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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The DNA of a Disciple

And because we invited the presence of Jesus to be here in this place, I believe that place is here right now.

This moment, that place is here because Jesus is here And he's brought you here so that you can know that he loves you and he wants you to be in love with him.

A study was conducted by a group of German psychiatrists and physicians in which it was discovered that spouses who kiss in the morning before they go off to work tend to live higher quality lives.

Listen, they miss less time on the job, have fewer accidents on their way to work, actually earn 20 to 30 percent more in wages, and live 5 years longer than spouses who do not kiss in the morning.

So the researchers wondered why this should be.

And they surmised that the kiss in the morning signifies a seal of approval that helps the spouse feel right about themselves and about the world and helps them to start off the day on a positive note.

In other words, there is something edifying even in the smallest personal expression of love like a morning kiss.

You know and I wonder, I wonder when I when I came across that that research, I wondered, is there some correlation with our spiritual life?

Can we draw a spiritual conclusion from this research?

For example, can morning devotion be likened to a morning kiss?

Might a disciple who starts the day with a kiss to God, fall less into temptation, endure longer tests and trial, and exemplify more easily the fruits of the Spirit.

On the other hand, I doubt that the morning kiss would do much for a couple that don't even talk to each other during the day.

And before long even the morning kiss would stop and cease.

Likewise, if we as disciples of Christ talk to God only in the morning, and no other time, we will not grow in grace.

We need therefore the evening kiss, as well as the afternoon kiss, and we need the bedtime kiss, And in the words of Paul, we need the never-ceasing kiss.

The without-ceasing kiss between us and God.

And there's nothing more important in the life of the disciple, friends, than contact with Christ in love.

Nothing more is important in the life of the disciple.

And so what are the characteristics of a true disciple?

My message today is entitled The DNA of a disciple.

Father in heaven, show us, reveal to us truly what is the very heart of discipleship.

What makes somebody a disciple of Jesus Christ?

We pray that as we ponder this subject, that the Holy Spirit would give us a revelation and understanding of these things and we thank you in Jesus name amen.

1 of the facets of a first century discipleship is the close relationship the rabbis had with their disciples.

The role of a disciple was to perfectly imitate everything he observed his rabbi doing.

Discipleship is imitation in every sense of the word.

When an ancient rabbi accepted a disciple and said, I want you to be my disciple come follow me.

He was publicly acknowledging to the young man and the community that I think he can be like me.

In other words come, come be my disciple imitate me and I'm choosing you because I think you can be like me.

To be a disciple was not simply being a student.

Not to know what your master knows, but rather to be what he is.

Consider this first century phrase concerning discipleship.

The phrase goes like this, walk in the dust of the rabbis.

It means that a disciple would walk so close to his rabbi, he would walk so closely to him, so much so that the steps of the rabbi walking in front of him would kick up dust, and the dust would settle upon his feet.

You know, the disciple would leave their family.

When you think about the 12 disciples, they were not all single bachelors with no family connections, no, not at all.

They would leave their family and their work.

And devote their entire life to being with their Rabbi.

I hope somebody here right now is just letting these realities of a rabbi-disciple relationship in the first century really sink in.

Because when we Talk about modern day discipleship, come on!

It's not that different than it was in Jesus' time.

The disciple went everywhere the rabbi went.

The disciple listened to the rabbi's every word and interaction with others.

Their focus was on everything the rabbi did.

The disciple spent his entire life learning from their rabbi.

The disciples imitated everything about his rabbi because he wanted to know what he knew and be like his rabbi.

The idea of discipleship can be summed up in 1 biblical key word, And that's imitation.

God has fearfully and wonderfully made me.

And the Bible tells us that genetics is this built-in wiring that God created within us, otherwise known as DNA, that make you who you are.

Now, it's true, it's true that David spoke for all of us when he said these words.

He spoke for humanity when he said, In my sin did my mother conceive me?

And then Romans adds, for we all have sinned.

And though our DNAs are very different from 1 another, we do have something in common.

And that is, that we have fallen short of the glory of God.

That DNA that Adam and Eve have when God fearfully and wonderfully made them, it was perfect.

And consequently our DNA is like the default settings on a device.

And sin did my mother conceive me right out of the box, so to speak.

It's the natural way we think, feel, and act.

And the Bible calls this natural way that we think, feel, and act, who we are, who our DNA reveals, it's called the natural man.

But when the Bible speaks of the natural man, it speaks straight out like, it's straightforward.

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The DNA of a Disciple

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