Discipleship Class #3 - How To

All right, welcome back. This is House of Rest Church Discipleship Class Lesson 3, titled How To. You are now a Christian, you're a child of God, you are a member of God's family. If you went to the last class, you have assurance of salvation, you can pray directly to God and have fellowship with Him at any time, and spend devotional time with Him. You're a member of His church, a blessed people. Now that you are maturing in the Lord, you need to give back to the family. God calls you to spread the gospel and teach new believers to obey all of His ways. Then they can proceed to teach even more people about the good news of salvation and train them as well. This is an important part of being a follower of Christ, is to duplicate or replicate yourself, because this is the way God instituted it from the beginning. So we're going to start off by saying that there are four types of calls to share the gospel that we should hear about each day. We need to remind ourselves about this every single day. The first one is a call from heaven, and I'm going to have Pastor Angel explain that. Also, if you are watching this class, make sure you download the PDF if you are able to, and if not, get a notebook and write these things down so you can follow along. Number one, call from heaven from above. First, the commandment of the Lord Jesus in Isaiah. I want to read Isaiah chapter six, verse one through eight. It says this, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting up on a throne, high and lifted up, and the throne of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two they covered their face, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, and I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphims flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that had been taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and whom shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. So first we have the example of Isaiah the prophet, who is getting a call from the throne of God. Also want to read in the gospel of Mark chapter 16 and verse 15. So this is after the resurrection. This is Jesus now with the disciples. And here's, I just want to throw in this little tidbit because I think this is hilarious. I think this is so comical and funny and so Jesus. A lot of the times we think, man, I need to be prayed up so God can send me. I need to have six years completed in seminary for me to share the gospel and get into the ministry. In the gospel of Mark chapter 16, Jesus goes after the resurrection and he's mad at them because they didn't believe the women that went to the grave and told them he was risen. They didn't believe all the different people that said that they'd seen him. And it literally says, I'm going to, I'm going to, in your, in your layout, it's Mark 1615, but I just want to read a quick part. I want to start in 12 or I'm sorry, 14. It says afterwards, he appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. So Jesus is mad. Jesus is angry.

And the call from heaven goes like this, Jesus is mad, Jesus is angry, and what is the next thing that he says? Verse 16, or 15, and he said to them, go into all of the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Why am I pointing that out? Because Jesus has full confidence that if you are willing to go, the Holy Spirit is gonna do the work through you. And this is not about you. And that Jesus is rebuking the disciples and mad at them and says, I'm so tired of you guys not believing. Get out there and start doing the things that I told you to do. And I just think that's so beautiful that the call from heaven didn't come in a picture perfect glass with everything just looking amazing. That the call from heaven came to human beings. And what an amazing call it was. So we know there's a call from heaven. I want you to point out as a reminder that there's a call from heaven for us to share the gospel. Number two says there's also a call from below, from hell. And we're gonna go ahead

and go to that scripture right now in Luke chapter 16, verses 27 through 28. So as we finish reading in the gospel of Mark and in the book of Isaiah, we're picking up from the call from below. And there's a story that Jesus says and he rehearses a story and it's about a rich man's plea for someone to share the gospel to his family. And in Luke chapter 16, verse 27 through 28, it says, and he said, then I beg you father to send him to my father's house. For if I have five brothers so that they may warn them lest they also should come into this place of torment. So that in this text, this story that in what we call the rich man of Lazarus and Abraham's bosom and without getting into all the details of the story, read it. It's an interesting story. It's really important. But the gist of it is there's a man burning in punishment

and he tells Abraham, please go tell my brothers. I don't want them to come here. And the pain that I am feeling here, please let them know that I don't want them to be here. And that call of a brother, of a family member reaching out, that they don't want that. They don't want that same result to be on their loved ones. So, so far, we know that there's a call from heaven, point out. We know that there's a call from hell. That's two calls for us to share the gospel. This is how important this class is. But number three, there's a call from inside. We're gonna see here, it says Paul under compulsion to spread the gospel in 1 Corinthians 9, 16 and 17. It says this, in 1 Corinthians 9, 16 and 17, for I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I will have a reward.

