Category: Saturday Study

The Spiritual Discipline of Chasity/Purity  6.21.25

Genesis 2:24-25 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

There is an intimacy described here as joining of two lives that become one which is unlike any other in creation. God’s design for a man and his wife to become one flesh, and to be naked and unashamed, is a beautiful, priceless thing. The problem is that sin and society have really stolen God’s intention for marital intimacy, and they have made what is sacred into something impure and common.

The world’s agenda, when it comes to sex, is to profane it. To profane means to make it common or to treat something sacred with irreverence. 

So, profanity comes from the word profane. When we say,“Oh, God,”in just a flippant, common way instead of exalting His name and worshipping the true God, we use it as a casual response to life and make it common. In this, we use it as a swear word—as an illustration of emotion or disgust. When someone flippantly says, “Jesus Christ!” this is to profane the Lord’s name.

This is what our culture does with God’s design for sex and marital intimacy and God-honoring modesty. The world wants to remove all mystery, holiness, sacredness, and selflessness and make it common and casual. They want to take purity, and what honors God, and exchange it for whatever satisfies man’s flesh. 

Our culture wants to make sex simply about physiology and biology. And so, when they teach it to our kids in sex ed, it is all about mechanics. We have been convinced by our culture that they get it, and we don’t. This is why, for far too many people, they are captured by the world’s casual, mechanical, free-market idea of sex. I believe this is one reason why so many struggle with pornography. Many have come to believe that it is purely mechanical and therefore, harmless and acceptable.

But, what we have to do is see that all of what God intended only to be enjoyed, seen, or experienced in a committed marriage is undone when seen or experienced outside of marriage. This is the reason for modesty, purity, and chastity. The goal must be to honor God and keep our minds and bodies pure in our devotion and worship of Him. 

We have to understand that sexual intimacy is more than the physical. The heart is so involved. The emotional and spiritual scars that sex and intimacy outside of your marriage brings is as deep as it gets; I have never seen anything in my years of counseling to be truer. 

1 Corinthians 6:18 NLT Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

When the Bible is so specific in its warning against impurity and immodesty, we need to slow down and really consider God’s will and ways so that we can have a spiritually disciplined life in this area. 

According to the Bible, sexual intimacy was God’s creation. The Bible starts by revealing that God made us male and female with bodies built for sexual pleasure within the context of marriage. This cannot be a man/man or woman/woman or man/goat. These combinations are not built to do what God gave for man and woman to do in marriage during sex for the multiplication of the human race. Further, God’s design was not a man and a woman who are not committed for life in marriage. Look with me:

Genesis 1:27-28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 2:24-25 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Sex is not for love! Sex is not for commitment! Sex and intimacy are for marriage! 

What this means is, intimacy and nudity are only to be enjoyed between a husband and his wife. Everything outside of that must be modest and pure in order to honor God with our thoughts and actions. Because God’s design for sexual intimacy is so potent, the reality is that any engagement with these things outside of marriage can be extremely damaging to one’s life. 

The analogy I find that helps us understand this goes like this: A big burning fire in your fireplace is a wonderful gift of warmth and comfort and is a beautiful sight in your home. But that fire burning anywhere else in your home, other than the fireplace, is utterly destructive and damaging to your home and life. 

This is the case for sexuality and nudity. Within the context of the covenant of marriage, it is a wonderful gift, and it is God-honoring. Outside of marriage, it is damaging and God-dishonoring. 

So, this means we are to be pure and modest in every other circumstance. The way we dress should not be revealing anything that God intended to be private and for marriage. The way we talk should be pure and God-honoring, not making what God designed to be sacred into something common or casual. 

The reality is we live in a lost world that has a true and aggressive agenda to take all that God made holy and pure, and profane it. I can’t watch regular television with my kids anymore, not just because the programming might be compromised but because the commercials are often explicit and profaned. Just about everywhere we look, we are inundated with sexuality and immodest images. Song lyrics have come a long way from Elvis Presley and even the entertainers of a few decades ago. 

