When one thinks of discipleship several definitions race to mind. “It's mentoring.” “It's apprenticeship.” “It's teaching.” These are among the top definitions of discipleship. I would like to suggest it's starts here and grows. The practical is where we forge the trust and relationship to disciple God's people in the greater things of God and His Kingdom.

Many think that discipleship is helping another get a grip on a practical and tangible thing such as skiing, cooking, auto repair, fixing your computer, learning that new hand-held device and more. While discipleship in these ways is helpful in a practical way, how does it help with one's spiritual life and walk? I would like to suggest that discipleship is about helping the new, as-well-as the aged Christian, become a true disciple of Christ. Therefore, discipleship requires us to impart our Godly knowledge and experience to others of any age both chronologically and in Christ.

We must therefore be proficient in the things of God ourselves in order to make true disciples. How can you disciple someone in hearing God if you do not hear from Him yourself? He does speak to His children through His written word, situation, through others, and in our own ears audibly like another human being. How do you disciple someone in hearing God this way?

I have entered into discipleship with a friend to help them hear God in the way He speaks to them. We all hear His voice differently. My friend is just now, after 9 months of working with them, beginning to hear God's voice in the way He speaks to them. Just recently they have found they are hearing Him more and more frequently. How would you disciple someone this way?

Frequently people have problems and are looking for God's discernment in how to best address their issue with a Godly choice. How would you disciple someone in this way?

Sometimes, decisions are clouded with ambiguity because two or more paths look equally rewarding and blessed of God. Yet only one is God's choice. How does one discern which is God's path in this place?

Have you heard God help you make a decision when the view is filled with ambiguity? Have you heard God help you make the right choice when the path is not clear cut? - When each choice seems to carry equal reward and blessing? If so, how would you disciple someone in this? Could you disciple someone in this?

I believe this is why teaching on discipleship is either poorly done, or not done at all. It's easy to disciple someone in a practical and tangible thing because we can see, feel, taste, touch and smell it. The things of God are not so practical and tangible as they are based in things not of this world. They are frequently concepts with different outcomes in different people so that the definition of successful discipleship is not always the same. However, if you know what the different outcomes are, you can have some idea of what to expect for a successful discipleship outcome. What will mark victory in that person's life that we have entered into discipleship with? Where are your limits of discipleship? How far can you go into the abstract things of God and make them real in someone else as they are in you? How long can you walk beside someone when they repeatedly have failure in the pursuit of a successful outcome they earnestly desire to have?

How would you disciple someone to have more faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.” We need to disciple everyone in this. So how do we disciple someone to have faith in something they cannot see?

We have faith in airplanes to fly because we see it. We know very infrequently they have trouble and so we have faith they can get us where we need to go and do it safely. This is because our faith is based in tangible facts and knowledge of flight and airplanes. What happens when we posses only the knowledge of what God's word tells us and we cannot correlate that with something tangible? - Something seen and/or experienced? How do we teach it to others so as to disciple them?

God's word is the only thing we can see when we open a Bible. A message from a Pastor or Teacher is the only thing we can hear. Everything else is unseen requiring faith that it exists because God said it does. In these things we are charged with discipleship in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go, 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 things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” (Note: Emphasis added to point out our charge.)

[listen to the message]
You would think that Jonah, who ran from God, who repented of his sin, who obeyed God and saw the city of Nineveh repent and turn from evil – you would think he would get the happy ending to his story here... but he doesn’t.
Because even repentance & obedience fall short if our heart is not transformed by God.

[Jonah 4:1] -- But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

• Jonah was angry & depressed about the Ninevites repenting & turning to God because despite his repentance & even outward obedience, Jonah’s heart had not changed.
• Jonah’s actions were in line with God, but his heart was far from God
• We can be in the will of God, doing the work of God, but our hearts might be far from God.
• Throughout this journey, Jonah’s character has been exactly opposite to God’s character
• But God has been gracious and forgiving, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and loving-kindness... because that is the heart of God.

While Jonah is camped out waiting for Nineveh to be destroyed, God creates a plant to keep Jonah cool in the heat of the day - and for the first time in the story, Jonah is happy and grateful. But that night, God sends a worm to destroy the plant, and Jonah returns to his anger.

• God sends a worm to remove Jonah’s comfort – what comforts does God seem to be removing from you right now?
• Are these punishments – or are they awakenings? 
• Is God angry with you – or is he trying to change your heart? 
• Jonah was a living contradiction: he knew God intimately, yet was far from the heart of God

[Jeremiah 17:9] "The heart is deceitful, desperately sick; who can know it?”

5 Ways Our Hearts Are Sick:
1. I would rather be comfortable than transformed 
2. I would rather run from God than admit I’m not God 
3. I would rather serve my self than love & serve others 
4. I am jealous when God gets the glory 
5. I quickly forget the grace & forgiveness I have just received

God does not want to leave us with broken hearts, 
broken lives, and broken spirits

:: Heart Transformation 
1. Protect your heart
[Prov.4:23] - “Guard your heart... for it determines the course of your life.” 
The heart is core to who we are, the centerpiece of our life

2. Realize that transformation means change
Our faith and hope are in Christ for salvation and transformation

3.Let God’s Word speak new life to us
[Psalm 119] – “I have stored your Word in my heart... that I might not sin against You”

4. Allow the Holy Spirit to convict, lead to repentance and renew
[Psalm 51] – “Create in me a clean heart...”
[Prov. 16:3] – “Commit your actions to the Lord...”

[listen to the message]
I think Jonah is one of the easiest people to relate to in the Bible. His struggle with living in obedience to God's call while being manipulated by his sinful nature is a story we have all shared in at some point. 

The apostle Paul summed up this struggle this way: 
"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 7:15, 18-19, 21-25]

Throughout this series, we have described sin as "any area in our lives where we have run from the love and presence of God." This includes all of us.
God, in his grace, pursues us and extends to us the invitation to return to him. We have described this process as "repentance."

But what good is an understanding of our running, or even of turning our running back towards God, if we don't take the next step? This week, we defined the next step after repentance as "obedience."

Repentance turns you around. 
Obedience lets you take the next step forward.

Here's some thoughts from Sunday's teaching & discussion:

[Jonah 3:10]
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
• Repentance brings us to God’s mercy 
• Obedience brings us to God’s grace