Hey everybody welcome back to the Practitioner's Podcast where we're applying Jesus style disciple making to everyday life. This episode and all of our episodes are powered by Navigator's Church Ministries. For more information or to get connected go to navigatorschurchministries. org. Good afternoon Justin.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good to be back. It's great to be back. Great to be back. And we are continuing our series. All about finding someone to disciple. So if you didn't listen to episode one you need to go back and listen to what it means to be faithful available and teachable right? These episodes go together because we know just like you know one of the hardest things to do is to find someone to actually pour into and today we've got kind of a fresh take.
Justin fill us in. Yeah so we like you said we're still working on this right? Because this is a big challenge for a lot of new disciple makers a lot of young disciple makers. Who am I going to disciple? And one of the frequent mistakes that many young disciples make is their selection on the first selection the second selection.
I mean and they often end up choosing people who are. Convenient. Convenient. And what I mean by that is it's an easy ask right? And they don't think about well is this person really faithful available teachable? They just think will this person say yes? Am I eliminating the risk of me feeling rejection here?
And we totally get why you might lean in that direction why those mistakes are made. This episode and last episode is really trying to help equip you so that you don't make that mistake. Because what typically happens if that mistake is made On the other side of that mistake you feel regret you feel like Oh I wasted time there.
Oh I should have been more clear. Oh I should have found somebody that that actually was hungry. That was you know those three things faithful available teachable. And so today's episode is going to help equip you with a tool that's going to help you figure out well who should I even be considering?
When I think about discipling someone because what we have learned is that person that you're probably going to disciple the person that God probably wants you to disciple is probably somebody that you already know. It's probably not someone that you you know wouldn't say hi to if you saw them out.
Like it's probably not that person though it could be. And so how do we surface who those people might be in our life? And that is what this episode is all about. So Stick with us. If you can if you're not driving if you're not out cutting the grass grab a piece of blank paper and a pen or pencil it'll come in handy later in the episode.
One of the things that we want to talk about first is where the groups of people in your life come from. And what we're going to suggest to you today is that there are probably two types of groups. That enter your life and or that where people kind of coagulate in your life right? One is a stream and one is a pond by the way do you see me drop that 50 cent word?
Coagulate I mean I'm I'm going to have to get a dictionary out. That's amazing. just means come together come together. Okay. So streams and ponds stay focused Justin G. Okay. So streams and ponds streams are areas of your life that people are always coming in and out of. Right so maybe they come in for a season they're out for a season.
A stream in my life would be something like a football season baseball season. Those are are seasons of life where new people come in and people leave and it happens regularly. And you know it's always sometimes you make those deep connections sometimes it's less deep. But it's a stream. So it comes and it goes right.
You can see the movement there. Some churches look like streams in certain occasions. now we happen to Justin and I happen to live around air force town. So parts of those areas are more like streams. Ponds are a little different. Ponds are groups that you're with for an extended nber of years.
Those are going to be some of your family members your groups your communities. Hopefully your neighborhood doesn't turn over very often. So that would be more like a pond. Now here's the beautiful part. You can fish in both right? You can fish in both when it comes to looking for someone to disciple and each one comes with its pluses and minuses right?
You need to be in both or else you'll always end up stagnant. Right. And so that's one of the things that I'm super passionate about is making sure that you've got a stream of people in your life to kind of help balance out the ponds and keep the water moving so that you can see more and more non Christians in and out of your life or Christians that maybe are just.
In a different season of life maybe they're spiritually immature or maybe they're just new to the faith. And so having streams helps introduce you to people having ponds. Now that may be where you impact generational change in your own family or a family that's close by. But both are important to making sure that you've got a complete picture of who.
you can pour into to make disciples who can make disciples. Yeah and so going off of that idea of streams and ponds for me as I think about it. I think about Relationships right? So I have relationships that are going to stick in my life for the long term doesn't mean forever But they're not turning over at a at a fast rate at all.
So those are my pawns. Those are my pawn relationship. The streams are people that are coming in and moving out. And I have different types or or not only different types but the depth of relationship is different there. Now sometimes some of those relationships end up being pawn relationships right?
But one of the things for me that's been frustrating or that I've had to work through in recent years is when I'm trying to develop relationships with non Christians I found that I have a lot of those relationships that are pawns and I'm in long term relationships with a nber of them but the the speed of change or the speed at which I see the spirit moving them is really slow right now.
