AN INTRODUCTION DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.
We thought last week about 10 ways in which God wants to bless us. Three of those ways are things we can do by meeting together in twos and threes.
We talked about 2s and 3s for New Christians, encouraging a new believer by meeting with an established Christian. We thought about pairs for prayer and prayer triplets, two or three “soul friends” praying and discussing the Bible together. And I mentioned Fan The Flame, the Guided Course in Discipleship for an established Christian studying and praying privately and then meeting together with a Guide. Ways of growing by meeting in twos and threes. You can read more about all these things in my book Making Disciples One-To-One.
These things will be more important to Christians now than ever with the limits imposed on everybody over gathering together. The “rule of six” limits what we can do in terms of Home Groups or Bible Studies or Prayer Meetings. And I am sad to say that I predict that it will only be weeks before the rules become even stricter so that only two households can meet together, or even to the point where people are not allowed to go into each other’s houses at all – which is the situation in Scotland already. So meeting together in 2s and 3s will be even more valuable because that is something we can still do on Zoom or on the phone, or taking a walk in the park. Carpe diem – seize the day, take the opportunities to meet together while we can!

So why is meeting together such a good thing? If you aren’t already convinced, this morning I am going to give you

Twelve Great Reasons for Meeting Together One-to-One or in Threes
Who were the people who have made the most impact on your Christian life? Who brought you to faith in the first place and who has helped you most to grow along the way? It might have been a speaker at a big event, or a memorable sermon in your local church, or a book by somebody you have never met. But many people would agree that for them a Minister or a Home Group Leader or close Christian friends were much more significant. The times which have shaped our faith were not so much occasions in crowds or even in small groups, but the times which we spent with those precious individuals One-to-One.
Disciples are learners. The preacher and evangelist David Watson wrote, “If we were willing to learn the meaning of real discipleship and actually to become disciples, the church in the West would be transformed and the resultant impact on society would be staggering.” And one way in which disciples through the ages have always learned is by meeting together One-to-One.
When two or three people who regularly meet to talk about God and pray together are at roughly the same stage in their Christian experience, books describe this variously as “Spiritual Friendships”, “Soul Friends”, “Sustaining Friends” “Prayer Buddies” or “Peer Mentoring”. When a more mature Christian helps a younger Christian find their way, a better description might “Spiritual Direction”, “Christian Formation”, “Coaching” or “Mentoring”. All these are immensely helpful in the process of knowing God better and becoming disciples of Jesus.
I can find at least twelve excellent reasons why it is good for Christians to get together One-to-One. Any one of these great blessings would be reason enough for you to begin to meet together.

1. Anybody can do it!
We can’t all give lots of time to lots of other people – but everybody can give time to just one or two! Even Home Groups can’t be just right for everybody all the time. But meeting One-to-One will always be at just the right level for both. A meeting of just two is totally flexible – you can always get together when you want to.
Meeting with the intention and the expectation of talking about Christian things gives freedom to actually talk about Christ without awkwardness or embarrassment; because that is the very reason you are meeting. And there are things you would be prepared to share One-to-One which you would never share even in a small group. You can feel amazingly safe. Going on a journey into unknown territory it always feels better to share that adventure with somebody else than going there by yourself, especially if the other person has been there before.

2. Dialogue teaches the parts monologue can’t teach
We learn all kinds of things much better by talking about them and by doing them with other people than just by reading or by listening to a professor or a preacher talking about them. Talking things through with another person brings so many blessings – blessings for you and blessings for person you are meeting with so double the blessings! Talking helps us understand the things we have heard in sermons or read in books. It helps us think through decisions we are making and find ways through problems we face. It brings encouragement in difficult times and helps us keep going when we feel like giving up.
Some Christians only talk to another person about their faith when problems arise. The wonderful thing about meeting regularly is that when times of trial come the relationship of “sustaining friends” already exists.

3. Jesus tells us to pray together.
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:19-20)
Here Jesus very clearly makes two promises. The second (in order of the saying) is that Jesus the Risen Christ is present when believers meet together in some special way in which He is not present with them when they are apart and alone. And this is linked in some way to the first promise which is that God the Father will answer the prayers of believers who come together in agreement about what they are praying for, more than if they had prayed alone and separately.
Jesus here is specifically promising to bless Christians who meet together and pray together. And the minimum number meeting together to claim these promises is precisely two. Praying together is good. Intercessions carry more power because they are united. Praying for each other is good. Praying through each other’s decisions and problems is good. And having somebody else committed to praying for your personal spiritual growth is guaranteed to be good – all because God answers prayer.