We have to practice the discipline of modesty and purity in the most practical ways. The shows we watch or the music we listen to should keep our mind and our eyes pure and not defraud our spirit unto sexual immorality. If social media is introducing compromise, then we should have a discipline to step out of that environment in order to keep our mind and spirit focused on the Lord and not on the temptations of the world. What are you doing to practice purity and modesty? What are you doing to fight this very real temptation in this area of life? 

When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 that “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body,” we must realize that how we use our hands, our eyes, and our minds is of the utmost importance in honoring our Lord. He goes on in 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 NLT, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your life.”

Paul continues his plea with those who belong to God in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 when he emphasizes that we “… ought to walk and to please God … for this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God … For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

The scriptures are clear that how we conduct ourselves—our thinking, our looking, our actions—must honor God. But how do we do this in a land full of sexually immoral people, images, songs, and movies? We fight. We work hard. Paul goes so far to say, “Run away.” In other words, when we see immodesty on the horizon, we run the other direction. We don’t put ourselves in those environments where temptation will be ramped up. We keep our families from these places, too. This means there is a real and consistent effort to screen that to which they have access. 

I am praying for you as you consider this spiritual discipline and that you make a true effort to be accountable and sanctified in this area. There is simply too much at stake to take it lightly. God is worthy of all of our lives. Let us honor Him with them. 

By His grace and for His glory, 

Joshua Kirstine
Pastor | Disciples Church

Bakersfield CA
DisciplesChurch.com

Proverbs 8  6.14.25

As we begin in Proverbs 8:1-12, we read about the poetic personification of wisdom, which gives us a visual of all of the benefits of valuing and heeding truth. In a world shaped and ruled by lies, the call of wisdom should be to us like the sound of an approaching ship when we are lost at sea. 

Do you value wisdom? Do you value truth? 

Do you want to know what is right? Are you tired of being deceived and lied to? Then hear wisdom’s call. 

Run to truth and righteousness. Leave behind deceit and dishonorable things. Pursue what is right and good and God-honoring. Run! Don’t walk. 

I love the simple, but often overlooked, point of verse 13. 

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

To side with God—to be on His team—is to hate evil. The Lord is righteousness. How can light mix with darkness? How can we who are of the light desire or befriend what is evil? Do you have a passive acceptance of evil, or do you rightly detest what is evil and what stands against our holy God?

Do you make war with your pride and arrogance? To not make war with them is to walk in a manner that God hates. Do you tolerate and enjoy perverted speech? To do this is to embrace something that God hates. How can we who are in the light embrace the darkness? Brothers/sisters, we are to fight sin and to hate evil. We are to not be afraid to call sin “sin” in our modern, politically correct day. May we be set apart and not embrace nor enjoy the ways of evil, while we love our enemy for the sake of our gospel testimony and God’s glory.

Reading on in Proverbs 8:14-21, we see a list of rewards for truth’s manifestation in our life. God rewards honorable living. It points out here that wisdom is what sets us apart as the victorious and the honored. Do we value truth, knowing we will be honored for eternity? Our prize in this harsh land may be persecution and ridicule, but our eternal prize is what the people of God want and pursue. 

Now, the imagery used in verses 22-31 is very special. It is a proclamation of wisdom to say that the Lord God wielded wisdom and truth from before there was time. The very existence of God, the very perfection and power of God, is wisdom and truth. Then, the beautiful and majestic display of the handiwork of God in creation is on display, and they are all done in wisdom and truth. 

Just read Proverbs 8:22-31 again. Let it draw you into worship of God, for He is good and worthy of our praise. 

This is what John the Beloved was getting at in the opening verse of the Gospel of John. 

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 

Who is the one John is referring to as “the Word”?

To help us answer this, we look to the opening statement in Hebrews: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2a). Here we learn that Jesus is the spokesman of the Godhead. Jesus, the son of God, is the Word.

Also, in Revelation 1:8 a title declared of Jesus is “I am Alpha and Omega,” which intimates that He is God’s alphabet, the One who spells out Deity, the One who utters the word of God.

Even clearer, perhaps, is the testimony of John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

John’s calling Jesus “the Word” is his way of declaring this biblical truth that Jesus is the Spokesman of God and the One who has declared, or told forth, the Godhead.

