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The Commission · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're looking at some
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  sources dealing with grace and action in the Christian life,
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  specifically through the lens of what what we're calling Reformed
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  thinking. If you've ever felt like your
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  faith life is just a list of separate tasks, you know,
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  mission over here, Bible study here, managing your money
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  somewhere else, this discussion might help connect those dots.
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  That's the goal. OK, let's unpack this.
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  Our sources zero in on three really practical areas, mission
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  time and money. Right, very concrete things.
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  And they argue that these should all flow from and be structured
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  by one single command from Christ.
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  Yeah, it's not just about tacking on more religious
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  activities. No, it's presented as a complete
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  reorientation, a different way of thinking about our priorities
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  based on the Great Commission. And that's our jumping off
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  point. We want to see how this command
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  make disciples gives us a blueprint, you could say, for
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  our actual lives. A practical structure.
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  Yes. But before we even get to
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  measuring our time or counting our dollars against that
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  standard, we have to back up. We need to figure out the source
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  of the well, the drive, our mission and stewardship.
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  Things we do to sort of prove ourselves generated by our own
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  effort. Or are they the natural
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  necessary results that spill out from the grace we're already
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  receiving? Because if it's the latter, that
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  changes how we approach everything.
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  That distinction feels critical. So we'll need to define disciple
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  making itself what Jesus actually passed down, and then
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  we'll get into that strategic approach you hear about.
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  Think big, start small, go deep. Sounds like a plan all.
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  Right, let's start with grace and activity.
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  It's common, I think, for Christians to see things like
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  evangelism or being generous as, you know, spiritual disciplines.
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  Right, like items on a checklist?
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  Things you have to do. Exactly.
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  And you feel obligated, maybe even guilty if you're not doing
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  enough. But the sources we looked at
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  suggest that framing it that way, well, it kind of sets us up
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  for burnout. It does because you're always
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  looking inward for the energy, for the motivation.
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  So what's the alternative view? The sources argue we need to get
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  the order right. It's more helpful, they say, to
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  see mission time and money not as the source of God's favor,
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  but as the effects, consequences, really effects of
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  regularly engaging in what are often called the means of grace.
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  OK, maybe we should quickly define means of grace for anyone
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  listening who might not be familiar with that specific term
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  in this context. Sure, good idea.
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  Basically, they're the ordinary ways God has appointed to
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  strengthen and sustain believers.
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  Our sources focus on the main ones.
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  Hearing God's word preached and reading it ourselves.
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  Having access to God through prayer and belonging to the
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  church. You know, fellowship with other
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  believers. These aren't things we do to
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  earn grace. They're the channels God uses to
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  deliver His ongoing sustaining grace.
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  They they they fill the tank, so to speak.
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  OK, so if we're regularly filling the tank through things
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  like word and prayer, yeah. How does that spiritual fuel
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  directly translate into how we use our money or our time?
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  What's the link? It's a direct link, the sources
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  suggest. When you're consistently
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  receiving God's grace, when the Word softens your heart, or
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  prayer reminds you of who you are in Christ, the natural
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  result is gratitude. And that gratitude changes your
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  perspective on everything, including your possessions and
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  your schedule. This grace sustains you.
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  It inspires you. It empowers you for evangelism
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  and stewardship. So you're not hoarding your time
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  or money out of fear. Exactly.
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  You're freed from that because you're resting in the security
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  of greater eternal riches. So logically, the framework for
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  talking about time and money becomes centered on the Great
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  Commission. Because that's the main task he
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  gave us. It's the primary way the
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  gratitude gets expressed in outward action.
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  It flows from grace into mission.
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  OK, that clarifies the flow. Grace first, then action as a
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  response and the command itself. Matthew 28.19.
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  Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
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  Right. And notice it's specifically
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  disciple making that's the essential process here.
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  It's not just, you know, mass evangelism rallies or finding
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  out Flyers. Those might play a part
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  somewhere. It's more personal.
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  Much more personal, the picture is of a maturing believer
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  intentionally investing time life really in just one or maybe
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  a few younger believers. For what purpose?
