What is a Disciple?

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? So this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I'm finally back with season 6, episode 1. And, uh, so for the trailer, I know it's been out there for a while, and hey, listen, let's just jump straight into it. So, uh, Season 6, Episode 1. I can't remember because I didn't go back and listen to the trailer before I started recording, but I remember— I know one of the things I said I want to talk about is discipleship and leadership. We're going to get some other things, but we're coming right out the gate, uh, just going to talk about what is a disciple. So for the title of this episode What is a disciple? What, what is that? Because we hear that, but do we truthfully know what it means? Uh, so before I jump into the content, uh, just real quick, listen, a lot, a lot has been going on in my life, and you'll kind of hear it throughout this. Uh, it's publicly— my wife, you know, put it out there on Facebook. That's the only reason I'm talking about it right now. But, uh, right now she's, uh, part of a 3-month program, and, you know, depending on how it goes, you know, might break it up or something like that. But Um, she's right now part of a leadership program. I'm so proud of her. She's on the Reserve and she's on the officer side, uh, doing chaplaincy. And so being a chaplain in the Army, and it's a big deal, uh, it's a very big deal. So I just want to ask you all first and foremost to pray for her. Uh, as of right now, like I said, I'm kind of operating as a single father, uh, but nevertheless, man, I'm very grateful and trying to navigate 3 kids, you know, 2 boys, 13 and 10, and then, uh, the a little girl that's pretty much almost 1, uh, it's very challenging, you know, working full-time, uh, but thank God for the support system and so on and so on. Uh, just trying to like say maintain that balance and find some structure because she sacrifices so much. And so therefore, um, you know, it's only in return, man, because she's so awesome, to also where I have to sacrifice those things so she can also achieve things that she want to achieve, uh, or she believes God is allowing her or directing her to achieve. Uh, so kind of might hit on that example in the next one. I'll be very, you know, just like I said, she publicly put it out there so I can kind of share with this audience. But nevertheless, let's get into the content of this episode. Uh, what is a disciple? So right at the gate, when we understand, when we, when we come to the word of disciple, you know, a general definition says a personal follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of the 12 apostles. And that's true. But let's go in a more practical way to really deep dive this in the context of a biblical disciple. A biblical disciple or follower of Jesus Christ, really truthfully, at its essence, is to be Christ-like. It's a student or an apprentice. Now I know those words are probably very familiar, you know, if you've watched The Karate Kid with Mr. Miyagi, the original one. Then I can't remember the guy name, but I know Jackie Chan played the modern day one with Will Smith's son. And so on and so on. But a student or an apprentice, somebody is saying, I'm going to be— submit myself and be a student under you, or apprentice. I want to be like you. It's something about you that I want to be like, that I want to, uh, I want to have some character— I want to have characteristics of. Like, I want to sit up under your teaching and I want to be like you. Uh, Kobe Bryant, you know, you can say in the context of basketball that he truthfully imitated Michael Jordan game. And even when he started tweaking and making things his own, he was just so closely, uh, uh, he was so closely compared to Michael Jordan because of his game. But this is a person that just— and Michael Jordan inspired a lot of people, but Kobe really truthfully was kind of like Michael Jordan all over again in the context of the way he played. So it's a student or apprentice. It's a follower of Christ, a follower of some— basically, in other words, we should take this literally. Like, this is a literal thing, meaning that I am calling you to follow me so that you may be like me. Now, just for a case in point, we will never be Jesus. We just won't. But he has called us through the power of the Holy Spirit to be like him. And this is the beauty in it. Paraphrasing the text, when Jesus said, follow me, he did not make them do it. It was just an invitation. They could have said no. They could have been like, nah, bruh, uh, I don't even know you like that. I don't, I don't know you like that. So, uh, it won't be no following you over here, man. Go on about your way and find some, a few more people. And that's truthfully how we do Jesus today. We follow him by name only, but not with our lives. And we'll get into that in some more episodes. But nevertheless, This is what a disciple is. It is a person that truly follows Christ, follows Christ. Matthew 16:24, and I'll be reading from the King James Version. Matthew 16:24, and we can find a lot of verses to point to talk about discipleship, but Jesus said that— I'm gonna read the text. So then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now we know the cross was significant, uh, back in that day. So in the context of that audience that he was speaking to, when, you know, they took the cross, it was to be crucified. Take up your cross, to