Have you ever wondered, as a Christian, if you may be 'MISSING IT'?  I mean, you know you prayed the prayer of salvation before, you read your Bible once in a while, you try to do what's right, you pray  alone when you can, and you try to go to church every Sunday, but somewhere deep down inside you honestly feel like you may NOT be doing what Jesus wants. To be honest with you, I've been in that same predicament for the majority of my Christian life.   It has just been recently that I have realized what Jesus has actually asked me, along with every other Christian in the world, to be doing, and it all starts with knowing what He said.  

I still vividly remember lying in bed with my beautiful wife on our honeymoon in Jamaica and thinking to myself, "Ryan, how well do you know what Jesus actually said."  That question forever changed my life.  From that moment on, after weeping in bed with my wife, I made a commitment to get to know Jesus better, and strive to live my life the way that He had told me to.  I remember sitting on the balcony overlooking the vast ocean and going through the book of Luke and writing down everything Jesus said , and then writing in my notebook what that would look like in my life if I actually tried to live that out.  As I started to strive to live my life according to what Jesus said, my life began to change.  I started to see chains of sin being broken, walls of insecurities and uncertainties coming down, a boldness that I had never felt before rising within me, and God moving in miraculous ways that I had never seen before.  I couldn't believe how much freedom I felt in striving to live the way that Jesus had commanded me to. There was now a new found knowledge and love for my Savior that had never been present before, simply because I had made the decision to finally read the 'Red Letters' for myself and strive to live a life reflective of complete obedience to His words.

As I continued to look into what Jesus said, I found myself clinging especially to the words that He had spoken in the most crucial and important times of His life.  For instance, the words that would change my life forever, are the last words that Jesus spoke to His disciples before He ascended into Heaven and was gone.  I mean think about it, if you had a few more moments left on this earth to verbalize your heart to your closest friends, wouldn't you want your last words to be the most important and heartfelt statements you had ever made?  That is exactly what I found Jesus communicating to his disciples in Matthew 28 as he gave them a command that would forever alter history as we know it.  He told the disciples in the last verses recorded in the book of Matthew to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND MAKE DISCIPLES, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND TEACH THOSE DISCIPLES TO OBEY EVERYTHING HE COMMANDED, AND THEN HE REASSURED THEM THAT HE WOULD BE WITH THEM UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD. To be honest with you though,  I truly feel like that statement by Christ, is one of the most overlooked statements Jesus ever made, because of the fact that the vast majority of believers in the world don't know how to MAKE DISCIPLES.  

I mean ask yourself right now:  How many people have you shared the gospel with and seen baptized?; How many discples have you ever made and do you know how to do that?; and how well do you even know what Jesus commanded?  Answering these questions truly was the launching pad of my revived Christian life.  I had to be honest with myself and admit to a few convicting things: 1. I couldn't recall how many people I had actually led to Christ myself and seen baptized 2. I didn't know of any disciples that I had ever actually made because I didn't even know to do that, and 3. I didn't really know what Jesus ever commanded in the Bible.  In order to answer these questions, I knew I had to RISE above many things in my life in order to fulfill the calling that Christ had called me, and all of us to do, which was to MAKE DISCIPLES.

After nearly 10 months or so of my own deliberate testing of how to spread the gospel to the unsaved world, I found that "NOT BEING ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL" WAS THE FIRST CHAIN THAT WAS KEEPING ME FROM ACCOMPLISHING THE FIRST COMMAND THAT CHRIST MADE IN HIS STATEMENT IN MATTHEW WHICH WAS TO LITERALLY 'GO’.  I had known for quite some time that the "gospel" itself was perfectly packaged for us in the words of Jesus Christ when He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3:16.  In that story, Nicodemus, who was a very 'religious' guy who had strived to follow the law perfectly, asked Jesus how to go to Heaven, and Jesus responded to him with one of the most loving and radical statements of all time.  Jesus told Nicodemus that "God loved the world so much, that He gave His one and only Son (Jesus), so that everyone who believes in Him by confessing and turning from their sin and fully committing their lives to living for Christ forever, would not die and go to Hell, but would have eternal life in Heaven.  I mean, think of how radical of a statement that was for Jesus to say to this young man.  He basically told Nicodemus that if he didn't believe in Him , that he would die and go to a burning place called Hell forever. But I truly think that the most radical part of that verse is the actual meaning of the word 'believe' that Jesus used.  The word 'believe' found in that verse, is the Greek word 'pisteau' which literally has no proper translation to the English language.  The word 'pisteau' is actually an ongoing present tense action verb that literally corresponds to a full out life commitment and willingness to die which should result in a radical and lasting change in behavior.