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  To help them grow spiritually, to teach them how to obey
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  Christ's commands, and crucially, to equip them so they
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  can eventually turn around and invest in others to look at a.
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  Chain reaction. Spiritual multiplication.
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  Yeah, that's the idea. And you know, this isn't some
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  novel strategy someone cooked up recently.
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  Not at all. The sources point out this
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  mirrors the the lion's share of Jesus's own public ministry.
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  He called 12 Guys. Lived with them.
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  Yeah, ate with them, taught them, privately corrected them,
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  just poured his life into them before he finally sent them out
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  with this huge global task. The method seems baked into the
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  command itself. It absolutely is.
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  But, and this is a big but for many of us, when you look at the
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  sheer size of the task all nations, it's easy to feel
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  completely overwhelmed. Yeah, you think about your own
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  inconsistencies, your own failures.
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  Exactly. Your lack of knowledge, your
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  sin. You feel disqualified.
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  Which is why the promise Jesus attaches is so vital.
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  Matthew 28.20 Behold, I am with you always to the end of the
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  age. That's the necessary assurance.
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  It's essential the source is called Jesus, the great comfort
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  for the flawed and feeling disciple, which is all of us,
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  right? Pretty much.
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  So this is huge comfort. It means you don't have to be
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  perfect to obey the command. Absolutely not, because we are
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  not the Savior. Our listeners, you know, maybe
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  someone's struggling just to read their Bible consistently or
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  pray regularly. They might feel like how can I
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  possibly lead someone else? Yeah, that feeling is real.
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  But that's precisely the lie these sources push against.
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  We can't imitate Christ's perfection, no, but we can rely
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  on his promise presence. The success of this whole
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  enterprise doesn't depend on how spiritually good the discipler
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  is. Where does the success come from
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  then? It's external.
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  God Himself, in his sovereignty, guarantees He will build His
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  church. He is the great power source
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  behind it. You know, if the Great
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  Commission depended on our consistency, it probably would
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  have fizzled out about 20 minutes after Pentecost.
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  OK, so building on that, the sources make a pretty bold claim
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  about our failures. They actually suggest God uses
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  what they call half baked substandard disciple making.
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  Yeah, it sounds almost shocking. Doesn't.
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  It it does, yeah. How does that work?
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  How does God use our mess ups? Well, think about it.
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  It completely relieves the pressure of having to be
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  perfect. If I'm terrified of saying the
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  wrong thing or giving bad advice, I might just never
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  start. Paralysis by analysis.
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  Right, but if I understand God is ultimately in control of the
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  outcome, I can just focus on being obedient in the process,
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  however imperfectly. So like if I stumble over
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  explaining something or forget a verse.
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  Yeah, or maybe you struggle to apply a biblical truth in your
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  own life, and the person you're discipling sees that struggle.
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  That failure itself becomes a teaching moment.
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  How so? It demonstrates the most
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  important lesson that we all constantly need to run back to
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  the cross, rely on the Holy Spirit, not on our own
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  cleverness or strength. God uses the disciples flaws to
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  actually highlight the sufficiency of the gospel.
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  OK, so it shifts the focus off my performance.
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  Entirely it shifted to our obedience, how our stumbling,
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  and His sustaining grace covering our inadequacy.
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  OK, so that lays the groundwork. We're fueled by grace.
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  We're freed from needing to be perfect.
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  Now let's get practical. How do we actually do this?
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  The Great Commission gives us this enormous scope, but also a
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  surprisingly small scale method. Exactly.
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  Let's look at that framework. Think big, start small, go deep.
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  So think big. What does that mean?
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  The scope, the vision is just huge, as big as it could
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  possibly be, the sources say. It's focused on God's global
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  glory among all the nations. Wow.
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  OK, so not just my neighborhood, not just my city.
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  No, the entire world. Yeah, all peoples.
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  This keeps Christianity from shrinking down into just a
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  personal self improvement project.
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  We're part of something vast, historical, spanning continents
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  and centuries. You know, the sources mentioned
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  this provides a place for that almost heroic, big picture,
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  world changing impulse that many Christians feel.
