In God’s grand scheme, you’ve been uniquely chosen to be a disciple-maker. Yep . . . you! He introduced Himself to you, let you feel His love and experience His forgiveness. He did all this, not just for you, but so He could help others through you. He came into your life so you could “have life” (which I interpret as “His best life now” . . . forgive me Mr. Osteen!). But then He added . . . “and have it to the full” or “to have it abundantly.” I think He connected this promise of an “abundant life” to our obedience in some pretty important areas . . .
- An abundant life is impossible if you’re self-absorbed and only care about “me and mine.”
- You can’t have an abundant life and intentionally disobey God. Things like “putting other gods before,” adultery, lying, stealing, envy . . . when we do this stuff after we’ve been saved and forgiven, we’re saying goodbye to our chance for an abundant life, at least until we stop and turn away from it.
- An abundant life comes from positive obedience, not just avoiding the negatives. Things like trusting God, loving Him with all your heart and loving and serving your neighbor. It’s about being “rich in love and good deeds,” and importantly, making disciples.
Yesterday, I had lunch with 20 guys who are making disciples of men a little behind them in age or faith walk. I listened as man after man used words like “meaningful,” “fulfilling,” “impactful,” “grateful” . . . descriptors of abundant lives. As a disciple-maker, I’m most useful when I remember my job is to connect a guy to his ultimate life mentor . . . Jesus. That’s what disciples do. When we focus on building the faith of another, we find an abundant, meaningful life for ourselves . . . a life of fulfillment with an abundance of love, grace, meaning and peace.
Jesus mentors us all. He gave us a book to read (the Bible) and He told us to go so far as to memorize it! He promised that if we’d “hide it in our hearts,” it would help us avoid sin. He gave us assignments to do, like love your neighbor, love your enemies, give, forgive . . . to live each day and not worry about the others. He even promised He’d be there for us to debrief with, whether we succeed or fail. He gave us the Holy Spirit to be our Counselor, our Interpreter and our Guide as we go.
God may have set aside an opportunity just for you . . . for you to have a profound influence in the life of another man. Unless you step forward, you’ll never know what might have been awaiting you.
Make a decision and follow it with a prayer. Maybe something like this . . .
“Father, send me someone to invest in and I’ll do it. Challenge me to lead a group and I’ll do it. Speak Lord, Your servant is listening. I love You, Jesus, and I’m ready to obey Your command to ‘go and make disciples.’ My answer is ‘yes.’ Now, give me the man (or men) You have for me.”
Scripture: But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus — the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. (Acts 20:24)
Mentor Tip: There are several hundred men in the U.S. who’ve led one Radical Mentoring group and then stopped. If that’s you, or if you want to get started, go to your church leadership and ”fire them up” to help you “get back in the saddle” and bring others with you. The Radical Mentoring website has tons of new information about how to inspire your church to launch men’s small group mentoring/disciple-making.
