Garden City Values – Disciple

We’re in a 4-week DNA series talking about our church’s core values.^[1] The last two weeks, we’ve talked about prioritizing the gospel above all and doing whatever it takes to reach all people.  

This morning, we’re looking at Value 3: Disciple – We make whole disciples who love God and others.  

Discipleship is one of those topics that should be placed under Christianity 101. If you look at the end of Matthew 28, after his resurrection, Jesus tells his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.  

So with all the weight of God’s authority behind it, Jesus commands us: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  

I don’t think there’s a Christian in the room who would say disciplemaking isn’t a responsibility for them. The problem isn’t that we think disciple-making is unimportant or that we shouldn’t do it. The problem is that we don’t really have a vision for what it means to grow as a disciple. And if we don’t know how to grow ourselves, how are we supposed to help others grow?  

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before we even get into the how, let’s talk about what a disciple is and who can be one.  

Disciple is a fairly simple term to define. The Greek/Hebrew words that translate as disciple just mean “learner” or “student.” Which makes sense. 

We all have some basic understanding of education. But imagine if everyone wanted to be a doctor—or some other high-paying job. Just because you want to be a doctor doesn’t mean you get to be one.  

For example, if you don’t have access to education, you can forget it. But even if you do, you have to perform to get into the best schools. Then you have pre-uni requirements, medical school, post-grad training. It’s a competitive process. And for good reason, right?  

You want the best of the best for a job like that. And becoming a doctor requires more than just work in the classroom. You need meaningful time learning from other doctors; hands-on experience.  

How would you feel if you needed emergency heart surgery and your surgeon told you, “Don’t worry, I’ve never done this either.” You’d say, get me a new doctor. I want the best surgeon in the world, and if not them, give me someone they’ve spent years training.  

In Jesus’s day, the idea of being a disciple was just as intensive. At the age of 5, all the Hebrew boys were placed into Torah school with the long-term aim of raising future Rabbis. They studied and memorized the first 5 books of the Bible as the building blocks of their discipleship. Which BTW – I think we can handle a little more Bible than we give ourselves credit for. 

By the time these guys were 17, only the best of the best were chosen to continue as disciples. Everyone else was sent back to learn the family trade.  

And this was total immersion. Disciples would live with their rabbi, study with him, pray with him, travel with him. They weren’t just trying to learn what he knew; they were trying to become like him so that one day they could carry on his work.  

That’s a good way of framing what discipleship to Jesus is. 

Now, I’ve heard several people around the city say they’re not very good at practicing their faith—and maybe you feel that way too.

But when Jesus called his first disciples in Matthew 4, he told them, [v. 19] – “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He was doing an old thing in a new way. He was making disciples, but Jesus didn’t choose the best of the best. He chose people who’d already been passed over. And his promise wasn’t follow me, and I’ll get the best out of you. His promise was follow me, and I will make you new.   

Now, what part of “[I] will make [you]” leads you to think Jesus would be dependent on you? The whole point is that we rely entirely on him. 

[Ephesians 2:8] – For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

So who can be a disciple? The Bible says anyone who believes the gospel, entrusts their life to Jesus, is having their minds renewed by the Spirit, and is committed to his mission. 

So as we talk about discipleship, I don’t want to lower the standard; I want to raise it. Jesus gave all of his life for all of yours. And he says, as I’ve done for you, I want you to do for others. But our confidence isn’t in what we can do for God, but what he’s already done for us through the gospel and what he promises to do in us by the power of his Spirit.  

The reality is you didn’t come to Jesus, he came to you. He chose you. He called you. And he’s invested in you. Jesus is committed to the Great Commission even more than we are, and what he’s begun in you, he will do in others. So, like Paul, we should be confident that [Phil. 1:6] he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Earlier, I said our value of discipleship is expressed in making whole disciples of Jesus who love God and others. And learning is an important part of discipleship, but this kind of learning needs to be taught and caught. You need study and practice.  

Coming to church a couple of times a month, occasionally reading your Bible, and attending a community group isn’t enough. Discipleship isn’t part time work. It’s all of life.  

So I want to spend the rest of our time by looking at someone, who through his life and practice, became a fully formed disciple of Jesus, and then draw out some practical ways we can live this out at Garden City. 

Turn, with me, to Acts 20. The book of Acts gives us an account of the birth of the Church and the spread of the gospel.  

In Acts 20, the apostle Paul’s on his way back to Jerusalem, and he knows his time is short. So he calls together leaders from one of his church plants to encourage them to carry forward the work he started in them. 

