RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

I want to welcome you to this very first session in this learners’ level. Now the people who followed Jesus were called disciples, and the most basic meaning of the word disciple… They were learners. They were students. They were learning something. Now what we want to learn is not just about Jesus but of Jesus.
We want to become like him. We want his nature, his character. So we’re going to be talking about learning to be like Jesus Christ. One of the greatest things about Jesus was his prayer life. That’s why, in this first learners’ level and section… We’re going to be doing all of these interviews, and I’m going to have some interviews with Dave Butts. Dave is the chairman of the U.S. National Prayer Committee.
We’re going to be talking about prayer. One of the things that happened in the lives of the disciples when they were following Jesus was that they saw him do miracles. They saw him turn water into wine. They saw him heal this sick. They saw him raise the dead. They saw him do extraordinary things, but they never once said to him, “Lord, teach us to turn water into wine. Teach us to heal the sick. Teach us to raise the dead,” but they did say, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Sammy Tippit Ministries 2 San Antonio, TX They knew prayer was the secret of everything he did. So what I want to do in this first session is just introduce you to the subject of prayer and how important it is. In fact, not only did they ask Jesus to teach them to pray, but the very last thing that happened before Jesus ascended to heaven was that he told them to wait in Jerusalem. He put them in a prayer meeting. Those new disciples, those 1st-century disciples or learners… The first thing he had to teach them when he left this earth was to wait upon the Lord. The greatest lesson you will learn, I think, in following Jesus is that the Christian life is not something you can live in your own power. It’s not by your strength. It’s not by your courage or how great you are, but it’s in what God can do. So you need to learn to wait upon the Lord. Now what I have discovered is that people struggle with prayer because we don’t really fully understand prayer. A lot of things… Some people think, “Well, I’m wasting my time.” I can tell you right now that you are not wasting your time. When you spend time alone with God, God will do more than you could ever imagine, so you’re not wasting your time. Another thing people think is, “Well, I’m not doing something. I need to be doing something.” Yes, there are a lot of things we need to be doing as Christians, but I can tell you right now that Jesus gave those disciples the greatest challenge ever. He wanted them to go into the whole world and make disciples of all of the nations. Now these were common, ordinary people. These were tax collectors. These were fishermen. These were doubters. These were deniers of Jesus. I mean, these weren’t the great, mighty people. These were just common people with flaws Sammy Tippit Ministries 3 San Antonio, TX who had messed up, but Jesus was sending them with the greatest task ever given to anyone. But he told them, “…but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” So in this learners’ level, what we want to do is help you develop a prayer life, a time alone with God when you meet with God and God meets with you, where you learn of him and he teaches you of himself. Now when I first came to Christ, that was the first thing that happened. I found a place, and I began to meet with the Lord. God began to work in my life, and he began to teach me. I would take the Bible, and I would memorize Scripture. I would talk to God, and he would talk to me. There were three other friends… The four of us would meet. There was a little hill that overlooked a lake right near the capitol building, and we would pray every morning. Early every morning, we would go there, and we would meet with the Lord. Oh, those were such special times. It set a pattern for my life. When I became a pastor of a church and I wanted to teach some men how to walk with God, the first thing I did was begin to teach them how to have a time alone with God. Now when I say that, I’m not talking about being religious and praying in some kind of religious way. What I’m talking about is having a time when you encounter God. So I began to teach them the principles of how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. That’s what we’re going to do in these sessions. We’re going to be learning how to pray, what prayer is, and how you develop that practice. I know some of the guys who were in that study had never prayed Sammy Tippit Ministries 4 San Antonio, TX publically. They had prayed very little privately. Probably the most they had prayed was, “Lord, bless the food,” but they began to learn to pray. As they learned to pray, something happened. They began to share Jesus with others, and they began to lead others to Christ. That’s why, in our second level, once we’ve learned to pray… We’re going to have 13 weeks here of talking about what it means to have a time alone with God and helping you to develop a time alone with God. But then as you do that, there’s another level you go to. That is sharing Jesus with others. We’re calling that the mentors’ level. We hope you’ll not only learn to pray but go to that level of sharing Christ with others. Then something happened within these men. By the way, my wife was leading some women through the same thing. They began to be leaders. Not only did they begin to win others to Christ, but they began to disciple. All of a sudden, everything multiplied in our church. Our church exploded in growth. That’s what we’re calling the multipliers’ level. Then the fourth level is the co-laborers’ level. Every one of these men and women became a leader in his or her church. It wasn’t because they were trying to be leaders in a church but because they had grown, matured in Christ, and met with God in this time alone with God. That had become sort of the foundation for their growth. There are four levels, but at this first level, there’s one thing we want to do. We just want to help you develop a time alone with God. That’s the whole goal in this first level. We want you to be having time. We’re going to have these text devotions you’ll read. There will be some questions you’ll answer after each one. There Sammy Tippit Ministries 5 San Antonio, TX will be a video devotion, and then there will be a teaching like this where I’m interviewing someone all the way through this process. You need to go through this. We’re just going to ask some simple questions. It won’t be anything hard. There’s no passing or failing this. We just want to ask some questions. Here are the questions. What did God speak to your heart through the Scripture, and what did God speak to your heart through the devotion or the teaching? What’s stirring in your heart? Just answer whatever is on your heart, and in your group, y’all will share with one another and encourage one another. If you’re struggling, say, “Hey, I’m struggling with this.” You will encourage each other and help one another, and that’s the purpose of this. It’s not to become some kind of person who’s a super smart, super giant theologian. That’s not what we’re working toward. We’re trying to help you develop a time alone with God. We’ve found that if you can do something regularly for three months, that’ll become a part of your lifestyle. We want this to be a part of your lifestyle. Those early disciples were called followers of The Way. They were following a way of life, and part of that way of life was that they were people who spent time with their God in prayer. So we want to teach you how to do that. We’ll have 13 weeks of this. By the way, it’s not just 13 weeks. As you go through each one of these levels… You can go as far as you want and stop after the first level if you want to. I hope you won’t. I hope you’ll keep going and go through all of these levels because… Listen. One of the greatest blessings is that as you grow, you can begin to share Christ with others, see others come to Christ, and help them to grow in Christ. Oh, what a blessing that will be. But as you do that and Sammy Tippit Ministries 6 San Antonio, TX as you grow in Christ, we will be there to help you. There are a lot of resources you’ll have here, and you’ll be able to grow in the Lord. God will use you, and you will become fruitful in your life. There are 13 weeks, and there are four sets of them. That’s a full year. If you spend a full year having some kind of consistent time with God, you’re going to become a person of prayer. There’s no doubt in my mind about it. You will grow, your prayer life will grow, and you will become what God wants you to be. That’s the purpose. That’s the goal for these next 13 weeks.