4. Opening up to each other is opening up to God
If we really mean business with God we need to open up every part of our lives to Him. An important way of doing this is to open up our lives to other people. Many Christians are afraid of doing this. I am afraid of letting other people see “the real me” because then they would realise (in the words of Michael Caine’s character in the film Educating Rita) “there is less to me than meets the eye”.
But I really do need to let somebody else in on “the real me” because only then, when I am truly being myself, only then can God really begin to change me. Christians need to learn to open up to each other, Sharing emotions of sadness, anger, disappointment or discouragement with each other is the same as sharing these feelings with God. When we have poured out our heart to our friend, and we know our friend has heard us, then we can be assured that God also has heard and understood us. It is very healthy to have a spiritual context where we can uncork the bottle!

5. Confession and absolution helps deal with sin
Especially in the battle against the world, the flesh and the devil, having a Christian friend standing with you can make all the difference. Through history the church has known the value of confession and absolution. Jesus has given to all Christians the authority to declare sins forgiven. So James 5:16 makes this invitation. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. In the process of Christian holiness, turning away from sin and being transformed into the image of Christ, every Christian would benefit from having a friend to whom he could confess his or her sins. That friend could offer the blessing of declaring those sins forgiven. More than that, the friend would be there to pray alongside us against in the future. Too many Christians walk the road to holiness alone. We don’t need to be alone!

6. Discipleship, like salvation, is intended to be shared
In twenty-first century Western Christianity the focus in our understanding of salvation is almost entirely individual. We are concerned about our personal relationship with God. In eht Bible salvation is very different. It is corporate. We are saved into the Body of Christ of which each of us is only one single part. We are part of the family of God, being built into the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We are saved together and being disciples is something we are supposed to do together. Christians can be too individualistic. “It’s my faith and my life, and I can live it as I want to.” That is NOT right. That is the attitude of the footballer who hogs the ball instead of passing it around the team. It’s the attitude of the tuba player who plays in any key he chooses, any notes he wants, ignoring the conductor and the rest of the orchestra and thinks it doesn’t matter. Richard Foster has written, “None of us is supposed to live the Christian life alone. We gain help and strength from others.”

7. It is good to be in a covenant relationship with each other
There is a place in the Christian life for discipline. For making promises to God and to each other, and for allowing others to call us to account for those promises. In essence most spiritual promises of value are wrapped up in the promise made in many traditions at baptism, “to follow Jesus Christ all the days of my life in the fellowship of His church.” It is valuable to allow other Christians to encourage us in keeping our promises.
We know we should sometimes be more motivated and committed than we are. It’s good to pray when we feel like it – it is even better to pray when we don’t feel like it, and even in times when we feel we cannot pray at all, And it helps us to pray when we have made the commitment to God and to the other person that we will meet.

8. Being accountable is a good thing
Being accountable helps us keep learning and praying and it helps us stand firm against temptation. Accountability means we can’t cheat ourselves, or God. Richard Foster commends this idea of “loving accountability”. He says, “I need others to ask hard questions about my prayer experiences, temptations and struggles, and plans for spiritual growth.” Any Christian who is serious about being a disciple of Jesus should not be afraid of searching questions. “How is it with your soul?” “How are you experiencing God this week?”
Christians have the right and the obligation to “watch over each other” and support each other in Christian life. If we see a brother falling into sin, all Christians, and especially those in leadership are obliged to try to rescue them (Acts 20:28; James 5:19-20; 1 John 5:16). And every Christian is obliged to allow others to help us on the road to holiness.

9. Seeing Christ in each other
Imprisoned for his faith and tortured for Christ, Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand saw the suffering of his fellow prisoners and asked, “If that were Christ, would you give Him your blanket?” The parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46 reminds us that when we love and serve our neighbour we are loving and serving Christ Himself. Somebody once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta how she could work with the untouchables and the sick and the dying? Her answer was that she sees Jesus in each one of the people she helps. So as she serves and cares for those who are dying she is serving and caring for Christ Himself. The best way to learn to see Christ in others is to develop a close relationship with a fellow Christian. Meeting with Christ in another person is a wonderful way of experiencing the presence of Christ in ordinary everyday life.
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10. Some things are “better caught than taught”
There are many things in life which we learn by watching others. The piano teacher, the driving instructor, the personal trainer and the life coach all show us HOW TO do what we want to do. The best way to learn to speak French is to spend time with a French person. So also in the Christian life there are individuals who inspire and encourage us by their passion in prayer, their boldness in evangelism, their commitment to holiness and their complete devotion to God. From their examples we learn skills and attitudes and character. We learn hospitality, patterns of prayer and devotional reading. We learn how to cope with life. We are fired by their wisdom, zeal and love. They are our role models. We catch their faith. And as other people share their lives with us, we learn from them how to share our own life with other people. This sharing of life is at the heart of meeting One-to-One.

