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Built-in Discipline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Pursuing a Person. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Demands of Discipleship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Putting Jesus First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

A Trancending Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Counting the Cost of Discipleship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Table of Contents

Following Jesus Christ and His kingdom agenda not only brings you into a new abundant life; it brings you into a new program of discipline.

There is a discipline to discipleship if you want to receive the full benefits of the kingdom. Paul advised Timothy: “Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7–8).

It’s obvious that if you are not exercising yourself spiritually, you’re not going to be in great spiritual shape. Many of us will give an hour a day to exercise and sweat for our bodies, but we aren’t willing to sweat for the kingdom.

The first time kingdom work puts a little bead of sweat on our foreheads, we say, “Christianity is too hard.” Of course it is hard. It wasn’t supposed to be easy.

But let me tell you, if you sweat long enough and regularly enough, you’ll have spiritual energy you didn’t have before. You’ll be in better shape than you have ever been before. You’re going to look better spiritually than you ever have looked because exerting energy burns off fat and builds muscle.

But this does not come about by osmosis. It comes by discipline that transforms both this life and the life to come. It’s more important for men to read their Bibles than to read the sports pages. It’s more important to hit our knees than to hit a golf ball. It’s more important for women to be in the presence of the Savior than to be in the mall.

But this takes discipline. It means saying yes to what is right and no to what may be a distraction. But people say, “I tried that, and it didn’t work,” or “I am not a disciplined person,” or “I want to, but I don’t know how to do it.”

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Built-in DisciplineIf you’ve ever said any of those things, I can help you right now! Look at Titus 2:11–13: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”

I want to share a spiritual principle here that people in my church told me was transforming once they got hold of it. Here it is: Spiritual discipline is built into the grace of God.

The basic definition of God’s grace is His undeserved favor to us. It is God doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.

Now Paul said the grace of God “has appeared.” That means it’s here. So you say, “I am not a disciplined person.” That’s all right; grace has taken care of that. Grace will supply the discipline you need.

See how it works? With God’s grace, He also supplies whatever you lack in order to get you where He wants you to go. God has already taken your limitations and humanity into account in supplying you with His grace. He knows your weakness and has already calculated that in.

So when you say, “I can’t,” God says, “I have graced you with a supply of spiritual energy to say no to sin and unrighteousness and yes to righteousness.” So we can’t ever say we can’t, because we have grace. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to mediate to us the measure of grace we need to move us along toward spiritual maturity as we live in dependence on God. The Holy Spirit is a built-in “power pack” who enables and empowers us to become what God saved us to become. The Spirit’s very presence within us is another provision and expression of grace.

Pursuing a PersonNow if you’re still wondering why so many Christians are still saying yes to sin even when God has supplied abundant grace, let me suggest an answer. The reason so many Christians are struggling with spiritual discipline is that they are doing a program rather than pursuing a Person.

When you read your Bible and pray because that’s what good Christians ought to do, you are just fulfilling the program. But Jesus didn’t die for a program, and neither is a program your Savior. Look back at Titus 2:13. What we should be looking forward to is the appearing of Jesus Christ, not the completion of a program.

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Not long ago, I ran into a young woman in our church who had been on a perpetual diet. A lot of us know what that’s like. She had tried one program after another. Something would work for a while, and then she would lose her discipline and her enthusiasm.

But the last time I saw her, she had lost a lot of weight. She looked great. I said, “What happened to you? You must have found the right program.”

She said, “No, I found the right man. We started dating and fell in love. And in love he said to me, ‘I think you need to lose some weight.’

“I found energy I never had before! It didn’t matter what program I was using, because there was someone in my life I wanted to please. I can pass up any food now. Burger King can offer to do it my way, but I don’t want it no way! I want to look good for my man.”

The Demands of

DiscipleshipWhen you have a passion for a person, you won’t have a problem with the program. You won’t read the Bible because “a verse a day keeps the Devil away” but because you want to meet the Author. You won’t get on your knees because good Christians pray but because you want to talk to your divine Lover.

Pursue Christ as a Person you are in love with, and you will find the grace of God giving you power to pull off the program of God.

That leads us to the final area of discipleship I want to look at in this ebook: the demands. If you are going to

be a part of the kingdom and carry out the kingdom agenda, you have to meet the demands.

The story is told of a farmer who put an advertisement in the classified section of the newspaper. It read, “Farmer with 160 irrigated acres wants to marry a beautiful woman with a tractor. When replying, please show a picture of the tractor.” This farmer didn’t want a wife to love, just one to use.

That describes the relationship a lot of Christians have with Christ. They don’t really want to deal with the Savior. They just want Him to bring the goodies along. Some Christians only love Christ because of what He can supply.

But Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 that He is standing outside our door, knocking so we will open up and let Him come in and have fellowship with us. Jesus wants you to want Him because you want to be married to Him.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, to seek first His kingdom

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and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” The risen Christ warned the church in Ephesus, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

Putting Jesus First

If this is the kind of intimate fellowship and relationship Christ wants to have with us, we need to ask what it will take to make that a reality.

