"If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” -Romans 10:9

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say" – Luke 6:46

The Problem: Confession Without Surrender

Modern Christianity has mastered the language of confession but forgotten the practice of surrender. We’ve made becoming a Christian sound like a momentary decision rather than a daily devotion. We’ve taught people to say Jesus is Lord without teaching them to live as if He is King. This has produced a generation of believers who are spiritually informed but not spiritually transformed. Confession without surrender is like declaring allegiance to a king but never entering his kingdom.
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The First Confession: Jesus Is the Messiah

Every disciple begins with an initial confession: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. This is the moment of new birth, the awakening of faith, the turning point of redemption. But for many, this confession has been reduced to mere verbal affirmation, a statement disconnected from genuine repentance and obedience. When Peter declared Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 16:16), Jesus celebrated his confession but immediately pointed him toward the cross. True confession leads to a crucified life, a life that denies self, takes up the cross, and follows Jesus daily (Luke 9:23). We are not simply inviting people to believe in Jesus’ existence but to entrust their existence to Him. This is the doorway to redemption.

The Second Confession: Jesus Is Lord...Daily

The first confession births us into the Kingdom. The second confession, our daily surrender, keeps us walking in it. Jesus didn’t call people to make a one-time decision; He called them to follow. He invited His disciples to confess His lordship every single day by surrendering to His leadership, His Word, and His will. This is what we call the Lordship Rhythm, a rhythm of daily surrender to King Jesus. In our 5.3.2 framework, the first and most essential rhythm of a disciple-maker’s life is Daily Surrender (Lordship Rhythm). Practically speaking, we help people do this by reading one chapter from the Gospels each morning, listening to Jesus, obeying His words, and sharing what He’s doing. They listen, hear, obey, and share.  When we confess Jesus as Lord through daily surrender, we are not just believing in Him; we are becoming like Him. This rhythm turns belief into behavior and confession into transformation.

Two Confessions, One Kingdom

Confession: Jesus is the Messiah
Description:Our initial declaration of faith; the moment we are born again.
Result: Redemption-entering the family of God.

Confession: Jesus is Lord
Description: Our daily surrender to King Jesus through obedience.
Result: Renewal – walking in the Kingdom life.

Both confessions are necessary. The first brings us into a relationship; the second brings us under rule. The first is a birth; the second is a lifestyle. Without both, we fall short of the Kingdom Jesus came to establish.

Disciple-Making and the Two Confessions

Our call as disciple-makers is not merely to help people make the first confession, but to train them in the second. We don’t just help people say Jesus is Lord, we teach them to live as if He is. That’s why we disciple people around the rhythms of surrender and accountability:

1. Daily Surrender (Lordship Rhythm) – Hearing and obeying Jesus through Scripture.
2. Weekly Accountability (Micro-Group Rhythm) – Confessing and encouraging one another to stay surrendered.

When we help people confess to Jesus daily through surrendered living, we’re forming disciples who not only believe the gospel but embody it.

The Invitation

Jesus doesn’t just want a confession; He wants your allegiance. He’s not looking for fans who admire Him from a distance, but followers who walk in His footsteps. The first confession invites you into salvation; the second invites you into transformation. If we want to see disciple-making movements multiply, we must disciple people into both confessions. That’s how we turn believers into followers, followers into disciple-makers, and disciple-makers into movement makers. Because the Kingdom doesn’t come through a momentary confession, it comes through daily surrender.

Reflection Questions for Disciple-Makers:

1. How have we emphasized the first confession (salvation) without teaching the second (daily surrender)?

2. What rhythms or tools help you practice daily surrender to King Jesus?

3. How can your micro groups help others move from belief to obedience?
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4. What would change in your church if every believer practiced daily surrender to King Jesus? 

​Churches across the U.S. are eager to embrace new approaches to disciple-making. Many love the idea of micro-groups, relational disciple-making, and obedience-based practices. Yet there’s one persistent challenge: most churches instinctively disciple those already inside their walls while avoiding those on the outside.
This is not how Jesus began. For Jesus, disciple-making started with those far from God. His invitation to fishermen, tax collectors, and outsiders set the pattern: discipleship is not an internal program for the already convinced, but a discovery process for the not-yet-believing.

​One of the common mistakes churches make is trying to disciple people who are far from God in the same way we disciple those who are already following Jesus. Both groups need discipleship, but the goals differ:

• For those who already follow Jesus, the goal is daily surrender to King Jesus -the Lordship rhythm that forms the foundation of Kingdom life. We disciple believers to hear His voice, obey His Word, and walk in His ways every day.
• For those far from God, the goal is discovery of who Jesus is and what it means to embrace Him and His Way. Here, discipleship begins with exposure to the Gospels by asking simple discovery questions about specific stories you read together:
  • What does this story say about God?
  • What does this story say about people?
  • If this is really God’s word, what changes would I have to make in my life? 
  • Who can you share this story with? 

