Being ambassador’s of change in the lives of teen moms (discipleship)
What is our mission in YL/YLVS?
1 Thessalonians 2 (our model)
What do we see in this passage that gives us a model for ministering to, counseling, and discipling teen moms?
How do we ‘flesh out’ the passage we just read?
Every Christian is called to personal ministry of the Word. We are called to an intentional lifestyle of representing Christ in this ministry.
Our target: a changed heart. It starts with the heart, we need to focus on our own as well. The condition of our heart shapes our responses to the ministry opportunities God sends our way. 1Timothy 4:16.
Starting with your heart means understanding and submitting to God’s calling, which will shape your life and relationships. God has called us to nothing less than incarnating Christ to others. We are to be rooted in the Word, and zealous to bring the living Word-Christ-to lost, blind and struggling people. You and I are called to put flesh and blood on who Christ is and what he came to do.
To understand your calling, you need to understand the Incarnation. Personal ministry is not just about confronting people with principles, theology, or solutions. It confronts people with the God who is active and glorious in his grace and truth, and who has a rightful claim to our lives.
The character of the Incarnation-grace and truth. This must also be a central theme to our personal ministry, biblical counseling, and discipleship. We point people to a God who not only sets the goal for their lives, but who enables them to do what they have never done before. We offer people a whole new way of making sense out of life. Justification/Sancitification.
We are called to live as Christ’s ambassadors, fleshing out Christ to others.
As ambassadors, we will represent:
- The message of the King. What does Jesus want to communicate to this person in this situation? What truths should shape my response? What goals should motivate me?
- The methods of the King. How did the Lord bring change in me and in others? How did He respond to people on earth? What responses are consistent with the goals and resources of the gospel?
- The character of the King. Why does the Lord do what He does? How can I faithfully represent the character that motivates his redemptive work? What motives in my own heart could hinder what the Lord wants to do in this situation?
2 Corinthians 5: 20-brings our calling into sharper focus. God is using you to appeal for something in the life of another.
The remainder of the time we’re going to spend examining four ways to function as God’s instruments of change in the life of another person.
When approaching difficult circumstances, our goal should be that God would use you to produce a harvest of good fruit in the relationship, even though she may remain in the exact same situation with the exact same people.
When most people seek change, they seldom have the heart in view, they want to change their circumstances, change the other person, or change their emotions. They think that ‘if things’ would change, then they would be better off. When the change is on the outward, the solutions are usually temporary. Our goal is to help girls examine their hearts and a deeper, fuller view of change.
- The goal of heart change
- Must follow the example of Christ.
Love, Know, Speak, Do…not a four-step process but four important elements of biblical ministry.
Diagram on p.110
LOVE: highlights the importance of relationship in the process of change (something we do/know very well in YLVS). To God, relationship is the only context in which the lifelong process of change can take place. The love of Christ is not only the foundation for our personal hope, but our incarnation of that love is our only hope for being effective for Christ with others. We cannot be part of Christ’s life giving work without being willing to lay down our own. Involves sacrifice (Tim Keller’s example).
When we forget the call to incarnate the love of Christ, we take our relationships as our own. People do not belong to us, they belong to God! How do you respond when your relationship with teen moms is inconvenient, messy, labor intensive, when you don’t see fruit? Have you taken that relationship for your own? God’s relationship to us is loving and redemptive and he wants our relationships to mirror those qualities.
Scripture highlights 4 things when it calls us to love someone in a way that promotes God’s work of heart change.
- Enter the person’s world.
- Incarnate the love of Christ.
- Identify with suffering.
- Accept with agenda.God’s grace is always a grace leading to change.
KNOW: really getting acquainted with the people God sends our way. Wise people are not just people with the right answers, but people who ask the right questions and organize the answers in a way that helps us know the person. When you assume that you know someone, you won’t ask the critical questions you need to ask to get below the surface. (what are some assumptions that we make about teen moms?) We tend to think we know people because we know about them. Knowing a person means knowing the heart. As you do you can help her know herself more accurately and desire the deeper heart change that is God’s goal.
- be a data gatherer
- make sure your conclusions are correct by asking people to define their terms. For example, when a girl tells you that she had a fight with her boyfriend, what is the definition of ‘fight’.
- Ask good questions
Personal ministry is not just about gathering the necessary information, but about making biblical sense out of it.
What are some obstacles we face in really ‘knowing’ teen moms? How can we approach them?
SPEAK: involves bringing God’s truth to bear on this person in this situation. Ask the question-is the gospel center when you speak the truth to someone? We need to ask ourselves, “What does God want this person to see that she doesn’t see? How can I help her see it?” Through stories and questions Christ broke through people’s spiritual blindness and helped them see who they were and the glory of what he could do for them. It does not mean making grand pronouncements, it means helping our friends to see their lives clearly. Remember that God’s kindness leads to repentance, remind the girls of their identity in Christ, remember how the gospel is both a comfort and a call. Diagram on p. 218
DO: We must help our friends DO something with what they learn-to apply the insights God has given her daily life and relationships. Insight alone is not change, they must be applied to the practical, specific, realities of life. Hearer and doer of God’s word. As Christ’s ambassadors, we are called to help our girls respond in personal ways to this call. Establish plans for accomplishing goals, clarify responsibility, instill identity in Christ, provide accountability.
Information taken from the book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp