Recharge ~ Radical Discipleship!

Tim Mander, former NRL Referee and all round top bloke. I think the sporting connection really helped me as a male to get sucked into his message. I also enjoyed the fact that he spoke straight from the Bible. He straight up opened the Bible and dove into what it had to say on discipleship.

And he started in the Old Testiment.

Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his
ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good
land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys
and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates,
olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack
nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the
hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise
the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do
not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his
decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are
satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds
and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is
multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD
your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led
you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with
its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He
gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to
humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may
say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this
wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you
the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to
your forefathers, as it is today.
19 If you ever forget
the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I
testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations
the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD
your God. (Deut 8:6-20)

His main points were as follows.

• Don’t Forget – verse 11 and 18 – It was easy for the Israelites to remember God in the desert, He was always present, they will they remember God once they are comfortable and rich?
• A Proud Heart – verse 14 and 17 – Who needs God when we can look after ourselves? To prove we think this I think (and Tim mentioned) you only need to look at the 3rd World Church, they have such an unashamed dependence on God, because they have no one other than God to depend on. Here in Australia we are so comfortable we feel we can get along on our own… in a way we can, but it just doesn’t compare to living the life of a disciple.
  
  Verse 18 – if we’re rich, if we’ve got a lot, and we are comfortable, verse 18 reminds us where it all came from.
  
• Our Spiritual Demise – verse 19 – Look at the parable of the Sower… some seeds fall on rocky ground, some amongst the weeds. Whatever the story some people fall under the curse of spiritual demise, we all have at one point, the only difference with some of us is that we’ve let Jesus pull us out of it.
  
• An Attitude of Gratitude – verse 10 – this is where Tim turned it around. In a world where everything comes across as negative us as Christians need to have such gratitude that we are set apart from the rest.

Why should we be so grateful?

John 18:2-7 2Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
4Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked
them, "Who is it you want?"
5"Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.
"I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6When
Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.
7Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."

What’s this got to do with it? Look at what happened when Jesus said ‘I am he”. For a brief moment those soldiers experienced the fully glory of God. It was so powerful they fell to the ground

Simple fact – God is Holy! Look at David’s servant and the Ark (2 Sam 6:1-7) and Ananias and Sapphia (Acts 5:1-11)

God calls us to be holy, because He is holy. And it’s through realizing this holiness that we get that amazing outstanding different Attitude of Gratitude. And from that attitude we become the believers and disciples that Jesus called us to be.

Um hoping you got through all that – it’s long. But 3 sermons cut down a lot. So hope it’s not too wishy washy.