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  Yeah. People want their lives to count
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  for something significant. And this framework says here's
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  how it does. But if the scope is that
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  massive, all nations, how does someone like me, living a pretty
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  ordinary life, even begin? How does that global vision
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  connect to, you know, my Tuesday afternoon?
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  That's where the strategy comes in.
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  To achieve the huge global goal, the method is intentionally
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  hyperlocal. That's the start small part.
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  OK, we're told to focus our efforts intensely on just a few
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  individuals. Not trying to reach everyone all
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  at once. No, scattershot approaches tend
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  to be superficial. This mirrors Jesus again.
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  We started with 12. The idea is if you want to reach
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  the World, you start with the person God has put right in
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  front of you. Concentrated effort.
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  OK, start small with a few. Then what?
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  Then the investment in the few needs to be at depth.
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  That's the go deep piece. Meaning, it's not just about
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  transferring information or getting them to memorize facts.
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  The goal is deeper. It's about nurturing genuine
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  spiritual maturity, equipping them so thoroughly that they are
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  prepared and motivated to then turn around and do the same
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  thing in someone else's life. Back to that multiplication
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  idea. Yes, building disciples who make
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  disciples. That's the engine of the whole
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  thing. So this whole strategy, think
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  big, start small, go deep is how the the bigness of the mission
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  translates into the smallness of our daily actions.
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  Precisely. If you're sitting there
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  wondering how does my little life connect to God's giant plan
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  for history, this is the answer, Yeah.
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  Our sources argue that disciple making is the only way,
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  explicitly given in the Commission itself, for our minor
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  local lives to connect to God's major global plan.
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  Your everyday routines, your conversations, your shared
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  meals. That's the frontline of Global
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  Mission. I really appreciate that the
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  sources emphasize this happens in the uncelebrated, unsexy
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  normalcy of everyday life. It's crucial.
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  It doesn't require a seminary degree or trip overseas.
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  It happens over coffee, or while fixing a leaky faucet together,
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  or talking after the kids are in bed.
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  Right. And this directly impacts how we
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  think about our time and money, doesn't it?
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  How so? Well, if making disciples is the
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  highest task Christ gave the church, then shouldn't
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  intentionally investing in a few people be a primary claim on our
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  schedule, even when it feels mundane or inconvenient?
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  Yeah, that challenges our priorities.
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  And with money, if we have extra resources, shouldn't supporting
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  this chain of reproduction be a key consideration, whether
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  that's helping the person you're discipling or supporting
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  ministries focused on this kind of multiplication?
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  OK, let's drill down on why the focus is so intensely
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  individual. If the goal is global, why pour
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  so much into just one or two people?
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  Because transformation that lasts, that reproduces, has to
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  be deep and personal. One source puts it very plainly.
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  1 cannot change a world except as individuals in the world are
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  changed. You can't just blanket the globe
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  with a message and expect deep roots.
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  No, it's the slow, careful, localized process of one life
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  profoundly impacting another, teaching them to obey Christ in
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  everything. That's the actual mechanism God
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  uses to fulfill his global plan. The whole worldwide movement is
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  just the sum total of countless small deep local investments.
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  OK. So we have the scope of the
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  nation's, we have the strategy. Start small, go deep with a few.
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  Now we need to be really clear about what we're actually
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  passing on in this process. Yes, this is critical.
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  Because it seems easy for disciple making to drift, you
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  know, to become about making someone a mini me, reproducing
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  the disciples personality or their favorite political views
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  or their specific habit. That's a huge danger, the
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  sources are adamant. The goal is not to replicate the
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  disciples personality or personal preferences, or even
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  their specific theological hobby horses.
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  Right. Like we're not trying to make
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  everyone join a particular denomination or adopt our family
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  rules about screen time. No, the content is non
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  negotiable and it's singular Jesus in the gospel.
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  That's it. The.
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  Core message. The core message?
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  The sources talk about the gospel being the baton to be
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  passed down through generations, or like the deposit Paul talks
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  about in his letters to Timothy, this precious, unchanging truth
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  we guard and entrust to others. OK, so the focus stays on
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  Christ. Absolutely, Jesus is not only
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  the great model but also the content of disciple making.
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  Remember the command. Teach them to observe everything
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  that he has commanded. Not everything I think is
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  important. Exactly.
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  Not our personal advice, not our pet teeves, not our cultural
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  preferences. It has to stay centered on
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  Christ and his teaching revealed in Scripture.
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  If we drift from that, we don't make disciples of Jesus.
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  We risk making dependence on ourselves.
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  OK, so the content is fixed on Christ and the Gospel.
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  What about the method beyond? Start small, go deep.
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  The sources talk about needing a holistic balance, yes.
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  Effective disciple making isn't just one thing, it needs a
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  balance, they argue, between two key elements, intentionality and
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  relationality. OK.
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  So break those down. Intentionality.
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  Intentionality is the structured strategic part.
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  It's acting like a teacher to student.
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  You're looking for teachable moments, maybe following a plan,
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  reading a book together, discussing specific doctrines.
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  It often requires planning, setting goals.
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  It's the more engineered aspect. Got it.
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  Structured plan, teaching and relationality.
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  Relationality is the well the the social, organic side.
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  It's acting friend to friend. It involves sharing ordinary
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  unstructured life together. Just hanging out.
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  Pretty much meeting in your home, running errands together,
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  maybe grabbing a meal, talking about struggles that aren't
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  necessarily on the agenda. It's building shared context,
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  real life happening, the organic part.
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  And the sources say you need both.
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  You can't just pick one. Right.
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  Tipping too far either way misses the full picture of what
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  life on life disciple making requires.
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  What happens if you're only intentional?
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  All structure, no relationship I.
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  Think it feels sterile, like a project, not a relationship.
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  You might successfully transfer information, maybe get through a
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  curriculum, but you haven't really shared a life.
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  It feels clinical, impersonal. OK.
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  And what if you're only relational?
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  All friendship, no intentional teaching.
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  Then you're just friends hanging out, which is fine, but it's not
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  disciple making. It becomes aimless.
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  You have lots of shared context maybe, but you're lacking the
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  shared content, the gospel deposit, and you lack direction
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  towards spiritual growth. So you need both teacher to
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  student and friend to friend structure guides the content
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  relationship, provides the context for application.
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  Exactly. It requires both and.
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  This balance plays out in several related ways.
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  The sources say disciple making is both organic and engineered.
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  It requires both shared context, life together and shared
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  content. The gospel truth, OK, And maybe
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  most practically, it requires both quality time and quantity
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  time. Ah, that old chestnut.
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  Quality versus quantity. How does that apply here?
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  Well, quality time might be that focused hour you spend studying
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  the Bible or discussing a specific issue.
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  That's the intentional part. But quantity time is just being
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  around, doing chores together, watching a game, driving
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  somewhere, maybe even just sitting in comfortable silence.
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  That quantity time builds the shared context, the relational
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  foundation. Why is that quantity time so
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  necessary? Because without it, the quality
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  time discussions about real life struggles can feel artificial.
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  If I haven't actually seen you interact with your kids or
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  handle stress at work, just talking about abstract
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  principles feels disconnected. Quantity time allows the shared
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  context for the shared content to actually land and take root.
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  The sources bring up Jesus's example again here, don't they?
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  They do. Putting out he had both the long
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  walks through Galilee, that's the quantity time, the shared
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  life context and the sermons on the mount, the quality time, the
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  focused intentional teaching. Yeah, he modeled both because
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  both are needed to fully equip someone.
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  OK, this next part is where for me the sources got really
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  interesting. We established earlier that
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  mission stewarding time and money.
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  These are effects or results of the grace we receive, right?
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  Grace comes first. But then the material introduces
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  this paradox. It suggests that engaging in
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  mission, specifically disciple making, can actually become a
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  means of grace for the person doing the discipling.
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  How does that work? How can an effect loop back and
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  become a 'cause? It sounds counterintuitive,
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  doesn't it? But it points to this reciprocal
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  dynamic in the Christian life. It's true that going deep with
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  Jesus, receiving his grace through word, prayer,
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  fellowship, naturally leads to reaching out to others.
