Radical Discipleship | Theocast

Radical Discipleship and the Pressure to Do More for God

Do you ever feel like when you wake up you think to yourself I just do not do enough for God. I feel like I need to be doing more. I see so many people who have like these radical ministries and faith and So many people are being helped and all I do is well, I just go to church.

This podcast is for you the whole idea of radical Christianity radical discipleship. I need to do more. I need to do something extraordinary for God. That's a pressure that God never designed to have on anybody.

But yet he gives you a promise of how you can do something for the kingdom and it's called well Ordinary stay tuned if you're new to theocast you may not have heard of this word. It's called pietism. Do you ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy that you wake up?

Worrying about how well you're gonna perform instead of thinking about what Christ has done for you. It's dread versus joy really that's pietism. Pietism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope not in what Christ has done.

But what they're doing and We have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it and we're gonna explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reform theology really how it is that we walk by faith.

Seeing the joy of Christ and when Jesus says come to me and I will give you rest. What does that look like. You can download it on our website just go to theocast .org. Welcome to theocast encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ.

Conversations about the Christian life from a reformed and pastoral perspective. Your hosts today are Justin Perdue pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. I'm John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Springfield, Tennessee.

If you skipped all that. Because you hit the 30-second skip. This is what I want you to hear our goal today Is to clarify the gospel by pulling the clutter off of it and reclaiming the purpose of the kingdom which is not Justin cultural transformation.

So we've got some interesting things to talk about today coming in hot. I'm sure it'll be a lively Conversation depending on the title if you've seen it already, but before we jump into it. Hey Justin tell about something cool.

We got coming up maybe early spring in the Asheville area. What's we doing over there John are you talking about a conference something like that something? Yeah.

Word is the rumor has it that theocast is having a conference next spring precisely April 11th and 12th. That's a Friday Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina. And we'll have a probably pre event hang on Thursday night a little Thursday night like early pre event live Meet and greet podcast recording Friday morning and then the conference Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon.

And yeah, we'd love to see a number of you there. I do believe it. By the time you're hearing this for sure registration is live and in color.

It is it's probably gonna somewhere in the internet. So if you don't register soon We do have a space is close spaces. Space is very limited on this one. It's like 200 and what I'm a sauce we have. It's 250 ish 250 ish something like that.

It's a smaller venue, but Chad bird. Did you already say this Chad birding? I did Jones. Yeah, tell him about the stairs.

Well, you already named him Chad bird and Ken Jones are gonna be joining you John and me Justin. We're gonna the four of us be giving talks on the law in the gospel and the significance of The distinction that exists between those two and we haven't planned the content in great detail yet.

But it's a subject that we all are pretty passionate about and this is we're gonna be doing panel discussions and all kinds of things. We'll sing we're gonna have a lot of time to hang fellowship and enjoy each other.

So we hope to see many of you in North Carolina. Yeah next April. God willing. What a willing.

If you are new to theocast and you'd like to learn more about our community We have a growing community of almost 1600 people in our app. Which includes all of my sermons and Justin's and all of our podcasts and articles.

We have 27 or 30 different classes that you can take and that continues to take your word for it John. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't looked at the current number. I know it was between 27 and 28 something like that.

Anyways Justin you and I just got done with grn and we did man. What a great time, you know. Praise the Lord for those of you that been praying for the grn being a grace reform network. There it is. That's right a network that you and I are a part of.

Not a part of theocast but something that you and I get to participate in as church planters. And we have the Lord Lord graciously has allowed us to add five more churches into the networks. If you'd like to learn more about that or Support us you go to grace reform network org.

But the reason I mentioned it is that we just got done with our general Assembly our first one and we had a conference and at that conference we talked about the ordinary means of grace and just how powerful they are and Man, I was so encouraged.

You can go to our website or you go to theocast join the community. They'll be in there for free as well. So another plug for the community. But I was just so encouraged by the lectures of thinking through the ordinary means of grace and that kind of led us to today's Topic which is the opposite of the ordinary means of grace at times.

Ordinary Faithfulness, the Means of Grace, and Why the Ordinary Is Radical

Justin we are encouraged to Live a radical Christian life. So tell us why are we talking about radical discipleship? What radical Christianity today?

Yeah, I mean radical discipleship truth in advertising right pull the curtain back. It's a title that probably people will search for and find and what we want to do is set that up as a foil now to To maybe redefine what radical looks like in our current Christian moment.

To be committed. I'll just go ahead and do this and not bury the lead to be committed to Not only the ordinary means of grace in the gathered church, but to be committed to an ordinary life in The church in the fellowship of the Saints is a radical way to live the Christian life in our day.

Because it's not what you hear Preach talk about encouraged, etc. Generally, the exhortations are always like you need to do something big and shiny and marvelous for God and That might be defined differently depending on who's who's saying it.

But there is kind of baked into that cake the idea that the way that we would be faithful to Jesus is to Do this massive thing that is gonna literally turn the world inside out and that we're gonna change the world for Jesus.

Which don't hear what I'm I'm not saying to seek to to herald Christ to love neighbor to be a part of the church so that God will save his people is a wonderful way to Use your life and we're gonna be talking about that today it's a wonderful thing to give your time to to give your your talent to your effort your energy all of that, but I think what often happens is we.

We become so enamored with the big and the impressive or The as we view it the extraordinary that we miss so many things that are right in front of us. And that might be our spouses and our children. That might be just our our neighbor quite literally like on our street.

That might be our brothers and sisters in the church who need us because we're so. Like our eyes and our hearts and our minds are elsewhere for regarding all these these big things that we're gonna do with our lives.

We're actually not where we are. We're not where our feet are and we're not just faithfully loving serving gathering. Eating bread and drinking wine in the supper. We're not just gathering to sit under the preaching of God's Word, which is actually God's speaking to us, right and we've become Disenchanted even with the Lord's Day gathering like we think there's nothing extraordinary to be seen here because we do it every week and we lose sight of The fact that God really meets with us that he's really present with us and and he is present with us uniquely in his word and in his sacraments and He does extraordinary things through those ordinary means.

So all of that is lost sight of it and effectively, I mean, why are we bringing this up to is. Because I think there are a lot of people who listen to this show and I would count myself among this number this can always be my tendency is to to be a go-getter to achieve to accomplish and You you end up exhausted man.

Like a lot of people are tired In our know our zeal to do something big for God is killing us. Effectively is how I think many people experience the Christian life. And yeah, like you said people burn out people become disenchanted people.

People run off into all kinds of things.

As a result in my church because they got burnt out trying to find that and they needed a place to rest. I know people that aren't in church at all because they got burned out. Exactly. I train you.

I mean, you know in the books not written on these people but.

But this is not about real one salvation. But it is one about one's experience in the in the kingdom's mission. And that's the exact been really fascinating me lately. Justin is that the promises of Christ towards his towards his own?

That's what we're wanting you to rest in. We want you to rest in the sufficiency of Christ for you and then that should affect the way in which you live in the kingdom. It really should but unfortunately when we miss the resting part.

We turn to the radicalness of Christianity or we turn to you know, the Writing the ship, you know some people it's radical some it's time to write the ship because you know. It's it's sinking or whatever and we've lost the concept of finding the sufficiency of Christ in all of life.

Therefore I'm then going to let that right lead on to others, right? But Joseph when I think about the just a biblical narrative of history. We can we go outside the Bible narrative, but just in the Bible narrative the people who ended up doing the most extraordinary things Were because God drugged them into it.

Think about it this way. Abraham. Dude, that guy that guy was not trying to be extraordinary and really tried hard not to be.

Moses like was basically like will you send somebody else please? Yep. Yeah. Yep. Joseph was like captured.

You know thrown in prison just trying to survive. Think of you know, you think about the Apostle Paul who was attacking the church what the disciples were out fishing. You know, it's just funny in which it's true the people who ended up doing the most significant parts of the narrative.

We're not extraordinary people. I mean Moses was definitely not an extraordinary man.

He's he wigged out all the time that he couldn't speak. Well.

And the reason I mentioned that is that sometimes we think we have to be this powerfully extraordinary you know there has to be something unique and special about us and we get we think our lives are insignificant because.