When we fully grasp the meaning of that word 'believe' and then we look at how it affected the life of Nicodemus when he heard Jesus use it, you find that Nicodemus definitely got it.  I mean, just read through the rest of the book of John to see how it changed Nicodemus' life.  A few chapters later you will find Nicodemus with a new found boldness that causes him to stand up for Christ and speak on His behalf in the midst of a group tyrants who were ready to crucify Jesus.  Then later, you see Nicodemus show up again as well when you see him taking Jesus' body off of the cross after Jesus died.  If those two actions by Nicodemus don't reveal to us the severity and powerfulness of the word 'believe' that Jesus used to show us how to go to heaven, then I don't know what else would.  John 3:16, when fully understood, is the most powerful and life changing statement that Jesus ever made and it honestly has the power to change the life of all of those who hear it.  

Starting about 10 months ago, in order to test the power and effectiveness of sharing John 3:16 with others, I decided to print off cards with John 3:16 on the back and hand them out to random people I came across.   Before handing them out though, I would first ask the person if I could ask them a question.  After asking hundreds and maybe even thousands of people if I could 'ask them a question', I found that 100% of the time they responded with 'yes', which always seemed to 'break the ice' per say. After they would give me the approval of being able to ask them a question, I would simply ask:"Do you know what John 3:16 says?" Surprisingly, nearly 90% of the time, I found that they had never heard of it before!  If they had heard of it before, they didn't know what it said, and if they did try to quote it, they only got the first half right, and if they did get the whole thing out, it was stated in such a way that it sounded like some form of King James confused version that no one could even grasp because of all the 'eths' required in quoting it (ex. loveth, believeth, perisheth).  Once they made it clear that they didn't know the verse very well, I would ask them if they knew who said it.  After they would admit that they didn't know that either, I would simply tell them a short background of the verse and state that a young man had just asked Jesus how to go to Heaven, and then I would go on and tell them what Jesus said in a way that they understood.  For instance "Jesus told the young man that wanted to go to Heaven that God loved the world so much, that He gave His one and only Son (Jesus), so that everyone who believes in Him by confessing and turning from their sin and fully committing their lives to living for Christ forever, would not die and go to Hell, but would have eternal life in Heaven."  

After reading the verse to them, I would ask them if they knew what it meant to 'believe' in Jesus.  Nearly 99% of the time I received a response that was nowhere close to the actual meaning of the word in the Greek.  I would then explain the meaning of the word and let them know that Jesus wants them to turn from their sin and have a close relationship with Him and strive to know Him, obey Him, and remain close to Him forever.  After telling them the meaning of 'believe', I would ask them straight forward if they 'believed' in Jesus.  Over 90% of the time I received a response from them with newly opened eyes claiming that 'yes I believe'.  It was at that point that I would hand them 3 cards and tell them to ck out the website and consider coming to church and also sharing a card with someone else.  This entire conversation may take a few minutes and you may never see the person again, or it could spark a relationship that changes that person’s life, and your relationship with that person could become strong enough to last a lifetime, which I have seen happen on many occasions already.   The question is, are you willing to be BOLD ENOUGH to share the gospel with someone else.  Are you willing to not NOT BE ASHAMED OF CHRIST?  

Although I've found a simple way to accomplish the first part of the command given by Christ in Matthew 28 to go and share the gospel, the next question is how do we get them baptized?  Obviously the best way for this to take place is to suggest to them to get involved in a local church body.  After doing that you can then encourage them to be baptized, or if you want to get really radical, just find the nearest swimming pool:-)  Either way, if a true relationship is sparked, then strive to get their contact information, and stay in touch with that person in terms of texting, calling, emailing, and communicating with them on a regular basis until you are able to start the next step in the process and the most overlooked part of Christ’s command which is to make them a disciple.

