Investing in Others

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
(Acts 1:8)

Jesus said that he was sending out his disciples just as his Father had sent him. Matthew's gospel ends with Jesus telling his disciples, and thus his Church, to go and make disciples. A disciple is someone who learns from the master. Jesus is our master. He is our teacher. He is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, through whom all of creation was made.

Christ taught his disciples and sent them out to teach others. His teaching comes to us through the work of the Holy Spirit making the things of Christ known to his followers by means of the Holy Scriptures. Mature followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are those who, being his disciples, invest in the lives of other people so that they too may become his disciples. The specific ways in which each of us invests in the lives of other people varies from person to person. The Holy Spirit empowers us with different gifts and passions. But all of us are given the same commission. All of us are to invest in people so that they may know and follow Jesus Christ.

Growth towards Christian maturity

Not Growing Spiritually

Prior to our coming to know Christ and becoming his follower, we are not able to invest in other people. Sure, we may help people regarding this world and its ways, but we are not able to point anyone to Christ. We are dead spiritually. There is no effort to seek out Jesus or listen to him. Whatever spiritual ideas we have, they are at incomplete or even inaccurate since the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in us. We might claim to be growing spiritually apart from Christ, but the truth is that we are not growing. We are being misled and deceived. There is no way we would ever agree to such a statement or acknowledge that as the truth, but that is the picture revealed through Scripture. What's more, we ourselves may even be misleading others if we share our theories and ideas about spiritual things or things about God without knowing the one whom He sent. However, most of us have no time or interest in investing in the spiritual growth of others.

Learning to Receive from Others

Life Transformed by Christ

When we receive the new life in Christ that comes by faith in the gospel message, we begin personally experiencing the life transforming work of Christ. We hear the message and believe it. We come to realize that there are things in our life that have to change and God starts working in us to make us more like Christ. As we walk with Christ we being growing spiritually. We are made alive in Christ. Through the practices of the spiritual disciplines, especially prayer, reading Scripture, and worshiping the Lord, we grow in our knowledge and love of Christ. Transformation continues to root out things in our life that hinder our relationship with God and have kept us in bondage. The process at times may seem slow and even painful. But we are growing in Christ. We already see areas of our life that have undergone transformation. We know it has not been by our own effort or power. It is the Spirit working in us. We are simply being obedient and choosing to cooperate with the Lord and believing him. For some of us, the transformation is dramatic. Addictions may be broken. Relationships may be healed. Our health may be restored. We may be delivered from a crisis. The change is so dramatic that we want to tell others about what has happened to us. Others need to know about this man Jesus whom we have begun to follow. Others may grow gradually. Perhaps we see changes, but for whatever reason we are not ready to shout it from the rooftops. It is possible that no one is walking with us to teach us and encourage us to invest in others. Maybe we have some life areas that we are still dealing with that makes us think we cannot say anything. Maybe we are just not comfortable talking about our faith yet. Perhaps we don't think we have anything to say that people will want to hear. Possibly we aren't even sure what to say. Wherever we are regarding our initial growth, we are just getting started. We can start talking to people about what Jesus has already done in our lives. Certainly we can invite them to come and see for themselves. What we are not yet able to do is invest in others such that we help them become his disciples and grow. We can introduce our friends, family, and co-workers to those who are investing in us, but we are not yet able to make disciples. Before we can go and make disciples, be must first be a disciple, and it takes time to learn from Jesus.

Moving Beyond Myself

As we continue to grow in our knowledge and love of Christ, we find a growing desire to see others know Jesus. At this point we are learning about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We are learning about our spiritual gifts and putting them to use serving others. There is a sense in which we are already helping others grow as we serve them. Opportunities are coming to us in which we are challenged to step outside of our comfort zones. As we do, we continue to grow. Within our hearts there is a growing desire to be more like Jesus. We are moving towards being fully committed to Christ as a disciple. Our interest in fulfilling the desires and passions of our flesh are decreasing, while our Christ's compassion for others is increasing within us. If we are going to move into investing in others, then this is the time where we start getting the taste for helping others grow. Perhaps we are finding opportunities to speak of Jesus. Maybe we get involved in a drama, choir, worship team, work with children or youth, or in some way serve in reaching out to people outside the church. Whatever doors are opening for us, we find ourselves walking through them and in doing so, we are investing in others. Maybe we even make the first steps of helping someone explore faith in Christ. We are investing in others. The foundation is in place, what is next is our being intentional about investing in others.

Investing Intentionally

We have been walking with Christ for some time now and have grown in our knowledge and love of him. While we don't stop growing, we reach a point where our focus has shifted from ourselves to serving Christ. Our heart burns to help others come to know him and follow him. We are faithfully using the occasions that arise to invest in others. We are living for Jesus and not for ourselves. Opportunities seem to be coming much more frequently and in some ways they seem to be more intense. We are maturing in Christ and investing in others. What is changing in us at this stage in our growth is that we are becoming much more intentional about investing in others. Perhaps we are looking at the areas in which we serve to see if there are people whom we can invest in. Maybe we are making ourselves available to individuals with the specific intent of offering to help them grow. There may be ideas flooding our mind about small groups or Bible studies we sense would be helpful to others. Perhaps we are passing on information to others from the things we are reading, seeing, and listening to. We may even be giving gifts to friends and family members that don't have a relationship with Christ yet. It is all together possible that the Lord may even be birthing in us a vision by which he wants to make an impact within our church and community, and he wants to carry out that vision through us. In various ways, we find that we are being intentional about investing in others. How it happens looks different from one disciple to the next, but we are all about the same mission of making disciples for the glory of God. Our loyalty is to Christ and that means continuing his work here on earth until he returns.