We're not some crazy either donating millions of dollars to the church or some crazy missionary that's out there and It can become overwhelming to the point where You're not effective at all because it's like you're either a rock star.

Right, or you're nothing. Yeah, you're either all-in or you're all out.

Yeah.

And I have that kind of a personality Justin where I'm either kind of the all-in and all-out kind of a guy and I.

Learned so early on it burns you out. Yep. I you know, I I learned through I Think not only things that I read but I learned a lot through godly people around me who were more mature and older. Who were like look?

The way that this is accomplished Meaning ministry or the Christian life the way that this is done is ordinary Faithfulness over the long haul like it is plotting it is put one foot in front of the other Looking unto Christ and do that again tomorrow, right?

And you just you keep you keep at it. You can't be so focused and obsessed with The goals and all the achievements or or you're gonna you're gonna burn out. It's gonna be a sparkle and fade situation and you're gonna become ineffective.

Yeah, I think that's entirely right.

Somewhere.

Sorry, man. Yeah. No, go ahead. I'll jump in off somewhere along the way dude, you know even think about. Now I realize I'm referring to something pre-fall. Think about Adam and Eve in the garden. We don't have a lot of detail, but we can surmise some things about what they were called to.

They were called to a relatively simple life. If you think about it, right, I mean it it's they had they had fellowship with God. They had a perfect relationship with each other. Where they were naked and unashamed.

Mm-hmm, you know, they they were to tend the garden. The the earth the land the space that God had given them to inhabit they would take care of it. There were you know creatures around them things like this and they were just to enjoy God's gifts.

And to enjoy the place that God gave them and enjoy each other and they were to do this in relationship with the Lord. Seeking to flee from sin, right? I mean and obey God. Yes, but just to love him be loved by him to know him and be known by him.

It was a simple life, man. And somewhere along the way We have become very unenamored with that and we would look at that kind of a simple life of Knowing God loving God. Seeking to you know flee from sin but loving.

Loving the people that God has put in my life. Taking care of the things that God has given me and enjoying his gifts and his blessings we would look at that as a woefully insufficient Christian life and To me that's that's backwards somehow like we've introduced all of these things that One must be doing in order to be you know a radical disciple, right?

Well, we think it's an effective like it's not going to do anything. There's God requires more of us. Well what I was gonna say and it's perfectly Dovetails with what you were just saying. Justin is that when you think about the commands of the New Testament writers.

They're very much focused on the relationship that we have with each other in the church, right? Consider how to build one another up love one another pray for one another give to one another fellowship.

Yep. Sing right? Bear one another's burdens.

Right, well brother. And even the prohibition Christ even the prohibitions are about don't do this because it's gonna hurt people. You know, it's so simple. Yeah in those regards. Yeah, but God advances.

He he he draws people out of the kingdom of darkness. He brings them from death to life through the ministry of the word through the ministry of the church. That when someone comes to Christ, you know, sometimes Justin I've been involved in Like evangelist to outreach ministries where they'll go into a city and all these thousands of people get saved or this crusades or whatever.

And then they kind of like recommend a church. Well, what's interesting is that God has designed his people when they come to Christ to then be nurtured and discipled and cared for. By the local body.

That means you have elders who are trained and equipped. Therefore teaching these young converts and there are older believers setting an example of what does it look like to be led by your elders? What does it look like to be?

Discipled and trained and to give week in and week out to to the radical part of our faith is to say no to the world. Say no to its desires in the flesh and say I'm gonna exert my energy in my time With the people of God and I'm gonna use the mission of the church.

Week in and week out through the preaching of the word the fellowship through singing and prayer the sacraments and i'm going to do that as God continues to add and i'm going to and then i'm going to take all of this energy and Love and affection and the supernatural spirit coming in and strengthening my soul.

I'm going to use it to love my neighbor. Well, and that God might take the planting of that seed and water it and bring them to faith, right? It's just Plotting day in day out looking unto christ the author and finisher of my faith and after 40 years of your life.