A “word” is a form of manifestation. If I have a thought and it is only in my mind, others do not know what it is, right? But the moment I put form and body to the thought in words, whether written or spoken, that thought has now become revelation that is known by others. 

I want you to stop and consider the mind-blowing reality that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us by speaking His word. He does this through Christ who is referred to as the Word. Jesus has made manifest the invisible God to us is a most special way. I want us to stop and really take in the game-changing reality that the eternal God of all creation has chosen to reveal Himself to us by communicating with us by the Word, Jesus. We do not deserve this. 

Think about what you know about how Christ has revealed God to us! Christ, as the Word, reveals the attributes and perfections of God. He displays His power, He manifests His wisdom, He exhibits His holiness, He makes known His grace, He unveils His heart. In Christ, like nowhere and nothing else, is God revealed to us. This is what the Apostle Paul is getting at in Colossians 1:15: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” Paul, right away, is showing us this huge, game-changing truth: God has made Himself known—visible—by His Word, Jesus Christ.

A “word” is an expression. It is by words we articulate our speech. The Word of God, then, is the Deity expressing Itself in audible terms. What we need to see is that this is not just any word of expression but THE WORD from THE LIVING GOD. In other words, it is the very source of all TRUTH and wisdom and life!

John calls Jesus the Word because he has come to see the words of Jesus as the truth of God and the person of Jesus as the truth of God in such a unified way that Jesus Himself—in His coming, working, teaching, dying, and rising—was the final and decisive message of God. Or to put it more simply: What God had to say to us was not only (or mainly) what Jesus said, but who Jesus was and what He did. His words clarified Himself and His work. 

The person, words, and work of Jesus is God’s revealing that He is the TRUTH!

Track with me here to gather the power of this:

Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6).

Jesus came to witness to the truth (John 18:37). His witness and His person were the Word of truth. 

He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31), and He said, “Abide in me” (John 15:7). When we abide in Him, we are abiding in the Word. He said that His works were a “witness” about Him (John 5:36; 10:25). In other words, in His working, He was the Word.

In Revelation 19:13 (by the same author as the Gospel of John), John describes Jesus’ glorious return: “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” Jesus is called The Word of God as He returns to earth. 

Two verses later, John says, “From his mouth comes a sharp sword” (Revelation 19:15). This is how Jesus will strike the nations: in the power of the word of God that He speaks! 

May we see Jesus as the ultimate manifestation of wisdom and truth. He is God; He is light; He is truth. May we long for and worship Him above all else. May the wisdom we seek not be only that of man but more, far more. May it be the highest revelation of wisdom and truth, the Lord Jesus Christ—THE WORD, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE! 

By His grace and for His glory, 

Joshua Kirstine
Pastor | Disciples Church

Bakersfield CA
DisciplesChurch.com

The Spiritual Discipline of Discipleship  6.7.25

Today’s study is a big one and so important for us to understand. So, set aside some quality time, and let’s dig into the Great Commission of our Lord and His call to make disciples. 

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

If you are a Christian, someone who has died to yourself and repented of your sin and trusted your life to Jesus Christ alone for new and eternal life, then this is your Master’s command on your life. Jesus has saved us to a glorious eternal feast in His glory, whereby “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). But in the meantime, He has charged us to go and make disciples of all nations. So, while discipleship is a spiritual discipline that we must faithfully practice, it is more than that; it is the specific work Christ has charged us to do as the Church. 

1. All Authority

Jesus begins by saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The first step to disciple-making is to be a disciple yourself. The first step to being a disciple of Jesus is to die to yourself and live for Him in all you do. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “… You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

The first thing we must do is submit our entire lives to God; He must be our authority if we are to be His faithful disciples. Is there any part of your life that you hold the reigns on, even though it might contradict what Jesus commands or teaches in His word? Does Jesus truly have the authority in all matters of your life? We are not disciples of Christ if we are not totally surrendered to Him and ready to follow Him in all things. 

Paul understands and says this so well in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 

What does it mean to be totally under the authority of Jesus? What does it mean to die to self and live to Christ?

Luke 14:25-27 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

The Scriptures teach if you are reborn, your life is a life of surrender to self. It is obedience and submission to the authority of Jesus. So, the first step is to truly count the cost. 