This isn’t about imparting religious knowledge, but about inviting people into an encounter with the living Christ.

​At Planting the Gospel, we use the same 5.3.2. Disciple-Making Framework across all our disciple-making efforts:

• Five principles: 1) simple enough to reproduce, 2) the Gospel as our curriculum, 3) the Holy Spirit as our teacher, 4) following Jesus as our objective, and 5) relationships as our vehicle.
• Three relationships: 1) I invite you, 2) you invite someone, and 3) together we form a micro-group.
• Two rhythms: 1) daily surrender to King Jesus and 2) weekly accountability to one another.

This framework doesn’t change. What changes are the tools we use depending on the type of disciple on our Disciple-Makers Pathway - pre-disciples, new disciples, growing disciples, disciple-makers, and catalytic disciple-makers.

• With disciples, we use tools like the Gospel Disciple Life Journal and the Disciple-Makers Journal to establish daily surrender and weekly accountability.
• With pre-disciples, we use the Discovery Jesus Journal, designed to ask Discovery Bible Study-type questions and simple Gospel readings to foster discovery and openness.

In both cases, the process is relational, reproducible, and designed for multiplication.

When churches only disciple insiders, they create a closed system that struggles to multiply. When churches focus outward, disciple-making becomes a missionary movement that reaches neighborhoods, workplaces, gyms, schools, and families.
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Bigger programs will not define the future church, but ordinary believers equipped to disciple both insiders and outsiders, adapting their approach while remaining faithful to the same simple framework.
Outward-focus disciple-making is not an optional add-on. It is the way of Jesus.

​Sign up for our free workshop, Outward Focus Disciple-Making, on October 23, 2025, from 1 PM to 2:30 PM ET.  
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You can grab our new Disciple-Makers Journal here. 

During a recent trip, my daughter lost my keys. Luckily, we had my wife’s set, so it didn’t ruin the entire day, but it was still annoying. They disappeared between climbing out of the truck and walking through an outdoor mall. She retraced every step, checked every store, and asked every worker, but the keys were nowhere to be found. Here’s the thing: keys matter. They give you access to what’s already yours. Without them, you’re locked out. You might have full rights to something, but no way in. You’re stuck. Or worse, you waste time and energy trying to force your way in.

Jesus said something powerful to His disciples:
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…”
— Matthew 16:19

That’s not just a spiritual soundbite. That’s a game changer. But for many believers, it ends up in what I call the “mystery box”, one of those things we nod at but don’t understand or live into. So, we admire the idea of the Kingdom, but rarely experience its reality.

I don’t believe Jesus ever intended for the Kingdom to be a mystery. And he didn’t give us the keys to hang them on the wall. He meant for us to use them every day.
 
Accessing the Kingdom Today

The Kingdom isn’t just a future hope; it’s a present invitation. It’s where Jesus reigns now. His presence changes lives, marriages, families, and communities. Without access, we’re left with a religion that lacks intimacy, fruit, and power. We settle for activity that lacks impact. We replace belief with obedience. We fill our calendars but miss the Kingdom. But here’s the good news: Jesus didn’t just preach the Kingdom...He gave us the keys.

So, what are they?

The Keys Are Simple: Hear. Obey. Share.

If we want to live the life Jesus offers, not just someday in heaven but today on earth, then we need to reclaim these three simple yet powerful keys:

Hear – The first key is learning to listen. Not just reading Scripture for information but listening for transformation. Every morning, we open the Gospels and ask, “Jesus, what are You saying to me today?” Hearing His voice is how we begin to walk in the Kingdom.

Obey — Jesus made it clear: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice…” (Matt. 7:24). Obedience is how we step through the door. Without obedience, we remain outside, knowing the truth but never living it.

Share – The final key is sharing what Jesus does and says in us. We open the door for others through simple conversations, acts of kindness, or intentional relationships. This is how the Kingdom multiplies. This is the way of movement.
 
Why It Matters

A disciple who doesn’t learn to hear, obey, and share will eventually settle for something less. They may be sincere but stuck, busy doing church things, but missing Kingdom life. They may know all the right answers but never walk in the authority, presence, and power of King Jesus.

That’s why daily surrender is foundational. It’s not just a good habit, it’s the gateway to the Kingdom. We call it the Lordship rhythm: hear His voice, obey what He says, and share it with others. This rhythm is the keystone habit of every disciple-maker. Everything else in the Gospel Disciple Life flows from here.

The Kingdom comes one life at a time.

When we hear, we gain access.
When we obey, we enter in.
When we share, we become Kingdom gatekeepers, opening the way for others.

And here’s the beauty: You don’t need to be a pastor, a theologian, or a spiritual expert. You just need to be a surrendered disciple. When we equip everyday people to hear, obey, and share, we place the keys in their hands.

Let’s stop misplacing the keys in the mystery box.
Let’s pick them up. Use them. And give them away.
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The Kingdom is waiting.