I don’t understand how I could go through nearly 20 years of my Christian life and not know how to ‘make a disciple’ but that’s where I have found myself even up to recently.  But it all changed when I read Jesus’ final command a little closer in Matthew 28:20. In that verse Jesus gave us a direct formula for how to make a disciple.   He simply told us to “teach them to obey everything He commanded.”    I don’t know about you, but that sounds like Jesus wants us to know what He commanded, strive to obey what He said, and in turn teach others to do the same!  That sounds radically simple to me.  All we need now is a list of His commands and a willingness to sacrifice our time to teach others how to obey those commands?   

In order to be able to apply this simple tactic to my own life in terms of making disciples by teaching others to obey what Jesus commanded, I first decided to make a categorized list of every command that Jesus gave to us in Scripture.  All I did was simply look up every commandthat Jesus gave, summarized each one with a short phrase which displayed the main point of that particular command, categorized each command based on topic, and then ordered the topics by frequency in terms of how many times Jesus gave that particular command.   The results of this process were eye  opening, heart challenging, and life changing  to say the least.  After going through nearly 90 commands of Christ, I quickly found out that Jesus was a lot different than I initially thought.  The things that He commanded the most were things that I had never heard a lotabout during my Christian life, and the things that I had heard many times about Jesus before were nowhere to be found in His commands!  It was after seeing theradical nature of the commands of Christ, that I started to truly fall in love with Him like never before. 

Here are the topical command categories of Christ ordered by frequency:

§  Repent, Obey, & Remain Faithful Until the End (34 times)

§  Love Others (13 times)

§  Humble Yourself & Don’t be Prideful (10 times)

§  Sacrifice your Money & Possessions to the Poor (8 times)

§  Don’t Commit Sexual Sins (7 times)

§  Pray (5 times)

§  Tell Others About Jesus (5 times)

§  Don’t Talk Badly and Be Careful What You Say (3 times)

§  Watch out for Pastors and Teachers who Don’t Teach the truth (3)

In order for us to look deeper into these categories, and therefore fully grasp the commands that Christ gave, here is the complete and compiled this of Christ’s commands with short one sentence summaries and scripture references.

REPENT, OBEY, & REMAIN FAITHFUL

1.     Strive for perfection and righteousness, and to be separate from the world (Matthew 5:43-48)

2.     Be hardcore and dedicated to repentance and turning from sin (Revelation 3:19)

3.     Hypocrisy must not exist and don't live a fake life filled with secret sins but instead confess and turn from them (Luke 12:1-2)

4.     Love and obey Jesus just like you did when you first believed and turn away from sin (Revelation 2:4-5)

5.     Be faithful even if it means dying for Jesus (Revelation 2:10)

6.     Hold on tightly to your faith until Jesus returns or you die (Revelation 2:25)

7.     Stay strong and stand for Christ until the very end of time (Mark 13:13)

8.     Seek after what God wants and Obey Him (Matthew 16:24)

9.     We must be born again and look like a completely new person in order to go to Heaven (John 3:5-6)

10.   Do not sin anymore (John 8:11; 5:14; Luke 13:3,5)

11.   Hold strong to Jesus' teachings and then you will be Set Free (John 8:31-32)

12.   If we love Jesus, we will obey Him (John 14:15)

13.   If we obey Jesus,  He will love us (John 14:23-24)

14.   If we obey Jesus, He will love us, and Reveal Himself to us (John 14:21)

15.   Remain committed to Jesus and keep listening to Him (John 15:5)

16.   If you obey the commands of Jesus you will remain in His love (John 15:10)

17.   Don't let concerns for family interfere with Gods commands and His will for your life (Luke 14:26)

18.   Understand that the cost will be great and we must be willing to lose everything for Jesus (Luke 14:28-33)

19.   Hear God's Word and obey it (Luke 11:25)

20.   Don't turn away from the words of Christ (Revelation 3:20)

21.   Learn from previous lessons and obey (Revelation 3:2-3)

22.   Focus on cleaning up the inside of your life and it will show on the outside (Matthew 23:25-26)

23.   Watch for certain sins to be exposed by Jesus, and then fix them (Mark 13:37)

24.   Always be ready for Jesus to return (Luke 12:35-40)

25.   Stand strong and remain faithful and it will save your soul (Luke 21:19)

26.   Be born again by turning from sin and believing in Jesus in order to go to heaven & not go to hell (John 3:16; Luke 3:3)