2. Count the Cost

Jesus spoke often of, and specifically to, the cost of following Him. He wants people to truly count the cost to being a disciple of Christ. For example, consider what Jesus said to the scribe who came and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus frankly told this apparent volunteer-for-service that it would not be easy: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:19-20; Luke 9:57-58). 

Another disciple wanted to be excused from his immediate obligation of obedience so that he might go and care for his aged father, but Jesus would allow no delay. Jesus said, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (Matthew 8:21-22; Luke 9:59-60). Another man indicated that he would follow Jesus, but on his own terms. He wanted to first bid farewell to his family, perhaps anticipating a merry good time doing it. But Jesus put it to him straight: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). 

The point is clear: the disciple does not go to the disciple-maker and lay out his own terms for discipleship, as this lacks the very submission that Christ demands for His faithful followers. Therefore, every person must count the cost. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28). Not to do so was tantamount to inviting ridicule later from the world. The same would be true of a king in war who did not consider the cost of victory before hostilities began. To sum it up bluntly, Jesus said, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33; see Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22). 

3. Go Therefore

Next, Jesus says in this Great Commission, “Go therefore …” (Matthew 28:19).

This is not speaking of going to a specific location but is speaking of an investment outside of yourself, an investment into others. It means you cannot stay. You cannot keep to yourself. His authority is for a purpose that He is going to put to work in and through you. It’s not to terminate on you; it is something that involves your investing outside of yourself. 

“Go therefore” means get up; it means go out. One of the realities of our sin is that we only live our lives for ourselves. When we are struggling with our sin, we want to be selfish. We don’t want to go; we want to stay—stay where we are comfortable, stay at home on the couch and just consume and be entertained or work longer hours so we can consume more stuff. 

It is so easy to make the Christian life about what we get and not about what we give. We really need to understand this. Why are we called to go? Why do we move outside ourselves with our time and money and lives and not just stay in and serve ourselves? Because of “therefore.” It’s not just “Go”; it’s “Go therefore.”

The “therefore” ties the going, the investing, to what was just said: Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth … go therefore! When we get who Christ is, who we are in Christ, and what He is doing in the here-and-now in the world, we will not stay. We will not keep to ourselves and make our paycheck and buy our groceries and do what we want to do! Instead, we will go (invest into others); we will live with a life-changing confidence in the authority of the One who sent us. We will invest in, and make the most of, our days that He gives us to go in His authority.

4. Make Disciples

Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples …”

If we are going to make disciples, we need to know what a disciple is. The standard definition of “disciple” (noun) is someone who adheres to the teachings of another. It is a follower or a learner. 

• In the work world, it is an apprentice. 
• In the Motorcycle Club world, it is a probate/prospect. 
• In Jedi training, it is a Padawan.

A “disciple” is someone who adheres to the teachings of another.Applied to Jesus, a disciple is someone who is trained to be like Christ. Making disciples of Jesus is the responsibility of Christians who submit to Christ’s Commission. Making disciples involves training in God’s word, calling people to become those who learn from Christ, teaching people what Christ has commanded and to obey all He has commanded, teaching them to obey in the context of church life, and summoning the church to command all nations to follow Jesus and become little Christs, and as a result, glorify God and fulfill Jesus’ Commission.

Being Discipled

If we are going to “make disciples,” we must first be discipled. Jesus didn’t show up on the scene and say to a bunch of fishermen, “Go make disciples.” They didn’t know Christ yet, so how could they teach others to be like Him? They hadn’t yet been trained by Christ and His word, so how could they teach others His word? 

What Jesus did say to them was, “Follow me.” “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). I am going to teach you—to disciple you—to do a different kind of fishing: a fishing that will change men and their families, not just for a season but for eternity, not just for their own good but for the eternal glory of God!

Being discipled today is just what it was for those fishermen. It’s the journey of a trained and matured follower of Christ discipling another, teaching him, and helping him mature in Christ. 

Colossians 1:28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 

Being discipled starts with your hunger to not stay where you are in your faith journey. There is a hunger and humility you must have in order to grow, study, change, and mature. The first disciples were hungry and willing to do what was needed to reprioritize their lives to be discipled by Jesus. 

