grows.
It's that the growth is wildly disproportionate to the starting point.
And the starting point was just 12 ordinary men.
Right now, the king is absent.
His earthly kingdom hasn't been established yet.
But the gospel keeps expanding, one person at a time,
in ways no one would have predicted from the beginning.
And how does it expand?
Through discipleship.
Every time a believer invests in another person and that person follows Christ and invests in someone else,
the mustard seed is doing what Jesus said it would do.
So what is discipleship, exactly?
It's helping someone follow Jesus and become more like Him.
And that’s done within the context of relationship where you teach, correct, model, and love.
You open your life to someone and point them to Christ,
not just with information but with example.
One of the key ingredients for this is humility.
Because Christ was the most humble man ever to exist,
and because we are trying to make people like Christ,
We too must be like Him in humility - or else our discipleship will be lifeless.
That’s why we commonly say around here:
“If you’re alive, you haven’t arrived.”
And so in humility,
we teach, invest, pray,nd share the gospel as we look forward to the return of Christ.
Discipleship requires taking initiative.
It's not something that happens passively or by accident.
You have to choose to invest in someone specific,
which by default means not investing in someone else.
This is unavoidable because we only have so much time in the day.
So, when you're looking for someone to disciple,
don't just look for who needs help.
Everyone needs help.
Instead, look for someone who knows they need help AND is willing to receive it.
When I first began pastoring, I didn’t understand that last point.
I tried to make discipleship work with everyone,
But I quickly learned that you can’t.
There will be people who are hard-hearted,
there will be unregenerate people who might even claim to be a Christian,
but show no desire to truly follow Christ,
and not this world.
And so as Jesus told us,
We need to be careful to not continually throw pigs before swine.
Proverbs talks a lot about the difference betwen the wise and the fool.
Question: What is the difference?
The difference between the wise person and the foolish person isn't intelligence; it's teachability.
A wise person welcomes correction.
But a fool resents it.
So don't waste your time trying to disciple someone who doesn't want to be discipled.
Instead, find someone who is truly a sinner saved by grace who wants to grow in Christ-likeness.
QUESTION: What does discipleship actually look like at Eagles Nest right now? If a new believer walked through our doors next Sunday, what would their path to being discipled look like? Is that clear enough?
And remember, that as you do disciple them, remember that you too are a sinner saved by grace.
Don’t try and pretend that you have all the answers or that your life is perfectly sinless.
Model humility, repentance, and confess your own weaknesses.
Because Christianity is simply one beggar telling another where he found bread.
That's what Paul meant when he said
2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
You don't disciple people by projecting strength.
You disciple people by being honest about where your strength is found - which is Christ alone.
Discipleship doesn't always start at church.
Sometimes it starts with a friendship with someone who doesn't know Christ.
You share the gospel.
You call them to repentance and faith.
And when they believe, they get baptized and brought into the life of a local church.
Discipleship in its fullest sense includes evangelism.
It starts before conversion and continues long after it.
But not everyone you disciple will be a brand-new believer.
People walk through our doors at all different stages.
Some are new Christians.
Some have been saved for years but never had anyone invest in them.
Either way, the Great Commission doesn't distinguish between the two.
We're commanded to baptize and to teach them all.
And that means discipleship is an ongoing responsibility for all of us,
not just a program for new converts.
Yes, some of that happens when we gather as a church.
We sit under the preaching of the Word together.
We take the Lord's Supper together to proclaim Christ's death and remind each other that his body is one,
even though we are many (1 Cor. 10:17).
But discipleship doesn't stop when the service ends.
It continues when we scatter.
Over coffee on a weeknight.
A phone call during lunch.
A text when someone is struggling.
A conversation after the kids are in bed.
Discipleship lasts all week because following Christ lasts all week.
Question:
As a church how can we ensure most of our spiritual conversations aren’t happening only on Sundays?
At its core, discipleship is teaching.
We teach with words.
We teach what Scripture teaches.
That's why we preach through books of the Bible here
and have a Sunday School hour that teaches essential truths needed for the Christian life.
But teaching doesn't only happen from a pulpit or in a classroom.
It happens when two believers learn to have real conversations about real things.