And so I found I need to find some more streams of relationships. Now the tool that we're going to be communicating about today on this episode is called an Oikos map. And that's a funny word right? Oikos or Oikos or Tony might say a little different. We were even talking about it. We don't we're not pronunciation isn't the main thing here.
Confidently and fast. That's the key. Confidently and fast. That's right. So it comes from the Greek right? And the Greek word means household. And so we get it right out of the New Testament. There are different places where the household is spoken about. And one of the things that we see as a pattern of life in the New Testament especially in Acts is.
This communication about household and what the household was. It wasn't just your family. It was your family. It was your extended family. It was the servants that that served in the household and the slaves that were there. It was the children who weren't yet adults. So all these people made up the household but it also included other relationships with neighbors and stuff like that.
And one of the great things about the way the gospel moves through the book of Acts is it doesn't Predominantly just moved through individuals it moves through households. And so as we're thinking about a household in an Oikos map it is what does it look like what does your household look like? Again not just the people who are living in your house but the people that you know the people that are part of your life.
What does that look like for you? And as we think about this in the context of who can you disciple we need to think about who has God sent you to. Alright so I want to take us to Luke 10 and Luke 10 is where Jesus is sending out 72 disciples two by two. And he sends them out to every town and place and then he's going to go meet them after they're sent and he tells them what to take.
But one of the things he says is to enter a house right? So immediately we think about households and he's interacting with the people there is what they're supposed to do and to find a person of peace. And what that house was really gonna function as was an anchor point or a launching point for those two disciples for ministry in that place.
And the first place they would begin to minister would be to the people in that household. And so what we're going to do to gather in this episode is we're gonna help you develop an ocos map of your own. And so that's part of why we're doing that is so that you can see who is already in your life. Who has God already sent you to?
And then to think about well what is it that God might want you? to do in in terms of how to influence and intentionally love on those people. Now of course we understand this is an audio platform. So trying to draw this map may seem cbersome. Ultimately here's why this is important. We can't see what we aren't looking for.
You know when I was a kid one of the things that we used to do all the time is we used to play guess the the. It was super weird but we had a station wagon that looked out in the back of the highway. And so it was like Oh that's a Mac. That's a Peterbilt. That's a Freightliner. Right. And you could tell by the grill right?
And then once you started looking you could see them everywhere. And one of the assertions that Justin and I are going to make today is that we're not intentional about the people we're looking for. And so this Oikos map is a tool in disciple making to help you see. Who's out there in the world for you to pour into.
Yep. So it's really raising your attention level to who God's already put in your life. All right. So let's let's do this together as you're able right? Get a blank sheet of paper write your name in the middle of the paper and draw a circle around it. That's you right? So we're starting with you because we're launching into who are the people that you're in relationship with.
Okay. Next I want you to pray. And ask God to give you five people that really have to be on this map. They have to. Now it might be family but you just it's not only you're not thinking about who are you closest to. That's not the question that you're asking God. The question that you're asking God right now is God who do you want to bring to my mind to be on this map?
Five people. Okay as they come to your mind you're going to draw a straight line in any direction from your name to another part of the paper. You're going to write their name and then you may draw a circle around it or you may draw a square around it. And here's how to know okay? You're going to draw squares around believers.
who need to be discipled okay or believers who have been discipled but really need to be and we can think more about that in a second. And then if they aren't yet a believer if they don't yet know Jesus then you're going to draw a circle around their name. Now if you decide to do some more research on Oikos map you could Google it you will find a lot of different ways to do it.
the way that we're talking about is a little bit unique because most of the maps only do circles. And I think we need to do squares and circles because the people that God has put in your life He's not just asking you to share the gospel with those that don't need Jesus. He's certainly asking you to do that.
But he's also asking you who are you going to disciple? Who are you going to help bring to maturity so that they can go out and help others both in discipling them and helping those other people share their faith. Okay so we're starting with just five. But after that you are going to think about who else is in my life.
And you might end up with 50 names 100 names. There's no limit to how many names you can have on your Oikos map. But one of the things that you can do after this map is... After you're done filling in the names of the people in the map and one thing you might do is like put the name of a person that you kind of know but really you know they're friends with somebody you can draw kind of a web right?
So if Tony was on my map I'd have Tony I'd have a a square rectangle around his name and then I might write somebody that that I know he cares about but that I don't invest in or I don't know them that well but I kind of know them. So those people can be on your map too okay? The names of the people that you're influencing are the people that are going to come up the ones you're already in relationship with.