Is this a description of your life? Is this a marker of your Christian faith? Do you claim the title “Christian” because you are saved, and you attend church? Or are you truly a “Little Christ” in that you are making prioritized adjustments in your life to be discipled into Christ likeness? Is your belonging to Christ or following Christ more of a life-long idea or ideal, or is it a clear and focused daily reality? Do your friends and family see you and your daily investment to be discipled and to make disciples of Jesus?

Hear it this way: hungry, teachable, faithful followers of Christ will be continual learners from Jesus as they sit under the preaching of God’s word and discipleship in such a way that they become doers of it. 

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves

No matter how long you have been a believer, the question for many of you is this: Have you truly been discipled? I mean trained in the word and mentored in how to be a fully-devoted follower of Christ. More than that, have you been trained how to be a disciple-maker of others?

The life of a Christian is a life of ongoing faith, repentance, ministry, and mission. It is being equipped and deployed. It is being sent to contribute to the mission of God in this world, which is to make disciples whom Christ has redeemed from every nation, building Christ’s Church among all peoples, and calling them into the fullness of the kingdom of God.

Discipleship (Disciple-making)

What does it mean to “make disciples”? 

I want you to think about this: in your life, who do you know who is a disciple-maker? I mean someone who has really devoted themselves to training, mentoring, teaching, and modeling the Christian life in such a way that it points that student, that learner, that person (that disciple) to Jesus. The result of this kind of discipleship is someone who is truly growing in Christ, maturing in Christ, becoming more Christ-like, obedient to Christ, and all about Christ.

Here is my loving point in all this: If we take seriously Jesus’ words about what it looks like to sacrificially follow Him and to make disciples, when you think of the church and those in it,you should be able to identify far more Christians who are “making disciples” than you currently can.

Paul shows us this at work when he wrote to the Philippians:

Philippians 4:9 (NIV) Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This leads us to the meat of what discipleship is: It is training! It is teaching. Again, the definition of “disciple” is someone who adheres to the teachings of another. It is a follower or a learner. So, a critical part of discipleship is teaching.Jesus endorses this in His commissioning of the Church. Look with me at verse 20 of Matthew 28:

Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you …” 

Disciples are made through the ministry of the word entrusted to the church, including preaching, teaching, evangelism, and counseling. The word teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The word makes disciples, and Christ makes disciples through the word. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Is that not a picture of discipleship? So, discipleship will include instruction, study, and digging into God’s word and truths. It is the process of conforming our minds to God’s will and way. This is how we are shaped. 

Let me remind you that the goal is to make disciples of Christ—not disciples of you! In 1 Corinthians 11:1-3, Paul encourages the church to follow his example, as he follows the example of Christ.  You can say with Paul, “Watch me as I follow Christ.” Christ is the One we want to be like. Christ is still the One we are learning to be like. He is the One we ultimately follow and belong to!

5. Of All Nations

Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …”

The goal is to multiply the church and send out qualified, readied disciple-makers. To send someone not ready into the battlefield is not a manner worthy of God. The sending is not just the packing of a bag and the giving of supplies; it is the preparation and training to know what to do with those supplies. 

Again, we must send readied “disciple-makers,” not just evangelists. Too many missions efforts are only about evangelism. But, to simply evangelize and then leave is to leave a newborn baby on the side of the road with no one to be its family and nurture and train and grow that new life in Christ.  

Jesus’ Commission on us to “make disciples of all nations” means our disciple-making eventually has a global reach. If we are not putting boots on the ground to make disciples, we are missing the point of our Commission and God’s plan to have His name known and praised among the nations. The goal in our discipleship is to be able to send readied disciple-makers to go to the ends of the earth to plant churches and make disciples there. It is not enough to just be comfortable here and send some money to those who are willing to go overseas. 

“There is a big difference between a church that ‘has’ missionaries (on the back of their bulletin or as a line item in their budget) and a church that ‘sends’ missionaries.” -John Piper

We must do both! We cannot do just one. 

– If we send but don’t support, we have cut them off and ceased to be the church to them. 

– If we support but don’t send, we have stopped the work of discipleship and duplication to pay others to do this work for us. 

