Discipleship In the Church

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DiscipleshipIn the Church

• Coming to maturity in Christ

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Discipleship

• Discipleship is not a church program but a
  spiritual journey that leads to maturity.
• By providing sound Biblical teaching and
  facilitating transparent supportive relationships
  within the body, the church can help believers
  grow and develop on this journey.

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Making Disciples
Mt. 2819

• Making disciples involves both an individual
  and group mentoring effort, in which those who
  have greater maturity in Christ encourage and
  serve those who have not traveled as far.
• Small groups provide a safe environment where
  believers can grow during the seasons of their
  discipleship walk.

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Our Discipleship Walk3 seasonal areas of growth
on the road to spiritual maturity

• Conversion period
• Learning the basics of salvation
• Process of Sanctification
• Growing in holiness to become strong in the faith
• Coming into Completeness
• Deeper walk of dying to self to live for God

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Following Christ A spiritual Journey

• The Basics
• When we repent and believe, we are
• Delivered from the power of sin death
• Redeemed forgiven
• Justified made righteous
• Cleansed from the guilt of sin
• Consecrated set apart as holy to God

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Going Beyond the Basics

• Therefore let us leave the elementary
  teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not
  laying again the foundation of repentance from
  acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
  instructions about baptisms, the laying on of
  hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal
  judgment. Heb. 61

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The Way of Discipleship

• The kingdom of God operates on the spiritual
  principle of sowing and reaping. Receiving the
  implanted word, we produce a spiritual crop
  through the transforming power of the Spirit.
• The pattern of seasonal growth is found in the
  harvest festivals of Israels worship.
• The feasts of Israel provide a thematic model or
  pattern for spiritual growth. Because Jesus
  fulfilled the feasts, and since we are in Christ,
  we also fulfill the themes of the feasts in our
  discipleship walk.

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The Feasts

• The feasts were divided into three seasonal
  harvest festivals
• Passover, the spring barley crop
• Pentecost, the summer wheat crop
• Ingathering, the fall crop of grapes olives
• These three festivals correlate with the seasons
  of our growth as disciples
• Conversion, Sanctification, Completeness.

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The Seasons of Christian Growth

• Conversion Coming into the relational knowledge
  of God
• Sanctification Persevering in trials through the
  power of the Holy Spirit
• Completeness The season of self-denial, of
  taking up our cross and serving those in need,
  bearing mature fruit for the kingdom of God.

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Scriptural Basis for the Themes of Discipleship

• Phil 310 I want to
• Know Christ..
• The power of his resurrection..
• The fellowship of his sufferings

• Conversion Coming to know God
• Sanctification Overcoming in power
• Completeness Taking up the cross of Christ to
  bear kingdom fruit

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Themes of the Feasts a Model of Seasonal Growth

• Theme Conversion
• Growing in the relational
• knowledge of God
• Growth Area Appropriating the initial blessings
  of Salvation by faith
• Deliverance, Redemption, Forgiveness,
• Justification, Cleansing, Expiation,
  Consecration.

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Themes of the Feasts a Model of Seasonal Growth

• Theme Sanctification
• Wielding the power of the Holy Spirit
• to persevere and overcome
• Growth Area Walking in the power of our
  salvation that edifies the body and overcomes the
  world, evidenced in dual form.
• The gifts of the Spirit (Rom. 12)
• The armor of God (Eph. 6)

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Themes of the Feasts a Model of Seasonal Growth

• Theme Completeness
• Sharing in the sufferings of Christ
• Growth Area Coming to maturity in Christ
• Repentance from works of the Old Man
• Self denial Taking up the cross and
  developing the character of Christ in service to
  others
• Rejoicing and peace in the Presence of God

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Some Points to Consider

• For believers to grow beyond the basics, there
  needs to be teaching on the armor and the gifts.
• Small groups are the appropriate forum to
  discover and exercise ones spiritual gifts, and
  to recognize and respond in authority to
  spiritual battles so the body can be edified,
  encouraged, and strengthened.
• Anyone who knows the basics of salvation can
  teach them to another. Those discipling others
  beyond the basics should be mature knowing God,
  strong in spirit, overcoming the world and
  consistently expressing the love of Christ.

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• More on the themes of the feasts
• and discipleship can be found at
• http//www.thefirsttrumpet.com/Christian_Disciples
  hip.html

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