27.   Believe in Jesus by committing our lives to Him, striving to remain faithful, and being willing to die for Him (John 12:36)

28.   Wake up & perform perfect works and strive to do right in everything (Revelation 2:26)

29.   Listen to and read Jesus' words and obey them (Luke 6:46-49)

30.   Put into practice what we read (Luke 8:21)

31.   Closely listen to the words of Christ by intently reading what He said (Luke 10:39-42; John 6:63)

32.   Only a few people will be saved, so enter through the narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14)

33.   Many will try to go to heaven but only a few actually will (Luke 13:23-24)

34.   Watch out and be alert...don't he drunk and waste time on useless things because Jesus could return at any moment (Luke 21:24-26)                            

LOVE OTHERS

1.     Treat others the way you would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12)

2.     Love God with everything you have and love others in that same way  (Matthew 22:2-30)

3.     Do good to others by helping them in any way possible even if they hate us and treat us badly,  love our enemies, & pray for those who persecute us and hate us. (Matthew 5:38-42)

4.     Don't hold in anger towards others regardless of the situation (Matthew 5:21-25)

5.     Check ourselves before confronting another person about sin (Luke 6:39-42)

6.     Don't judge other people but instead check yourself first (Matthew 7:1-5)

7.     Show mercy to others (Matthew 12:33-37)

8.     If you know that another Christian sinned then confront them; if they don't change then take 2-3 other people; if they still refuse to change then take them before everyone; then cast him out as an unbeliever (Matthew 18:15-17)

9.     Love each other (John 13:34-35)

10.   Love each other just like Jesus loved us and died for us (John 15:12-14)

11.   Love each other (John 15:17)

12.   If a brother does you wrong, then confront him about it.  If he says sorry and changes, then forgive him everytime he truly repents and says sorry. (Luke 17:3-4)

13.   Don't neglect mercy, justice, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23)

BE HUMBLE & DON’T BE PRIDEFUL

1.     Listen & be humble (Mark 4:24-25)

2.      Don't burden others with things that you are not willing to do yourself, and don't try to 'show off' your good works in a prideful manner (Matthew 23:2-5)

3.     Don't do acts of charity in a prideful way but rather give to the poor in secret in the sight of God (Matthew 6:1-4)

4.     Don't fast in a public and showy manner but instead in a very humble way knowing that God sees you (Matthew 6:16-18)

5.     Don't get caught up in being loved and noticed by others because of your position (Luke 11:43)

6.     We must serve others like a humble servant (Matthew 20:26-28)

7.     We must refer to ourselves as brothers and we are all under Christ (Matthew 23:8-10)

8.      Don't be concerned about being 'first'...be humble and put others ahead of you (Luke 14:8-11)

9.      Don't throw parties and dinners expecting to be repaid and don't just invite friends...invite those who are crippled, lame, and blind. (Luke 14:12-14)

10.   Wash other people's feet to show humility (John 13:14)

SACRIFICE MONEY & POSSESSIONS

1.     Don't be surprised when selfish desires begin to fade away, & you start loving Jesus more than anything (Matthew 16:25)

2.     Be willing to sacrifice and go through pain or else you cannot be a disciple of Christ (Matthew 16:26)

3.     We must forsake everything to follow Christ (Luke 14:27)

4.     Be willing to do scary, uncomfortable, and challenging things and don't be all wrapped up in this life here on earth. (Matthew 16:24-25)

5.     If you hate your life here on earth, you will gain eternal life (John 12:25)

6.     Sell your Possessions and give to the poor so that you will have treasures in Heaven (Luke 12:33-34)

7.     Sell your possessions and give your money to the poor and then follow Jesus (Luke 18:20-22)

8.     Don't worry and stress over money, food, and clothing bc Jesus will take care of you (Matthew 6:31-34)

PRAY

1.     Strive to learn from Jesus by praying and trying to hear His voice and it is then that rest and peace will come (Matthew 11:29; Luke 11:28)

2.     Listen to the Lord and find out how to handle what has been given (Luke 8:18)

3.     Go in your closet and pray and don't just babble on and on trying to sound cool...just be real and pray the way Jesus taught us to...God knows what we need (Matthew 6:5-8)

