Less Complacency, More Obedience

By Pastor Dan Williams, March 28, 2021

A Strategy to Change The World

MAIN IDEA

Matthew 28:19–20 (NLT) 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Best strategy is to implement Jesus’ strategy for changing the world:

  1. Find & focus on fewer people.
  1. Share your everyday rhythms.
  1. Spend more time with the few.

MAIN METHOD: Jesus made disciples by intentionally spending more with fewer disciples.

MAIN QUESTION: “With my busy schedule overflowing with responsibilities, how is this even possible to spend extra time with fewer disciples?”

Jesus told His disciples: “ is the only way to learn from me & to love me.”

Matthew 11:29–30 (NLT) 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, ...”

John 13:14–15 (NLT) 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.

  • Jesus’s Disciple-making Method
    • I do. (showing)
    • We do. (sharing)
    • You do. (supervising)
    • Redo. (sending)

John 14:15,21,24 (NLT) 15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. ... 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me…”

“One must ask, why are so many professed Christians today stunted in their growth and ineffectual in their witness?“ ~ Robert Coleman

REMEMBER When our complacency overcomes our consecration…

Focus more on Jesus’s obedience than your own.

  • Dwell on His self-sacrificing absolute obedience to the will of God.
    • He’s energized by it.

John 4:34 (NLT) 34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.

  • Dwell on His self-sacrificing absolute obedience to the will of God.
    • He’s rooted in His Father’s love by it.

John 15:9–10 (NLT) 9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

  • Dwell on His self-sacrificing absolute obedience to the will of God.
    • He’s self-sacrificially devoted to it.

Philippians 2:8 (NLT) 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION:

  1. What might Jesus want us to learn by “washing each other’s feet” as he did ours (in a way we couldn’t learn without obeying)?
  2. What are some ways you’ve tried to love Jesus without your full obedience?
  3. How might adoring Jesus for His self-sacrificing obedience to His Father’s will move you out of your complacency?