Not Fishing? Not Following!

CONTACT

Marty Rochfort
803 Duke Street
Hastings 4201
New Zealand

Ph: 64 6 878 6443
Mob: 021 0252 9494

DONATIONS

SEND A MESSAGE

Search

Blog

to Blog

Not Fishing? Not Following!

Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. So it stands to reason then, that if we are not fishing for men we are not fully following the Lord Jesus. In what specific ways should we follow Jesus?

We should follow Jesus in His purpose: Jesus said He came for one purpose, “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10 cf. Luke 4:43; Mark 1:38; John 12:27). This single purpose more than anything else defined Jesus ministry. We who identify with Christ by calling ourselves Christians must be purposeful about soul winning and faith sharing.

We should follow Jesus in His Compassion for the Lost: Every time the bible says that Jesus had compassion, some action followed. Jesus preached, healed the sick and fed the multitudes because He had compassion. He raised the dead, cast out demons, restored sight to the blind and cleansed lepers because He had compassion. He saw a crowd of people leaderless and directionless, “like sheep without a shepherd” and He taught them out of compassion. We too must follow Jesus example and showing compassion and the love of God in practical ways to others.

We should follow Jesus’ model of disciple making: Is there such a thing as a Biblical model for church planting? YES!!! There is only one model that Jesus actually taught His disciples. God considered this model so important to the success of the church that it is recorded in the bible four times in Matthew 10:1-15, Mark 6:7-11, Luke 9:1-5 and Luke 10:1-9. Using this model as a basis we can

Mobilize existing Christians to live out God’s calling on their lives
Teach believers to witness appropriately as a lifestyle
Disciple believers to grow in a genuine love relationship of obedience to Christ
Start new groups or churches (usually both)
Develop maturing leaders quickly
Cascade into multiple generations of disciples and churches/groups
Equip missionaries or church planters to appropriately faze out of leading the movement themselves and help the indigenous movement stand on the Spirit of God alone once the discipleship and training process has taken root

We should follow Jesus example of Sacrificial Living: Jesus gave up His time, riches (2 Cor.8:9) and reputation (Phil.2:7), and ultimately His own Life for others. 1 John 3:16 says, “We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other.”

It’s time to follow Jesus. Let your purpose be to help others come to Christ. Let God’s own compassion motivate you to do the works of Jesus. Let good sense cause you to learn and practise Jesus discipleship method. And may sacrificial living be a hallmark of your faith.

Marty Rochfort

30/10/2014 01:39:20 | Soulwinner | Login | Reply | Replies (0)