I hope you guys haven’t forgotten but in our midst today are three newborns, and I’m not talking about the little one’s back in the nursery but the three who have been born again in Christ. Donna, Deanna, and Jack. And it wasn’t until I watched Jack going down into the baptismal waters that I realized … I had a hand in all this. God had used me in the past few months that I had been witnessing to him and he of course hearing the Word of God preached both here and at Riverbend. God had used me as an instrument in his salvation. I didn’t realize it until he was in the water and about to get dunked… God had used me. In that moment I could have puffed myself up, put a notch on my belt but it was actually incredibly humbling. To think that we pray “God use me”, “Use me Lord”, “help me to witness to the lost,” and “put the words in my mouth” and He did. He did and I hadn’t even realized it because witnessing just seemed to come naturally and I suppose it should to those of us God has given the burden for the lost. In the days that followed the baptism service I gave Jack a tool that God in his providence introduced to me as a newborn believer in Riverbend’s youth group. TS Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. I gave him that to begin studying and all my notes from the lessons we did in that particular book and we even started a little online email bible study, where I’d ask him questions about the chapters he was reading. I guess you would call it mentoring, taking baby steps if you will but again it was something that just came naturally to me and again I didn’t realize what I was doing until I told Pastor David about Jack’s progress and he told me that was discipleship at it’s best and discipleship is why I am standing up here right now.

When Pastor David asked me to give a testimony of discipleship I knew what it was textbook definition and of course what the scriptures teach about it. We know that Jesus had twelve disciples and that before ascended back into the heavens he commanded us in the Great Commission to go and make disciples of every nation, every tribe, every tongue. But like I said it just came to natural to reach out to Jack and sort of give him a nudge in the right direction that I didn’t even realize I was in the act of disciplining. I think back to when I was born again and those first couple of months of transition out of old sinful habits where rough. It is a very precarious time for a new born in Christ. The scripture uses the analogy of a new born baby that can’t eat solid food or hard theology and they rely on others for guidance, protection, accountability. The disciple needs to know IT DOESN’T END AT BAPTISM. Baptism is only the beginning. Aren’t we glad that Christ’s ministry started when he was baptized and that he didn’t stop there and go about his way? It doesn’t end at baptism and it doesn’t get easier after baptism either. In New Testament times, if you went through the baptismal waters you made a public profession of your faith and the Roman government would seize you, your lands, your family, your children and you were more than likely killed on the spot. After his baptism Christ faced persecution, mobs, stoning, the Pharisees and Sadducees and eventually…death the cross. No, it doesn’t end at baptism.

The disciple needs to know what most churches won’t tell you today; the cost of following Christ. Jesus said it in Luke 14 -- “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sister - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” To the crowds Jesus was saying this to, he was making a bold statement. Take up your cross and follow me. He wasn’t talking about the 14karat gold cross around your neck; he was talking about the 150-200 pound instrument of death. When I witness to people who claim Christianity I use this saying a lot that it take a two hands, two arms and a strong back to carry a cross like Jesus meant it. You can’t hold onto that and your sin at the same time. You can’t carry a cross and a playboy, or a cross and a Budweiser. It’s an impossibility for someone who has been truly born again. And I think that the reason why so many newborn Christians fall away from the Church after being baptized is partly because they don’t know this, the cost of following Christ. The church is missing the other half of discipleship -- the mentor. Most of the time its congratulations, welcome to the club, shake the pastor’s hand and see you next Sunday but there is no follow-up, there is no accountability. There is no mentor. And we wonder why there are one thousand, two thousand people on a church rooster but on any given Sunday maybe only 300 or 400 hundred show up. This could be one reason.

Coming from experience, the disciple, following his regeneration and baptism is up there on cloud nine, on an emotion high, for a while. God grants the new born that time of rejoicing before the testing begins and old sinful habits start to creep up. Suddenly the newborn faces old problems but he has this new weapon in his hands called the Word of God. The question is, does he know how to use it? Probably not. I didn’t but I had mentors the helped me along the way. Pastor Tommy and his wife Sarah. Pastor Keith. Susan Black. Sarah Bishop. The man that would one day become my husband. They were mentors to me whether they realize it or not. Those times were discouraging for me and yes I failed at times and I can now see why it is so easy for a newborn to fall away from the church. Because there is no mentor in his or her life. This is an imbalanced relationship within the church. We know that Scripture is full of relationship analogies: father and son, husband and wife, master and slave, mentor and disciple. It is all apart of God’s design and it is for the benefit of his children, for their spiritual growth and the purity of a body of believers. “As iron sharpens iron” says Proverbs 27, “so one man sharpens another.”

In the past few weeks, my spiritual walk with the Lord has become stronger I feel because whether he realizes it or not, Jack has been holding me accountable as a mentor. I’ve been in the Word more, in prayer more, in order that I would be ready for any questions or problems he might come to me with. It has been a blessing to me, not a chore. Discipleship essentially comes out of love. Jesus was trying to teach this to Simon Peter in the last chapter of John. Three times our Lord asked Peter “Do you love me?” Three times Peter answered “yes, of course; you know I do.” Three times Jesus responded “Feed my sheep.” “Take care of my sheep.” “Feed my sheep, Simon Peter.” He was drawing a direct connection between our love of God and our love for our brethren in Christ. Discipleship is a fruit of the spirit thus I understand now why it seemed to come natural to me, should come naturally to all of us who have been born again. But a warning to mentors before you start eyeing our newborns: take the plank out, take the 2x4, take the telephone pole out of your own eye before you attempt to take the speck of sawdust out of someone else’s. We cannot, absolutely cannot, hold them accountable for things we ourselves cannot do. What does that make us if we do: Pharisees? Just like little children, these new believers will be watching everything we do, our reactions to the world, the things we say. Therefore we need to first hold ourselves accountable to the calling of Christ and to the image of Christ. Even though we be far from perfect, our aim in everything should be purity of self and the glory of God.

We are called both to be disciples and to make disciples and there is no class you have to take, no qualifications to meet to be either. We sit down here every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening as disciples of Pastor David expecting that he has spent his week in the Word and in prayer that he would be equipped to feed us truth. But what we learn we can then apply, expound and teach to others. I know Wednesday night Doctrines of Grace class, some of us who are from different theological backgrounds are having to learn how to walk all over again but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger right? So what we learn is then profitable to be taught is it not? You might or get something someone else doesn’t. Please share, disciple especially to the newborns who are just beginning to scratch the surface of the iceberg that is the Word of God. In conclusion, I’ll go to a passage in 2 Timothy we should all be familiar with. “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” When we teach, let us do so in humility. When we rebuke, let it be out of love. When we correct, let us first examine ourselves. And when we train, let it be with much prayer and diligence. Let us then together take up the cross as we were meant to.

Ndosch

To live is Christ, to die is gain!

Philipians 1:21