But if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. So we see here that Paul is saying, not only is there a call from heaven for me to share the gospel, there's a call from hell for me to share the gospel, but I'm compelled within my own self to share the gospel. There's something in you. How many of you have, what do you do with the first thing you do when you see a good movie? Do you tell nobody about it? What about when you find that little hole in the wall burger spot or taco shop or whatever it is, do you tell nobody about it? No, the first thing you do, you start posting it on Facebook, Instagram, you start telling everybody, I just had the most amazing burger, or I just saw the most amazing movie or whatever it may be. You feel compelled to tell, because you wanna share that which excites you. So there's a call from heaven, there's a call from hell, and there's a call from within you. And also number four, there's a call from the outside. So let me recap, versus we get into our last call.

First, we have a call from heaven, then we have a call from hell, then we have a call from inside, the Spirit of God compelling us. But then Paul addresses about a call of a man in Macedonia who was lost and needed help in Acts chapter 16 in verse 9. This is the recap of Paul's statement. When a vision appeared to Paul in the night, a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. So not only do we have a call of the message of the kingdom, gospel of the kingdom from heaven, from hell, from inside, we have it from people that are calling out for help around us. We have a story of a Macedonian that is pleading to God to send someone with the gospel. And to understand that there is probably people, we're going to touch on this a little more, but there's people around you, your city, your neighborhood, your school, your job, your boss who is angry and maybe not a nice person. So many times we just come across and we see people on the surface. We see the outside, but we don't understand that internally there's a cry out for something that they're wanting more. So that you and I have a responsibility not to hoard the gospel, but to spread the gospel, to share the gospel, again, heaven, hell, internal and external. And this is our responsibility. Outside voices from lost people all around us are calling us to help them. With their mouths, they may be saying nothing, but their hearts call for us to share the good news with them. Can you hear them? Point your finger outside. Their call comes from outside, from the lost around us. You know, today every Christian should listen to the calls in their life and respond immediately. Point your fingers up, down, inside and out several times, up, down, inside and out several times and repeat the four calls. God is calling me from heaven.

They're calling me from hell. They're calling me from within, and it's calling me from outside to share this gospel. We should not only lead people to become Christians, but also to become successful trainers themselves, training others to share the gospel too. Jesus didn't say, go and have people repent. He says, go and make disciples. You know what a disciple is? It's a student. So in this way, we can rapidly spread the gospel message. Can you imagine if you were trying to reach your city, how many people can you really reach in a day? Especially if you have a job, you have children, you have a spouse, you have a house, you have bills, you have all these things, you have a long commute. But what happens if you disciple five people and those disciple five people each, and those disciple five people each, we can actually turn this city right side up. And that's what's so important about this. You know, God's desire is for every Christian to start a group. I'm not saying for you to rent a building and start a church. This group can be at your workplace, in the cafeteria. It can be anywhere. It could be at Starbucks or coffee shop. It can be in your living room. But I truly believe that there is no Christian that is called to just sit on a Sunday morning, every seat, warming a seat every single Sunday. We are called to action. Because for this very reason, the call from above, call from below, call from inside, and the call from outside. And because of that, his desires for every person to start at least a group, sharing the gospel with your family, your friends, and God will greatly, God will greatly bless and use his life.

So we're going to go ahead and share Acts chapter two, verses 46 and 47. Okay, now that we've gone through the four calls, you know, you might be, you might be sitting there on your laptop, your computer, your television, your phone, whatever you're watching the device on, whatever you're, whatever you're watching it on. And you can go, man, Pastor David, Pastor Angel, man, you're making me feel like I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. Yes. Yes, we are. You know, I heard somebody say it. I heard somebody, you know, a lot of times I'll hear people say, well, I'm just going to trust God and let him do it. And I heard a story and I thought it was a little funny. He said, he said, you know, there was a man who had he said there was a man who had a field. And he left it to God. And nothing happened to the field. It rained. One summer dried. No crops. No fruit or trees, just random weeds. It would grow and it would just go. And he said, I left it to God. But that field didn't become cultivated until a man put his hands to that field that God made. You know, that's the part that we have to we have to realize and remember. It's so easy sometimes that we want to just put it on God's shoulders when in reality dominion and authority God gave to the church and to you and me. You want to know why our city is the way that it is? Let's look in the mirror.

You want to know why our state, our government, our country? Let's look in the mirror. Why? Because those four calls God gave to us, the church. So I want to read in Acts chapter 2. Verse 46 and 47. And he says, And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all of the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. Notice it didn't say Sunday to Sunday. It didn't say from Bible study to Bible study. It said that they fellowshiped, they grew, they shared, they lived, they laughed, they ate, and they duplicated. Why? Because they took the responsibility of the four calls and then made it a part of their life. You should immediately respond to God and pray for the body of Christ. Ask God to help you to be a blessing by doing these things. And you go, well, I'm 12 years old. I'm 15. I'm 21. I'm 45. I'm 63. I'm 74. What can I do? Do what's right.

