Oftentimes when I'm talking to young leaders or people who are discipling
others or even those who are being discipled, I like to remind them that
discipleship just doesn't happen overnight, there's a process. And this
process is something that takes both time and specific intentionality.
The passage in the Bible that speaks about this is 1 Corinthians 9:24 through
27. It says this, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one
gets the prize? Therefore run in such a way as to get the prize."
Then Paul goes on to say everyone who competes in the game goes into strict
training, but they do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a
crown that will last forever. And then he says, "Therefore I beat my
body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will
not be found disqualified for the prize."
So our purpose has eternity in mind that those were helping can help others and
heaven will be different because of the people we invest in and pass these
eternal truths on one generation to the next and so then he he then talks about
that we need to have a plan what do I mean by that he says, "Everyone who
competes in the game goes into strict training." And so this idea of having a
plan just like an athlete would have a training regimen we need to have a plan
in terms of our discipling of someone else. It might be a plan on how to help them
have a quiet time or how to memorize Scripture and a plan may be to say that
through this certain amount of time we'll memorize these verses. In 1
Timothy chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 Paul talks to Timothy about this
he says, "Have nothing to do with worldly myths and old wives tales rather, train
yourself to be godly." Another translation says discipline yourself to
be godly, but that word train there is the Greek word gymnastíso that's where
we get our word gymnasium from or gymnastics, and so someone has said that
this this verse of train yourself to be godly has the smell of the gym in it,
and so it's personal discipline and we can't really do discipling without a plan.
So we need purpose we need a plan and then last Paul talks about having the
right perspective. Here in 1 Corinthians 9 he says, "I do not fight
like a man beating the air. No I beat my body and make it my slave
so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for
the prize." The perspective as Paul thinks about himself is that he's not looking
around at others comparing himself but, he's actually saying this is my
relationship with God, these are the things that that I need to be involved
with as far as spiritual disciplines. We're to throw off the sin that so
easily entangles and then it says and we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author
and perfecter of our faith. So the perspective is, is that our eyes are on
Christ that I am pursuing Him I'm not comparing myself to others who are in
this race, my gaze is fixed and my eyes are fixed straight ahead.
So we need purpose, we need a plan, and we need this perspective and when we're
doing this, then our discipling of others can have power and impact that would go
until the nations are reached and touched.