be crucified. So crucifying yourself, crucifying your flesh, you have to do that through the power of God. So Jesus was talking at the time, denying himself, denying yourself. Now just for some context there, this is not to the point— because like, I have took this to a point one time where it's like I denied everything about me, even parts of me that I probably should have been loving. I was still denying them, not loving myself to the point where I esteemed myself over Christ. But he didn't call us to hate ourselves, he's called us to deny ourselves. So what am I trying to say? What am I— what am I saying here is that yes, God, all his creation is beautiful, and we are a part of their creation. So there are things, God, things that I love about myself. I love the uniqueness. But at the same time, those things that try to oppose the will of God, I want to deny. I want to deny those areas. And then those areas that truly just love— I mean, like the things that Gilson, the things that he's given us, whatever it be, words of wisdom, words of, of encouragement, leadership, whatever it may be— these are things I love about myself because God gave it to me. And so we just want to have the proper balance, that he didn't call us to hate ourselves, but he did call us to deny ourselves. And this is the thing, it is impossible according to that scripture, it's impossible to be a disciple of Jesus and not look like him. Now look like him, he literally said it like in his word. I mean, not me, it's in his word. So if someone is saying like, that's like me right now saying, oh man, uh, I want to be like Mike, I want to be like Mike, man. Oh man, let's see if it's like I can really play basketball. And I, I played a little bit back in the day, but let's just say if it's like I'm talking about really play like where I'm on my way to the lead or something, or getting like all these offer every high school, you know, wanting me to transfer there, whatever it may be. And it's modern day time. But let's say for instance that all you heard me say is like, man, I want to be like Mike, I want to be like Mike, but my game looks nothing like him. I don't practice, I don't study, I don't do anything, but I just go out there and I'm like just playing. It's not going to take long for you to be like, bro, you don't want to be like Mike. You're just saying that. You're just using it. You're just using Michael Jordan's name, but you do not want to be like him because you don't reflect nothing that he does. The commitment that he has to the game, his posture that he has to the game, his mentality has game. You have nothing in you that resembles that. I'm only just saying I want to be like Mike. And that's where we have been at with believers. We just want to acknowledge him and say we're following him at name only. But you cannot be a believer without being like Christ. You cannot. We cannot. It's all inclusive. We cannot. Because think about it, what if Jesus would have said, you can do whatever you want to do as long as you follow me? Then it would totally, totally wipe out what we just read in Matthew 16:24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So right there is literally saying that you cannot do what you want to do. You're gonna have to deny a lot of parts of you, fleshly parts of you, and take up your cross daily. Crucify that flesh, mortify that flesh to be more and more like me. It should be a spiritual level of maturity in our life that we are consistently evolving and being a disciple. Disciple, because many of us wanted to be a disciple, but we have to really examine our heart posture and check ourselves and say, first and foremost, am I truly Christ-like? Am I truly being like Christ? Do my life truly resemble the characteristics of the Jesus in the Bible that God— I mean, that these men wrote under the unction of the Holy Spirit talks about? That's what we have to do. And so, case in point, a true disciple— a true disciple is one who puts Jesus first. He's first and foremost, and obeying him, you know, he even said it, that if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Obedience unto him is what shows that we really love. He said it, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And we will produce fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh, but we will produce the fruit of the Spirit. And then on top of that, we will be so inspired that we will become a disciple maker, meaning that we will follow his commission and go out and make other disciples. But like I said, once again, we have to examine our own heart first. Start with us and ask ourselves, are we truly a disciple? Am I truly a student or apprentice of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Because I— if I'm not they don't have no business trying to make a disciple of others. So that's where we have to start. We have to really start there because this is what leads to an impact. This is what leads to the impact in a fallen world for the glory of God. This is, this is what does it. And in that same text, I believe it's in— no, not Matthew, I apologize— in John 14. John 14, yeah, that's the verse. John 14. I was looking up as we was going through. John 14 and 15 is the, the verse to say, if you love me keep my commandments. But on down in that text, I believe it was verse 23, 22, 23, maybe 23 through 24 or something like that, somewhere in John 14. Even the Bible reads, Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, obeys