Always love someone around you. Leading people to faith in the Lord. Many times it starts with a kind act. Many times it starts with having a right heart and being, you know, there was a long, there was a time in Christianity where Christian, where solemnness and solitude was looked at as virtue. That was the highest level of Christianity. And those were monks. And those monks would say, we're going to really, really serve God. And you know, we're going to go do? We're going to, we're not even going to have a crown of thorns. We're going to shave the center of our hair and let our hair be the crown as the resemblance of the crown of thorns. And we're going to go live in a cave and hit ourselves and not feed ourselves and not bathe and not be around other human beings. And we're really going to dedicate ourselves to God. And that didn't change anything. That created the dark. That was during the Dark Ages. That created a time that man was so self-indulgent to himself. He didn't love his neighbor. What did Jesus say is the most important commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And I'm going to throw this in because we just that scripture. Did you know that you can't love your neighbor unless you love you? That means you can't love your neighbor unless you realize you have value. That doesn't mean, I've had somebody tell me when I when I said that one time. They said, oh, we're supposed to not have self-love. That's pride. No, pride is different. I'm talking about value. If you realize that you, you watching this right now, you have value. You have value to the Father. Then you know who else has value? Your neighbor. And if you can love you, then you'll understand that they're worthy of being loved too. Leading people to faith in the Lord. Number one. Number two. Starting at least one new church or home. group, at your own home, your own place, your own background, your own Panera Bread, your own Starbucks, your own park. Some of you are watching this, you're like, I'm just a single mom, I just homeschool my kids. Make sure that your children are hearing the gospel. Maybe invite a couple other single moms that are trying to figure that out and sort it out. Bring them in and share the gospel with them.

Create a Bible study, let your kids play, and then sing songs and teach the children songs about the Lord and worship unto God and reading scripture. We didn't say go rent a building, like Pastor David said, he didn't say go rent a building and get a microphone and get a choir. No, he said get a heart. Get a heart. Number three, training trainers. People who will repeat the process and train their new trainers. You know, in business, and it's so interesting, because they'll say, until your recruit produces a recruit, they're not a real recruit. What if we said that in the church? A Christian is not a Christian unless he produces another Christian. Just a thought. You go, well, how do you know if somebody's repented when they should have fruit? Well, how do you know if they have fruit? Go in your backyard if you have a fruit tree. If you have a lemon tree, would you call your neighbors and tell everybody you have a lemon tree if all it ever produced was leaves? Or would you tell them, hey, hey cousin, hey primo, I got an orange tree, you want some oranges? Why? Because there's something to give out of it. I just want to remind you and me, this is a reminder to me too. Every time we do this class, it is always a reminder to me too, that it's not just for me to teach, but who am I duplicating? Is there fruit coming from my life? Because if there's not, then I need to check what I do. So now the question goes, well, I want to do that. How do I do that? Every service I go to, I hear about win the lost, win the lost.

There's missions conferences and there's conferences and all these different things and win the lost and share the gospel. Nobody told me how to do that. Stay tuned. That's our next step. We want to quickly show you how to learn, how to share the gospel with your neighbor at a grocery store, in the workplace, out in the street, at the park, when your kids are playing moms or dads and you're at the park. Pastor Dave is going to come and he's going to break down a quick thought and we're going to close this through to give you something to grab onto. We don't want to send you to go work on a car with no tools. We don't want to put you on the construction site without a work tool belt and some tools to work with. So we're going to walk this out with you right here, right now. We're excited for you so you can learn how to share the gospel to everyone around you. This part of the class is to me the most exciting. You know, like it says on the flyer, it says, learn to share your testimony and the gospel within two minutes. But I want to say 90 seconds. And this is groundbreaking because so many people I believe here in the church, they have a desire to share, but they don't know how. You know, it's like I remember teaching one of my sons how to change the oil. How could he learn how to change the oil unless I showed him the steps of changing the oil? And then can you imagine if I never showed him and then I was angry at him because he never did it? So we want to give you the tools on how to do it. So I want you to get a blank sheet of paper. If you've printed it out, go to the back page. And I want you to write on the sheet of paper before the word met him and then after. Because everybody's life, if you were a Christian, fits into three different categories.

