(I Am a Disciple of Jesus Christ) the Disciple and His Neighbors — Denny Kenaston

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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To see the altar full in the evening meeting, but to hear the testimonies of the lives that are being changed by those altars that are full, we rejoice in that. That's reward enough and we thank God for that.

The Lord is working in your hearts and your lives. And I believe it's because you have come with your cups upturned. You've come with hungry hearts. You've come with a longing and a desire to learn the will of God and do the will of God.

I believe that you've come because you are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and there are lots and lots of places and lots of things that you could be doing with your time, but you are here and I thank God for that.

I don't want you for a moment to think that I'm preaching down at you and that I think there's something wrong with you. I bless you young people and honor you that you are willing to come and spend a week doing this.

And you could be doing all kinds of other things. God bless you for that. I thank God for it. Alright, I think we're pretty well all here now. Let's stand to our feet and we'll just sing our little song.

Can we do that? It's right out of the Bible. It's God's invitation to every one of us. It's in the context of an old-fashioned revival there in James chapter 4. And so it's good for us to give our hearts to the singing of these words and yield our hearts to the preaching of the word that follows as we enter into this session today on discipleship.

So I don't know that I need to do a lot of this today. I think you understand where, ladies, you need to come in and where you men need to start again. So let's just sing it together here before the Lord.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Therefore to God.

A thousand years ago by one of the apostles, Lord, this morning we humble ourselves before you, Lord. We acknowledge that you and your word are one. And thus, Lord, we humble ourselves before your word this morning and we take the place of the disciples, of the learners.

And we want to learn today, Father, and we pray you would give us open hearts. Father, I pray that you would anoint your servant and have mercy upon him that he could say the things that need to be said in the right way and the right spirit.

In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Matthew chapter 22 this morning. I'm so excited to be here this morning. I never get over the wonder and the awe and the privilege that I have to be able to stand here and share with you young people.

I don't take it lightly. This morning we've taken our four points. We're going to strike the tuning fork again today. That we can hear the heart of God. That we can take our own hearts and our lives and bring them into tune.

We can tune our instruments that they may ring in the same sound that the heart of the living God who made us wants them to ring in. And so we've made these four points into one category to give a title to the message.

Brother Moses is always after me for the titles of the messages. So, this morning we're going to title it, The Disciple and His Neighbors. The Disciple and His Neighbors. Reading from Matthew chapter 22 and verse 34.

But when the Pharisees had heard that He, that's the Lord Jesus, had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him and saying, and this is a side note, but have you ever noticed how many times Jesus used these Pharisees, these lawyers, these Sadducees, these fellows that were trying to trick Him, how many times even though they threw questions at Him that they wanted to trick Him and tempt Him and cause Him to make a mistake, He said some of the most profound things, answering their evil-hearted questions.

I like that. I've noticed it as I've read through the Gospels many times. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now, yesterday we covered the aspects of discipleship which would fall under the category of the first and great commandment, loving the Lord our God with all of our hearts.

We considered also the grace, the power, and the reality that begins to flow in our lives when these confessions are written across our lives. Well, just as there are powerful realities loosed in a disciple's life with the first and great commandment, it is the same in a disciple's life with the second and great commandment.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And in a sense, young people, we could say here this morning that that constitutes 50 of your Christian life. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself is 50 of your Christian life.

Don't miss it, or you'll be missing half of the Christian life. Amen? And I tell you, it's a beautiful half. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And young people, this morning, I want to grasp your hearts.

I want to pull your attention toward these words. If you can grasp the subject for today and begin to walk in it, it could change your life forever. You will never be the same. It will change you in more ways than you could imagine.

It will change you in more ways than I have time to tell you this morning. But I could spend two hours telling you how many ways it will change your life. But I can't do that today, so I just plead with you to open your heart to the Word of God this morning and let God come in and do something inside of you that will change your life forever.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There was another lawyer in another place in the Gospels who brought the subject of the two commandments, the two great commandments, he brought them up also. It's not just once or twice that these words are found in the Gospels, but again, it was another lawyer and he was asking Jesus these questions.

How can he inherit eternal life? And Jesus quoted to him these two commandments and he blessed the Lord Jesus for the wisdom of answering the way that he did, but then he also, willing to justify himself, he said these words, who is my neighbor?

Well, I'm glad that that evil-hearted, tempting lawyer threw those words in there because I'm one who believes that the Lord Jesus raised the standard and broadened the scope of what our neighbor is in the New Testament.