We all are called to the missional work of disciple-making. You are a part of global missions if you are a part of making disciples.

The true role of the modern-day church is not what we have made it to be: 

Great music, comfortable church venues, exciting events, and attractive activities

Great preaching that stimulates the mind and stirs the heart

Helpful counseling and authentic fellowship with others

All that is worth nothing if we are not following Christ to take up our cross and go—giving ourselves to others in testifying of our faith, baptizing those new believers, training them up, teaching them the whole counsel of God, and helping them mature in Christ unto the disciple-making of others. 

This is what it means to be a Christian: a disciple of Christ. 

So, I ask you today:

What do you need to do to get on board?  

What do you need to repent of to make time and energy and room to do this very thing God has saved you and called you to do?

Who do you need to get with to dig in? 

Remember, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

Let us practice the spiritual discipline of disciple-making for the glory of God and the good of those He still intends to save worldwide. 

By His grace and for His glory, 

Joshua Kirstine
Pastor | Disciples Church

Bakersfield CA
DisciplesChurch.com

The Spiritual Discipline of Hospitality  5.31.25

This week’s spiritual discipline falls right in line with many of the others we have already seen, in that our life in Christ is one of sacrificial living. We are not building our own kingdom but the Lord’s kingdom. What we have and what we are able to do is not ours but the Lord’s, and we are called to be good stewards of it all. So, one of the calls on our lives as Christians is to be generous with our time and stuff. This includes the area of showing hospitality to those God puts in our path. 

Hospitality can be done in a number of ways. It can be going out of your way to offer up a drink to someone who is thirsty or giving someone a place to have shelter or a place to lay their head. Hospitality means we labor to keep the things God gives us clean and organized. True hospitality is not just opening your door to someone; it is preparing your home or a space for them. All of this is good stewardship. We manage the things God has entrusted to us well so we can be hospitable and God-honoring with them. 

Hebrews 13:1-2 Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 

In Hebrews 13:1, we are told to continue to love fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But as we love other believers, we are to also be sure to show love and hospitality to strangers, too. Our investment can not only be in the church where we are comfortable with our blood-bought family but must address one of the main reasons God has us here on earth and on mission: to be a witness of the gospel to those who are lost in sin. 

We must see these people as strangers and orphans who are desperate for the saving grace of Jesus and the eternal family of God. We are an extension of God’s love and grace, as we sacrificially make room and time for those who need it. Like many other verses, we are told we may be entertaining angels and unaware of it. This is a way of reminding us that God is with us, and all that we do is to be unto Him. 

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 

We saw this happen in Genesis 18 with the appearance of angels to Abraham near the oaks of Mamre. Abraham was hospitable and was blessed with news of Isaac’s birth. If we are not hospitable to those in need, we might be denying angels and the blessings that God can grant to us through them.

In our reading in Matthew 25:34-46 this week, we heard Jesus say that when we are showing love and grace and hospitality to the downtrodden and the least of these, we are ultimately showing love to God. To love the least of people is a hard thing. Why? Because they may not smell good or value things the same way we do; they may have convictions and priorities that are very opposite of ours and could, in general, be bad stewards of their own lives that caused them to be in a hard place. It is easy to have a religious view of people that says, “I worked hard for what I have and I’m not going to throw it away on you just because you are so quick to throw your own life away.” We have to remember that we were one of “the least of these” before we were saved by Christ. We had no ability to save ourselves. We must see “the least of these” as lost in sin and desperate for Jesus, and that is where we can make a difference. We can show them Jesus in our sacrificial living and generous hospitality. This is something we do even when it is hard or when it is for someone we don’t care for. There is no better example of this than Jesus’ teaching about the good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37. 

Read it again: Luke 10:29-37. 

I will give you a little background for the context of this story. After the Assyrians captured Samaria (the capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel) in 722–21 BC, they deported all the Israelites and settled the land with foreigners, who intermarried with the surviving Israelites and adhered to some form of their ancient religion (2 Kings 17–18). After the exile of the Southern kingdom in Babylon, Jews, returning to their homeland, viewed the Samaritans not only as the children of political rebels but as racial half-breeds whose religion was tainted by various unacceptable elements. 

