24. Practitioner's Podcast: The True For You Principle

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the practitioners podcast. We're applying Jesus to all disciple-making to every day. Life. This episode in all of our episodes are powered by navigate. Church ministries which helping churches focusing on making disciples who can make disciples for more information check out navigators church ministries.org.

Good morning Justin. Good morning. How's it going Tony? Better than I to serve this as this episode comes out it is. mid-March and I am hopeful prayerfully optimistic that baseball season is right around the corner and that it might actually happen if these owners and players stop locking out. Yes.

Hopefully they will soon. And I bring that up because today's random question of the day is completely. And I'm curious what is the favorite your favorite part of a baseball game right? What's the favorite like event or play or you can go as detailed if you want. What's your favorite thing? So my favorite part would be bases are loaded nobody's out.

And my teams in the field we bring in a reliever and he is able to get out of that jam. With no run scoring. That is the greatest thing. Oh interesting. Yeah. How about for you? for me it's going to be I love watching a good defense turn a double play. And so like a 6 4 3 double play or just hand there's something about a defensive Double-Play that feels like poetry and motion played out before my eyes.

That's awesome. Well both of us had defense right? That is interesting. But we're baseball guys. So that doesn't surprise me. I'd rather have I almost rather have a shutout than a double digit. A hundred percent a hundred percent. All right. Well Tony let's jump into our topic today. We're talking about the true for you principle.

most people probably aren't familiar with this. So buckle up. This is going to be a really cool episode for you guys because it's going to. it's going to interact with your life and it's going to be something that is practical and usable where you are. And the principle essentially is that God can do for you what he does for us.

God can do for you what he does for others. And we're going to unpack that a little bit more but the first time I experienced this it came in the form of fear and that's normally where it starts. And so the first time I was asked to disciple somebody guy in a. Bible discussion came to faith.

The guy who is discipling me says Hey I think you should be the guy disciple Brad. I said I don't think so. And part of why I said that is because I had no idea what I was doing and felt like the guy who was discipling me was way ahead of me. He should have done it. And those things were true. He was way ahead.

But what the guy who was discipling me was looking at was no we had to step into becoming a disciple maker for everyone to be a disciple maker. And as we've talked here especially in season one the hardest thing to do is to start. And for me that was true. And so as I thought about discipling Brad I really struggled really with God.

And what I realized I was struggling with was I didn't think that God would use me to impact people the way that my discipler was impacting me. I it just felt too big to me and it felt like God can use other people to do that. But knowing what I knew about myself and my life I. Did not think not that he I knew he could but I didn't think he would do it in me and in my life to impact others.

And so the true for you principle we'll jump into a little more here in a bit but Tony how about you? Have you ever had an experience like that? Where something just felt too big that God wasn't going to do it through. Yeah. And I think one of the hardest parts about the true for you principle is that the more that you read scripture the more you see God doing these incredible things and these God using people in incredible ways.

And it's really hard at least for me it's really hard for me to see myself. As someone who could do what the people that I read in the Bible are doing. Right. And and I think that that's part of this idea that this is this is a theological belief that God can do through you and for you what he said he would do in scripture.

And that's that for me is a really hard can be a really hard line to cross because it just. Well I just know I just know how wretched I am and and how much I don't deserve a lot of what God does in scripture. And so you know understanding God's grace is part of this true for you principle. And I think one of the places that this was most profound for me is we've talked about on this podcast before is that you know spiritual reproduction is the ultimate level of maturity.

In disciple-making. And so when I was pastoring at the local church one of the hardest parts the scariest parts is that I could teach someone who was older than me in both wisdom and time really with you know in the local church how to be how to spiritually reproduce. And so that fear of talking to someone who's older that fear of talking to.

Well two people who I thought maybe even knew more Bible than I did at that point in time. Or you know there's I don't know about you but I have this kind of committee in my head that spins a whole bunch of lies about all the things I can't do. And man when that committee really gets moving it's so hard.

To think that God can use me because the voices in my head are going I don't know Tony if you fail they're going to leave the church. And then it'll just be you preaching to yourself Sunday morning. Right? Like you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So we kind of all have these doubts especially before we do something or when God is asking us to step into something that feels a little bit bigger feels a little bit different than what we've done before.

And sometimes for some people those doubts stay for a while even after you've done it 2 3 4 5 times. It's still that feeling of boy this is too big. I don't think I can do this. And as I was struggling through this the first time in that story I just shared with you guys. I would. I don't remember if I was taken there or if somebody showed it to me.

But the story that really helped me understand this principle was the story of Moses in numbers 11 and yeah in numbers 11. So I'll just I'll just summarize it for us. Moses had led 600000 men that time counting women and children into the desert. They've been wandering for years. The Israelites had had enough and they were grumbling and complaining about only having manna to eat every day all day only manna and God responds to Moses complaints by saying oh that he'd give the Israelites meat to eat for a whole month.

And Moses is so overwhelmed and exasperated that he expresses doubts to God. And we all have those doubts and God is big enough to handle them but God responds to the doubts. And this is one of my favorite verses of scripture in numbers 1123. And the Lord answers Moses and says is the Lord's arm too short?

You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you. And so that's the true for you right? True. You're now going to see it Moses if you're going to believe what I say and step into it and stop relying on whether you are good enough or you think it can happen. If you start looking at me you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.

And so I started to pray that prayer as I began to disciple Brad and I said God I want you to do this. I want to see will this come true for me? I've seen you do it with other people. I've seen you do it with somebody in my life but I don't know if you can do it with me. And it's that picture now keep in mind.

At this point Tony Moses had seen a lot of things and had a lot of experience with God. He'd seen God speaks through the burning Bush. He'd seen God respond with the 12 plagues and delivering the Israelites out of Egypt. Partying the red sea manna falling down from heaven every day. And it still at that point Moses is like ah I don't know.

I don't know how you could do that. God. And so that is comforting to me because even if I've seen God do a lot of things and my faith is real and and alive doubt is never that far away it can still come up. Yeah. And I I think one of the reasons that doubt continues to come back is because what we see from God is so big right?

Is that this idea like you know we talk about disciple-making a lot even off the podcast we talk about it a lot. And the idea that God might use me to. To create spiritual descendants that will outnumber the stars. You know we talk about that promise in scripture right? And and that's the vision that you and I both have that it's not just one person here one person there but that our spiritual lineage would be so great.

So big so vast that that God's promises in his word would will be fulfilled even that we might be a part of that. Right. Well so I read that and then I looked. I couldn't drive to my office this morning without getting mad at someone. Right. Like I just know who I am. Right. And so my you know my knowledge of myself and my sinful nature really sometimes I I think I think you can say it just really creates a gap between who I am and what I see in God's word.

And that gap is oftentimes what I really have to overcome. When I think about the true for you princess. Yeah. Yeah that's so good. Because when we're in those those places of fear our fear drives us to a place of questioning our own fitness. Are we are we good enough? Holy enough do we know God and not.

To help somebody meaningfully move in transform to become more like Jesus. And of course we know it's the holy spirit doing it through us. But but even that like we think I don't know if the Spirit's moving in me to the degree that it can move in somebody else because of those things that we see in ourselves we're not fit enough.

We're not obedient enough. And so that fear drives us to that place. And so even though all that's really normal if we can sum up the true for you principle I would state it like this. The true for you principles states that God will lovingly make up the difference between your beliefs and your doubts.

And then you'll know that God's word is true. I'm going to say that again the true for you principle states God will lovingly make up the difference between your beliefs and your doubts. And then you'll know that God's word is true for you. And it's not just true for other. And when that happens Tony our faith takes on a depth a new level that we can then move forward in places that previously we couldn't and trust him for things that we couldn't before.

You know one of the things that I I see in this idea right. About the true for you principle is that oftentimes especially when we talk about fitness right. And our ability to to show up and be faithful right. One of the things that Rob that is compared to. Hmm. And so so when we read scripture or even more practically speaking when I look at other people in the church there's some really great preachers that I know and they get really fired up and passionate.

And Dr. Bellini one of the guys who pours into me like when he preaches I feel like heaven is actually coming down. Right? Like it's it's like oh heaven's happening right now. And I listened to him preach. And then all of a sudden it's like okay Tony is you're trying to preach. And I'm like well I can't do what eat.