So I'm glad that lawyer asked him that question so that the Lord Jesus could answer it. And that you will find the story of the Good Samaritan that follows that question that the lawyer gave. Who is my neighbor?

That's a good question for us to ask ourselves even this morning. Who is my neighbor? And I assure you it has changed. In the New Testament, in the new covenant, Jesus has expanded the definition of the word neighbor.

Neighbor is no longer the ones who live near your house. Now, they are still your neighbors, but that word neighbor means a whole lot more now than it did in the Old Testament. Your neighbor, the ones that live near you, they are still your neighbors, but that word has been expanded.

Evangelism as the Calling of Every Disciple

Now let's look at the disciple and his neighbors. And again, we're giving these in the form of confession, so number one confession today, I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am an evangelist.

I am an evangelist. The call to evangelize, to preach the good news to a lost and fallen humanity overshadows every other call to love our neighbor. May I say that again? The call to evangelize fallen humanity overshadows every other call to love our neighbor.

In fact, they all flow into this. Every one of them. Jesus said to Peter and Andrew while they were fishing, when He gave them the call to come and follow Him, He said, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.

Now in this beautiful statement and in this call, the Lord Jesus took the call to follow Him and the call to evangelize and tied the two together. You cannot be one if you don't do the other. You understand?

Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. You know, it's interesting in one of the other accounts in the Gospels, those words Jesus spoke to Peter after they had been... I think they had been toiling all night and fishing and they hadn't taken anything and the Lord Jesus told them, well, you just cast your net over there out on the other side of the boat and I mean, the net was so full of fish and so that the net break and the others had to come and help and if you could just see that from the perspective of a fisherman who's been toiling all night and didn't get any fish at all and all of a sudden his nets are so full that they're breaking, if you could just enter into the excitement, the enthusiasm, the joy of those fishermen.

Man, look at all these fish in these nets and at that moment Jesus said to Peter, henceforth you shall catch men. Peter, if you think it's exciting to have a net full of fish, Peter, wait till you get a load of fishing for men.

Wait till you start catching men, Peter. You've not seen anything yet. And young people, it's that way. And I hope I can somehow, by God's grace this morning, motivate you and put a deep desire in your heart that God would make you a fisher of men.

Because it's pretty exciting. Jesus said these words in John 17 to His disciples, as the Father has sent Me into the world, so send I you. These are words which clarify to us the call on a disciple to evangelize the world.

Jesus was sent by His Father into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. And we have also been left in this world and sent out into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. I am an evangelist.

Jesus used these words as He was educating His disciples. He said, a new commandment give I unto you. Jesus gave a new commandment unto the disciples. He said these words in John 15, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus redefined love when He went to the cross with redemption in His heart. When He went to the cross and was willing to suffer, when He went to the cross and bled and died there, when He went to the cross for fallen humanity, Jesus redefined love and said, as I have loved you, love one another that way.

I want us to notice also, because Jesus was making disciples, how much in those Gospels Jesus spoke in teachings and words of admonitions and calls and challenges to His disciples that they would be evangelists.

Three different times in the Gospels, Jesus said to His disciples, lift up your eyes and look on the fields. The fields? The fields of the souls of lost humanity, young people. Jesus said it three different times.

First of all, He said it there in John 4. You know, the woman at the well. We've heard a lot about her already this week, but she went back into the city and she told all the people, come see a man which told me everything ever I did is not this the Messiah?

And they all came out. And in the meantime, His disciples were standing there with Him. And if you could just picture the scene, here comes the whole town out to Sychar's well. And as they were all coming out there and they were all wanting to listen, and they were all wanting to learn, it was then that Jesus said to His disciples, lift up your eyes and look unto the fields.

They are white already on the harvest. And Jesus said it again in Matthew 9. And let's turn and read that one in Matthew 9. Because it has such a beautiful picture of lost humanity stumbling their way through life, looking for somebody to be an evangelist to them.

Matthew 9 .36 we read, but when He, that's the Lord Jesus, when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them. Why? Because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith He unto His disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest. Now, as soon as He finished those words, He called the twelve apostles and sent them out two by two to go preach the good news.

And the other place where you'll find these words again, where Jesus is speaking about the white harvest fields and the need for laborers and His desire that we would go out and do something with them, is when He sent the seventy also out there in Luke 10, where He gathered the seventy together and sent them out, that they would go into all the cities and all the villages where He was going to go.

