The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 4A: Behave Like Jesus (Do As Jesus Did) | Andy Yeoh

Hello there, Welcome to Generations Church Podcasts. We're so glad

you're listening to this message. We hope you'll be inspired

to grow in your faith in God. Enjoy the message godless.

Okay, So, if behaving like Jesus, meaning doing what he did,

is becoming a person of love, which is what Jesus is, right,

He's a person of love meaning a person who's loving, kind, gentle, patience,

and all of these wonderful things. I think we all

can kind of get it out head and go, yeah,

that's a good person. I want to try to be

like that, more kind, more loving, more gentle. But hey,

if doing what Jesus did includes all the other stuff

like walking water, raising the dead, how about this one

turning water into wine? How many people like to save

some money and do that?

We do that? Isn't he God?

And isn't that reserved for someone divine? I just need

to do the just be more patient and more kind. Right,

Like when you say doing what Jesus did, behaving like him,

we are talking about like the normal stuff like we

learn in moral class, be kinder, be nicer. Yeah, but no,

behaving like Jesus is to do everything Jesus said and

did everything, not just some stuff, not just pick and choose.

It's to be haveve like him in all its essence.

Amen.

So how can we do that? We need to first

define love?

Why?

Because everything Jesus does he does out of love. So

if we are going to be like him, we then

also need to do everything we do out of love.

That means we have to define what love is. Jesus

is the perfect persona and model of love. There's no

greater example of love than Jesus himself. Somebody say, amen,

Now we know that Jesus did not define love with

just words. He didn't give us a dictionary. He didn't

just give us some definition. He defined love with his life.

Amen.

Greater love has no one than this. Then someone laid

down his life for his friends. He actually said this first,

and then he went and did it. So Jesus didn't

just define love through words, He defined it through his

actions and his life.

Amen.

So how do we define love? We talked about this

last week. Love is self sacrificial. Love always esteemed others

higher than themselves. Things like that. All right, So love

is not just a nice feeling. Love is action. How

many wives can agree to that? Amen, husbands who years teenagers. Amen.

Love is not just a nice goods from feeling. Love

is action, especially in Jesus's mind, in his paradigm, love

is action. That's why the Bible says their children and

all we are all God's children, let us not love

with words or speech, but with and in truth. Now,

not that love is not something you feel. You will

feel love, but it is ultimately something that you do.

Love is something that you do, not just feel, and

actions that come through the flow of love through you.

So your acts have to come through love, and those

acts become an act of love.

Amen.

So this is where the whole idea of apprenticeship, that

metaphor is incredibly helpful. You are an apprentice, whether you're

an apprentice to Jesus or your apprentice of a mechanic,

or apprentice of an electrician or programmar coder, musician, artists,

business person, you name it. Basically, you are learning from

a master, master businessman, master artists, master musician, how to do,

how to behave like the master does. So your goal

in the end is not just information but transformation. We're

not just learning so that we can know in our

heir what discipleship is we're being transformed, becoming the same

type of person as your master.

Amen.

That means if your master responds a certain way when

he's angry, we're trying to respond that same way when

we are angry. So it's not just hate, knowledge a

heart change from the inside and externally, your hands on

you are involved. You are doing the things that Jesus did.

So we are apprenticing under Jesus, not just and I

say this carefully, don't don't misunderstand what I'm saying. We're

not just learning from Jesus just to be loving, patient

and kind. That's all good, that's all characters stuff, but

we're also actually learning to say and do the things

he said and did. And so you've heard this before,

there's something called the apprentices apprenticeship learning theory.

It's a four stage process. Uh.

And it's a relationship between the master and the apprentice.

And let's just say here for civil illustration, I'm the master,

your the apprentice. It is goes something like this, I

do you watch, so you watch what I do, and

then I do you help, and then you do I help,

and then you do I watch.

Amen. And watching isn't passive.

It wasn't It's not just like hands off is to

empower you to go be all that you can be.

So I do you watch? I do you help? You do?

I help you do? I watch you?

You could map this process onto Jesus' relationship with his

disciples in the four Gospels. You can see this process

happening step one. Didn't he say, you know, step on

to what I do?

You watch? Right?

Didn't he say? Come follow me, Come and see, come

follow me. I will go out and heal the sick,

I will preach the gospel, I will teach the way,

I will cast out demons.

I will stand up against injustice.

All these things Jesus did and say he did all this,

and he said, come and see follow me, watch me.

You just you follow me around Israel and watch. And

then what happens at the very end? You do I watch?

Or you do?

I help Jesus marching orders was what go and make

disciples go and do?