Who knows what the lord's going to do with that? But it's I would rather a faithful servant serve 40 50 years in the church than one's been four years burn out. They got real famous, but no one really was affected by it.

And all we remember is oh, yeah. One day there was this famous person who had a tiktok or something like that and and now no one even knows who they are.

Anymore, I know.

In the age in which we live. I think there are unique temptations. Yeah, but that's maybe another conversation. Let's talk a little bit about word and sacrament because. It's hard to we teed this up from the beginning.

It's hard to have this conversation about discipleship without talking about the means of grace and we. Again refer you to the the messages given at the the pre-conference portion of the general assembly for grn.

If you want to be encouraged at more length. But think for a minute about how god uses these ordinary things in the lives of his people so when we gather. And you have to ask yourself as you're sitting there listening.

I mean ask yourself. Do you believe this and i'm confident that you do. When we gather in the church on the lord's day and the book is opened. And and it's read or the book is opened and it's preached.

It's true that it is a human voice that we hear. And at the same time we believe that that is really god speaking to his people. And this is like first thessalonians 2 13, I think where paul says that you received What we were saying.

Not as the words of men. But as what it really is. The word of god, right? It's like wow. I mean what a what a category, you know to have where. We believe that god really speaks. And that through a human voice as his word is opened and read and expounded and as christ is heralded the lord himself talks to us.

Like.

Jeepers like like that that that helps you helps me, you know, even whether i'm Prepping a sermon or whether i'm going and i'm going to be sitting under the word myself on sunday. That helps me to think about what in the world.

We're really doing or Think about the the sacraments for a minute. It's like all right. Baptism, well the water that we use for baptism. I mean it came out of the spigot or the hose or whatever. Uh, the the bread and the wine or the bread and the juice like hey, we ordered it off amazon, bro.

So it's like the the elements or you got it around, you know at the corner at the store around the corner. It's like so the the things themselves are very ordinary things but yet we believe. Because god has said so that this water this bread this cup.

Like the the lord is really present with us in these things. And he is present to bless. He is present to restore. He is present to forgive. God is everywhere all the time. That's true. And he is uniquely present for his people.

At particular places at particular times and we believe that in the water and in the bread in the cup. He's there. He's with us and and so. As we eat and we drink and we pray. We are encouraged and we're built up.

We're sustained. We're strengthened by god's very presence. With us and for us like this is what we do when we gather as a church. And so let's never dismiss these things as oh, well, this is just mundane.

This is just ordinary. It is ordinary things a human voice water bread juice wine. Ordinary things that god then uses and inhabits. To accomplish extraordinary purposes and extraordinary ends in the lives of his people.

And it's a way that he presences himself if I can use that as a verb. He he is present with us In these things and that is far from ordinary.

The Theocast Community, the Lord’s Supper, and Participation in Christ

Hey guys real quick. Some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So, where do you go? How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources?

We have started something called the theocast community. And we're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like-minded believers. All of our resources there past podcasts education materials articles all of it's there and you can share it and ask questions.

You can go check it out. The link is in the description below. No, justin. Um. There's a question we haven't asked in a long time. But yeah, I love asking people what is more important according to scripture the preaching of the word or the table?

And the answer is yes. Yes. That is one of those times where the ambiguous. Yes is necessary. They are both.

They are both significant. Yeah, that's right so a little bit of an outline from a sermon I preached and if you want to go back and listen to the lectures, but What what often justin happens is because we're an anemic in our understanding of what the table does we don't see it as a means.

And I think there's a there's a it's an ironic phrase to me. There's a double entendre when it says ordinary means there's nothing ordinary about it. That's right. We're the the elders by the means of the of the of the instructions of christ.

They blessed the they blessed the table and at that moment it becomes gospel food for the soul and so what we learn from scripture is that The first thing it does is it takes our eyes off of us. What is what does jesus say?

This is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me, but we don't do this. We've been trained to think about ourselves, right? We go to the table and it's all about how I perform and how well i'm doing and jesus like no no.

And he didn't say do this in remembrance of the cross. I think this is significance. He says do it in remembrance of who I am remember me All of christ right the union we have with him the blessings that we have with him and then there's uh, when you get to corinthians paul Uses a really powerful phrase.

