The Process of Multiplication

I. THE PRINCIPLE:

1. What is the first commandment of God to mankind (Genesis 1:28)?
2. Multiplication is God’s way of doing things, and it is not always easy.
   • For a salmon, multiplication is death: a salmon swims upstream, lays its eggs in the sand, and then dies.
   • What does it take for a grain of wheat to reproduce (John 12:24)?
3. Another cost of multiplication is that it is initially slower than the process of addition.

II. THE GREAT COMMISSION:

1. If a gifted evangelist were to win 100 people per day to Christ, and a disciple were to win and disciple one person per year, with the expectation of the disciple reproducing himself one person per year, how many years would it take for the multiplication process to numerically pass the addition process?
2. How about if the evangelist won 1000 people per day?
   • At 100 people per day: somewhere in the 19th year.
   • At 1000 people per day: somewhere in the 24th year.
3. Which would you choose?
   • $1.00 per week for a year? or
   • $.01 for the first week, and doubling the amount every week? (with this deal you would be able to pay off the national debt!)

III. THE KEY:

1. Training a disciple in depth: each time one person fails to reproduce spiritually, you cut your results in half.
2. What three things did Jesus say caused certain seed to become unfruitful (Mark 4:18-19)?
3. What kind of person did Paul tell Timothy to disciple (2 Timothy 2:2)?
4. Every Christian should ask himself two questions:
   • Who is my Paul (the person from whom I am learning to be a disciple-maker)?
   • Where is my Timothy (the person I am in turn helping to become a multiplying disciple-maker)?
5. Read Ezekiel 22:30. Have you heard His cry? Will you be that person?