Those those streams and ponds you might think about that too they would know. And so as you're making your OYCOS map a lot of the times As you're making it you might get stuck. I don't know who else you know whatever. You can think in different categories. You can think about family neighbors friends people you engage in hobbies with people that you work with people that you know around the neighborhood or maybe you go see a hairdresser you know every month or however often right?
Maybe a mechanic. People that you have these touch points with. Are people that can be on your map and just remember right? This map ultimately is a tool for you to get clear about who the Lord wants you to engage with. So just to kind of recap you're in the center of this page. You can draw write your name down.
You can write me you can put a square around yourself assing you're already a believer. And then you begin to kind of cast out a web around you for the people that you want to connect with. Circles for people who may not know Christ yet or are far away squares for believers or saints who are already in your community.
Once that's built right? And you've kind of built out the fullness of the map. Then now what we want you to do is we actually want you to pray for them. We want you to pray for them by name right? So John 17 20 right? My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through the message.
And here's the key. I want you to add their name into the text right? My prayer is not for Justin alone. I pray also for Greg and Todd and Matt and those who else who will believe in me through their message right? And so I'm praying for not just my generation of disciple making but for multiple generations of disciple making.
One of the best things that we can do in scripture is make it really personal make it personal for the person that we're praying for and make it personal for us. One of the things that I hear all the time when I'm discipling guys a guy I just met with yesterday was talking about this is how his thought life often feels like a ping pong ball in his prayer time making it personal as a way to combat you know mind drift so that you can stay focused on the prayer of what you're praying.
and what you desire from God. Right. And that's kind of that intentional act of prayer right? So my prayer is not for Justin alone. My prayer is also for those who will believe in me through their message who will believe in Christ through Justin's message. I pray for you know maybe their connections there right?
So kind of think about this as a sprawling web and you get to be in the center. Well actually Christ is in the center and you get to work for Christ at the center of the web. Yeah I love that Tony. I love this idea that God has brought these people into our life and he wants us to pray for them.
Because God has put you you're in the center of the page but you are the connection point. At least one of the connection points that God has with each of these people to his kingdom. A verse that I really love is Acts 17
20. And it says God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us. So you know what I believe and I know I'm not alone in this is that God has placed people in my life because He desires for me to share about Him with those people.
Now again some of those people might not know Him at all. Some of those people might be really struggling even though they've met Jesus they're not very mature. And so part of God's care for them is for me to move towards them and disciple them or to move towards them and just serve them and love them depending on what God is calling me to do in them.
God really wants to do something through you. through these relationships. And so that's where the prayer is really important. And so one one pattern that that you can have and that I have had is to set your alarm on your phone once a day or twice a day. And whenever it goes off you can just pray for those five people.
Maybe that you put there first or you know if you have more time you could pray for everybody by name. That's on the whole thing or even just praying collectively. God you know the names of those people on that map. God I lift them up to you but I'm I've set my alarm for 10 Oh two in the morning. And I've said it for 10 0 2 in the morning because it reminds me of Luke 10 10 2 10 verse two which says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
And so whether they have a a square around their name or a circle around their name I am asking God God would you send these people out into your fields that they might become another worker another person who's a disciple maker who is investing in others who are going to invest in others. Now for the non christian that that runway is a lot longer than for somebody who is already a believer and maybe is being discipled or who I'm going to disciple soon.
but that's the prayer right? God you want to reach all the people. On my map but not only on my map but all the people around the globe and that's that's a huge task but I try to to ask God to help me to have a bigger faith that he might be able to do that. I could see him do that right through some of the people that he's connected me with in my everyday life.
Friends at the end of the day we desire for you to be deeply connected with your community and that's what these episodes are all about. So thank you so much for connecting with us today. Your takeaway the person God wants you to disciple is someone you probably already know. The person you want God wants you to disciple is probably someone you already know.
The action step set an alarm on your phone. Just give a little Hey Siri or Hey Google setting the alarm for 10 0 2 AM or PM. And be reminded that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Thank you friends for being co laborers and our mission to make disciples who can make disciples. Thanks for listening to this podcast episode.
Your continued partnership makes this so worthwhile. Justin and I love hearing from you and how God is working in your disciple making. As always if you have any questions connect with us via the show notes. And as always we're incredibly thankful to have you in our community. We'll see you guys in just a couple of weeks as we continue making disciples who can make disciples by taking a look at God's role in disciple making.