my teaching, my Father will love them. My Father will love them. Anyone who does not love will not obey my teachings. And I'm paraphrasing, I might be leaving out some parts, but anyone who does not love me will not obey my teachings. But the words that we hear are not my own, but they belong to my Father. This was Jesus talking, and I might need to go look it up, but I believe that's the essence of that verse. That's the essence of it. We have to truly love him and be submitted unto him and his teachings to truly say that we're a disciple of Christ. We have to be a student and apprentice of his word and of his life. Because the beauty in it, and the reason why I say is that we have to truly accept him as our Lord and Savior, is because immediately after Jesus was talking about, you know, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, he literally was saying, I will ask the Father to give us a helper, another counselor, and that counselor is the Holy Spirit to be with us forever. So this means that the Holy Spirit is not coming and going. Now, we can quench him. We can quench him. We can quench the Spirit of God because he is a person. And so he knew that we lived in this— we would face things in this fallen world. He knew that they were like, man, bro, it'd be hard, man. Like, nah, bro, Jesus, you gone? You leaving, bro? Like, nah, man, it's no way in the world I'm gonna be able to be a disciple anymore, not with you not here, because I don't have the example. I don't have it anymore. No, I know. Jesus is like, yeah, I know, I know. That's why I have to go, so that I might be able to leave you a counselor, and the Holy Spirit might be able to come, and you have power. And that's why we have to feed our spirits and, and stay connected, man, and just feed on the word of God to truly be a disciple, to truly be Christlike. And I'm just being real with you, like I— we live in a broken world, man. It is so hard. And we're going to get into the other two episodes, kind of part of this trilogy, three-part, like Disciple, Denying, and Living Sacrifice part. But, and then we'll switch gears. But, uh, this is— we need that help like every day. I'm like, bro, Jesus, oh God, I don't want to be Christ-like in this situation. I, bro, I do not want to demonstrate it. But no, no, no, it's like, no, listen to the Helper. Yield into the Counselor. Yield into the Helper so that you may keep my commandments and be like me. So how do you become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Matter of fact, I'm wearing a shirt right now. First, you have to accept the plan of salvation. You can't be a disciple of Christ without accepting the finished work of what he done when he died on the cross for us. We have to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus died and the Lord, the God, raised him from the dead. But it don't stop there. So that's free. That is free to us because Jesus paid the ultimate price. But on that discipleship part, he said, nah, nah, nah, bro, that's gonna cost you. And that's gonna cost you your life. It's gonna cost you to deny yourself and daily crucify that flesh, crucify our flesh, to be more and more like him. So it starts with— it starts with repentance and acceptance. You can tell you, I might accept and repent, but I don't believe you can accept him without first repenting him, because repenting is changing our way of thinking. And so I have to repent and then say, Lord, now I accept you, I accept what you have done for me. And then if you are a believer and you've backslidden or whatever and say, I mean, I haven't been a disciple, I'm not a true disciple based on this understanding that's being talked about right now, simply repent. 180. Just repent. Lord, I ask you to forgive me. I haven't been a true disciple. I haven't truly been a student and apprentice of you. I've been letting this world dictate how I should be. Lord, I repent. Come into my heart, Lord, and help me change my ways through the proper connection and study and prayer and consecrating ourselves. So you got to get connected. Get connected with other disciples to help hold you accountable. And most importantly, man, study the word of God. Just don't be so caught up in being spoon-fed. Jesus just said, how long, how long, how long am I going to be with you all? Because it was going to come a time where like they had to know, they had to know they were going to have to search the scriptures and things like this and truly know through the power of God. So get connected with disciples and then dig in, dig into the word of God for yourself. Not just sitting up and going to church or a weekly Bible study or life groups. Dig in for yourself, even if it's starting out with 15 minutes a day. I challenge you, whatever time you wake up, wake up 20 minutes early and then spend 15 minutes for 7 days studying the word of God and feeding on a verse. Feed on a verse, pray the prayer, and feed on that verse every day and watch the power of God show up in your life as convicts you but at the same time draws you closer to him. And pray, always have a heart posture of praying. I know we made praying so complicated, but it's literally just communion with God. Communion with God. This is what a true disciple is. This is what it means to be truly Christ-like. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this Student of Light podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothyprattjr.org. Once again, thanks.