11. Exercising Spiritual Gifts
The safety of a One-to-One relationship is the perfect context for learning to recognise God’s voice and deliver God’s messages. The Bible teaches the prophet-hood of all believers. Every Christian has received that Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets so potentially all may exercise prophetic gifts (Acts 2:17-18; 38-39). Where better place than meeting One-to-One to begin to explore spiritual gifts and especially prophecy?

12. God gives us other Christians so we can practise His kind of love.
A very good way to learn to love your enemies is to practise by loving your friends! God gives us other Christians so we can learn to love and accept and forgive. The challenge just of making space for somebody else in our busy lives is good. Learning to really listen to them will make us better at listening to others. We can practise helping others and learn to be Jesus to other people. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Then also, many of us find it incredibly difficult to talk to other people about Jesus. Sharing our story One-to-One is good practice for sharing Jesus with other friends and with strangers.
After a distinguished career as a performer, one famous virtuoso violinist became a professor of music. Somebody asked him what had prompted his change of career. The violinist replied: “Violin playing is a perishable art. It must be passed on as a personal skill; otherwise it is lost.” We can’t learn to live the Christian life by ourselves just by reading books. We all need help in the “perishable art” of Christian living.
With all these great reasons for meeting together One-to-One, it is hard to think of any excuses why every Christian should not be meeting regularly with a Spiritual Friend.

Twelve Great Reasons for Meeting Together One-to-One or in Threes
1. Anybody can do it!
2. Dialogue teaches the parts monologue can’t teach
3. Jesus tells us to pray together (Matthew 18:19-20)
4. Opening up to each other is opening up to God
5. Confession and absolution helps deal with sin (James 5:16)
6. Discipleship, like salvation, is intended to be shared
7. It is good to be in a covenant relationship with each other
8. Being accountable is a good thing
9. Seeing Christ in each other (Matthew 25:31-46)
10. Some things are “better caught than taught”
11. Exercising Spiritual Gifts
12. God gives us other Christians so we can practise His kind of love (1 John 4:20)

Unusually this message takes the form of notes rather than a full script. You may like to refer back to it after you have shared in the Zoom gathering, or watched the recording on Facebook which you can find here.
https://www.facebook.com/pbthomas1/videos/10158646871063426/

Different NEXT STEPS will be appropriate for each of us at different stages in our personal walk with God. This message explains 10 Ways God could bless you as you take your NEXT STEP in following Jesus. Prayerfully consider what will be right for you to do,

Jesus calls us to be his disciples. But what is the right NEXT STEP God has for you in your walk with him? There is a phrase from the world of education, “continuing the learning journey”. As discipkes we should all keep on learning and growing in our faith. We thought last week about seven ways we can all be growing up into Christ.
• Growing in our relationship with God
• Growing in knowledge and understanding
• Growing in witness and service
• Growing in the image of Christ
• Growing by deeper fellowship
• Growing in victory
• Growing in passion
What is the right NEXT STEP for you in your Christian life? HERE ARE 10 Ways God wants to bless you so that you can grow as a Christian – 10 possible next steps.
THREE WAYS OF GROWING BY MEETING TOGETHER
Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. HEBREWS 10:19-25
Way 1 – All together at Church
Not so easy at the moment but in normal situations worshipping together should be our priority.
Way 2 – All together in Homes – Bible Studies, Prayer Meetings, Draw Near to God
Way 3 – All together Online
Zoom church on Sundays both morning and evening. Morning gathering and evening message are recorded and posted in the public Facebook Group of North Springfield Baptist Church. There are also other videos, such as from our Morning of Prayer, on Facebook too.
THREE WAYS OF GROWING IN TWOS AND THREES
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:19-20)
Way 4 – “2s and 3s for NEW CHRISTIANS”
A short course for new Christians meeting with an established Christian looking at these topics.
1. A new life has begun!
2. Being sure of our salvation
3. Getting to know God in Bible study and prayer
4. Belonging to God’s family, the church
5. Playing your part
6. Tug of war – the battle against temptation
7. Go and tell – the challenge of being Christ’s witnesses
8. The Holy Spirit – the Helper
Way 5 – “2s and 3s for ALL CHRISTIANS”
Meeting in “Spiritual friendships”, “Prayer pairs and triplets”, “Peer mentors”
Way 6 – “2s and 3s in FAN THE FLAME”
FAN THE FLAME is the Guided Course in Discipleship in Peter’s first book Making Disciples One-to-One
Fan into flame the gift of God (2 Timothy 1:5)
Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. (Romans 12:11 NIV)
Don’t burn out: keep yourself fueled and aflame. (Romans 12:11 The Message)
Five Units each with five Sections with introductory notes, Bible passages for study and reflection. After each Unit you meet with a guide to discuss and pray about what you are learning.
The topics covered in Fan the Flame are:-
1) Knowing God better
a) Loving God and enjoying your relationship with God
b) Devotional Bible reading and understanding the Bible, doctrine and ethics
c) Worship
d) Your devotional prayer life
e) Intercessory prayer
2) Becoming like Jesus
a) Repentance and Holiness
b) Christian Victory and Overcoming Temptation
c) The Renewed Mind
d) The Fruit of the Spirit and Mastering your Emotions
e) Total surrender to the Lordship of Christ
3) Living in Christ’s body
a) Amazing Grace! Forgiving yourself
b) Forgiving other people – wounds needing healing
c) Loving other Christians and sorting out relationships
d) Church – Living in Fellowship and Community
e) Belonging and Accountability
4) Becoming a servant
a) The Cross as our example of sacrifice
b) Serving in the church
c) Being a faithful Steward
d) Loving our neighbour
e) Our Witness to the World
5) Be filled with the Spirit
a) Sharing Christ’s resurrection life – the empowering Spirit
b) The gifts of the Holy Spirit – Serving in God’s strength
c) Signs and wonders – the surprising Spirit
d) Passion for God
e) “Be filled with the Spirit” – experiencing the Holy Spirit
If you would like to find people to join up with for “2s and 3s for NEW CHRISTIANS”, “2s and 3s for ALL CHRISTIANS” or to sign up for the FAN THE FLAME course, please tell Peter.
GROWING AS INDIVIDUALS
asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding … in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, COLOSSIANS 1:9-12
Way 7 – Individuals in your “PQR” Time of daily Prayer + Bible Reading = Quiet Time
Way 8 – Individuals in Workshops and Courses
e.g. Learning to preach, lead worship, run Zoom sessions, help people
Way 9 – Individual Study Plans
Collections of sermons, books and other resources for personal study on particular themes – a list of all of these will be available separately soon.
GROWING BY BEING EQUIPPED
It was CHRIST who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may
be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. EPHESIANS 4:11-13
Way 10 – Equipped by the Pastor-Teacher
Ministers can be “spiritual trainers” – a one-to-one “spiritual checkup” with your minister. Let Peter know if you would like to arrange this, in person or over Zoom if you prefer.

So here are 10 Ways God Wants to Bless You
1. All together at CHURCH
2. All together in HOMES
3. All together ONLINE
4. 2s and 3s for NEW CHRISTIANS
5. 2s and 3s for ALL CHRISTIANS
6. 2s and 3s in FAN THE FLAME
7. Individuals – PQR Time
8. Individuals – Workshops and Courses
9. Individual Study Plans
10. Equipped by the Pastor-Teacher
WHAT IS GOD’S NEXT STEP FOR YOU?