Like wise? You do? I help you do? I watch? Amen.

That's Matt Tew twenty eight. You know this already.

You probably remember it is my heart right in like

sixteen different translations. Okay, great, So apprentice to Jesus apprenticeship

to Jesus is learning from the Master how to say

the things, kind of things he would say, do the

kind of things he would do. Amen, how of you

are young enough to remember this, what would Jesus do?

We all had that bracelet. It was the rage back.

Then, I think eighties, nineties, and you know, it was

like a big movement around the world.

You know. Some people argue all this, Some preachers.

Say, he's not about what Jesus would do, it's about

what he did, sure, and all of those things. But

it's a good question. It is a good question because

we're learning to be like him. So it's a good

question to ask me what would Jesus do? But hey,

maybe a more helpful way to ask this question is

what would Jesus do if he were me? Not that

he will kind of like fit into your your you,

but it's more like, you know, because most of us

here are not a celibate Jewish rabbi from the first century.

That's not who we are.

You're a university student, you're an igcsc student.

You're a mom with a two year old.

You are an entrepreneur, you're a landscape artist, you're a

ballet dancer, you're a programmer, you are all of those things.

You're a cyclist, you're a runner, you're all those things.

Right, So what would Jesus do if.

He were wearing baggy jeans, oversized T shirt, going to

work on a Monday and your boss is screaming at you?

What would he do if he were that?

Because we have our we do our things, we have

our lives, our jobs, our relationships. Right, so the the

more helpful question could be.

What would Jesus do if he were me?

So the driving questions of an apprentice of Jesus is this,

In each situation, what would Jesus say and do? My

boss is unfair to me, he's mistreating me in the office.

If Jesus were me, what would he do? Someone cut

my lane, someone who is on duty today but didn't

show up on time, didn't tell us ahead of time,

whatever he maybe, what would Jesus do and say in

that situation? Secondly is how do I then train under

Jesus to become the kind of person That's what spiritual

formation is from the inside out. Who would naturally it

gets to a point where it's natural, naturally speak and

act and live and love as Jesus would in that situation.

Maybe you don't start out that way.

Maybe you react in anger once upon a time, but

through the spiritual formation, you now naturally react or respond

to those situations like Jesus would.

To talk about that, we have to talk about.

The expressions of Jesus behavior, and they are sort of

encapsulated in these two concepts in the Bible called the

fruit of the Spirit and gives of the Spirit.

Amen, Okay, I'll just give you a scripture.

I won't read them Galicians five twenty three, first Cirinteen twelve,

eight to ten. There are other passages as well that

details that gives of the spirit. I thought it would

be helpful for me to just list them down right.

So through the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control. That's the fruit of the spirit. What are

the gifts of the spirit? Okay, stuff like wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy,

oh my lemon, know, get away, discerning spirits, tongues, Uh,

interpreation of tongues, and by tongues, it's not kissing, it's okay,

it's a language.

So I can do that.

Administration helps serving teaching, giving, encouragement, leadership, mercy, the other

stuff to like celibacy, poverty, those are gifts too. So

through the spirit are like very internal stuff. Character stuff

is like inner dispositions of the heart. So essentially, through

the spirit is the character of Jesus, and the gifts

are the acts and.

Practices of Jesus.

So Jesus healed, Jesus encouraged, Jesus taught amen, he prophesied,

He's spoken tongues or spoke, and he.

Exalted, and he preached.

Jesus was loving that his character, he was patient, kind,

blah blah blah. When we say behave like Jesus, are

we saying just be more fruit of the spirit and

not so much gift or are we saying be gives

not so fruit? Or is it both? Now both the

fruits and gives are embodied in Jesus. You can see

all of it in the person of Jesus Christ, whom

we are saying this process of the typo shape we

are trying to become and behave like him. Yeah, So,

if we were talking about doing what Jesus did exclusively

on the fruit of the spirit side, on the relational

emotional side, I think most of us will be like, yeah,

I'm already on that path. I'm trying to be more

loving towards my wife, I'm trying to be more kind

towards my children. I'm trying to be more patient towards

my boors and yaddi yara. But if you're talking about

the stuff he did, what administration helping, preaching, proper sign

those things? Wow, isn't he like God? Like he's perfect?

I mean, he's a guy that walked on water and

raised the day. How can I possibly do all of

these things?

Aunt?

Those things supernatural and not natural? Haw Re you use

those word before, like supernatural, like those things are supernatural

and then those things are natural?

Right you probably have thought that way before? Yes?

No, yeah, did you know that this is not a

biblical mindset? Did you know that Jesus never thought this way?