And again, He said to them, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. Young people, those words have not changed. Though you live in the year 2001 and you live in the United States of America, and though people will tell you today that people are gospel-hardened and nobody wants to hear about Jesus, I'm telling you, those words still ring clear.

Lift up your eyes and look under the fields. They are white already on the harvest. I am an evangelist. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. And sincerely, young people, those words are synonymous. Disciple of Jesus and evangelist.

They are synonymous words. You cannot be one if you do not be the other. Proverbs so beautifully says to us, He that winneth souls is wise. And I want to encourage you, young people, that your life will not take on its proper meaning.

You will not understand your Christian life properly until you begin to understand the call of God upon your heart and your life to speak the good news to a lost and dying world around you. The last words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts 1 all say the same thing.

The last words of Jesus. Here He is. He's ready to leave. He's going to depart the earth. He's going to go back to His Father. He's going to be no longer standing there in their midst. And in all five of those accounts, He said the same thing with different words.

He says, go into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature. And He was lifted up into the clouds and disappeared out of their sight. Do you understand? That's the last thing He said, young people.

Be an evangelist. Preach the Gospel. Spread the good news. Oh, my dear young people, if we could get just a tiny glimpse into the heart of God in redemption, it would change our lives forever. If we could get a glimpse into the heart of God.

You know, God so loved the world that word so is a soul of the world. It's a deep word. That's not just a little word thrown in there for a little bit of emphasis. It's a deep word. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

That's how much God loves lost humanity. That He was willing to give His only begotten Son. He was willing to give His best. He was willing to give His dearest. He was willing to give a very part of Him.

That He might redeem a lost humanity and bring them back into a right relationship with the living God. And oh, if we can get a glimpse into the burden of God in the redemption story, we will surely begin to move in the direction that the Lord Jesus had when He was upon the earth.

And that is to seek and to save that which was lost. There are lost young people. We would go and we would tell. You want to be an evangelist? God wants you to be an evangelist. You say, well, Brother Denny, I don't know what I'm doing.

Go anyway. Go anyway. Just give your testimony. If you don't know what else to do, just give your testimony. Just go with a few verses out of the Bible. But go! Go and tell! I think of that dear man, you know, the maniac of Gadara.

That's what they call him. He was the one who had legions of devils in him. There he was in the graveyard there and he was naked. And they tried to chain him in the graveyard. And this man was a wild man until he met Jesus.

And Jesus took that wild man and transformed him into a man who was clothed and sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind. And then it was time to go. It's time to go. And we've got to get on the boat and go.

And I don't blame the dear man. I would have wanted to too. He said, I'm going with you. And Jesus said, No, you're not going with Me. You go back into the city where you live. Back into that city where everybody knows what you were before.

And you tell all your friends and you tell all your neighbors what great things God has done for you. And you remember the story. I mean, the reason why they had to get in the boat and leave is because all the people said, Ouch!

We're afraid of you. Jesus, please depart. So Jesus just left a little ambassador there. The Bible's very clear. The next time they landed on those shores and everybody found out, Jesus landed on the shores.

Everybody wasn't there to chase Him away the second time. No, because Jesus left an evangelist there. He didn't give Him two years of seminary education. He gave Him a changed life and sent Him out to go tell somebody, You don't need two years of seminary education either, young people.

Go tell them what great things God has done for you. You can do that. But may I also recommend to you, if you want a little bit more education on what to do, there's a tape series. I just gave it to the youth Bible school out in Colorado.

God's Plan of Salvation. Five days of explaining what man needs to understand and how man needs to get converted and how you can lead a soul to Jesus Christ. You study that. But whatever you do, go! Go!

It's part of being a disciple. Number two, I will make disciples. I will make disciples. Let's turn to Matthew again. Matthew 28. I want you again to see this. These beautiful wordings here. In Matthew 28, verse 19, Jesus gave His great commission, what they call the great commission.

He gave it in verse 19. He says, Go ye therefore... Well, let's read the verse before, bless God. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, because all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now that word teach, remember we're talking about disciples and learning and all of that. That word teach there means make disciples. It means make disciples. Go ye therefore and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. I will make disciples. Jesus left those words with His disciples. Go and make disciples. And in a sense, this second point is actually part of point number one, but I have made it a separate point because there's a whole lot more to this whole thing of being an evangelist than just going out and telling, although I want you to do that and if that's all you do, I want you to do that.