His words illustrate for us a life formed into Christlikeness. What God did in Paul, he would do in his disciples. And what God did in those disciples, he desires to do in us. Pick up with me… 

[v. 18] – And when [the elders] came to [Paul], he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if

only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

So much here, but let me point out three things: 

1. We need a pattern of life we call others to imitate.  

Now I realize that might sound arrogant, but that’s what Paul did, and there’s no ego in what he means. Paul spent three years with these guys. They watched his life up close. They saw how he served the Lord with humility, through trials and tears.  

And Paul didn’t hold anything back from sharing anything profitable about God with anyone. [v. 27] says he taught the whole counsel of God. And he did this publicly and privately, day and night, with Jew and Gentile. Even when it cost him personally, because it was for their good. 

Paul experienced persecution, but he wasn’t resigned to fear because of the surpassing worth of knowing and being known by Jesus. Being loved by God sustains you through trials and tears. The trials came because he told others the truth about God. The tears came because he loved the people so much he’d go to hell for them if it meant they’d turn to Jesus.  

Jesus loved you like that. Who do you love like that?  

In these final words, Paul calls these men to do for others what he did for them. And that’s the heart of discipleship. It’s inviting others to imitate your life as you learn to imitate Jesus. He’s not saying, “Become like me.” He’s saying, “Follow the Jesus you’ve seen at work within me.” 

That kind of calling forces us to be honest. We have to ask, What kind of progress has Jesus really made in my life? And the good news is, Jesus is more gracious with you than you are with yourself, and he’s doing more in you than you probably realize. 

But if we’re not entering into these kinds of intentional relationships like Paul did with these men, we’re probably not growing as much as we could be. You need men and women in your life that you can go to and ask, “How do I think Christianly about dating/marriage? How do I live out my faith in my workplace? How do I set Christian priorities rather than be formed by worldly ones? How do I lead my family well?” 

The older believers in our church should be looking at those younger in the faith and saying, “Come on, I’ll teach you how to lead a Bible study.” “I’ll walk you through the basics of the Christian faith.” “I’ll teach you how to pray.”  

We should be able to say to others, “You know how I lived among you. I taught you everything I could about Jesus. You know what mattered most to me.” Now, go and do the same for others.  

2. We need a vision for disciplemaking that outlasts us.  

Paul spent years discipling these guys, and he did so preparing them for a time when he wouldn’t be with them. That’s part of the work of entrusting the gospel to others. It’s why Paul labored before them the way he did. 

In the last letter he wrote, Paul reminds Timothy – [2 Timothy 2:1] – You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

Paul’s thinking 4 generations deep. Paul, Timothy, faithful men and women, others. That’s the kind of godly ambition I want to have as I ask God to multiply my discipleship.  

Paul was faithful in his witness, but also honest about the dangers of being a disciple. He warns them to pay attention to themselves and the other disciples because [v. 29] – I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

Paul knew challenges would come. But as he walked with them, he taught them that entering the kingdom of God would come through many trials.  

As we make disciples, we need to prepare others for the road ahead. 

Paul’s vision is honest and bold: the stakes are high, the road is hard. Unfortunately, you can expect problems inside and outside the church. But God is good, and the Lord sustains. 

Some of us feel insignifcant in the grand scheme of things, like we’re just pawns in the game of chess with limited movement. But God can do some damage in this world with pawns. We need to stop being so focused on what role we have on the board and start trusting the power of the one making the moves.  

Ultimately, it’s not up to us. Paul says, I’ve done everything I can, with the strength God supplied me. [v. 32] – now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 

3. We should care about how we finish just as much as how we start.  

When Sarah was pregnant with our first child, she told me she wanted to have a husband-coached childbirth. My first thought was, why didn’t that come up in pre-marital counseling? My second thought was, if you’re going to carry this child, the least I can do is learn how to coach you to the finish line.   

So we took a 12-week intensive course on delivering a baby. It was a lot. The first day home with our baby girl, I was so pumped. We climbed the mountaintop. I led us to victory (though, ofc, my role was minimal). 

Sarah’s parents were with us at the time, and I remember her dad bringing us back down to reality. He said, “Well…that was the easy part. The hard part is raising them.” Oh no. He’s right! This changes everything. 

That’s the moment people find themselves in as they begin to follow Jesus.  

We want to do everything we can to reach all the people we can for Christ, but as we do, are you ready to do the hard work of raising them in the faith?  