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Even over many years that dreaded question sticks in our memories from childhood, and still makes us cringe. Asked by some elderly relative, we would give some polite answer about engine drivers or air hostesses, while inside we were fuming because we knew we already were grown up!
There is this myth that there is a time in life which all youngsters long for, at which children turn overnight into “grown-ups” and thereafter are treated by everybody else as adults. In fact, the whole idea of being “grown up” is really rather misleading and suspect. It carries the dangerous implication that there could come a time in our experience when we stop growing, when we don’t need to grow any more because we’ve “arrived” already and we can’t grow any further. Even when we stop growing taller in our late teens many of us continue growing around the waistline, whether we like it or not! But hopefully we all keep growing as people too, maturing in our understanding and our personalities as long as we live.
They say you’re never too old to learn. Schools today talk about “the continuing learning journey” and “lifelong learning.” The success of the Open University and the popularity of Evening Classes and University of the Third Age show that many people want and are able to keep on learning throughout their lives. Many take up new hobbies and develop new skills later in life. My dad first started playing golf when he retired, and kept playing for 25 years! At a dinner party one day a young graduate asked her white-haired neighbour what his job was. “I devote myself to the study of physics.” “You mean you are still a student at your age?” she said scornfully. “I finished my degree a year ago!” The woman was duly embarrassed when she discovered that the man’s name was Albert Einstein.
Surely we will want to keep on growing and developing as people throughout our lives. It was Cardinal Newman who said “Growth is the only evidence of life”. This is true in our Christian life too. We can sometimes be content to stand still in our faith. We can sometimes become too comfortable, and feel that we have already arrived where God wants us to be. But surely there is always more about God to discover, more riches in the Bible to explore, more depths in prayer to enjoy. Maturity of Christian character does not develop overnight either. Our minds can keep on developing, and so too can our characters. Patience, endurance, thankfulness and cheerfulness are just a few of the qualities in which we can keep on growing, and most of us need to. None of us ever achieve the perfection Christ sets us as an example, in love and humility and obedience. We will never “arrive”! There are so many ways in which we all need to keep on growing.
When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reported asked him: “You are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practise six hours a day?” And Mr. Casals answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.” Our aim as Christians should be to keep on making progress every day of our lives.
This morning let me introduce you to a idea for to help us grow as Christians, which I call “THE NEXT STEP”.
Let me say at the start that THE NEXT STEP is not about what you can do for God, but what God will do for you. This is not about extra responsibilities to burden you with – but rather extra opportunities for God to bless you! THE NEXT STEP is not so much a challenge as an invitation! An invitation to move on with Christ, to grow in your discipleship as we were thinking about last Sunday.
We are all different. We have different gifts, different needs. We are all at different stages in the Christian life. So how do you want to grow in your Christian life in the days ahead? What is the right next step for you? The right next step will be different for each one of us. I can think of at least SEVEN areas, any one of which might be the area where you might be wanting to grow as a Christian.

1 GROWING IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
? Do you want to know God better?
? Do you wish your prayer and worship could be more real?

God certainly wants us to get to know Him better and better and love him more and more.
We saw in Ephesians 1: 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Knowing God better!
Knowing more of the hope to which He has called us
Knowing and experiencing more of the riches of his glorious inheritance
Knowing and experiencing more of his incomparably great power for us who believe!
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help you know God better.

2 GROWING IN OUR KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
? Do you want to understand the Bible better?
? Are you searching for answers to deep questions?

In his lifetime Jesus was a Rabbi, a teacher. His followers were called disciples, which means learners. Disciples are learners. This is why the first Christians devoted themselves to learning from the apostles as they taught about Jesus. Growth is an essential part of life as individual Christians and as a Church. To grow in our faith we all need to keep on learning.
The Early Church devoted itself to the Apostles’ teaching and that comes to us in the words of the New Testament. So as Christians more than anything else we need to learn from Scripture. We need to learn about God and His love for us and his grace towards us. We need to learn from Jesus the Son of God as He revealed God to us by His words and His actions. We need to learn about the Holy Spirit of God, the Helper, God living inside us.
Then the Bible also reveals to us the things that are pleasing to God . So we need to learn how to serve God and become more like Him in love and Holiness. There is so much we can learn – a lifetime of learning !!!
The NEXT STEP is designed to help you grow in your understanding

3 GROWING IN OUR WITNESS AND SERVICE
? Are you looking for a new way to serve God in the church or in the community?
? Do you long to share your faith more effectively with others?

The more mature we are in our faith, the more useful we can be in serving God and the more our Christian witness should have an impact on the lives of people around us.
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help you witness and to serve God more effectively.

4 GROWING IN THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
? Are there aspects of Christian character you wish you could grow in?

Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might
AS OUR BIBLE READING SAID
2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
There is a question which Africa Inland Mission ask folk who are applying to work with them as missionaries. “Over the last year, in what ways have you become more like Christ? More holy? More loving?” A challenging question!
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help you become more like Christ.

5 GROWING BY DEEPER FELLOWSHIP
? Do you wish you had closer Christian friendships?

Growing close to God implies growing closer to each other.
“We must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)
This isn’t about more meetings! It’s about deeper friendships!! We need those friendships at a human level – for our social and emotional wellbeing. And we need those friendships to help us grow as Christians!
There are so many things which we need to learn as Christians but where being taught is only the beginning. Like prayer for instance. Or witnessing. Or holy living. Or trusting God. Or loving each other. Or leading worship or preaching or teaching in Family Church. The first disciples learned these kinds of things from Jesus. But they didn’t just learn them from Jesus’s public sermons, or even from their private countless discussions. A Rabbi’s disciples learned by being with their Teacher, by watching the example of his life as much as by listening to his words. So according to Mark 3:14 the apostles were 12 men chosen by Jesus first and foremost “to be with him”. “To be with him” and to learn from his example. We need more of that kind of discipleship in church life. Learning from older and more mature Christians, our elders in the faith, learning the things that are “better caught than taught”. We need to be discipled! We need Christian friends to not only to support us and encourage us but also to teach us and to inspire us by their example.
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help us become better friends!

6 GROWING IN VICTORY
? Do you just wish you had more strength to live your day to day life?
? Do you long for more joy, peace or victory in your Christian life?

2 Thess 1:3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help us experience greater victory in our Christian lives!

7 GROWING IN PASSION
There is a difference between being a believer and being an enthusiast!
We need PASSION! What kinds of things are YOU passionate about? At times I’ve been passionate about playing sport. I’ve been passionate about science. I’ve been passionate about playing music. I’ve been passionate about computers. I still am passionate about my wonderful family. But what can we do to make sure that above all these important and precious and worthwhile things and people, God is our greatest passion? I quoted this thought to you last week. “If one-tenth of what you Christians believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.”
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. (Rom 12:11)
Last week I also quoted some words of my favourite devotional author AWTozer. “There seems to be a chilling fear of holy enthusiasm among the people of God. We try to tell how happy we are—but we remain so well-controlled that there are very few waves of glory experienced in our midst.”
Let me quote some more bits from Tozer’s book THE PURSUIT OF GOD which is a powerful antidote if we are lacking spiritual appetite, if we have become complacent in our walk with God.
“The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.”
“I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. “Do you want to see God’s glory. Do you want to hunger for him again. Pray that God will awaken your hunger for him.”
THE NEXT STEP is designed to help us to become more passionate for God – to make us enthusiasts!
Growing in our relationship with God
Growing in knowledge and understanding
Growing in witness and service
Growing in the image of Christ
Growing by deeper fellowship
Growing in victory
Growing in passion
ANY OF THESE might be an area where you might want to grow in your Christian life!
In an episode of the Peanuts cartoon strip, Snoopy was sitting droopy-eyed at the entrance of his kennel. He sighed deeply. “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. There’s such little hope for advancement.” In the Christian life there is ALWAYS hope for advancement!
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Let me say again – THE NEXT STEP is not about what you can do for God, but what God will do for you. This is not about extra responsibilities to burden you – but extra opportunities for God to bless you! THE NEXT STEP is not meant to be a challenge. It is an invitation!
That next step will be different for each one of us! But WHAT IS THE RIGHT NEXT STEP FOR YOU as a goal to aim at in the weeks and months ahead?
Over the next couple of weeks we will be unwrapping different ways in which we can move on with God. Next week I will share with you, “Ten Ways God Wants to Bless You.” But you can begin from today of course, by setting aside time to spend with God in prayer and reading your Bible, maybe every day. By reading one of the devotional books which I will send out by email and post on Facebook. By getting together and praying with a Christian friend, even if you can only do that on Zoom or on the phone. And last week we started posting videos of our Sunday evening sermons in the North Springfield Baptist Church Facebook Group. If you can’t make evening Zoom Church now you can catch up on what we talked about there! And all the videos from our Morning of Prayer are also on Facebook if you missed that or want to watch them again.
There is a monument high in the Alps built in honor of a faithful guide who perished while ascending a peak to rescue a stranded tourist. Inscribed on that memorial stone are three words: HE DIED CLIMBING. Right up to the end of life Christians should have the same kind of attitude. We have never arrived. We are still climbing.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Seven aspects of Growing Up Into Christ
Growing in our relationship with God
Growing in knowledge and understanding
Growing in witness and service
Growing in the image of Christ
Growing by deeper fellowship
Growing in victory
Growing in passion
Are you ready and willing to take THE NEXT STEP God has planned for you?

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20)

Jesus gives the same command to every person in every age. “Follow me.” He did not say things we might have expected, like read your Bibles more, or pray more, or worship God more, or serve God more, or tell others about me, or start a church. He said simply, “Follow me.” On twenty different occasions Jesus said, “Follow me.”

So this will be God’s way forward for every Christian. Whether we have been a believer for 50 years or 15 minutes the command is the same. “Follow me.” This shouldn’t surprise us, although perhaps it does. It sounds so basic, so simple. After all, many of us have been involved in the church for many years. When we think of expressing our Christian faith, we think of “church membership.” But the Bible never speaks of “church members.” Not once, ever. In fact, the Bible only uses the word “Christian” three times. And the word “believer” only comes 14 times in the Gospels and Acts. Much more often, around 100 times, we read about people following Jesus. So that is what God calls us to be. Followers of Jesus. People who obey that simple command, “Follow me.”

God loves us so much more than we can possibly imagine! Jesus sacrificed everything so that we could be forgiven, become God’s children, share His eternal life and have the happy certainty of sharing His glory in heaven forever. If we want go further with God, if we really want to respond to God’s love and grace, we must learn to follow Jesus. We must learn more about what following Jesus means. We must learn HOW to follow Jesus, and then to put what we learn into practice in our lives so that we actually are following Jesus in all our thoughts and words and actions. As Oswald Chambers said, “One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it.”

And this is where we need to come to grips with perhaps the most challenging word in the Bible. The word which is used over 300 times to describe those people who followed Jesus. The word which is the New Testament name for followers or believers or Christians. That word is DISCIPLE. If we want to follow Jesus, we must become His disciples.

Jesus was a Rabbi, a teacher. And those who followed him were called his disciples, those who were taught by Him. People whose lives were shaped by Him and who aimed to become like Him. If we really want to go further with God, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as Christians, or as believers, and start thinking of ourselves as disciples. Many people claim to be Christians. Many people claim to be believers. But not all Christians and not all believers are truly disciples of Jesus.

William Barclay wrote: “It’s possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to be a camp-follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a hanger-on in some great work without pulling one’s weight. Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, “So and so tells me that he was one of your students.” The teacher answered, “He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.” There is a world of difference between attending lectures and actually studying. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.”

If we really want to go on with God we need to hear the call of Jesus to “Follow me.” It is not enough to be distant followers. We need to discover in our own lives what it means to become real disciples of Jesus Christ.

Dallas Willard wrote, “For at least several decades the church of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship. Contemporary churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership — either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or local church. … So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional.”

He was right! Is it telling that only three songs in our songbook contain the word disciple. But this isn’t just a modern issue. Oswald Chambers commented a century ago, “We talk about the joys and comforts of salvation; Jesus Christ talks about taking up the cross and following him.” Back in the 15th Century Thomas À Kempis recognised this problem in his book, The Imitation of Christ. “Jesus has many lovers of the heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross. He has many desirous of consolation, but few of tribulation. He finds many companions of his table, but few of his abstinence. All desire to rejoice with him, few are willing to endure anything for him, or with him.”

Discipleship has never been a popular product. We live in a materialistic world obsessed with shopping. People expect freedom to choose. People want satisfaction guaranteed. But instead Jesus says, “Follow me”. He isn’t looking for customers. Jesus demands disciples. As the corny bumper sticker puts it, “Carpenter from Nazareth seeks joiners.” Not consumers who think they can buy when they feel like it and change brands whenever they like. But disciples. And discipleship is about commitment. It cost those fishermen Andrew, Simon, James and John everything they had to become disciples.
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:19-22)

For Peter and Andrew and James and John, becoming a disciple meant giving up everything else to follow Jesus. Going where Jesus led. Doing what Jesus chose, rather than anything the disciples would have naturally chosen. Jesus’s disciples were called to new a way of life – the Jesus way. “Follow me.” Learn from me, become like me, Jesus said. That is how it was for those first disciples. And that is how it must be for true disciples in every age. Discipleship is costly! It demands sacrifice! Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.

Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross (daily) and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matt 10:38)
“No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62)

The way forward for followers of Jesus in every age is to become disciples. Discipleship involves three things, and the first of these things is LEARNING. Disciples are learners. There are so many areas. Prayer. Worship. Understanding. Character. Lifestyle. Fellowship. Service. Witness. Discipleship is about knowing what God wants us to do. It’s also about knowing why we should obey God. It’s about having commitment, the motivation to do God’s will. And it’s about learning the skills we need to serve God. Disciples are learners, they are apprentices of Jesus. In one sense we will all be learners for the whole of our lives, but in another sense there should come a time when the apprentice has learned enough to practise his trade. In church life, attenders should be becoming believers. Believers becoming members. Members becoming mature. Members becoming ministers in the sense that all Christians should be ministers serving God in the church and in the world. Atheists transformed into missionaries.

More than anything else as Christians we need to learn from Scripture. We need to learn about God and His love for us and his grace towards us. We need to learn from Jesus the Son of God as He revealed God to us by His words and His actions. We need to learn about the Holy Spirit of God, the Helper, God living inside us. But knowing ABOUT a person is not the same as knowing the person. Some people can know a lot about God without really knowing God personally or having a relationship with God at all. The Christian life is not just knowing about God – but knowing God as Father and Jesus Christ as Lord and experiencing the present reality and power of God the Holy Spirit. So we don’t only learn about God – we get to know God and develop our relationship with him.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17)

Then the Bible also reveals to us the things that are pleasing to God and the things that make God angry. So we need to learn how to serve God and become more like Jesus in love and Holiness. There is so much to learn about creation and the fall, about God’s plan of salvation, about heaven and hell and the return of Christ. So much more to learn – a lifetime of learning.

Alongside learning the second thing discipleship involves is OBEDIENCE. A wise man has rightly observed, “Most evangelical Christians are educated beyond their obedience.” In other words, we are better at learning in our heads than we are at putting what we’ve learned into practice in our lives. We may say, “We want to learn how to pray, or become more effective witnesses, or grow in holiness. Peter, preach us some inspiring sermons on prayer, or witnessing, or holiness. Write us some exciting Home Group Studies on prayer, witness, holiness.” But the truth is most of us have enough head knowledge in these areas already. We don’t need any more learning. What we are missing out on is the obedience!

A friend of ours knows more about listening to God and interceding in prayer than anybody else I have met. I once asked him how he had learned so much about prayer. It was simple. Early in his Christian life he had devoted a whole year to finding out about prayer. He had looked up EVERY reference in the Bible on prayer. He had read as many books as he could on prayer. And he had spent as many hours a day as he could actually praying. That is how he learned about prayer! Most of the time we don’t need more learning, we just need more obedience! If we are serious about learning to pray we will just make the time and get down to praying!

We don’t need much more teaching on holiness. We just need to obey the commandments we already know. We know we are commanded to “love one another.” (John 13:34-35) We just need to get on with the practice of caring for each other and sharing our lives together and bearing each other’s burdens! The letter of James commands us to put the truth we know into practice. Failure to do so is sin. (James 1:22, 4:17) “Most evangelical Christians are educated beyond their obedience.”

Beyond learning and obedience discipleship includes one more thing. We need PASSION.
The first disciples were committed. They were enthusiastic, they were dedicated, they were passionate about God! We can be passionate about our families, our jobs, our hobbies, even our church. But we need to make sure that above all these important and precious and worthwhile things and people, God is our greatest passion. Somebody once said of Christians, “If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.” When we went to a revival meeting at Lakeland in Florida in 2008 just one sentence stuck in my mind. “A fanatic is only somebody who loves Jesus more than I do!” A famous conductor once dislocated his shoulder while leading an orchestra. Very few Christians are at risk of dislocating anything in our enthusiasm for God. Many never even get their ties out of place! We need passion!

Romans 12:11 says we should be Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. A.W.Tozer once wrote, “There seems to be a chilling fear of holy enthusiasm among the people of God. We try to tell how happy we are—but we remain so well-controlled that there are very few waves of glory experienced in our midst.”

Tozer wrote, “Orthodox Christianity has fallen to its present low estate from lack of spiritual desire. Among the many who profess the Christian faith, scarcely one in a thousand reveals any passionate thirst for God. We fear extremes and shy away from too much ardor in religion as if it were possible to have too much love or too much faith or too much holiness.
“Occasionally one’s heart is cheered by the dis¬covery of some insatiable saint who is willing to sacri¬fice everything for the sheer joy of experiencing God in increasing intimacy’. To such we offer this word of exhortation: – Pray on, fight on, sing on. Do not underrate anything God may have done for you before. Thank God for everything up to this point but do not stop here. Press On into the deep things of God. Insist upon tasting the profounder mysteries of redemption. Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be aver¬age or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment. Unless you do these things you will reach at last (and unknown to you) the graveyard of orthodoxy and be doomed to live out your days in spiritual mediocrity!” (A.W.Tozer in The Root of the Righteous)

God wants every one of us to grow to Christian maturity. Be honest, over the last year, how much have I grown in our relationship with God our Father and into the likeness of Jesus? It is God’s will that EVERY Christian will continually be making progress in every area of discipleship. Every Christian should be closer to Jesus this year than they were last year. Praying more meaningfully. Worshipping more deeply. Serving and witnessing more effectively. Every Christian should be growing up into Christ.

We need the kind of discipleship which will transform us into everything that God calls us to be as Christians, into the image of Jesus. We need learning – not just head knowledge but heart knowledge of God our heavenly Father. We also need obedience – to put into practice the things we have learned. And alongside these things we need a passion, a holy zeal that makes it natural and easy to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind.

At the beginning of the year I chose an old prayer as our theme for 2020. It is the prayer of a true disciple. You might like to pray it with me now.

Day by day, Dear Lord I pray,
To see you more clearly,
Love you more dearly,
And follow you more nearly,
Day by day. AMEN