Day 2: Go To Where They Are

Have you ever been fly fishing or deep sea fishing? Sure, you can grab a pole, line and some bait and hang out at the edge of the river waiting for a nibble, but you can also go to where the fish is. You can get special lures and bait which attract the specific fish you are looking for. With fly fishing, you get in the water. With deep sea, you get in a boat and go to their habitat. Disciple making is no different, you can only be so effective of a disciple maker if you stay in the comfort of your pew hoping for a nibble.

Final Thoughts

Consider the following:

1. Average church goers don’t live Monday-Saturday with disciple making mindset.
2. Typically saved people only foster relationships with those who are sanctified and not the sinners.
3. The longer someone is in church, the less effective they typically become in reaching sinners with the gospel.
4. We have misinterpreted holiness preaching about separating ourselves from the world as an excuse to isolate ourselves, essentially manufacturing the rapture by disappearing from meaningful roles in our communities.
5. We are called out of the world, and then sent back in. (II Corinthians 6:17, John 20:21).
6. We are the salt and light of the world, which isn’t experienced without being in proximity to the world. (Matthew 5:14-15, I Peter 2:9)
7. Jesus didn’t pray that we are taken out of the world, but that we are kept from evil (John 17:15), we aren’t isolated from the world, but we are insulated from its influence.
8. Jesus was aware he was sending sheep among the wolves, or allowing weeds to grow in wheat (Matthew 10:16, 13:30).
9. Jesus was confident we had the power to overcome what we’d encounter in the world (Luke 10:19).
10. If the rapture did occur today, would anyone outside of the corporate worship center or fellowship notice that you are gone?

Biblical Devotion

2 Corinthians 6:17-18  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,  (18) and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

John 20:20-21  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  (21) Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Matthew 5:14-16  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (15)  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. (16)  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

John 17:15-23  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (16)  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (17) Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (18)  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (19) And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (20)  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, (21) that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (22)  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, (23) I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Matthew 10:16  “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 13:24-30  He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, (25)  but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. (26) So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. (27)  And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ (28) He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ (29)  But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'”

Luke 10:18-20  And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (19)  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. (20)  Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”