There’s no doubt Paul was passionate about seeing people won for Jesus. But he also put just as much energy into seeing Christ formed in them. 

We want to go wide in sharing the gospel with others, but we also want to go deep in discipleship. We all naturally lean toward valuing one over the other, but both are values for us, and we’re going to have to learn how to find balance in doing both.  

If the greatest gift we can give someone is the gospel, are you just going to throw it at them and walk away? Or are you going to help them understand how it applies to all of life? 

That’s one of the things that excites me about discipling my kids. I want to help them know the gospel, walk in the gospel, share the gospel, disciple others in the gospel. And we haven’t unpacked all of that yet, but Lord willing, my kids are going to be able to reach generations that I can’t and they’re going to bring the gospel into days I will never see.  

And I trust that what I invest in them now, God will multiply. But it’s not just what he’s doing in them. He’s also doing a work in me.  

See, Acts 20 doesn’t just give us Paul’s final words. It gives us a picture of how Christ has been formed in Paul. Paul’s been so made into the likeness of Jesus that he’s basically walking in his footsteps. Do you see the similarities? He spent 3 years teaching his disciples the whole counsel of God. He lived in service to them. He prioritized their good at great cost to himself. And when it was his time to leave, constrained by the Spirit, knowing that suffering awaited him, he trusted God. He says, I did everything I could for you, but don’t be afraid; God will hold you fast. 

Love for God. Love for others. Life poured out. Trials and tears. And as Paul knelt to pray with them one last time…[v. 37] – there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. His last lesson: We’re in this for the long haul. Finish strong.  

Now, maybe you’re sitting there thinking, this sounds like a lot. Is this really for me? I’ve already got a lot going on. I’m not even in FT ministry.  

Listen, you can do this. We just need a little more gospel intentionality around what we’re already doing. Plus, maybe following Jesus doesn’t cost you your life like it did Paul, but I think we’re not taking the call to discipleship seriously enough if we think it’ll cost us nothing.  

Let’s talk about what this can look like at Garden City.  

How can we observe all that Jesus commanded us? It comes by practicing the habits of grace that shape us into Christ. Let me share five identities of Jesus that we want to call you to embody here at Garden City.  

First, a whole disciple is a… 

Worshiper – seek to know, love, and obey God above all else.  

Worship is fundamental to who we are. Worship isn’t an event on Sunday morning; it’s our whole way of life. We were made to worship, and what we worship shapes us.  

Carl Trueman recently said, “Don’t fall for the lie that worship is you expressing yourself to God. Worship is you being formed by God into his image.” That means you don’t come to worship only when you feel like it. If that were the case, we would come even less than we already do.  

At Garden City, there are two key practices that go along with growing as a worshiper. First, prioritize the weekly worship gathering.  

Our lives are meant to flow from resting in who Jesus is and what he’s done for us. We want our worship to reshape how we think, what we love, how we live. 

The temptation is to reduce church to songs and a sermon and then evaluate it based on personal preference. But let me encourage you to consider a few things: 

Come ready to fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s the reason why we’re here. Any other focus is not worthy of your worship. 

Also come expecting God to show up. I want you to understand the significance of what’s happening here. We gather to meet with the Lord. And want him to transform us by the power of the gospel, but none of us can make that happen on our own. If we could, we wouldn’t need God.  

Second, have a regular devotional life of Word and prayer.  

That’s why we’re encouraging everyone to engage in the BRP. It’s designed to complement what we’re preaching throughout 2026. But it’s also meant to encourage you to be studying and praying through the Word.  

Think about this: Sundays make up a small fraction of your year. If you come, on average, 3x a month, even with going to 2 services, 90 minutes, we’re talking about just over .5% of your time this year. Sermons are great, but they can’t be your only intake of God’s Word.  

2. Family Member – live with the local church as family.

Every family has different relational dynamics. But generally, families have shared values. We prioritize one another. We spend time together. We care for one another. We commit to raising family members into maturity. 

Galatians 6:10 says we have an obligation to do good to everyone, but we have a special responsibility to do good among the household of faith.  

And our membership in the family of God is not based on ethnic background or because of the family we were born into. It’s based on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  

Practically, that means we need to build relationships with others in the church. Go to the connect table after the service and find out how you can get involved in a community group, mens and womens groups, student ministry, young adults.  

Our mens group is meeting next Saturday morning for the first time. Come for the donuts but guys you need someone who’s going to challenge you to take your faith seriously. Yoke yourself to another godly man for a season, and then watch how that begins to bless others around you.  

