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MP3 Podcast Episode

Chapters

00:00 Conclusion: Every Soul Matters
00:03 Introduction to Discipleship and Technology
01:07 The Intentionality of Discipleship
01:36 Understanding the Great Commission
02:51 The Call to Follow Christ
05:37 The Importance of Confession
08:52 Commitment Before Baptism
13:14 The Cost of Discipleship
16:18 The Mindset of Evangelism
22:25 Encouraging New Converts to Evangelize
27:21 Final Thoughts on Discipleship and Evangelism

Transcript

James Colwell (00:03)
You know, when I was in preaching school years ago,

When I was preaching school years ago, they didn’t go through technology training. We didn’t get that. And I told Brian, you know, we have a thing that we’re doing together. They are letting us use their lessons from Florida School of Preaching for our work in Costa Rica. We have the responsibility to translate the lessons in Spanish and give them back to them.

And I told him, said, one of the first things I’m going to do is take your technology classes, because I’m 60 years old and technologically illiterate. And that doesn’t really work when you’re the director of a preaching school, the director of a school to help mature the church, and any and everything else that I do. Hold on a second, I think I can do this part. So anyway, it’s good to be with you this afternoon to talk to you about

If we understand that, evangelism is part of who we are. It’s not a switch we flip and say, okay, it’s time to go out and evangelize today. No, he told the disciples, as you are going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. Thank you very much. You’re a lifesaver. Okay, we’re good.

Yeah. Baptizing them in the of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the earth.

Evangelism is something that we internalize.

And so as we think about this subject, are you a disciple of Christ?

Are you a follower of Christ? All Christians must be followers of THE Christ. Christ means King. Is He your King?

That’s what it means. You mean they can’t hear me? All right. Very good.

As we think about this…

Notice, as a Christian, we belong to Jesus. We’re no longer our own. We’re going to look at Luke 9, 23 to 25.

And I like to remind people that Jesus said, any come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Deny yourself, turn your back on the world. Take up your cross daily. You make a commitment to serve Christ. But then that last part we don’t talk about a lot. And definitely in the nominations they don’t want to talk about it as much because once saved, always saved, and many of them. But we have to follow Jesus.

He is our King, He died for us on the cross, He established His Kingdom, we have to follow our King. If we are indeed disciples of Christ, we’re going to follow our King. And then as we think about that, as we evangelize, we are to make disciples. Disciples of who?

Disciples of James Caldwell? Disciples of Alexander Campbell? You know, I didn’t even know who Campbell was when I became a Christian. And later on somebody said, well, you’re a camelite. I’m a what? I don’t smoke, but you’re a camelite. No, no, I’m not a camelite. I’m a follower of Jesus.

I left the Baptist Church when I was 17 years old because the Baptist told me, once saved, always saved. And I went to my mother and I said, wait a minute, I’m reading the scripture and I can lose my salvation. She said, well, that’s what we believe. No, that may be what you believe, but that ain’t what I believe. I’m concerned about what does the scripture teach. And I left the Baptist Church when I was 17. I didn’t know who the Church of Christ was. I had heard about them, you know, but I didn’t know who they were.

Six years later when I moved to Manchester, Tennessee, my family, some of my family attended, my uncle attended New Union Church of Christ, started going there. Those folks said, yeah, we only teach the Bible. That’s what I want. And I started listening to what the preacher said, Charles Williams, compared it to the Word of God. I said, that’s it. That’s what I’ve been looking for. That was almost 27 years, or 37 years ago, 27.

37 years ago? We need to make Christians not disciples of the Church of Christ, not disciples of an individual, disciples of Christ. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what the Apostles had the responsibility to do. When you think about evangelism must include discipleship training. These are the four points we’re going to talk about. It begins with a confession.

I know we have to be baptized into Christ. I’m not denying that. I teach that. Believe it. Know it’s necessary. But do we understand that we need to speak the same thing that Peter did? When Jesus said, who do you think I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

That’s where it starts. Every disciple of Christ must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. He’s our King, He’s our Savior, that’s Jesus, and we’re gonna do what He says. That’s the same confession that Timothy made, the profession among many witnesses, 1 Timothy 6-12. And you think about it, when the eunuch,

was taught by Philip. He was reading Isaiah 53.

And Philip says, do you understand what you’re reading? He said, I can understand it unless I have a preacher. So Peter explained to him, verse 35, he preached Jesus to him. What did he say? We don’t know everything. We know this, that when he was done, the eunuch said, here’s water. What does it hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, well, it doesn’t really matter if you’re baptized or not. It’s an outward sign of an inward grace. If you want to, it’s okay. you don’t, okay, no problem. No. What did Philip say?

And I know in some Bibles they don’t have this text. Read other parts of the Bible. It’s the same thing. What did the eunuch say? Or excuse me, what did Philip say? He said, you believe with all your heart.

you mayest. If you believe, if you’re ready to make a commitment, we’ll talk about that in a moment. Yes, you can be baptized. And we know the rest of story. He commanded the chariot to stand still. Both Philip and the eunuch went down the water and he baptized him. They both came up out of the water. Philip went away. The spirit led Philip away. But the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Why? Because that

massive burden of sin, that weight of guilt was lifted and now he was saved. It starts with a confession. That’s where it starts. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And is that belief so strong as to where you’re ready to make a commitment to serve him?

That’s what it’s all about. know, Kerry goes on campaigns. Brian’s been on many campaigns, both internationally and locally. I’ve been on a few campaigns and my career started in 1993. Went to Chinganota, Panama with, at that time, Pan American Missions. Now it’s Latin American Missions.

From that time forward, I actually made a decision to go to preaching school six months later. From that time forward, I’ve been, I don’t know, at least 50 times to Latin America, mostly Costa Rica.

But when you think about that and you think about the idea of reaching out to others, you have to be committed to serving Christ. You have to want to bring souls to Christ. That’s what every one of us should want to do. Why? If you think about it,

And I’ve skipped through some of this because of my technology issues.

understand that our whole purpose is to glorify Jesus and God. And when you look at Luke 9, 23 to 25, what did Jesus say? If anyone saves his life, he’s going to lose it, but if anyone loses his life, he will save it.

We have to want to serve Christ. Well, what was Jesus’s thinking? Jesus’s thinking was to seek and to save the lost. And so as a Christian, we are to die to self and live for him. Romans 6, 3 and 4, we’re reminded that we are buried with Christ in baptism. We’re buried to his death, it says in verse 3, in baptism.

and we are to arise to walk in newness of life. That means I’m no longer gonna serve the world, sin, I’m gonna serve Jesus. Are we teaching this to the people that we evangelize before we put them in the water? Or are we expecting them to learn these lessons after they get up back out of water? If they don’t make that commitment beforehand, we got a problem.

When you talk about Romans 10, nine and 10, we’re afraid of that verse because the nominations have taken it and they’ve said, okay, this is ours. No, it’s not. We confess with the mouth that Jesus is the Christ, but we have to believe it in our hearts. We have to want to serve Jesus. And so if we want to serve Jesus, then we’ll live for Him because He’s our King.

I’m no longer going to live in the world and live according to how the world wants me to live. I’m going to live for Christ.

That’s a decision that each of us has to make, but it’s also a decision that leaders need to teach before baptism.

Something was said in an earlier lesson, or maybe I read it, but I believed it for a long time. We often complain about our young people leaving the church. I’m gonna tell you something, sometimes they were never in the church.

We didn’t make their faith, or they didn’t develop their own faith. And so when they left, they weren’t ready. People need to make a commitment before they go into the water.

The same is true in foreign missions as is true in the United States. When we teach in Costa Rica, in Latin America, we teach a commitment before someone is baptized. Why? Because if you don’t, good luck them coming back. I mean, it’s difficult enough. We know the parable of the soils. Many are going to leave even if they did know what they were doing. But if they didn’t know what they were doing, all they did was get a bath.

That commitment must be made before they’re baptized into Christ, just like the eunuch made, just like the others made.

and understand we are to forsake all things and others to serve Him. That’s what being a disciple of Christ is. What did Jesus say? He said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And when you look at the other texts that are up there, we’re reminded that we have to forsake all others.

We can’t put anything above God and Jesus. And when the disciples said, you know, Jesus, your family’s out here waiting, what did he say? Behold my family, or those who do the will of God.

He wasn’t concerned about exalting his mother. He had respect for his mother. He loved his mother. He loved his brothers and sisters.

But anyone who doesn’t forsake their family cannot belong to Christ. And I’ve seen that firsthand. I don’t remember exactly how many years ago, about 26 years ago, I was on a mission trip in Costa Rica and I met this lady, she was a Catholic, met her in the park on a Sunday evening, studied with her several times, I it was 98 now that I think about it, but anyway.

she was ready to be baptized. But her Catholic parents told her that if you’re baptized, we’re going to disown you.

So we studied with her. It’s a Wednesday night during the campaign. I should be in the campaign, but I’m with a translator studying with this lady on a Wednesday night. And she says, I want to be baptized. OK, fantastic. She said, but you need to go wait out at the street. So we did. And we did. And we did. And after about 30 minutes.

Her boy who’s about eight years old runs out to the truck we were in and says, Grandma and Grandpa found out what Mom was going to do. And they’re going to cut her off. She’s not going to have any money, so she’s not going to be baptized.

Yeah, that’s tough. That’s tough when you hear stuff like that because you’re concerned about souls because we want everyone to be saved.

but sometimes we have to make tough choices. What’s more important than our salvation? If the man gains the whole world but loses his soul, what value is it? And so we need to teach, put God and Christ first. Today, and I know we’ve got a large group here, and you’ve left your jobs and you’ve left other things to be here, and thank you for doing that. Thank you for your concern about this subject and about…

things that are spiritual. But did you wake up this morning and say, God, how can you use me today? How can I serve you today? Lead me to a soul today? That’s the mindset we need to have. There’s a fellow who this school knows very well, Wallace Maxwell, who was a preacher at West Connett for 29 years. He has a tremendous affiliation with the Florida School of Preaching.

He used to always lead the song, lead me to some soul today. Oh, teach me Lord just what to say. Friends of mine are lost in sin and cannot find the way. Do we have that mindset? It’s not about flipping a switch. It’s about being a Christian. You see, if I’m a disciple of Christ, I’m concerned for the lost. Why? Well, because the preacher told me to. No. No.

Right there. My Savior, my King, the man who gave his life for me, who gave his life for you, died on the cross. That’s why. Because he cared so much about the world that he gave his life. And Luke 19, 10 says he came to seek and to save that which is lost. That’s his mission.

he could have stayed in heaven and had all the riches and did, 2 Corinthians 8, 9. He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. For my sake he became poor.

because he cares about the lost. We need to care about the lost.

I have a little experience as a preacher, maybe 30 years. And I’ve actually had people make this statement to me.

Can you prove to me it’s my job to evangelize?

Yeah, I can. You probably don’t want to listen, but I can. And I’ll take them to Ephesians 3 10, and I’ll take them to other texts. But you know what, brothers and sisters? Do we want to? We should want to. Our king wanted to. If we are followers of our king, we should want to.

And I should apologize to those who might be following in the book. No, I’m not following the book. The book is the scholarly part, or if you want to say, the research. The lesson is homiletical. And so as we think about that, his followers must be concerned about others. I like that word, must. And I’m glad speakers are using it. There are some things that Christians have to do.

We may not want to, we should, but we have to. What does Philippians 2, 3, and 4 teach us?

that we shouldn’t be only concerned about ourselves, but we should esteem others better than ourselves. Are you concerned about other souls? Do you want to see everyone get to heaven, not just your family? Well, that’s another lesson, isn’t it? Well, I preached at one place. We changed the mindset, but when I got there,

The attitude was, as long as my family’s going to heaven, I’m happy. And we would bring in kids for the vacation Bible school, and they’d say, well, I don’t know why we’re doing this, because they never come back. You know why they weren’t coming back? Because when they would take a drink of water out of the water fountain, we had people staring at them. they’re from the trailers. They don’t need to be here.

Guess what? When those folks left, not only did those kids start coming, but their friends started coming.

We changed that mindset.

There’s not just going to be a heaven for the rich and a heaven for the poor and a heaven for the people in between the middle class. There’s one heaven. We need to have a concern for everybody.