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  Grace overflows into mission. Yes, but the reverse is also
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  true. And this is the key point here.
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  Actively reaching out to others, engaging in disciple making
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  actually drives the believer deeper with Jesus.
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  So it's like a. A virtuous cycle.
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  A closed loop system. Something like that spiritual
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  accelerator maybe going deep fuels, reaching out and reaching
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  out drives you deeper which? Suggests if someone feels
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  spiritually stuck, stagnant, maybe getting involved in
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  mission is the very thing they need.
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  It could be exactly what God uses to push through spiritual
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  lethargy and jumpstart stalled sanctification.
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  The sources actually talk about a condition they call
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  quarantined Christianity. Quarantined Christianity?
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  What's that? It describes A believer who's
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  become isolated. Maybe they know a lot of
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  theology intellectually, but their heart feels cold.
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  Bible reading is a chore. Prayer feels mechanical.
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  Church attendance is just going through the motions.
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  Right, doing the stuff, but feeling disconnected, insulated
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  from the world, maybe even from God's felt presence.
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  Precisely. Yeah, but what happens when that
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  lethargic a quarantine believer steps out of their isolation?
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  When they start intentionally meeting with a spiritual seeker
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  somewhat unchurched, or a younger Christian, or someone
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  wrestling with doubts. Things change.
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  They're forced into high stakes conversations.
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  Suddenly they have to articulate the gospel they thought they
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  knew so well. They have to explain why they
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  believe something. They have to try and live out
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  the truths they claim to hold right in front of someone else.
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  And having to explain it, having to defend it in a real
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  conversation that forces you to understand it better yourself,
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  the sources say. It creates a sort of inner
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  renewal. It really can.
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  Doctrines that felt dusty and irrelevant suddenly come alive
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  with fresh significance. You realize you can't answer a
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  seekers honest question about suffering, for example, without
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  really wrestling with God's sovereignty and goodness
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  yourself. So mission acts as a catalyst
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  for personal growth. An incredible catalyst because
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  it forces the disciple to revisit the core truths of their
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  faith, not just intellectually, but in a way that feels vital,
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  necessary for the conversation, maybe even for their own
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  spiritual survival in that moment.
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  OK, focusing back on to cycle making specifically, the sources
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  insist that good disciple making is always a two way St.
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  Absolutely. Investing in others is described
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  as one of the most significant things we can do for our own
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  growth as disciples. How does that reciprocal growth
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  happen? What drives it?
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  It's driven largely by vulnerability and proximity.
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  Disciple making done right requires life sharing.
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  Meaning more than just teaching facts.
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  Much more, it means sharing yourself, your own struggles,
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  your process, your life alongside speaking the truth.
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  And that kind of proximity, sharing life and space with
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  another Sinner. Well, much like marriage, it
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  inevitably exposes new manifestations of sin in the
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  disciple. Things you might not see when
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  you're living in your own little bubble.
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  Exactly. Maybe you only realize how
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  impatient you truly are when you're trying to help someone
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  who keeps making the same mistake over and over.
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  Or how proud you are when their questions reveal gaps in your
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  own understanding. And this kind of life, sharing,
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  this proximity, it requires a level of vulnerability and
• 20:10
  frankly, self sacrifice that feels countercultural today.
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  Oh, definitely. Especially in our modern culture
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  that values privacy so highly, the sources say the disciple has
• 20:19
  to be willing to die to selfishness.
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  Selfishness with their time, their personal space.
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  You have to be willing to die too much of our precious
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  privacy. That's a radical call.
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  It is. It means inviting people into
• 20:30
  the messy parts, not just the curated highlights Reel Disciple
• 20:34
  making, by its nature, breaks comfortable isolation.
• 20:38
  It forces the question, how can we live the Christian life
• 20:41
  together? So the person being discipled
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  needs access to the discipler's real life.
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  Yes, not some polished triumphal facade.
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  They need to see your struggles, your weaknesses, how you handle
• 20:54
  failure, how you apply the gospel.
