* We've Dropped the Ball w/ Discipleship **

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. That's number one. A, seeking to lead people to a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The Church Mission Statement and the Call to Discipleship

And then look at B on the church mission statement, the edification and training of Christians through the teaching of God's word. Okay, so you're opened up to Matthew 28, right? You have the church's mission statement in the bulletin.

And you've got Matthew 28 in your other hand. You should see that the two are lining up. Verse 20 says that the church is then to teach believers to observe all that Christ commanded. In other words, this is discipleship.

This would be a word we would use, discipleship. Or training, the edification and training of the saints. So to those who have said the prayer, those who have confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, many people have done that.

Millions and millions, probably, I don't know, 100 million people, maybe more than that in this country, have done that. They've made that profession of faith. They've said a prayer, something like that.

Here's where we've dropped the ball, okay? Here's where the church has dropped the ball. Here's where most people just drop out. Discipleship. If I were to ask somebody, do you believe in Jesus? Most people in this country would still say yes.

Are you following Christ? Are you actively following Christ? Not as many people can say yes. Are you a disciple? Is there discipleship going on? See, that's where we've dropped the ball. So how do we fix it?

That's the problem. We've diagnosed the problem. How do we fix it? Where does discipleship happen? Discipleship happens in this church at least three times a week, on Sunday morning and on Wednesday evening.

Sunday morning, we have Sunday school at 10 a .m. It's Sunday school. You know what a disciple is? A disciple is somebody who, yeah, they follow Christ, but a disciple is somebody who learns, right? And it's Sunday school.

So we're teaching people. People are learning. So discipleship happens from 10 o 'clock to 1045. Discipleship also happens right now. Hopefully you're learning something right now. You're being trained right now.

Now you can tune it out. You cannot listen. You cannot do anything. But you're being instructed right now. And I'm pretty sure all of you came here of your own free will, right? As far as I know. So this is where the discipleship happens.

Sunday morning, Sunday school. You have the worship service where we should be reinvigorated and strengthened. And hopefully nobody's falling asleep. And when people fall asleep, you know, wake them up.

But this is where discipleship happens. Also happens on Wednesday evening. So we offer three classes or three times during the week where discipleship takes place. And then there's a men's group and there's other things going on.

We understand not everybody can make it to, say, a Wednesday evening. People have to work and people have responsibilities. So not everybody can make it three times a week. If you can, great. But not everyone's going to be able to do that.

Here's the thing for, again, just like the past 2 ,000 years Sunday was seen as a day set apart. Christians recognize that Sunday was different. It's not a day for a believer to choose. Well, what am I going to do?

What am I? Can I go here? It's the Lord's day. That's what the scripture says. Also, Christians recognize for 1900 years that Sunday morning was an essential. Maybe Wednesday. Again, you have to work.

You have other things going on. Sunday morning is essential. You remember during COVID and the lockdowns, governors across the country, what did they do? They declared church as what? Non-essential. And, well, they could say that.

Here is the troubling thing for me that a lot of people, a lot of professing Christians seem to agree with that. That the church was not essential. And I'm not talking about people who had health issues and stayed home initially because we didn't really know what this was.

I'm not talking about people who stayed home initially because they had real health issues. But it's clear that a lot of people think Sunday is not essential or that the church and discipleship is not essential.

My friends, I don't say this with a judgmental spirit, but that is why we're in the state we're in. That's why churches are in this position because that's the mindset. And if we don't do anything about it, more and more churches, what was the number?

Do you remember the stat? How many close every year? Now, this church is a long ways away from, you know, that's not even in the conversation. But a lot of churches, 7 ,000 churches every year close. Why?

Because discipleship is not seen as all that important. Sunday is like any other day. That's the problem. So we have to be the generation that does it differently. Amen. And I hope you're willing to get on board with this because time is of the essence.

I personally believe that we are living in the time the Bible talks about as the great falling away. Christianity from the beginning started in Judea, 120 people spread throughout Jerusalem and Samaria and it covered the earth.

By the time you reach the 17, 18, 1900s, Christianity had spread all over the earth. Now it's like we went up the hill. We're gaining. We're gaining. We reached that pinnacle. Now we're on the other side.

Now we're going down the other side of the hill. I believe this is the great falling away. If you want to disagree with that, that's fine. I hope it isn't. I hope it isn't. But whether it is or whether it's not, that doesn't have to be the way it is here in Franklin County.

It doesn't have to be that way in some other church. It doesn't have to be that way here. But it's going to depend on me and it's going to depend on you. So what are we going to do about it? As far as I know, everybody here has professed Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The discipleship is not happening. It's not happening. And you're not doing it. That's the bottom line. The members and attendees of this church are not taking discipleship seriously. And I say that to you because I love you and I care about you.

And I know the way to be blessed in the Christian life is obedience. And that's what we need. I want each one of you to be blessed. But again, this isn't just a problem unique to Morris Corner Church.

This is true in pretty much every pastor I know, every church in the area. It's the same exact thing everywhere. Okay, so that's the problem. What's the solution? Turn it around. I would say start by saying, I want to know what can I do?

What specifically can I do? Treat Sunday as the Lord's Day. If we just start with that and treat Sunday as a day set apart unto God, I believe that would turn things around. So that's your decision. Will you view Sunday as the Lord's Day?

Or is it my day? It's our choice. Okay, we've looked at Matthew chapter 29. You know I care about you, right? You know I love you? Do you know that? All right, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4. It's like a doctor.

If you go into a doctor's appointment, if you have cancer, don't you want the doctor to tell you? You want the doctor to tell you you have cancer so you can get the right treatment and hopefully survive.

View me as the doctor, and I'm saying this church has cancer. And if we don't get the proper treatment, you know what cancer does. Again, don't get discouraged and oh man, because this is true in probably 95 of churches.

Equipping the Saints for the Work of Ministry

So here's the solution. Here's another part of it, Ephesians chapter 4. Starting in verse 11, and he himself, that is Christ, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints and for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

So notice evangelists, pastors, and teachers, it is their job or it's our job to equip who? Well, it's the pastor's job to do the work of the ministry. False. It's whose job? It's the saints. Right. So the training is for you for the work of ministry.

Verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness and deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all these things into him who is the head, which is Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does it share.

Let me go back. Let me go back and read that. Verse 16, from whom the whole body joint and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which what? Every part does it share.

Now there's some people in this church. I don't know how they do it. They do so much and they're so busy about the work of the Lord. There's some people that are at the stage in life, you know, elderly.

There's only so much you can do. But we all need to be doing our part. And if we do our part, then what? It causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So going back to verse 12, the pastor, evangelist, teachers, to strengthen the body of Christ, to do the work of ministry.

So we all need to do our part. So let's spend some time in this. What is the work of ministry that you can do? What are the two things we've looked at so far? Trying to make disciples, right? Sharing the gospel with others.

And then number two, discipleship. Let's turn to James chapter two. But let's talk about some things and ministries and service we can be involved in. Now, if we want to be successful in our mission, if we want the church to grow, we not only need to know and believe the right things, we need to do the right thing.

I think we're at a stage where we pretty much know the right things and we believe the right things. So now it's just about doing the right things. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscoronetchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.