And if you have to pause while doing this, you can pause because I want to just continue forward. But on one, two, and three, on the first one, you're going to write before, number one. Number two, met him. And number three, after meeting him. Bing! It magically appeared. So we see the before, the met him, and after. So what I want to do is on the before, I want you to write, not full sentences. maybe three to five descriptive words of what you were before Christ and I don't you don't have to be specific and I we're gonna share why maybe you shouldn't be specific all the time but for instance I'm gonna write something like this before Christ I was lost I was angry I had a double life I lived a double life and I was hopeless very easy very generalized words before I was lost angry I had a double life and was hopeless and write that down whatever fits you and on number two I want you to write either the exact date you met Jesus or the month or the year for me I remember it's a day I'll never forget February 25th 2004 and on the after I want to write I want you to write who you are now many times it's the opposite of what you wrote on the top I'm gonna write clear-minded I have joy a clean conscience I hope I spelled that right and hopeful why did I write hopeful because I was hopeless this is gonna be your parameters it's gonna be your gauge in which you're gonna learn to share your story in 90 seconds flat so number one is it before the met him and the after so this is what we're gonna do now we're gonna I'm gonna have Pastor Angel after I describe this finish off because there might be some things I didn't mention or forgotten I want him to share so I'm gonna practice this I was lost angry double life and hopeless and I met him and after so now I have these things I practice them in my mind I practice in front of the mirror I practice them with the neighbor your spouse whoever your your your sibling and it's okay to read it at first and say you know what if you could stand

here and actually angel can you come up here let's say I'm in line at supermarket angels there I have some groceries you have groceries and you know I say how you doing oh good yeah that's good man I wasn't it wasn't always good for me yeah why what do you mean well you know I mean hopefully when we got time anyways but man I used to be really angry I was lost I had a double life and I was completely hopeless but you know what on February 25th 2004 I met Jesus man and that completely changed everything and I know you might think I'm nuts but you know what now I'm clear-minded I have joy I have a clean conscience I don't have that double life and every day I wake up hopeful and I just wanted to share that with you and I mean man maybe you want to meet Jesus guys how long did that take look how simple that was probably about 40 seconds yeah you know and I know angel since we're both here what are some things that you think are important about what not to do well you know one of the things that we really wanted it to really hit on is the sim is simple words don't use big words and if you're if you've been a Christian you've been in the church for a period of time guys sometimes we don't realize how much Christian ease we use yeah and and those that are not in the church they don't know what you're talking about and I'm not saying that these words are bad words they're great words but if you walk up to somebody and go hey have you been washed in the blood and they don't know what you're talking about and it today's you know April 2026 and in today's culture you say that you're thinking you're there like some weirdo in Hollywood an actor in some yeah crazy satanic which what if this I use baby of like man I wasn't complete debauchery yeah who uses that word so you don't want to use Christian words to people who are not Christians also we got to be mindful of opposite sex yeah or and and other environments moments people around you kids mm-hmm you don't want to go up to somebody you know guys or girls then either way but let's say you're you know there's another man and you come up and you go hey man I used to be addicted to porn yeah and they're three-year-old daughters right There you know or their teenage son or whatever and and they're standing there with their wife

We need to use discernment exactly don't don't don't do that You know or or here's the other thing walking up to somebody and being like, you know Let's say if you're let's say you're a female and you're walking up to a couple and maybe you're not talking to the husband or The man you're talking to the wife, but you say things like man I used to sleep with all kinds of men, especially married ones exactly Discernment discernment, what about you're in line at the bank and And you're next con and you're like man. I used to rob these kind of places That's gonna make somebody really uncomfortable. Yeah, so we don't want to over Christian eyes words We won't now here's the thing. There's times I noticed somebody comes out of the same life I lived up and and they're tatted up and stuff and I started conversation and I say man I used to be a gangbanger and I used to be a drug dealer, you know, that's different But if I'm somewhere and I am coming across somebody that I know is it coming from that life? I'm gonna use more generalized words. There's no reason to detail it out Here's the here's the thing a lot of Christians feel pressure to share their whole testimony and most people don't have more than 90 seconds Gas station you're putting gas. They want to get away from you because they don't know you but here's the thing if you do this Right and do it powerful enough. Guess what? It'll open up for a a coffee or lunch where you can share your story more detail And there's something called reading the room. Mm-hmm read the room You know use common sense use the Spirit of God, you know, and I hate to share these stories But but here's the reality one time we were telling, you know Just sharing this and telling people listen be careful when you're out when you're with the opposite sex when you're difficult different situations We had a situation happen in Fresno And they were praying for somebody they went to go pray for somebody and the young lady was actually Receptive to the prayer. It wasn't anything inappropriate. They were out in a parking lot She was there, but her boyfriend was in the store She was at the car. They approached her very kindly nothing wrong with what they did. They didn't approach her in any way She didn't feel threatened at all they're praying with her and There then all of a sudden they go from praying to praying in tongues. Hmm. I love praying in tongues But this is you know, and and whatever was going on you can go well, maybe God was moving maybe so but hold on stories