• 20:56
  When you mess up, you have to bring them into the process of
• 20:59
  your own ongoing sanctification. And because the discipler is an
• 21:03
  imperfect Sinner, unlike Christ, this life sharing provides a
• 21:07
  really unique opportunity. Doesn't.
• 21:08
  It it does a crucial 1. It allows the discipler to model
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  something their disciples never saw Jesus do, which is.
• 21:14
  How to repent exactly? That's such a vital point.
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  People learning the faith don't just need teaching about
• 21:19
  repentance, they need to see it modeled.
• 21:20
  So they need to see the disciple be honest about, say, losing
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  their temper that morning. Yes, or hear a genuine
• 21:28
  confession of some failure. Witness the process of seeking
• 21:31
  forgiveness. See the earnest effort to
• 21:33
  change. Jesus taught repentance
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  perfectly, but he never needed to do it.
• 21:39
  We, as flawed disciples get to demonstrate the power of grace
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  by showing how we run back to it after we sin through confession
• 21:47
  and turning. OK, one last aspect of this
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  reciprocal growth. Disciple making is often hard.
• 21:52
  It's messy. Often very difficult.
• 21:54
  Yes, and the sources say it exposes the disciples weaknesses
• 21:57
  and failures and inadequacies like never before.
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  You realize you're not as good a listener as you thought, or your
• 22:02
  Bible knowledge has huge gaps when faced with tough questions.
• 22:06
  Right that exposes exposure can feel painful, even discouraging,
• 22:10
  but it's incredibly sanctifying. The sources say this exposure
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  hems us in. It corners us in a good way.
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  It strips away our false self-reliance.
• 22:19
  It forces the disciple day by day, maybe even moment by
• 22:21
  moment, to draw strength from Jesus and the gospel, not from
• 22:25
  their own wisdom or giftedness or experience.
• 22:27
  So the difficulty itself pushes you back to rely on Christ.
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  Yes, it makes you lean harder on that great comfort, the perfect
• 22:35
  disciple whose grace covers our fumbling efforts.
• 22:38
  The very difficulty of the work drives us deeper into the grace
• 22:41
  that motivated us to start the work in the 1st place.
• 22:44
  It completes the loop. Hashtag tag, tag, tag outro.
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  So we're trying to synthesize the core lesson here.
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  Disciple making constantly reminds us of our smallness.
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  We're just playing our minor local part.
• 22:55
  Doing the everyday stuff. But at the same time, it
• 22:58
  connects us directly to God's bigness, his vast, global,
• 23:01
  glorious plan unfolding through history.
• 23:05
  By doing this seemingly small, ordinary thing, we're
• 23:08
  participating in something of cosmic significance.
• 23:11
  The Great Commission really does become this unifying structure
• 23:14
  for the whole Christian life. So what does this all mean for
• 23:16
  you listening right now? Well, the take away seems to be
• 23:19
  that the Great Commission isn't just about evangelism.
• 23:21
  As a separate category, it shapes how we view our time, our
• 23:24
  money, even our personal space and privacy.
• 23:26
  It touches everything. It demands real sacrifice, real
• 23:29
  vulnerability. But, and this is the amazing
• 23:32
  part, that very sacrifice becomes one of the primary ways
• 23:35
  God pours His grace back into us.
• 23:37
  It breaks that spiritual stagnation and pushes our own
• 23:40
  growth forward. It's this mutually beneficial,
• 23:42
  grace fueled cycle. Yeah.
• 23:44
  So since the strategy for changing the world involves
• 23:47
  starting small and going deep with just a few, maybe here's a
• 23:50
  final thought to consider. What's 1 specific opportunity
• 23:54
  for self sacrifice? Maybe of your time?
• 23:56
  Maybe giving up some privacy? Maybe just being more vulnerable
• 23:59
  that you could embrace this week?
• 24:00
  Just one step. Just one step to intentionally
• 24:03
  enter into the mess of sanctification as the sources
• 24:05
  put it, with just one other person, maybe showing them
• 24:09
  through your own life what real repentance and dependence on
• 24:12
  grace actually looks like.