There’s lots of reasons why gathering with people is hard. Sickness, travel time, long days. City life is exhausting. Work is exhausting. But like Paul says, we need to guard ourselves and the doctrine, which means we need deep relationships, not just shallow ones.  

Small groups are great places to start these relationships. But you also need those one or two people who really know you, the things you’re walking through, and who will call you to repentance and faith.  

3. Servant – gladly give of yourself for the good of others. 

Mark 10:45 says, Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In John 13, Jesus took on the form of a slave in washing his disciples feet.  

Jesus was no stranger to humbling himself for the benefit of others. And neither should we.  

I want you to consider how you can give yourself in service to others both inside and outside the church.  

[Inside the church]: Listen, we’re starting 2 services next week at 9 and 11am, which means we’re doubling our serve teams. That’s why, if you call Garden City your church, we’re asking you to serve 1, attend 1, 2x/month.  

People hear that and think, oh you want me to serve more. Yes we do. And you’ll have to work that out. But we don’t see it as a matter of obligation. We see it as part of discipleship.  

You get the privilege of serving others like Jesus served you. It forces you to ask, not what can I get out of this, but how can I serve you?  

Serving teaches me to embrace the mind of Christ. It’s not about you filling a hole because, just like everything else in God’s economy, when you don’t do it he’ll just give the blessing to someone else.  

But I also want you to hear that we want you to worship more. We want you to have more time with God’s people. More opportunities to love and serve those among us.  

A second thing is how can you serve outside the church? And if you don’t feel equipped to do that, let me recommend that you get connected to Pastor Miles who heads up our refugee outreach. Get out your phones; I’ll give you his number right now. It’s… 

The other week a woman in our church was sharing about how this year she was planning to reduce some of the time she’d spent leading her women’s bible study to devote more time to serving at the Garden City Learning Center. She said, “The Christians already have plenty of time together, I want to spend more time witnessing to the non-believers.”  

The GCLC is having a pizza & prayer time today at 1pm at their facility. I probably shouldn’t say this because Miles had sign-ups, but you should go. And out of a heart of service, leave the pizza for someone else. And if they have too much pizza, you can serve them by eating it.  

4. Steward – manage God’s gifts for God’s purposes.

Talking about money makes everyone uncomfortable. You might even be skeptical of the way the Church handles money because of a lack of transparency or poor stewardship.  

But as disciples of Jesus, we know everything we have is a gift from God that he wants us to steward for his purposes.  

Weeks ago, a pastor-friend visited me and tagged along for a lunch meeting with one of our church members. And after lunch, my friend said, “Wow, I came to be a blessing to you guys, but he was such a gift to me.” 

We talked about lots of things over lunch, but one of the things that stood out was how the Lord had been changing the way this guy approached his business. He said everything changed for him when he stopped looking at his business for what he could get out of it and started asking God what he wanted to do through it.  

It changed his prayer life. He said he stopped asking God to make this or that happen and started saying to God, “This business belongs to you. How do you want me to steward it for your glory and the good of others?”  

Stewarding a heart of generosity reflects the heart of God because he’s a generous God. Just look at what he gave us through his Son.  

5. Witness – proclaims Christ in Word and deed.  

Last week, Ps. Peter talked about Who’s Your One? Who’s one person you can pray for God to save this year? But like I said, I want us to have godly ambition as we pray those prayers. Start with the 1, but what would happen if your 1 gave their life to Jesus? 

God wants to use us to reach people with the gospel. And when we do, we should expect the need for discipleship to increase. And if we disciple people well, we should call them into church life. Which means we should expect growth, change, and challenges.  

And listen, life doesn’t get easier when you experience numerical growth. Just ask every parent in the room. Numerical growth is costly, time-consuming, and exhausting. But it’s worth it because people are the mission. It’s what Jesus called us to give our lives to.   

Last year, my wife bought a book for us to read called To the Tenth Generation. The opening line says, “You are a person of historic significance.” Great hook line! The point the author makes is that you’re not only a person of historic significance but of eternal significance because God can make your life of faithful obedience reverberate for generations. We should want that in our families. We should want that for our city. 

---

^[1] Works Consulted:  

Acts commentary – Schreiner; “The Gospel Minstry” – Keller; Practice Paul’s 6 Marks of Discipleship – Suko; “We Make Disciples, Not Just Converts” – Greear; “Christians vs. Disciples” – Greear