Not over yet. They're praying in tongues and then they start praying in tongues really loud Yeah around her the boyfriend's going where she was supposed to go to the car to grab something. Where is she at? He walks out front from the store Walks over because he sees two guys Speaking really loud over his girlfriend and she's crying in words. He don't know in words. He doesn't understand guess what happened one got a black eye and the other one got a broken nose and We told him we said listen you go with a spirit to control know the spirit of the Prophet is subject to the Prophet Use wisdom. That's all we're saying because that encounter wasn't fruitful What we're looking for is fruitful Not just YouTube worthy. Yeah, there's a big difference there big big difference now I want to throw a throw you another scenario of how you know, how pastor David was asking me now Here's here would be another situation and how you could use this Let's say you're in line and there's somebody there and you're you're you know You're a father or you know Maybe you desire your kids or whatever you're working through some of that or maybe you just you turn your life around Everything's good. And I've done I've done this many times Where I've seen a father with his kids And I always pay a compliment And it's just man, you know, you know, I'm walking up and I go man. That's so cool. How many kids you got? Mm-hmm, you know, I got three four kids do that's so awesome. I love seeing a father Playing with his kids. Yeah, that's great. You know what because there was a one-time man. I almost lost that. Mm-hmm You know, I I was lost. I was angry. I was dumb mine. I almost lost my marriage. I almost lost my home I almost lost my kids Wow, and that meant everything to me and And I I couldn't believe but Jesus helped me to get it back And he was able to give me some but I just want to tell you, you know, appreciate these moments Appreciate that and you're through those kind of conversations You know what? They're gonna either say either they're gonna stay quiet or you know, they're gonna say, you know I you know Jesus changed my life, too Yeah, and if they're quiet that gives you an opportunity because he's listening you paid the compliment and And now you're engaged in a quick conversation

But don't take him away from his kids. Yeah But now you're now you're in a posture to have a moment and share the gospel. Tell your story you met Jesus and now Man, I'm so happy to see another man be a father. Why? Because now I am too. And these words will change as you get used to this and practice it more and more. But one last warning, the met him. It has to be Jesus. Don't say, oh, I went to church. Don't say I joined a church or I joined a minute. I met Jesus. This is not about recruiting for your church. It's not about recruiting for your ministry. This is about letting them know that you met Jesus. And that's really, really key and important in doing this, guys. So this will change your life. This class will change your life. There will be fruit. And is that the conclusion of that? Anything you wanted to add to it? Yeah, I'll just say this, because you can go, you're telling me to follow a script? Yeah. It's that. That's exactly it. That's why they're called scriptures. You know, it's crazy because 1 Corinthians 10, which is, or I think it's 15,

where Paul says, and he's writing, and he says, this is the thing that I've given unto you and I've reported unto you from the very beginning. That Jesus Christ died on the cross, buried on the third day, and he rose from the grave. Did you know that scripture in 1 Corinthians 15 is, nobody's gonna argue that that was the first repeated, what's it called, script that the Christians used. Paul wrote the script that they used. Yeah. It's a script. Yes, they use that to what? To share the gospel. And it was called the first creed. So that's silly. But you know one thing you will find though, here's just the honest, the humanity side of it. It's gonna be mechanic. First, it's gonna be awkward. Why? Because you gotta practice it, work it through. That's normal. Then it's gonna be a little mechanical. Keep at it. And then it's just gonna become your story. And you're gonna learn to share the message with more people. See, I would rather share it with thousands of people than just have 10 stories. That's what we're trying to get.

Not recruiting to your church, not recruiting to your ministry, but recruiting people to the kingdom. That's the purpose of all of this. Remember, there's a call from above, a call from below, a call from within, and a call from outside. Learn this and you will be a discipler of men and women. So this concludes lesson three, how to. God bless you. Thank you so much. God bless. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful. Be fruitful.