Right right. But what I love about the true for you principle is that it's it's not saying that God is going to do the same thing he did for Dr. Bellini or Justin. It's what he's going to do for Tony. Right? So Tony's version of this promise because that's why it's it's true for you now. God's God's word remained steadfast remains the same but how it plays out will look different.

So my fitness is not the same as yours and yours is not the same as someone else's and comparison in this particular case. Really is the thief of joy. Yes. Yeah. That's exactly right. And the other thing that I'm hearing you say and us say really as we talk about this is that disciple-making is a faith journey.

Yeah. It's not something to learn in an academic setting and then go do it the same way the way that widgets are made in a factory. Right. And so I mean even today after 25 years of making disciples I have a couple of situations in my life right now that I don't feel I'm adequate. I don't feel like I am.

I'm going to be able to do what needs to be done in these disciple-making situations. And I was just talking to my wife about some of the reasons why last night and where we ended and where we settled was what God's got to do. The. And it's my role to trust him in it. And it's my role to be willing to continue to step in and to put myself in those situations and to be prayerful as I'm moving into it.

And through it that no God you're the one that does this. I am just trying to be faithful here. And I might not it might not work. I might not get to the destination that I was hoping to get to but it's not going to be because. God didn't want to do it through me or he wasn't able to unless I'm unwilling to move into those situations.

So if I'm willing to and I'm willing to to trust and rely on him then the outcomes that we get to I can trust right there. They are what God intends. Well and I I think you bring up a really good point here right? That faithfulness is. Is part of this journey for all of us. And that means surrendering the outcome to what Christ has in store for us.

Right? So like you said Hey I can trust that God because I've been faithful faithful that God's promises are true for me that I can step out in faith. And that this answer that God gives is God's answer not Tony's answer. Right. And and again back to that comparison point we typically don't compare journeys.

We compare outcomes. Yeah. And so it's like oh well I mean man Justin's such a good disciple maker cause he's so intentional. And so like I bet all of his people spiritually reproduce because you know that but that's guess what? I'm not that person. That's not how God wired me. And and so Hey I need to be faithful that God wired me a certain way.

And the true for me principle that God's going to make. The shortcomings. Now I'm still going to show up and do the work right? I'm going to be on the journey with Christ. I'm going to put in the time I'm going to learn the school you know the skills I'm going to do the the stuff you know but at the end of the day the outcome well God gets God gets all the credit but he also holds all the responsible.

Right. Absolutely. So one of the things that I hope our listeners get from this right? This is really practical stuff right. That if you're feeling like you can't do it if I can't make a disciple I can't get started. I can't this I'm afraid to this you know get back into the scriptures and look at what God has done.

Everyday ordinary people the way that he's used them to do extraordinary things not because of their fitness not because their faith was so amazing or their life was just so perfect. I mean only only Jesus. Can we look at it and be like well yeah he he kinda did it perfectly. but everybody else is like boy you can find some things in their life that it's kinda messy.

And there their answer to their mess was not retreat. It was to move in towards God and to have faith that he's the one that's going to do it. And so it wasn't them or what they their own maturity or their own skillfulness or giftings. It was God through that. And so we can have faith that God is going to do the same thing.

And it'll be true for you as. Tony. How about our takeaway and action step for today? The takeaway for today is the answer to fear is faith. The answer to fear is faith. It's about God's fitness and your willingness. It's about God's fitness and your willingness the action step. I want to challenge you right?

Find three things in your disciple-making that's happening right now in your life. That feel too big. Write them down and surrender them to God in prayer. Write down three things in disciple-making that feel way too big and surrender them together. And prayer and we hope that these practical exercises will really help you live out Jesus' style.

Disciple-making in everyday life. We are so incredibly thankful for you and to be on this journey with you Justin and I love hearing all the feedback that we've gotten recently and we're just we're especially thankful. So Hey do me a favor leave a rating or review on iTunes or Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts every rating or review makes the podcast a little bit more searchable.

It makes it easier to find just helps us get the word out about what God is doing on this platform. And then the biggest compliment you can give us share this episode with a friend. If you know somebody that maybe is stuck in a fear rut send them this send them this podcast let them know that that there's a couple of guys out here who were pulling for him.

And we're just so thankful for you guys. And we look forward to connecting real soon.