Evangelism should start from our Christian birth and continue.

Are we teaching the people that we bring to Christ that they need to bring people to Christ? That’s what it’s all about.

Have you thought about the fact that no one is more excited than someone who has left the world, doesn’t have the burden of sin, they come up out of the water, they’re happy, people are hugging them, and then what do we do? See you tomorrow.

No! Encourage them, but also let them know, okay, now who do you want to have this feeling? Who are you concerned about? You aren’t lost anymore. Who do you want to be saved? Get a list.

Let’s go talk to those folks. Maybe they’re not ready to evangelize. Of course they’re not ready to evangelize. But you know what? They can say, come see Jesus. Come hear the truth. We only teach the truth. We need to teach our people from the time that we give them, from the time they receive the new birth, that it’s time to evangelize. Why?

Jesus said, I ain’t come to condemn those in the world. Why? They’re condemned already, John 3, 18. They’re lost without Christ. And if we teach the gospel to someone, they have a new lease on life. But if they leave the truth, we have the responsibility, those who are spiritual, to restore someone with a spirit of meekness, Galatians 6, 1. Why? Because if we don’t, they’re lost. But if we do, we save

A sinner from death, a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. James 520. So some final thoughts that I want to leave with you.

Discipleship starts with a confession. It must have a commitment. We need to have compassion for others. But then what is our curriculum? I liked what Kerry had to say. We need to be deliberate. What is our plan for discipleship training? Do we have one? Some places do. Some places have new converts classes. But we need more than that.

We need to have a mindset that we’re going to teach disciples the things that they need to know to be Christians. And I’ll put this first.

If you want people to be motivated to teach others, remind them that God loves them. We love Him. Why?

1 John 4 19. When we get that feeling inside people, when they understand it,

then serving God comes so much easier. Teach them that God loves them. Teach disciples it’s their responsibility to seek and save the lost. We’ve already talked about that. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He’s our King. We’re his followers. We’re his disciples. We should want to follow him as well.

Teach disciples about the privilege of prayer. Well, God hears all prayers. Well, the blind man who was healed didn’t say that, John 9.31, he said, we know that God doesn’t hear sinners. And we know that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, James 5.16. And we know that according to 1 John 5, verse 14, if we do, if we,

do according to His will, He hears us. Or we pray according to His will, He hears us.

understand the privilege of Jesus is our high priest. We can boldly approach the throne of grace, Hebrews 4.16, in time of need.

Teach the disciples how to worship our Almighty God. God is spirit and they that worship him must worship God. Must worship God in spirit and truth. You know some of our brethren now are changing that to, no, no, no, no, no. They have to be in the spirit, okay, that can be mindset, but they say no, in the spirit, okay, and sincerely. No. What does John 17, 17 say? Sanctify them by thy truth, not by their.

by your attitude, sanctify them by their truth, thy word is truth. There is a standard that we must keep.

Teach disciples how to live as a Christian. Christian living is important. We’re not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, which is our reasonable service. Now that word, some will change to worship. 23 times that word, letreia, letreia is translated in the Interlinear Bible. 23 times it means service.

Not once does it mean worship. But people change it because they want to change and justify things that are different than what the Bible teaches. So we need to teach people how to worship God and teach the disciples how to be like Jesus the Christ. The mindset of Christ. Why? Because they’re followers of Christ. Jesus is our King.

Let us be determined to teach others to be like Jesus. Let us make disciples of Christ. And then there’s something down there that I want to share with you in closing.

I started something on Facebook in 2020 and it went over like a lead balloon. COVID came and I don’t know, people didn’t pay attention. I’m not that important, I get it. But I challenged people to bring one soul to Christ in 2020. I’m gonna make that same challenge to you this afternoon. Bring one soul to Christ in 2026. Carrie said you might have to contact 100 people to do it. So?

Get your list. We’re followers of Christ. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. We’ve got about 200 people here. If everybody brings a soul to Christ, you’ve got 400. The next year, if everybody brings a soul to Christ, you’ve got 800. Let’s quit talking about why the church isn’t growing. Let’s do something about it. Individually, let’s make a decision to bring a soul to Christ and encourage other people to do it.

Thank you for your time and your attention. May God bless you.