Reflection question: What should be the central motivation for a disciple of Christ?
So I know that the gospel should be central in leading others to Jesus, but what about after a person has become a Christian? How do we get a new Christian to take on the life of discipline that is presented in the Bible as the norm for the Christian? Jesus was clear that his expectations for disciples were very rigorous. Take this verse for example:
Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
What could motivate a new disciple to give their lives with this kind of absolute surrender? Here are a few counterfeit motivators that often creep into the disciplemaking process:
1. Fear – Many who do religious things do so because they fear that if they don’t God will punish them. As long as they continue to meet God’s expectations, God will leave them alone.
2. Guilt – Some never accept the fact that they are forgiven so they are constantly striving to pay for their sins of the distant past or recent past by doing what they think God will be pleased with to pay for their failures.
3. Blessing – The flip side of the above two motivators is the motivation of blessing. If we believe that we’ve done what God expects then we usually think he should hold up His end of the bargain by blessing us.
4. Desire for power and influence – We are social creatures and the church is a relational place. Just like every other social environment, Christians find themselves wanting to gain power and influence in the church by doing what is expected in order to appear a loyal member of the group.
5. Desire to please others – Similar to the above motivator, this person may not want power but simply wants to be liked and accepted by the group and meets stated and unstated expectations to gain entrance and acceptance in the church.
While it is perfectly “natural” to be motivated by these and others, it is imperative that the disciplemaker continually lead those they seek to influence to the central motivator for Christian living. The Apostle Paul states it well in Romans 12 verse 1:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of god’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Paul is talking to Christians here. “Urging” them to adopt a particular mindset regarding Christian discipleship. To let the mercy of God (that’s the Gospel) motivate them to offer their bodies as living sacrifices. The Bible makes it clear that the motivational core for the Christian disciple is the Gospel.
Worship makes up the first of what we call (at MERCYhouse) the five devotions. These devotions were practiced by the early church and can be found in Acts 1:8 and Acts 2:42. The five devotions are Worship, The Word, Prayer, The Church, and Our Mission in the World. Worship is the central devotion that gives life to all the others.
Reflection Question: What is Worship?
So what is worship? Again, let’s look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1:
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."
He starts with the object of worship, that is, God. The Bible throughout Old and New Testament depicts human beings as worshipers. The first two commandments deal with having no other gods before God and prohibit worshiping idols. While this makes sense in an ancient world where everyone was worshiping multiple gods, does this really apply today?
I'd say it does. Worship doesn't have to revolve around something religious, it can be anything that we choose to put at the center of our lives. As human beings, we crave something that we can commit to, think on, work for, sacrifice for, celebrate, tell others about. We are never not worshiping something.
I was reminded of this, when a news story broke a few months back when a tweener, who really wanted to see Hannah Montana, wrote a phony letter into a radio station to try and win some free tickets and back stage passes. She put in the letter how her dad died in Iraq, which wasn't true, in order to better her chances of winning. The letter worked and she ended up getting the tickets.
Then the media started asking her and her mother about their fallen father/husband and they both kept up the lying until someone confirmed that it was a hoax. Most who saw this story shrugged and wondered when they'd be on the next Jerry Springer, but something more was happening here - worship.
The desire to see, be with, experience, celebrate Hannah Montana had become the center of this family's life and they were willing to sacrifice anything to make that happen. Something about that chip off the akey breaky heart, had taken over their mind, will, and emotions to the point that anything that tried to unseat this priority (common sense, fear of embarrassment, morality) was quickly pushed out of the way.
I can certainly remember days as a young tweener church goer when I'd never have dreamed of making that kind of sacrifice for Jesus. For example, I would say just about anything to fit in with friends and have a good time. Even if that included taking God's name in vain or making fun of a kid that wasn't part of our group. Even though I knew a lot about Jesus, believed he existed and that He died for my sin, I wasn't worshiping Him.
Everyone who experiences Christian conversion, becomes a worshiper of Jesus. They have gotten a view of His mercy (aka the gospel) and it has set in motion a surrender of their mind, will, and emotions to such a degree that that they now become a "living sacrifice." The Apostle Paul is most likely speaking of the "whole burnt offering" of the Old Testament that was not mandated by the law. It was instead a free will offering that was completely consumed as a way to communicate to God absolute surrender.
This is what our hearts are all longing for. Something that takes such a high priority in our lives that nothing, not even embarrassment or common sense, can unseat it from our center. It's what makes everything else (the Bible, prayer, church, our mission out in the world) come to life and maintain a level of power and perseverance that will maintain the living of the Christian life.
Shepherding toward worship
As shepherds, we are to be reminding those who we influence again and again of the central motivator of our faith - a response of gratitude for the gospel. If this motivator is not in place, the other four devotions will dry up and die or turn into something that actually detracts from the glory of God.
Think about the devotion to the word without worship. It becomes a means for knowing more than others and gaining power and prestige in the church. The moral standards that are encountered in the Bible become a system of legalism that puffs up and condemns the person and destroys relationships with those around them.
The devotion to prayer without worship becomes a ritual or some sort of magical incantation.
The devotion to the fellowship without worship causes relationships within the church to become merely social and eventually disunified and destructive.
The devotion to the mission of the church without worship causes the church to turn into a philanthropic organization and eventually burn out for lack of real fuel for the mission.
While it’s easy to understand with our minds that worship is to be central, it’s a little more difficult for us to get this at a heart level. John Calvin writes that our hearts are “idol factories”. It is the default mode of the human heart to replace Jesus on the throne of our heart with something or someone else.
This includes religion. In fact, religion is more likely to become an idol than anything else because it is seen as something good, and to some degree it is good. There is nothing wrong with praying and reading our Bibles and spending time with fellow Christians, but when these good things become a means to something else besides knowing and serving God, they become destructive.
Reflection Question: How do you cultivate a heart of worship and help others to do the same?
So how do you help a new Christian with whom you are walking or members of your house church continue to live from a heart of worship? There are a few things that are built into the regular life of the church to help with this.
1. Worship on Sunday. Every week the Sunday morning songs and the sermon bring us back to the main thing – the grace of Jesus. We role play our conversion of receiving the grace filled truth of the scriptures and then offer our lives yet again in absolute surrender. Encourage your folks to attend our worship service regularly.
2. Take communion on Sunday. In addition to songs and preaching, we participate in communion every other week. Christ instituted this ritual for the purpose of bringing us back to the main thing – his death, burial, and resurrection. Again, we role play our helpless need for the gospel every time we go up front to receive the free bread and juice that represent Christ’s body and blood. Help your folks to understand the purpose for participating in this important ritual.
3. Weekly worship in a house church or small group. House church leaders have as one of their goals to point people upward as part of the house church evening. To remember the grace of God and respond to that with singing, reading, meditation, etc. In addition to worship, there is also Bible study and spending time with others who are striving for the same kind of life in Christ. This midweek experience is really helpful for the Christian who desires to maintain a heart that is set on worshipping Jesus.
4. Daily Devotional Time. While Sundays and Midweek meetings are helpful, nothing is as helpful as spending time alone with God every day. Help your person make a plan for how they will spend daily time with God. This may include a plan for the when, where, and what of the time.
5. Keeping the Gospel and our response to it central to your conversations about everything. As a shepherd, it is very easy to slip into fix it mode. Help the person with whom you are walking to see that sexual purity is a response to God’s covenant relationship with us. That generous giving is a response to God’s generosity to us through the cross. That prayer is a means to know the one that paid infinite cost to be in relationship with us. At every turn, you want to bring it back to the gospel to weed out the heart’s desire to put self or something else in the throne of our hearts.
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