But there's more to it than that. Jesus preached the gospel to the multitudes, all who would listen to Him. But He also spent much of His time making disciples of those who wanted to learn. And I believe we need to have the same kind of posture.

Yes, there's a lost and dying world out there. They need to hear the good news. They need to hear it even if it's a testimony against them in the day of judgment. They need to know that there's a Savior who was given for their soul to save them from their sins.

They need to know that. But oh, Jesus also spent much of His time making disciples of those who wanted to learn. And Jesus was saying that to His disciples. I want you to make disciples in the way that you saw Me make disciples of you.

Now I want you to go make disciples. That takes a bit more time. But they knew what He meant. Jesus took a few under His wing and poured His life into them. Do you see His strategy? I mean, the Lord Jesus was God in the flesh.

He so loved the world that He was willing to go and submit Himself to the will of His Father and become the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Jesus loved the world. Jesus had a whole world that He wanted to win.

What was His strategy? He poured His life into twelve men. And that's what He did. And when He left, He left twelve men who had been discipled by the God of heaven incarnate. Beautiful! He trained twelve men.

And I want to challenge you young people this morning to reproduce yourselves. Reproduce yourselves! At least one time in the next year. And you may say as you're sitting here, oh no, not another one of me.

Well, that's what Bible school's all about. See? It shouldn't be that way. Oh, I know you may have needs in your life, but listen, let's get on fire for God! Let's get the fire of God burning in our souls.

Let's get on fire that has an open heaven over it. Let's get those things cleared away and then just go make one more like that. And bring them back here with you the next time you come. Oh, you have no idea the confusing, complicated blessing you would put on us if all of you brought one with you next year.

We wouldn't know what to do, but we would love the challenge of trying to figure it out if you would just all go and make one more like you. If you'd just go find one more who wants to come and spend a whole week in Bible school like you do.

Make a disciple. Pull somebody underneath your wing. Carry them along and walk with them and talk with them and instruct them and pray with them and pray over them and guide them and encourage them and show them and walk with them and talk with them and instruct them and pray for them and guide them and encourage them.

And just bring one underneath your wing in the next year. And make a disciple whose heart is on fire for God and wants to learn everything they can. Make a disciple. Reproduce yourself. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I will make disciples. And you say, oh, I need to grow first, Brother Denny. I need to grow first. That statement is a trick and a lie out of hell. Do you know that? Do you know how many people, do you know how many of God's people are sitting around, doing nothing, waiting till they grow enough, mature enough to go, and you know what?

They never go. You've been tricked. If you would go make a disciple, you would grow like you haven't ever grown before. I tell you it's a trick. The ones who grow the fastest are the ones who get the most involved in the lives of others.

I've seen it down through the years. It's a trick of the devil. It's a lie of the devil to say, you're not good enough. No, not you. Maybe in a year you can. That's not the way it was in the book of Acts.

Go make a disciple. I mean, look, all you have to do, simple as this, get your heart thoroughly right with God. This week, whatever that costs, then walk in that from these days forward. And go find somebody and bring them under your wing and show them how to get their heart thoroughly right with God and how to walk in it.

And just bring them along with you next year. That's all you have to do. You don't have to go for years. You don't have to be studying your Bible for months. Be a disciple. Just reproduce one more like you.

Oh, the joy of winning souls. It will change your life, young people, if you've never known the joy of seeing a soul on their knees next to you and hearing them travail their heart out before God and see them come through and see the light of God light up on their face as they receive forgiveness of sin and a divine nature within them.

Sacrificial Love for Fellow Human Beings

If you've never had that experience, don't quit until you have. I will be an evangelist and I will make disciples, number three. I will waste my life on my fellow man. I will waste my life on my fellow man.

1 John 4 .10 says it this way, Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

I will waste my life on my fellow man. Now, young people, everyone wastes their life on something. Isn't that right? Everyone wastes their life on something. They give it away on something. Remember that 21-year-old boy?

On his bike, you know, the little trike. I call him trike. He's wasting his whole life. He is spending his whole life. He's breaking all of his bones. He's skinning his knuckles. He's skinning his knees.

He's skinning his elbows. He's wasting his life mastering this little trike that does fancy things in the air when he goes around the loop. Everybody wastes their life on something. Some people waste their lives on TVs.

They tell me that Generation X spends about five hours a day watching TV. Some waste it on sports. I mean, they literally waste their life on sports. Some waste it on building earthly kingdoms. But everybody wastes their life on something.