Ordinary Life in the Local Church Versus the Shiny Conference Culture

Where there's this participation we end up having in communion, right? He says this first corinthians 10 16 the cup of blessings that we bless. Is it not a participation in the blood of christ the bread which we break?

Is it not a participation in the body of christ? I mean, this is so good. This is bob vink. He says of primary importance in the lord's supper is what god Does not what we do the lord's supper is above all a gift of god a benefit of christ a measure of communicating his grace.

So.

The the way in which You know, we think of radicalism. It's like I need to dedicate my life to these radical events of like either it's personal bible studying or going downtown or whatever it is. And god's like oh dear child You want the most significant thing for your soul?

Yeah, go ahead or the mission trip that we're gonna make or that's whatever it is, right? Yeah.

Yeah, and it says no. If you want to know what is the most powerful thing that you need you need to come and receive it. Remember of me. And then remember the blessing because when he says the cup of blessing We forget that what this means is that all of the benefits of christ are ministered to our souls Given to us in the communication of it.

Uh, it's. It's overwhelming and then there's just sorry one more point. No, you're good. He says, um. This is matthew 26. He he says I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine. Until the day when I drink it anew with you in my father's house every time we take communion.

There is a there's a pointing to the future hope that we have that this is an appetizer. Our soul will be fed. Our soul will be nourished. But it's not the entire means the means the full means is yet to come.

Well, yeah, and that we.

When we eat and drink this, you know as surely as we do christ died for us and he's with us. And as surely as we do this we'll do it with him. And that's a remarkable thought. Yeah that this is the future that we have in the lord Jesus where we will eat and drink with him in a new heavens and a new earth where it's no longer a rat race.

We're no longer exhausted. We're no longer there's no fear, you know, nothing will ever turn for the worse. You know all of that. Anyway, the other shoe will never drop. What a day. That's right. What a day.

The Local Church as the Real Measure of Christian Faithfulness

All right, so I i'm going to make a couple of comments here and you know. We just talked about a conference that we're doing next april and and i'm not trying to tell everybody like don't go um, but Even let's talk about that.

I mean, I think we tend to look at conferences. As like this holy grail like this is the thing this is going to be the event of my christian year, you know. And it's like man, I I hope. It's good to get together.

It's good to meet christians from other places. It's good to enjoy each other and encourage each other and to hear some good messages and some good thoughts about things that might. Hey, yeah, I think i've thought about that before but maybe that gives me a new way to think or a new way to articulate.

That's wonderful. Uh, and so come to ashville next april by all means we'd love to meet you and at the same time. Uh, i'll just speak for myself. There is far more weight and import In what I do every lord's day in my local church than there is in any conference.

I speak at the same is true for you. There is more import and weight for any of us who ever go and attend conferences. In what we do in our local church living with those brothers and sisters week over week that is far more important.

It is what is it is what will sustain and nourish, you know and Let us have that perspective. Where we're not always looking toward the big exciting shiny thing. It's like oh, no, those are great when they occur and we'll avail ourselves of them when we can but the steady diet.

That nourishes my soul. Is what I get week over week my favorite preacher. Is my pastor, you know that kind of stuff. That's a healthy godly perspective. The the people that I know best. And that I love most are those brothers and sisters that i've locked arms with in my own local church.

Not.

You know my my social media crowd. Again, i'm not saying don't be friends with people on facebook. I don't hear what i'm not saying. But it's just interesting how modern life has posed unique temptations to us and I do think Does does make it difficult to be committed to the ordinary?

Because man every time you get on twitter. Or tiktok or whatever you do.

Um.

You're you're constantly drawn to platform. You're drawn to shine and polish. Yeah, and rather than. Oh, you know, I got on twitter today and now i'm really encouraged to go to my local church on sunday.

That that often is not the takeaway. It's just yeah, just interesting.

Well, even in like justin and I you know, we we have the opportunity to use this podcast which We are thankful for. Yeah and praise the lord mission. Yeah, our mission is to build up the build up the body of christ at large.

So the individual members and then encourage them to be a part of their local bodies that they can be effective in those churches right.