In the Jews’ eyes, the Samaritans were ceremonially unclean, they were racially impure, and they were religiously heretical; therefore, they were avoided. In fact, the Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews, so Jesus’ use of a Samaritan as the example of a good neighbor would have been striking to His original audience.

Christ told the parable of the good Samaritan in response to a lawyer who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:25). In the Savior’s conversation with the lawyer about loving God and neighbor, Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan in order to illustrate who our neighbors are and how we should treat them (Luke 10:29–37). A Samaritan would never have been expected to help a Jew. But a priest and a Levite would have been likely candidates to help the man. Therefore, the failure of the priest and Levite would have been particularly scandalous. But the Samaritan’s care for the injured Jew shows we are not to limit the love and hospitability we are called in Christ to share with others to those who are just like us. 

Finally, a little clarity for one kind of person to whom we are not to show hospitality. The Bible makes it clear that if a person professes faith in Jesus Christ but is not walking according to that faith, is in a season of unrepentant sin, has been biblically confronted and still shows no true repentance, then we are to establish disfellowship with them. Why? Because their testimony betrays Christ and His gospel. We cannot and should not endorse false testimony. So, if a brother claims Jesus but is known for false testimony or unrepentant sin, we are to have nothing to do with him. This is what we read in 2 John 1:10-11.

2 John 1:10-11 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 

We see this in other verses like:

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Romans 16:17-18 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Galatians 1:8-9But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Understand, this is not mean or judgmental in a fleshly way; it is biblical. It says, “I love you enough to call you to repentance and to not fellowship with you until you do.” We see biblical love and grace in that God uses it as the means for a true believer who is in sin to be drawn back to glorious reconciliation and sanctification out of sin. That’s loving and gracious. God uses it to show a deceived person—a falsely testifying person—they are not actually united to Christ, and, if God wills, the Holy Spirit will convict that person and bring about true salvation—true unity to Christ. That is loving and gracious. God uses it to help protect His people from approving, tolerating, and/or falling into sin. This is loving and gracious.

So, in closing, take some inventory:

How are you at showing hospitality to others? 

Do you look for ways to give away or make time to be a blessing to others?

Do you keep your house clean in preparation to be hospitable to those who have a need?

Do you have a place for someone to lay their head or a little food/drink to give away to those who have needs?

It is one thing to say, “Sure, I will be hospitable when the need arises,” and it is another to be prepared to actually practice this spiritual discipline. Go to your church or ministry leaders and ask how you can be more involved in opening yourself up to the needs of others. Let’s be proactive in showing hospitability, and let’s be careful to not harbor the false testimony of those who are in unrepentant sin and thereby distort the testimony of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 

By His grace and for His glory, 

Joshua Kirstine
Pastor | Disciples Church

Bakersfield CA
DisciplesChurch.com

The Spiritual Discipline of Fellowship  5.24.25

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, we meet two friends, Sam and Frodo, on a great quest. After journeying for some time, Sam turns and asks Frodo, “I wonder, what sort of tale we have fallen into?” Sam assumes there is a story, there is something larger going on, and all their experiences might be adding up to something more than first thought. Have you ever wondered what sort of story you have “fallen into”?

It’s not hard to see that life is a story. It doesn’t come at us like a math problem. It comes at us scene by scene. Life unfolds more like a drama, as each day has a beginning and end. There are all sorts of characters and all sorts of settings. Sometimes it feels like a tragedy, sometimes like a comedy, and most of the time, like a drama or soap opera. Just think about the way we do life.

When we get news that a friend was in a car accident we first ask, “Are they ok?” But as quickly as we can get to it, we want to know the story. We ask, “What happened?” In other words, “Tell me the story!”

If life is a story, what is the plot? Who is telling the story? 

Many stories begin with the popular phrase, “Once upon a time …” 

Have you ever wondered why so many tales begin with that phrase? Well, it’s because that’s the way the story of our very existence begins! “In the beginning …” Doesn’t that remind you of “Once upon a time …”?

The Bible uses this language twice. The most popular one is in Genesis, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” 

But we can’t start there if we want to understand THE Story. Genesis reveals accounts that are far into The Story! Genesis is the beginning of the story of this life: the events here on Earth!

