Discipleship & Mission Workshop | Repentance & Belief

 

3DM 2014 Discipleship + Mission Workshop in Foxboro, Massachusetts on Wednesday, February 6, 2014 

These posts are for the stellar 3DM Discipleship + Mission Workshop that was hosted in Foxboro, Massachusetts during a snow storm between Tuesday, February 4 – Thursday, February 6. 

• 3DM 2014 Discipleship + Mission Workshop Part 1 of 3 | Covenant + Kingdom
• 3DM 2014 Discipleship + Mission Workshop Part 2 of 3 | Invitation + Challenge

Quick review of 3DM's values: 

Jesus as the Model

 Because the way of Jesus is as important as the words and works of Jesus

  Family at the Core 

Because who we are becoming is as important as what we are doing

Life on the Edge

 Because leaders by definition are the ones who go first

Listening for the Word

 Because becoming like Jesus is a journey of both Spirit and Truth

Celebrating along the Way

 Because purpose and play make the family work

Plenty of what I have learned from them has made its way into my teaching and my life. I'm still reveling in the impact the workshop had and will continue to learn from what was shared.
 

Repentance + Belief

 

  

God is so real He meets us exactly where we are – not where we think we are or where we think we should be. 

A disciple is one who:

• likes to listen before speaking
• asks more questions
• wants to grow

The prayer of a disciple is "I want to learn." And the Lord is gracious. He doesn't speak to us 100 things at once. He deals with one thing at a time.

Repentance (metanoia – "a turning or changing of mind") is changing from how I see things to how God sees things. 

A kairos moment (i.e. a time in life that is pregnant with meaning) reveals what we really believe. This is one reason why God has given us the gift of His Church. We can learn how to submit to what He is saying as we invite His community by His Spirit to help us understand what we're actually believing about (1) who God is, (2) what He's done, and (3) who we are.

Can we help others listen to the Father's voice that tells us what the good news of the Gospel is? And even when we are pretty miserable, are we miserable enough to stop and listen?

• Public beliefs: What I say I believe
• Private beliefs: What I want to believe
• Core beliefs: What I really believe

Repentance, in essence, is agreeing with God about reality. 

Belief is embodying this deep and displayed trust.

In placing our faith in Jesus, our public, private, and core beliefs can merge into one.

Rest + Work

The stopping and reflecting in repentance helps us step back, rest, and remember that Christ has done everything for us.

 

Remember, when you are moving through repentance to belief, no one is investing more resources (i.e. Word and Spirit) for you to be more fruitful than God the Father. Whatever He intends to do through you, He also intends to do in you.

Remain in Him. We start where Jesus started. We abide and then we live from our identity, not for it.

We need to remember what Jesus said in John 15:1-8: "Abide in Me and you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing." We also need to remember that the Spirit has brought us to this moment – whether for growth or for pruning – in order to trust God more and find rest. 

Whether in growth or pruning, we will move through repentance to belief when we receive a kairos moment as God's grace and then do something to trust Him. And we should not love revelation more than doing something in order to trust and obey our Father in light of what He has said and shown us what to do.

Gospel Word | Repentance: internal change of mind to hear the Father's voice 

Gospel Obedience | Belief: external action to obey the Father's voice

  
We also need to remember that, just like Jesus, Satan will tempt us by attacking our identity that the Father has declared. If Jesus ignores what the Father has said or stops listening, Satan wins. Jesus was tempted with (1) appetite, (2) approval, and (3) ambition. Our temptations come in the same way to find our satisfaction elsewhere, earn our approval, and seek other kingdoms first. Also, accountability that uses shame and guilt trains us to be moralists that worship fear more than love. We don't want fast-term growth that leads to long-term burnout. We want growth that leads us to sin less because we love God and love others more.

True Sabbath rest helps us stop in the midst of temptation to seek our identity in other ways. In Sabbath rest, we reconnect with our covenant-making Father – understanding again who God is and who we are – and abiding in Him. And after we are pruned and we move forward to be faithful – when we seek His Kingdom first and it gets hard – we need to remember that hardship with God still means that there is always grace in the hardship because He is with us and for us.

– Sully
 
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