I don't know about you, but I would much rather waste mine on malaria than broken bones on a tricycle. I don't know about you, but if I've got to go, I mean, if I'm going to have a maimed body the rest of my days when I'm an old man, I'd rather have one from getting malaria than skin a bicycle.

Amen? I mean, come on! Where's our value system? I'd rather have sore boils on my back that hurt and pain me than skinned knees and skinned arms. I'd rather be sweating in some tropical climate area in a desert somewhere for the souls of men than sweating out all the life that's in my body running down a racetrack somewhere or riding a bicycle around a track.

I'd rather be doing it, young people! I will waste my life on my fellow man. A disciple will give his or her life away for others. Don't doubt it, young people. A disciple gives their life away for others.

And let me give you a secret, young people. Those who do that, providing they're still in the mode of yesterday's sermon and from that mode of loving God like we spoke about yesterday, those who choose to waste their lives on others, there is a fountain of grace that is poured out upon their lives like you can't imagine.

Like you can't imagine. I mean, it's the Sea of Galilee, brothers and sisters. As the grace of God flows into your life and you allow it to flow out into the world around you, the grace of God will keep flowing into your life.

But if the grace of God flows into your life all this week long, and you go home and do nothing about it, you'll be like the dead sea which has no water flowing out of it. It all flows in and it never flows out.

It's stagnant. It's dead. It's salty. And there's no living creature in it. Which kind of a life do you want? I'm telling you, you make the choice, I'm going to waste my life on my fellow man and heaven will open up over your life and grace will flow like you've never known before.

You'll get so addicted to that flowing grace in your life that you won't be able to live any other way. And that's what I want for you young people. And the cause is the salvation of their soul. Now, there are lots of things to do.

There are hungry people to feed. Yes, there are bruised knees to bandage, and there are people whose foot is rotting away with all kinds of infection and those feet need to be cared for. But I'm telling you, while you care for that foot that is rotting away, there's a never-dying soul represented by that rotten foot.

And oh, young people, the reason for healing the foot is to heal the soul. That's the motivation. Yes, go help your neighbor. Go to that dear old lady who needs her fence painted and paint her fence, but when you get done, tell her about Jesus.

Tell her about the Lord Jesus. Yes, go to your neighbor in comfort, that dear widow whose husband is gone, and maybe even drop off a basket full of groceries, but when you drop off the basket, tell her about Jesus.

Is there any greater love and care and concern than the fact that we would like to see this soul regenerated by the Spirit of the Living God and translated into the Kingdom of God? Dear son, is there any higher love, motivation of love than that?

No, there isn't, young people. Every other act of love flows into that one. We must read these words. In Daniel, if you want to turn there, I think we'll be alright. Let's turn there to Daniel. The book of Daniel in chapter 12.

Some of my favorite verses. Daniel 12, verses 1 -3,. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.

And at that time, thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. That's the Lamb's book of life. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Look at verse 3. And they that be wise... That word wise there is teachers, disciples. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.

There's the rewards, dear young people, eternal rewards for those who waste their lives for the souls of men. You may not get a lot in this life. Don't worry about it. Bless God. There's rewards coming.

They last for eternity. Do it. I want to recommend it to you. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will waste my life on my fellow man. And the fourth point today, because you are young disciples and most of you relate to a home setting, a father, a mother, brothers and sisters.

Loving the Family as a Disciple

The fourth one, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will love my family. I will love my family. The previous point surely flows into this one. Because when you talk about laying down your life, wasting your life for your neighbor, surely the closest neighbors you have is your father, your mother, your brothers and your sisters.

Are they not your neighbors? They are. They are your neighbors according to the New Testament. They are your neighbors. Generation X needs to see a new breed of youth. Do you understand, young people?

That walk to the beat of different drums who lay down their lives to love, to serve and respect their families. Generation X needs an example, young people. They who despise. We live in a day and an age when youth despise their parents.

They despise their home. They don't want to be there. It's not all their fault. They've been neglected. I'm not throwing stones at them. They've been neglected. They haven't been taught. Mom and dad have been too busy.

Mom and dad have been making money. There's all kinds of reasons, but still, they despise. They disrespect their families. They rebel against their parents. They don't want to do what their parents say.

They're shaking off authority with everything they've got. They make trouble in their home. They make trouble. They fight. They argue. They carry on with mom and dad. They spurn their brothers and sisters and push them away and don't have time for them.