Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course – Lesson 7: Mission

Discipleship Principle 7 – We are to seek out and continually walk in our
personal kingdom mission, which will include fellowshipping and discipling with
the body of Christ and impacting the world outside the church through service
and evangelism.

Ephesians
2:10 tells us “For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

One of the biggest concerns regarding recovery, or
the Christian life in general, is maintenance. Often when people have success
in recovery or have given themselves to the Lord, they tire of the new life
they have because it is unfamiliar and eventually they are disappointed in the
body of Christ, or themselves, and either end up leaving the fellowship of the
church and go back to their previous habits and attitudes of life or remain but
have little or no growth and fail to pursue their kingdom purpose.

 In Matthew
13:20-22, Jesus taught:  “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the
message and immediately receive it with joy. But
since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon
as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear
God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of
this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

Jesus warns that believers
can stumble or be unfruitful when our spiritual foundation isn’t right.  When we go from the kingdom of darkness to
the kingdom of light, or from addiction to recovery, we have to adapt to a
whole new way of living. To do that successfully, we must fill in the gaps in
our lives that our old attitudes and habits previously occupied.  

The way we
maintain the freedom that we have so desperately fought for is to remember what
we have learned while we seek the new purpose that God has for us. We need to
find our kingdom’s mission.

Managing Expectations for Our Walk

Philippians 3:12 says “I don’t mean to say that I have already
achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on
to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.”

The idea of being a “super Christian” should be put
aside as we are only trying to make steady progress according to our individual
gifts and call from God. We are not pushing for perfection as much as remaining
in peace and harmony with God as we follow where He leads us.  The levels of our surrender will vary
depending on each of our individual gifts and call. So, we should not look to
our neighbor’s walk and find fault or feel superior, as we realize we are all
different and are following God the best we can.  We are to seek God and support one another
with love and encouragement.

Romans 12:4-6 tells us “For as we have many members in one body, but all the
members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body
in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: …”

Everyone is different with unique gifts and a call
on their life. We are in a process of maturation. We have made progress but are
still growing and will be until we see Jesus. 
Remember our lives in Christ are about progress not perfection. We are
His eternally so we can go at our own pace.

So, we must develop the fruit of gentleness with
ourselves by being patient and forgiving when we “miss the mark” of our desired
behavior and goals.  Remaining
persistent, we must pick ourselves up when we fall, try to reduce the number of
falls, increase the duration of time between falls, and try to eliminate the
falls altogether.  We must keep our
journey balanced with conviction, compassion, and commitment where we
acknowledge when we go astray, thank God for His forgiveness, and endeavor to
not make the same mistakes twice and learn from them.

Ephesians 1:17-18 tells us “that the God … may give to you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling…

In our walk, we never lose hope, even when we are
not progressing or have taken a step back. because we know our journey is not
about performance.  Although we try to get
better as part of our maturation process and try to discover our kingdom
purpose, we should remember to be patient and forgiving towards ourselves as we
go. We should also look for some company as we walk. 

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Discipleship

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus tells us to “Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all things that I have commanded you…

The simple
meaning of the word “disciple” is “learner.” People in recovery are becoming
“disciples” in a sense because they are learning a new way to live.

In Matthew
10:24, Jesus taught that: “A disciple is not above his
teacher, nor a servant above his master.”

For Christian
recovery, we want to be disciples of Jesu and our daily lives should be used to
grow deeper in the knowledge of our Lord and more intimate in terms of our
heart relationship with Him. Our devotional practices, bible study, and prayer
prepare our hearts and minds for our kingdom mission.  As we come together to support one another in
our recovery and our walk with God, our process could be identified as
discipleship, or discipleship counseling, as we give each other advice.

Discipleship is
an intentional relationship in which we walk with other believers to edify and
encourage each other in our faith walk, growing closer to one another as we
grow closer to the Lord. We can learn to live the Christian lifestyle through
studying the Bible or taking a discipleship course. By doing this together, we
can learn through one another’s advice as we can draw upon our collective
knowledge and experience of applying the word’s wisdom to our lives to avoid
mistakes and pitfalls that others have suffered. The accountability,
clarification, and feedback that we receive in discipleship are elements that
we cannot fully replicate through individual study. 

Discipleship also
includes equipping one another to teach others as well. The value of talking
about our faith with one another is realized as we learn to not only understand
what we believe and how we are to live but also learn how to verbally express
it effectively to others. Together we can learn to overcome objections,
questions, and doubts through examining, rehearsing, and perfecting our
testimonies and gospel messages through coaching and encouragement.

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Discipleship
Triads

In Matthew
18:20 Jesus said “For where two or three are gathered together in My
name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Triad discipleship groups are three or four
individuals, who agree to meet periodically, to build supportive relationships
to assist and to challenge one another to become more passionate, fully devoted
followers of Jesus Christ.  Greg
Ogden’s Transforming Discipleship demonstrates that groups of three or four
Christians discipling one another change the dynamics from a student-mentor
discipleship model to a group process where the parties are energized and
benefit from group wisdom and a team mentality.

Ecclesiastes
4:12 ¹² Though one may be
overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not
quickly broken.

Twelve-step
programs stress the importance of sponsors and accountability partners for an
individual’s successful recovery. Having the support and feedback of other
people who are traveling on the road to recovery can be the difference between
someone relapsing or continuing to stay clean and sober.   As Christians in recovery who are seeking to
maintain our victory, we should seek to extend our relationships with sponsors
and accountability partners into discipleship triads.

Celebrate Recovery small group discussions
establish a vehicle to discuss material transparently and to grow closer as
groups. They provide an opportunity to form accountability groups and a natural
way to transition to small discipleship groups. 
Discipleship triads would serve as a support to recovery, to the
Christian lifestyle, and to apply biblical principles to life’s problems as
they happen.

Transformation happens when we live in community
with other Christians being encouraged and challenged to consider the wisdom of
the Bible in the context of everyday life. Accountability brings the
relationship to a deeper level allowing others to speak truth into our lives
and hold us responsible to keep the promises we make. Disciple triads can
become an effective defense for relapse or walking away from the church and
even empower purpose as the team not only supports one another but can work
together in joint service projects or to bring others into the kingdom through
evangelistic outreach. Beyond these benefits, discipleship prepares us to grow
into our individual kingdom mission as we learn where our strengths and the
Lord guide us. 

Church Community – Service in the Body of Christ

The local church community is the place where we are intended to dwell
and prosper. As disciples, we should seriously consider serving our local
church. Several opportunities for service may be available such as: