Be One and Live in the Unity God Desires

Welcome Just hand Away Tagalog Sermon podcast. Your daily does

of inspiring, heartfelt tagalog sermons from different factors and speakers

all over the Philippines. We hope that this podcast finds

you in good shape. And now here's your message. Are

starting our sers entitled on a Journey because we know

that life is a journey. It's not something that we

do on compartments. It's not something that we switch on

and off. It's something that we encounter in a journey.

It's a road trip. And when we talk about a journey,

we know this that our Christianity is also a journey.

And that's why I like this quote. I couldn't find

the author of the quote, but it says here, my

life is a journey with God. It may be hard sometimes,

but I'm assured it will all be worth it. How

many of you agree with the statement that our life

with God is all worth it? Amen? And when we

talk about our life with God, we know it's not perfect.

You know it will be full of trials and challenges,

but we know that we are in the blessed best

place when we are with the Lord. And so for

the next three weeks, we will be talking about our

journey as people of God. When we say people of God,

most of us encounter God in a very personal way.

Someone who would actually share their testimony about meeting Jesus

is always very personal. It's unique from everyone, right. It's

how I remember. No, when I was twenty years old,

I was attending Victory Galleria for the first time, and

I was just there curious. Somebody brought me there. But

for some reason, the preacher was preaching a word as

if nobody was sitting except me, as if everything that

the preacher was saying was all about my situation. Naphila

bayonagan it zeros in on you, and Matai sabimo ubig

and Cobananak invites a quastor at etima casalan and go.

It's something that is personal and something that when we

encounter we know that it is between us and God,

and so it starts with an encounter with him. At

the same time, what happens after the encounter with God?

All of us have that there is an invitation from God.

Matthew chapter four, verse nineteen and twenty says, and this

is when Jesus was actually walking by the Sea of Galilee,

he sees two brothers, Simon who is known also as

Peter and his brother Andrew. And when he sees them Nasalazilla,

he says this, what is his invitation? In verse nineteen,

follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

What did they say? Immediately? The response was immediate. They

left everything to follow Jesus. They followed him. You know,

in this day and age, when we say follow, what

does it mean? Think about it? What do you mean

when you say I follow someone? You know? Recently? Matthew?

You know Matthew the oil Ambario. Do you guys know Matthew?

Who's Matthew? Matthew is one of the friends. Anyways, you'll

get that later. Anyway, Matthew Perry actually started an Instagram account.

Do you know this? For those who know this, he

actually started an Instagram account and news came up. You

know why because in twenty four hours he actually had

four million followers. Grab grabno, okay or thank you for today?

I know it's hard, no, but yes, you're here to

worship God. And so he starts his Instagram account and

for only twenty four hours he gets twenty four million followers.

Some of us are followers of Matthew Perry the guy

from Friends Ossi Cherish is also a follower and Jay

name and so how many of you have Instagram accounts?

Can you raise your hands? Okay? Facebook friends their none

no friends. You know, when we follow someone now, it

may seem that you just watch from afar right. It

doesn't mean you know them personally, doesn't mean you believe

in what they say. It doesn't mean you're friends with them.

It doesn't mean that you're close with them. And to

follow nowadays seems to be detached. It's something that is

far from you. It's something that is not very personal.

But the Bible talks about a different kind of word follow,

and today this is what we want to talk about.

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus.

The Greek word follow is a colotheo, which means to

be a disciple. To follow means to be a disciple.

And we know this because this is who we are.

What do we say here in victory we honor God

and make disciples? Why? Because we are disciples? We are

followers of God. I assume that we are all here

because we are all followers of God. And so the

question is if it is defined differently today compared to

the Bible. A good question to ask each and every

one of us today is are we truly a follower

of Jesus? Ab I considered a true follower of Jesus.

It's a good time to actually think about it. Do

I consider myself a follower? I attend church, I give

my dith, I read the Bible. I am considered a

follower of Jesus. You know, it's scary when it comes

to whenever I read the Book of Matthew, because there's

always this part that says Jesus said, Lord Lord. Not

everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom

of Heaven. And so I don't want to live my

life as if I think I'm following Jesus, but I'm not.

Why because when I call him Jesus, what does it

really mean to follow Jesus? And our word for today

is found in John. If you have your Bibles with you,

please open it to John chapter eight. We're only going

through one verse today, John chapter eight, verse thirty one,

And so I want you all of us to read

it all together if you're ready. Verse thirty one. So

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him.

You you are truly my disciples. Can we read that

statement from the encircled part. If in my word you

are truly my disciples. It's a very simple statement. It

says here, how do you be a follower of Jesus?

And he says it straight. All you have to do

is abide in his teaching, abide in his word, and

now you are truly a disciple. First is we need

to believe, says here. We believe in who he is

and what he does. It's hard to believe someone and

hard to follow him if we do not believe him.

How many of you here believe in who Jesus is?

In Senatata, Nina, Manihan and Kama Cinema. All of us

I believe believe in who Jesus is. What do we

need to do? We need to abide in the world.

You know, the word abide means so much more, and

I want to concentrate on that word today and for

the next few minutes. What is it to abide? And

so today to follow Jesus is to abide in him.

This is the formula, this is the text. If I

am a follower of Jesus, I need to abide in Jesus.

And so the question is what is abide? If you

are here and you do your devotion on a daily basis,

I'm curious what Bible do you use? ESV, NIV, NLT. Okay,

and so I use ESV usually and NLT. But whenever

I study the word, especially when I need to preach

and understand the word carefully, I have I want to

share you a tip so that you can also learn more. Okay,

on and so later not now, please keep your phones

moon nap. All you have to remember is this website

called Bible Gateway. I always go to Bible Gateway, why

because I can actually look at a verse side by

side with different versions, and this is how it looks like.

All you have to do is look for that icon

so that you can put multiple verses and see it

in one sitting. You will see the difference on how

it is in the NIV, with the difference words in ESV.

And So today I was studying the word abide for

a few days already, and I've been saying, Lord, what

do you really mean by abide? Because for me, the

first concept of abide is just to follow law abiding citizen.

And so I narrowed it down and chose three things

that I want to share with you today on what

it is to abide. And this is the first one

and the complete Jewish Bible, it says so Yeshua, this

is Jesus. So Yeshua said to the Judeans who had

trusted him, what does that mean? To believe is also

to trust? And so he said this, if you what

is the word obey? If you obey what I say,

then you are truly my disciples. So what does the

abide mean? Now? Abide means to obey. When talk about obedience,

we know it's not easy, Tamaba. You know I as

a preacher, I've heard this feedback, even from people I

know that are close. I mean, Alamo, bro. There are

people who say I Parana preaching, Nayanan preaching paul it

ul it. And whenever I hear responses like that, I

actually feel sad, not because I sometimes preach the same message,

but because how the person receives the preaching. You want

don't know why, because number one, we are people who

easily forget. Number two, there are things that we really

need to hear and hear. And so the question that

I wanted to ask the person who said this feedback

is did you obey the first time? The second question

I want to ask is in the preachings that here,

once in a while, it may be repeating, are you

still obeying the word of God? You know, we're not

here to all just learn. It's good to learn, but

if we do not obey the word, there's a problem.

Obedience is the key to know who God is and

to follow him. Yeh, I'm my hea up than you?

How do I say it? My hea up you? Whenever

we think why? Because I believe the Word of God

is living in active, I can actually preach the same

text here over and over every week, but it might

be different for us. Amen, because the Word of God

is not only meant for us to learn. The Word

of God is here for us to be obedient to it.

Can I be just very honest with all of you? Yeah,

I know, I'm just waiting for the rest. Brong issue

with Edza love and hate non yellow lane. And so

I realized that whenever I'm in the right lane, which

is the left side, that was when you see the

yellow lane empty naha yellow lane, Yes, the bae why

because we are Christians? Yellow is safe and so especially

in the area near our house in bonis Erano under

pass Malua Glagi don't and so every time I passed

their parent don't don't don't No, okay, Kanti lam half

long so feeling on new videos now young in the

alum lef. You know I could actually debate with everyone.

My wife would hate me for this. No, every time

I'm in this part of m MD chairman, you get

on and I realized this. When it comes to our spirituality,

we can actually debate all we want. But the question

is are we still willing to obey the word? You know,

God is not looking for debaters. He's not He's not

inviting us to debate with him. He's not there to

actually say a question in your what God is. What

God is inviting us to do is to be followers,

followers of the world. To be a follower of Jesus

is to follow his word. I'm not saying we should

not question. We may have a lot of questions. It's

good to ask God, but the question is are you

willing to trust him and obey? The Bible says we

live by faith and not by side. What does that mean?

We don't need proof first to do it. We just

do it anyway, why because we can trust him. We

do it because we trust him and we follow God.

Another thing about obedience is this, obedience is better than sacrifice.

Can you say that with me? Obedience is better than sacrifice?

Do you know what that means? In First Samuel Chapter five,

chapter fifteen, rather Samuel was talking about this that a

lot of people were actually bringing stuff to God. They

would say, Lord, I would do this for you, Lord,

I would actually donate, I would serve you, I would

be an usher for all. But you know, God is

more pleased with our obedience rather than our sacrifice. He's

not looking for the things that we can give him.

He's actually looking at the things that we need to

obey him. Sometimes we think that we can be better

with God if we just do this for him, if

we just do that. But the reality is, is God

really asking you to do that? Is God really asking

you to sacrifice this? It means an ahinihingilani, Lord is

stop doing that because that's wrong. You know, we cannot

have that favor of the Lord by doing good things

and yet doing sinful things continuously. What he is after

is our heart. Amen. It's not the sacrifice says that

we do, okay. So abiding is obeying. To abide in

the Lord is to obey. And what else? In the

white Cliffe version why Cliffe Bible version, it says, therefore

Jesus said to the Jews that believed in him, if

you what's the word dwell? If you dwell in my

word verily, ye shall be my disciples. He imaha texts

that are very deep. No merumpangye do you still have

a bible? That may ye? King James, I practice that.

And when I'm home and yee I need water, ye

I'm a aru usage go in there, okay. And so

to abide in the Lord says to dwell. When you

say dwell, what comes to your mind? What does dwell

mean for you? Dwell means a place where you live,

to resign, a place where you are uh staying permanently,

a place that you are settled in. And think about

it today. The most comfortable place that you have is

still your home. Tamaba. How I've been invited to sleep

in other places, even in an hotel namama hi barrio bah.

Why because you feel more comfortable in your home to

dwell in your own house in your own place means

you're comfortable, you're you have peace, you're rested. This past

week now I've been having colds, so colds, and now

I'm better, and so I decided to take the week

slow and rest. Where did I rest in my room?

You know, our place is a place where we can

actually not only experience peace, we can rest, we can

be comfortable, we can be ourselves, we can actually just

wear whatever we want. That Sando, that's buttas in nineteen seventies.

We are comfortable in our place. What does that mean?

God says, or Jesus says. If you follow me, what

you will do is dwell in me, dwell in my word.

You know, I have a confession to make. Most of

you know this that we live in a small condo,

in a twelve bedroom condo. But we don't joke planm

talagaon and so today I want to be very honest

with you, Para. I can show you how my house

looks like. We only live My wife and I only

live in a one bedroom cando live, but it's a

place where we are very comfortable. You want to see

where we live, see, so to put you on house

lamn No, huh, may picture coming Jenny tapasung Eliaga Bay.

We see ourselves No soa beach simply wife so te

here ye here. You know, to dwell is to actually

reside in God. Question when you are not rested, and

it's not physical ray on. The reality is you can

actually sleep twelve hours a day. But when you have

a problem and when you're going through stress, when you

wake up, is it still there? Yes? Right, And so

you're not rested. Your spirit is not in peace regardless

of how much sleep you have. But God says, if

you want to follow me, dwell in me, rest in me,

have peace in me. This is the offer of God

that when we follow him, his word is something that

we will dwell in. What does that mean? We are

comfortable here, we get peace here, we get encouraged here,

we get to feel love here. Amen. To dwell in

the word of God is to actually find rest in

Him When we have a problem, who do we go to?

You know, in the deepest, darkest times, I hope that

you dwell in the world of God because he is

the only one who can give you rest. I remember

the story and when my wife and I were in

Still we're still in Sibu there was someone who knocked

at our door and it was the stuff in the

managed them in a store who actually because of uh

staffa And so when he knocked in on our door,

what emotion do you think I experienced? I actually got

really scared people, as in I didn't know what to do.

I was in panic negal garden lobby. I was so scared.

Why because previous to this I got texts magadad treats

someone experience and I hope you don't experience that. Somebody

texted me nah at the interpretation okay, m hm, relation

of victory week in anyway. Then somebody texted me maging

at Kayo well boss magee at Kayo mage at kay us.

A few days after that doing kumat and I felt, oh, man,

I don't want to go home to this house anymore.

We actually stayed in my friends place. Why Because our house,

our dwelling place, is our refuge. It's the safest place

we have. It's our safest place. You know, in your house,

it's only you who knows where the luck is, where

the most expensive stuff are. Why because this is your fortress,

right and once it's attacked, you don't want to stay

there anymore. And this, I believe is an encouragement for

us that when we abide in the Lord, when we

go through trials like what I went through, when we

go through a problem where our safety is, he reminds

us of this word. The Bible says, God is our

refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.

Jesus offers us to follow him. Why because when we

need him, He's there to protect us as we dwell

in the world in the Lord, as we dwell in

his word. What we're saying is, Lord, I will remain here.

This is the safest place that I will run to.

I will find the answers here to the questions that

seems like are impossible to get. I will get freedom here.

I will get peace in the Word of God and

my relationship with him. To abide is to dwell in

the Word of God. The first one is to abide

is too obey. Now abide this two d well, And

the third one is this. To abide is to remain faithful.

Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, if

you are truly my disciples, you remain faithful to my teachings.

It's not for a season. It's not just six months

that we believe in God. We follow him and then

we go out and do it our own way. We

remain faithful regardless of the things that are happening in

our lives. We remain faithful. Why am I saying this?

You know a lot of people actually find church boring.

They find it boring and they feel like there's nothing

new whenever they're here. It's just about okay, clocking in

my Christianity bandy clock time card and saying I will

attend and I will go home. Nothing's happening. But they've

encountered the Lord in their lives once twice powerfully. But

at the same time they find it boring. You know.

The problem is when we focus too much on the

highlights of our Christianity, there will come a time that

it can be dry. There are times that God might

be quiet. There are times that God might be silent

in your life. As if nothing is happening, you pray,

your faith is there, you hold onto the world, But

there are times that God is silent. You know. The

problem is we only focus too much on the highlights,

on that experience, on that high on that worship that

changed my day on that word that made me alive

once again. But the reality is our walk with God,

our journey with the Lord, is not always exciting. Sometimes

it's steady, sometimes it's regular. You know, we live in

a world now where it's all about the highlights. You

can actually watch an NBA game in how many minutes

you highlights? Five? Six minutes you watch the entire thing.

I watched the slam Down competition in two minutes. All

that the two guys who battled for the finals date.

I didn't have to watch the rest. Why they were

the highlights In our walk with God, it feels like

we're just concentrated on the highlights, the big things. We're

waiting for that miracle, and until it comes, we're just steady.

Now this is my Instagram account, and what do you

see here? It's all highlights. The great day that I had,

the people that I had a great time with, the

family reunion, the birthday, the good seminar. It's all about

the great things. But I don't put their Me just

drinking coffee at home without taking a bad me, just

reading the word, me just not doing anything, Me just

watching TV, the regular things, the mundane. You know, when

Jesus said, to do well and obey is to abide.

He was also saying, remain faithful regardless of what's going

on in your life, regardless if you are that high

in your worship, regardless if you're dragging yourself to your work,

regardless if you're having a hard time worship God. The

Bible says to follow Jesus is to remain faithful to

the regular things, the not so important things. Why because

God can still do his work even we do not

see it. God can do things for you, even though

you do not see it. Amen see Edie destructed doing

sa postco. What does it mean to abide and remain

faithful in the Lord? Hebrews Chapter ten, verse twenty three says,

let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for

he who promised is faithful. You know, we are called

to be faithful and to remain faithful in our journey

with the Lord. It's not about the times that we

get what we want from Him, but it's also during

the times that we just wait on him we remain faithful.

We are called to remain faithful. So what does that

mean in our lives? How do we see a picture

of a life that followed Jesus. Follows Jesus. To follow

Jesus is to to obey in him. What else? To

dwell in his word and remain faithful to him. This

is a picture of what it is to be a

follower of Jesus, and I'm going to allow you to

take time to read it and assess. Am I a

true follower of Jesus? Am I faithful to my journey

in life with him? Am I actually obeying his word?

Am I dwelling in his presence? Do I dwell and

enjoy my time with the Lord that whenever I do

my devotion. It's not something that I do as a checklist,

but it's something that I really am excited about to

see that the word of God comforts me, that the

word of God warns me, that the word of God

encourages me, that the word of God gives me peace

and hope. To follow Jesus is to obey him, to

dwell and remain in him forever. I have a question,

my heir, Up, Bang I follow? See Lord? Yes? Bangs

got Nam No? I you know, it's really hard to

follow Jesus. And it's no joke. Sometimes there there are

times that when you're on your own doing it, you

just don't know how to There's so many questions. There's

so many times that you're asking, Lord, are you there? Lord?

Is it? Are you going to answer my prayers? Am

I holding on to the promise? Is this the word

that you've given me? You know, it's very difficult to

live a life as a follower of Jesus. That's reality.

But there is good news. You want to know the

good news. God designed following Jesus to be in community.

It's hard to do this alone. It's hard to dwell

in the world without being accountable to someone. It's hard

to obey and ask God without guidance from others. I

hope you know that when God was speaking to the people,

it was just not one person. It was always in use.

He had his disciples. That when you do life together,

you can actually enjoy this picture of following in Jesus.

You can actually enjoy obeying the word. You can actually

enjoy dwelling in Him and remaining in Him forever. I

have to go back to my story a while ago.

So yesterday a lot of us decided to go and

visit Amanda at the Saint Louis at the ICU, And

when I got there, I knew some of the pastors

were there. I knew the relatives were there. But I

was actually not amazed, but actually shocked. But when it

got to the third floor, the hallway didn't look like

a hallway of a hospital. I felt like it was

a hallway going to a church. You would see people,

some are close, some just want to support and give

a prayer. You would see people going to them, encouraging them,

praying for them. I heard somebody just went there and

prayed for them and left. You know, it's hard to

do life on our own, but we can do it

in community. Amen, and hirayu lu lab. It's hard to

remain in the Lord. Really, it's hard to remain faithful

in the Lord. The Bible also tells us that sometimes

we are unfaithful, right, But the Bible also tells us

that even though we are unfaithful or faithless, remains faithful.

God wants to do his work in and through us,

but we have to do it with others, with the community.

To follow Jesus is to do it in community. Can't

up the person here right, signa I am part of

your community. Help the person her left save signa made

you weird? Tim Keller said this. Jesus says, I want

you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly,

that all other attachments in your life look weak by comparison.

Rebbe to follow Jesus will consume us. It's one hundred

percent of us. That the things that we think we

need before that, the things that would make us happy

before Christ, it would mean not thing compared to what

we have in Christ. And that's why when we decide

to follow God, it's all worth it. Why well happened,

It's complete. He's got it all. And probeom's a video.

He finds ways. And this is the reality when we

choose to follow Jezuz, when we choose to accept that

invitation to follow him, when we say, Lord, I want

to follow you. I want to abide in you. I

hope you know that God will abide in you as well.

John Chapter fifteen, verse forces abide in me and I

in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself

unless it abides in the vein in the vine, neither

can you unless you bide in me. There is a

promise that when we follow God. When we abide in him,

what is the promise he will abide in us as well?

You know, Christianity following Jesus is not just following a

set of rules. It's following a person. A life with

a journey with Christ is two way relationship. We're not

just there to follow and check I did this, Lord,

I did this Lord. It's actually a relationship. Why because

when He decides to invite us into our relationship, not

only do we dwell in him, he will also dwell

in us. Amen. That's why we can do life better.

We can do life, we can be more fruitful. Why

because God abides in us. We're gonna worship again today.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come up.

And you know, when we say we choose to follow Jesus.

When I was preparing for this, Pastor Dennis actually shared

this to me, Savina. Bro. Remember this song? Yeah? Are

you familiar with this song? The Cross before me, the

world behind me. I have decided to follow Jesus, no

turning back, no turning back. You know, the song reminds

us of our encounter with God. It tells us that

when we choose to follow Jesus, I hope. There is

no turning back for you. You know what, because God

has the best for you. May plan to your Lord

saying he loves you so much, but he wants you

to obey his word. He wants you to dwell and

remain in him, and he wants you to remain faithful

to him forever. Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope

that you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to share and

subscribe to this podcast for more. God bless you all.