So.

If we ever became a stumbling block for people to not go to church. Man, we would shut this thing down and donate all the money somewhere else. Yeah, it's just not i'm not interested in that. Um, we got an email.

I haven't told you this yet today. But we got another email of somebody who'd been out of the church for over 15 years and they started going back to church. Praise the lord after listening to theocast now that's that encourages me.

You know when when believers speak to each other and we encourage each other and we lift each other up. It should be that which invigorates. And the thing is justin when you really realize the spiritual war.

The power of our words, you know. What does paul say the weapons of our warfare are divine power. And what he's talking about the truth that we have in christ. We start speaking that to one another you have no clue what god will use taking the words out of your mouth.

And putting it into the heart and the minds of the person. Across from you and when you do it week in and week out and you're faithful to do that. You have no clue what that will do to encourage that person.

And those are I think when we get to heaven we're going to have this constant meetup this family reunion where we're going to be hearing from each other about you know when you. When you just sat down and just had that cup of coffee with me.

When you prayed for me when you said that you were going to pray for him when you came over and did this. Right, we are like if you just go read just go read first. Peter is a great example. Yeah, these poor people were worried about dying and literally dying.

Peter's just like look don't be surprised by your suffering. Love love those and respect those who are in authority over you care for your church. Love your elders keep preaching the gospel focus on the hope that is to come.

Keep your minds pure renew your mind, you know, it's it's literally it's like it you can hear him. It's like hey, okay. Let's let's learn how we're going to do this one more day one more day one more day.

And.

It's interesting how um. This is the last verse i'll quote but how paul describes he goes god did not chose that which was strong But that which was weak to shame the wise and so he isn't looking for powerhouse christians He's looking for people who will walk by faith in their weakness trusting in the lord and realizing it's sufficient to do his work His way not some radical way.

Yeah.

I mean the last several chapters of romans are very similar, you know to the exhortations. Are very ordinary. It's like um, you know in light of the mercy of god don't be conformed to the world but. Present yourselves as living sacrifices because you're being built into a household in which god lives.

And so use your gifts humbly in the church. Don't think more of yourself than you should but don't dismiss the fact that you're useful in the body. Love what's good. Hate what's evil. Practice hospitality.

Be charitable. You know, don't avenge yourselves. Trust god leave that to the lord. Submit to the government actually while you're at it. You know just be good citizens and then. They're going to be strong and weak people in the church and you need to bear with one another and not cast shade.

You know and your unity is such a priority. And it's like it's very ordinary.

Stuff.

That the lord concerns himself with. And a life lived in the context of a church where you give yourself to those ordinary things is a life. Well lived that glorifies god very much. And maybe you've never heard somebody say that to you and you're hearing it today that that your life Lived in a way that you think is very unimpressive to you.

Is actually something that that god is quite pleased with.

Weakness, Small Acts of Service, and Building Up the Body

So be encouraged. Uses. And yes, and there's so the thing is when this just and i'll say this I was talking to a friend of mine who um I'll leave it synonymous, but they're not in my church and they were just describing to me how they're they host this bible study and they've got this men's and women's group and He's they're just really involved.

And you can see the joy in his face of just he just wants to be there to serve his church. Be involved. He's excited to see what's going on in people's lives. And somehow we think this ordinary life is mundane and boring.

But you if you could see the look on his face of like all these people. He sees that are being encouraged and helped and people who are struggling with addiction. And he's honored that the lord's going to use him.

I mean justin You get involved in your church. Yeah, you're gonna have the promises of christ when it says no greater joy than this to delay your life down for someone else. You'll have joy in doing that.

You you know you want to honor god with your life. It's like. You want to do something extraordinary and be used of god even in your own local context? It's like hey go to the weekly prayer meeting.

You know.

Something is mundane is that I don't care. I don't care if it's seven or eight people in a room. Go to the weekly prayer meeting or you know when people if needs are however needs are made known in your church context.

When needs are made known. Go sit. Go go sit with the kids so that somebody can go do something they have to do. Just very simple stuff. Take somebody a meal. It's not. It's not the stuff that we think about you know that really does.