To get to the Big Story, the “Once upon an eternity,” we have to go to the Gospel of John, chapter 1: 

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

What John is doing here is reaching back and giving us a glimpse of the time before all time. He is describing a divine fellowship, an intimacy—the perfect, complete, all-powerful existence of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the eternal life of GOD!

Picture it: God has always existed and enjoyed the perfect harmony and relationship of the Trinity. Out of this amazing relationship, we are created.

John is telling us that our origins are relational. What it means to be human, at its core, is to be relational. Aren’t most of your best memories ones that involve others? Aren’t your biggest tragedies also ones that involve others?

We are relational at our core, because we are made in the echo of the intimacy of the Trinity. Genesis says, “Let us make man in OUR image …” One of the deepest of all human longings is the longing to be chosen, to be invited into relationship!

It is in deep, meaningful relationship that our Creator has designed us to experience and share His attribute of love. The Bible says, “God is love.” 

Jesus Himself proved relationship is everything in this life when He proclaimed what we now call “The Great Commandment.” 

Matthew 22:37-40 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

It is in relationship that we are to selflessly love. It is in relationship that we are designed to do life, share our deepest hurts, and cheer our greatest victories.

The spiritual discipline of fellowship is one of the most core practices with which God has blessed us. The question is: do you truly practice fellowship? Do you make time to spend quality time with brothers and sisters in the Lord? 

What we have to see is we are saved into an everlasting fellowship in Christ and His body. But it wasn’t always that way. At the Fall, Adam and Eve experienced one of the most damaging consequences of their sin: 

Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 

The first thing that sin did was divide them. They covered themselves and hid themselves. What was unashamed, honest, united, and loving became judgmental, divisive, solo, and selfish. 

In our sin, we don’t like many people; some don’t like any people. Why? Because they bother us, because we judge them; they hurt us if we let them close, and we don’t like their upsetting our flow. These are the selfish realities of our sin. 

But the good news is God changes that in us in salvation, and then He helps us mature in it in sanctification. 

When God saves us, He adopts us from our separated, orphaned state. He makes us part of His eternal family. 

Ephesians 1:5 means His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:19 means you are members of God’s very own family and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.  Romans 12:5 means in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  

These are glorious realities of the fellowship we now have in Christ. He is restoring what broke apart at the fall of mankind. He is restoring our fellowship just like the Trinity has always enjoyed from eternity past. 

It is our sin that causes us to separate and pull away from others, to be judgmental and to be self-conscious. 

Isolating ourselves is not healthy spiritually, mentally, or physically, and it is certainly not the way to thrive in our Christian life.

Luke 8:21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Your connection to the body of Christ is eternally more important than your connection to your own family! Why? Your physical family can be broken and lost! God’s family is guaranteed forever. 

Does this mean we are not to love and give high priority to our family? No, God gave them to you and you to them for special reasons, but hear what Jesus is saying: you are designed for, and should value highly, your part in God’s family!

Proverbs 27:17 (GNB) People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron.

Galatians 6:2 (TLB) Share each other’s troubles and problems …

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 

He died for us so that we may live together with Him. 

Hebrews 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.  

When we live and grow together as a family, we are committed to one another. We want to fellowship with each other often. It is not an, “If I get to it,” but instead it is a, “This is my priority.” 

So, how do we practice fellowship well? In Acts 2:41-47, we have a great picture of this happening. 

Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 

1. They believed in the gospel. In other words, they were saved and adopted into His family. 
2. They were committed to a local church. They were baptized and added to the church. 

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

3. They were committed to weekly corporate worship. This gathering of the saints is truly a special thing that can be the highlight of our week. 

Acts 2:44-46 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. 

4. They spent everyday life together, and they served together. They spent time eating, singing, and praying. This is fellowship. This is the body of Christ doing life in Christ together. 

Acts 2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

5. God blessed them and multiplied them with more saved family. 

You were formed for God’s family! Let’s make it a true habit to be doing life together and practicing the one-anothers that God gives us in Scripture. 

By His grace and for His glory, 

Joshua Kirstine
Pastor | Disciples Church

Bakersfield CA
DisciplesChurch.com