You have a choice: addition or multiplication
You have the choice to make disciples or not. You can look out for your own interests, or you can focus on the bigger picture of what God is up to in the world. When you choose to be a disciple maker, you’ll start to multiply your life.
Think about it like this. If 10,000 churches reached 1,000 people for Christ every year, it would take 600 years to reach more than six billion people on the planet for Christ. That’s a long time, and there’s actually a better way to do it. It’s the way of multiplication rather than addition.
What happens when you invest in just one person
What would happen if you were to lead only one person to Christ, and then spend a year training that person to walk with God, share the gospel, and invest in others? It doesn’t seem like much, but let’s do the math. After the first year, there would be two of you. In the second year, there would be four. By the fourth year, you would have sixteen. If you kept making disciples at that rate, you would have over eight billion disciples after only thirty-three years. That’s the power of multiplication.
This was Jesus’ strategy
This was Jesus’ strategy. It was simple, really. He wanted every disciple to make (and keep making) disciples. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” Matthew 28.18-20 ESV. Imagine if every follower of Christ walked with God, reached their world, and invested in a few. The results would be astonishing.
Paul’s challenge to Timothy is your challenge too
This is exactly what Paul instructed Timothy to do with his life. 2 Timothy 2.1-2 ESV says, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” Paul’s challenge was clear: Don’t waste your life; multiply it!
The decision that could start a movement
The same challenge is presented to you. The same choice is yours to make. One day, the people in whom you’ve invested will continue investing in others. They, too, will multiply their lives into the lives of their few. By God’s grace, your influence could start a movement that spreads across the globe and impacts nations and people beyond your wildest dreams. Before that can happen, however, you must first decide to multiply your life.
A movement that hasn’t stopped
Jesus’ first disciples did what Jesus said to do. They declared the hope of salvation in Christ alone throughout Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Eventually, they took their message to the nations and made disciples everywhere they went. The movement that Jesus started hasn’t stopped. It’s still growing. Can you think of anything more important than joining that movement? I can’t.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our Student Series books, Invest In A Few.