4.     Pray that you won't fall into temptation (Luke 22:40)

5.     Ask God for what you want and He will give it to you (Matthew 7:7)

TELL OTHERS ABOUT CHRIST

1.     Don't waste time on people who are completely unresponsive and hateful towards the gospel message  (Matthew 7:6)

2.     Don't worry about saying the right thing when trying to defend yourself, but instead trust that the Holy Spirit will speak through you (Luke 12:11-12)

3.      Shine so others can see the good things you are doing for the Lord (Matthew 5:16)

4.      Tell others that Jesus is coming back, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons (Matthew 12:7)

5.      We must tell others about Jesus and what He has done (John 15:26-27)

DON’T TALK BADLY AND CONTROL WHAT YOU SAY

1.     Don't talk badly and control what you say (Matthew 15:18-20)

2.     Don't discuss sinful things in a joking manner or at all (Matthew 7:21-23)

3.      When you say you're going to do something, then do it, and don't swear that you’ll do it (Matthew 5:34-37)

WATCH OUT FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T TEACH THE TRUTH

1.     Don't follow bad leaders (Matthew 15:14)

2.     Watch out for false teachers and pastors who don't speak truth but rather look over serious sin issues (Matthew 7:15-23)

3.     Understand the Authority of Jesus' teachings are a lot different than others and it should amaze us, challenge us, and change us (Matthew 7:28-29)

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My prayer is that we would eagerly desire to start obeying the words and commands of Christ like never before.  I sincerely hope that you will utilize this information and start meeting reguarly with one or two people a week, and walk them through the commands of Christ,hold them accountable for the commands, and help them grow closer in their walk with the Lord.  An easy way to approach a 'discipleship meeting' with another person, is to plan a specific time and place to meet each week, and come prepared to touch on 2-3 of the commands in detail.  Strive to do some research into the background and context of each scripture reference and let the passage itself spur questions and insight into what Jesus was trying to tell us to do and what that might look like in your lives. Following each discipleship meeting, I desperately encourage you togo through the following questions in order to develop accountablility, transperency, friendship, and unity within the group.  This tactic is known as RISE. It is an acronym that can easily be remembered:

R: Rise Up

  Ask each other what are some things that are keeping you from rising up for Christ.  For instance: unconfessed sin, commands that you're struggling with, job issues, depression, family problems, etc.  Use this as a time to confess sins and struggles with one another.

I: Imitate Jesus

Ask each other how yall are doing on looking into what Jesus said on your own.  Discuss how your daily reading of the Bible is going, how your prayer life is, and how yall are currently striving to imitate Jesus.

S: Share Salvation

 Boldly ask each other who they have invited to church lately or who they have handed a 'John 3:16' card to recently.  Strategize ways to share salvation with others in the coming week.  

E: Everyone

Discuss ways that yall can impact 'everyone' meaning people outside your circle of friends or immediate church family...what can yall do sacrificically to help others around the world or next door that can show them the radical love of Christ in a practical way.  ex. Donate money to a charity, help  a neighbor with yard work, pay for someone's meal, plan a mission trip, etc.

After discussing the RISE acronym, then also ask each other what their 'dream' or 'life goal' is for Christ, and then pray with each other before dismissing the meeting.  Strive to encourage one another throughout the week and strive to equip the other people to be able to lead their own group in the coming weeks or months depending on their growth.  

*Here's something STAGGERING to consider: If you personally decided to do this discipleship meeting program with 2 other people once a week for 6 months and you trained those 2 people to do the same thing with 2 other people each after that 6 month period, in 15 years you yourself would have been a part of making close to 1 million disciples for Christ yourself.  Listen, we don't have to be 'missing it' anymore!

I strongly urge and encourage you to get a plan together as soon as possible to startsharing your faith with others and getting them plugged in with a church,  getting thembaptized, and then start meeting with 2 people a week and helping guide them through the commands of Christ.  This will definitely change your life, and you will experience anunexplainebale peace in knowing that you are doing exactly what Jesus wanted you to do all along.

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to message me on facebook, or text or call me at817.343.4912.

Thanks and God bless,

Ryan Roberts