Sure, talk about football.
Talk about your kids.
But also talk about Sunday's sermon.
Talk about what God has been showing you.
Because that's discipleship too.
Sometimes those conversations require correction & rebuke.
People certainly grow when you teach them truth,
but they also grow when you point out where they've drifted.
Sin is deceptive.
And we need other believers to help us see what we can't see about ourselves.
Dever says in his book:
“Joining a church is like throwing paint on the invisible man. Things become visible that weren't before.”
When it comes to correct,
you can lead the way here by inviting others to correct you
and making it easy for them to do so.
But you also have to fear God enough to correct others when it's needed,
even at the risk of them not liking you for it.
QUESTION:
What needs to be true about our church culture for correction to be normal rather than awkward?
Discipleship isn't just words; it's example.
Jesus didn't just tell his disciples to teach people.
He told them to teach people to obey.
That means discipleship involves living the Christian life in front of others,
not just explaining it.
Think of it less like a classroom and more like an apprenticeship.
An apprentice learns by listening, watching, and then doing, with more responsibility over time.
That's what discipleship looks like.
You bring someone directly into your life so they can watch how you follow Christ,
not because you do it perfectly, but because you do it striving to be faithful.
Paul could say to other believers, "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1).
That's the standard.
Not perfection, but direction.
And as you do this, here's what you'll find:
This goes both ways.
There is a often a teacher-student dynamic in discipleship.
But there's also a peer-to-peer mutual discipling that will surprise you if you let it.
I do a fair bit of counseling, but I’m continually surprised by how much I’m learning while trying I’m trying to teach and counsel.
That’s the brilliance of God’s plan for discipleship.
Colossians 3:16 ESV
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
That "one another" means it's never just one direction.
I’ll say it again, all of this takes humility.
And not just the kind where you nod and say you're a sinner.
It takes the kind of humility that lets someone into your house when your kids are melting down and your heart isn't in a good place.
In Dever’s book, he tells about a pastor’s wife named Erin Wheeler who learned this first hand.
One day, ayounger woman showed up at her door expecting to be discipled.
Erin let her in, closed the door, and thought to herself,
"I am a mess. I have no idea what I'm doing. I shouldn't be teaching anyone."
But God taught her something through that moment.
These younger women didn't just need someone with polished answers.
They needed to see what it looks like to love God when the day has worn you thin.
They needed to watch someone fight for patience with her kids
and fight to love her husband when ministry made it hard.
Erin later reflected that the best teaching moments often came not from her words
but from the women simply watching her life.
They got a front-row seat to the jar of clay that she was (2 Cor. 4:7).
And rather than disqualifying her, that Christ-dependent weakness became a Christ-exalting displaying for God’s mighty power.
Later, after learning this,
one Saturday a newer friend came over while Erin’s husband was preparing a sermon.
Everything went wrong.
A child threw a tantrum.
The toilet overflowed.
But Erin simply looked up at her friend and smiled and said,
"God must really love you to let you see all this."
That's the Christ-centered confidence behind discipleship.
It’s not that we have it all together,
but that God's Spirit is at work even in the mess.
He uses us despite our weaknesses,
to warn the idle, encourage the timid, comfort the weak, and show patience to everyone, all for his glory.
To be human is to be a disciple.
God never offered Adam and Eve a choice between discipleship and independence.
The choice was between following him and following Satan.
The truth is, every person alive is a disciple of something.
The only question is: “Who are you a disciple of? God or Satan?”
Charles Spurgeon described his own ministry by comparing himself to Mr. Great-heart from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,
the character who guided others toward the Celestial City.
Spurgeon said he was in the same line of business:
as he saw his job being to personally conduct tours to heaven.
And along the way,
Spurgeon saw his job was to:
kill dragons,
cut off giants' heads,
and lead on the timid and trembling.
Yes, it would be hard,
but by God's grace, he hoped to see them all safely to the river's edge, singing as they crossed into glory.
That's what we're doing here.
We are not building an empire or running a self-help program.
We are walking each safely other home.
QUESTION:
If we don’t have someone we are “walking home right now” (discipling) what does that tell us about ourselves as disciples?
- - 2 Corinthians 4:7ESV
- - Colossians 3:16ESV

2 Timothy 3:16–17ESV

2 Corinthians 4:7ESV

Colossians 3:16ESV