Paul answered that question in Colossians 1:18 when he said of Jesus, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.”

What does God demand of you if you would be His kingdom disciple? He demands that He be first in everything. Not second, not a close third, but first.

Many of God’s people are spiritually anemic because Christ is not first in their lives. They will fit Him in

when they have time. If they have a few extra hours on Sunday or a little money at the end of the month or whatever, they’ll give Him some.

But if Christ is not first, you lose Him in terms of intimate fellowship. You cannot have the victory He supplies, the power He offers, unless He is first.

A Trancending Relationship

In Luke 14, Jesus made a difficult statement. He turned to the large crowd that was following Him and said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (v. 26).

I think that means Jesus wants to be first! Now when He talked about hating people, He was not talking about your affections. He was talking about your decisions. Let me show you what I mean.

Jesus must be so important to you that He transcends your most intimate relationships. He wants to be more important to you even than you are to yourself.

The idea is that when you put your love for Jesus next to your love for anyone else, there should be such a big difference that the other love looks like hate. Jesus wants to know that when you have to choose between Him and everyone else, everyone else loses. This is a serious demand.

Jesus also wants to be more important to you than your own comforts. Look at Luke 14:27, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” You must carry your cross, not Jesus’ cross.

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He took care of His own. You need to carry your cross.

We have some messed-up ideas about what it means to carry our crosses. A physical problem, bad in-laws, or noisy neighbors—none of those things is a cross. So what does it mean to carry your cross?

The Romans invented crucifixion. When the Romans wanted to put a condemned criminal on public display to humiliate him, they paraded him down the street carrying the crossbeam of his cross. Carrying your cross to the place of execution was a public display that you were guilty of the crime you were condemned for.

To carry your cross means to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ. It is to be so identified with Him that when they accuse you of being a Christian, you say, “I am guilty.” When someone accuses you of being His disciple, you say, “You got me.”

To carry your own cross is to admit publicly that you are guilty of the crime of being committed to Christ, guilty of placing Him first. Carrying your cross is when a girl tells her boyfriend, “I can’t sleep with you because I am a Christian.”

It’s when a businessman says, “I can’t do that unethical thing, because I am Christ’s disciple. I am living by a different agenda.” Carrying your cross is dying to yourself and what you want and putting Jesus first.

It’s not comfortable to carry a cross. When you admit to the “crime” of being a committed Christian, people may want to punish you. They may want to take out their anger against you. That’s not comfortable—but Jesus must be more important than your comfort.

He also must be more important than your possessions. “No one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions,” Jesus said (Luke 14:33).

This always upsets people. “You mean I have to give up my car, my house, my money?” Yes.

Did you expect me to say no? I say yes, we must give up these things if they become possessions. The problem is not in having something. The problem is in possessing it. To possess it means that I hold on to

it so tightly even God can’t pry it loose from me.

Some people would gladly give up certain family members. They might even say, “I’ll go along with the idea of carrying my cross. But don’t be touching my stuff.”

A boy once got his hand caught in a vase. His parents kept trying to get it out, but they couldn’t pull his hand out of the vase. They told him, “Son, we’re

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going to have to break this vase to get your hand out.”

The boy replied, “Mom, would it help if I let go of the penny I’m holding on to?”

You cannot possess your possessions and expect to possess Christ too. It’s okay to have things, but you can’t let them become possessions, because then they possess you.

Counting The Cost

Of DiscipleshipIn Luke 14:31–32, Jesus said, in essence, “Count the cost of being a kingdom disciple.” He then told about a king who sat down to count the cost of going into battle. Now let me throw you a little twist here. I think we’ve been preaching and teaching this verse wrong.

This is usually presented as the disciple counting the cost to see whether he or she has what it takes to be a disciple. But the king is the one counting the cost here, not the army. I believe this is God counting the cost of

making us His disciples, not our counting the cost of following Him.

In other words, this is the King deciding whether we meet the standard to be in His army. This is the King’s measurement of our commitment. Are we the kind of people He can put into the battle and get benefit from?

A teacher who wanted to teach her class a lesson got a big vase and put some rocks in it. Then she poured in gravel to fill in around the rocks.

Then this teacher asked her class, “You saw that I put in rocks, then gravel,” and then she said, “Do you know why I did it this way? The lesson is if you don’t put the rocks in first, you’ll never be able to get them in later.”

It’s the same way in the spiritual realm. If you don’t take care of spiritual things first but instead fill your life with gravel and sand, when you need the rock of Jesus Christ you’ll have too much junk in your life to fit Him in anymore.

So we need to take out all the gravel and sand and put the Rock in first. Then we can enjoy whatever else God sends to fill in the crevices. Living by a kingdom agenda demands that we put Jesus first and follow Him as His disciples.

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