The Hezekiah Make-Over
The Process of Making Disciples II
2 Kings 18:1-4
"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples’" (John 8:31).
Discipleship is not a carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing while we are whisked through various spiritual sensations. Somehow we have to make disciples instead of inspiration junkies.
Clarify the Mission: What Is a Disciple?
Jesus made the mission simple: follow me (be a disciple) and make disciples (be a disciple-maker).
The Process of Making Disciples: To be effective at disciple-making we need to design a simple process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.
Evangelism - Invest and Invite
Edifying - Worship
Equipping - Small Groups
Employ - Ministry
Movement: How do we move people toward spiritual maturity?
Movement is how someone is handed off from one level of commitment to a greater level of commitment.
Assimilation to the next level of spiritual maturity is the goal. Programs are the tools along the process.
The first step in the process is to connect to God through worship.
The second step is to connect to others relationally through small groups.
The third step is to connect to a ministry.
The fourth step is to connect to the lost. Invest and Invite.
Without an overlap, people fall through the cracks.
Alignment: Getting every ministry of the church using the same process of making disciples.
Alignment ensures that the entire church body is moving in the same direction, and in the same manner.
Everyone understands the process of how we make disciples, rather than just being told that we need to make disciples,
Focus on the end results - fully mature disciples.
Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the ministry process.
Focus requires saying "yes" to the best and "no" to everything else.
The Hezekiah Make-over (2 Kings 18:1-4)
First, he removed the godless clutter that had been competing for the attention and affection of the people.
Second, Hezekiah intentionally broke the bronze snake that God had instructed Moses to make.
Hezekiah got rid of it because the people had begun to worship it.
The tool for worship became the object of worship.
If you want the necessary to stand out, you have to get rid of the unnecessary. The unnecessary often gets in the way of the necessary. The key is to choose the best. Eliminate the unnecessary and keep the best.
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." (Phil. 1:9-11).