You will never find Jesus.

Saying, ah, these things is natural and these things are supernatural.

To him, he's just well, he used a particular concept

of phrase to describe it all.

He calls it the Kingdom of God.

You know where this idea of oh that's supernatural, some

people can do that and that's natural. More of us

can do it. You know where it came from. It's

a concept that just it's sort of made popular a

couple of hundred years ago, not too long ago. It's

in the sixteen hundred, maybe it's the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Is during the Age of Enlightenment. It's also called the

Age of Reason. Getting some clues right now. It was

the intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe in

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And because it happened, it

kind of like infiltraated influenced our education system and our

thinking and our science and the world. The Enlightenment featured

a range of social ideas centered on the value of

knowledge learned by way of rationalism and empiricism, and political

ideas such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government,

and the formal separation of church and state. All these

dichotomy separations. A large part of it comes from this period.

Until today we feel the effects. But it must be

noted it was not the mindset of Jesus. So when

Jesus said the things he said, he didn't think this way.

That's what we need to know. Okay, I'm not saying

that there's no suching as supernatural.

I'm saying that's not how Jesus thought.

So in the Enlightenment, the smart people told all of

us that some things are natural and can be proven

by signs, and some things are supernatural and cannot be

proven by signs. They had to be taken on faith.

If you have faith, if you believe. So some things

can be proven by science, some things cannot. Those things

that cannot, Oh, those are supernatural. I'm very sure whether

we can actually believe or even do those things. Let's

just ignore them, or let's just wait till we can

prove them. So suddenly there's a dichotomy. Suddenly there's a separation, Yes, signs,

things that follow the laws of nature and things that

transcends the law of nature. Yeah, that's not the worldview

of Jesus at all. Let's be on the same page

or that it's this idea is a dichotomy that came

out of the Enlightenment period, is an Enlightenment paradigm. So basically,

in those days there were all these people who said

things like, hey, you know.

What, last time, last time, my grandmother say.

The sun come up because ah, God made the sun

come up, the ring come down because God make the

ring come down. And then now the crops grower so

that we won't die. All this a is God work.

We used to thing like that, but now he's smarter.

Now he's smart already. Now we know it's not God.

It's science.

It's the loss of nature, it's the loss of the universe.

Ah, it's not God. Actually we should tell them. Actually

your first thought was all right, it is God. But

but then they thought we figured it out, that's all

Grandma tells. They didn't know how to explain. They had

no science manic or no microscope. They don't have all

these things, so they didn't know. So they blame everything

on God. But now we know it's science. And so

then this idea sifted into society and so now we

have this dichotomy. Okay, your history lesson, I said, all right,

but then there will always be oppositions. They were so

there were this group of intellectual elites. Many of them

became founding Fathers of America. They were willing to just

throw everything out and say ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah God, God,

God's not involved. No, they wanted to retain some judio

Christian ideas, theology, morality, and so there were people who say,

you know what, so out of that worldview, there were

people who say, yes, Jesus was a he existed, he's real,

he was a good teacher, but he didn't actually do

all those miraculous things. Jesus exists, he's real. He walked

the earth, but he didn't turn water into wine. He

didn't raise the dead, he didn't walk on water. All

those are just tales, myths, legends. And then the all

these staunch followers of Jesus who saw what's happening and

go oh no, no, no, no, no, no no. So

their comeback was this. That comeback was no, no, no, no,

no no no. Hey, read the Bible. You see, Jesus

walked on water, he turned water into wine, he made

the lame work, he raised the day. You see, that's

proof that Jesus is God. Because you got all the

people who say he's not god like. He's a good man,

he's a wonderful man. His teachings are very good, but

he's not God. So the people who wanted to respond

to they say, no, no, no, no, you see, don't

water to Windley on water. He is God, you know,

till today some of us, many of us actually still

use that argument. Jesus performed miracles, therefore he's God. Now God,

listen carefully. I'm not a heretic, I don't think i am.

But there's a problem with that logic, because if you

read a Bible, there were people before Jesus that perform miracles.

Elijah called down fire from heaven on a pool of water.

Elijah took out his jacket, wagged the river, and he buttered.

Elijah raised the dead, So he's God. How many of

us read those say, Ah, he performed miracles, he's God.

We don't do that right.

You know, there were people after Jesus that performed miracles too.

Was it Paula Peter's shadow healed the sea? Was it Peter?

He sent his handkerchief, his covid infested chief, and he

healed the sick?

Oh?

How many well, ago, Ah, Peter's God. Why don't we

do that? So what do we say? Because shee wan water,

water wine, he's God? This is where we gotta be careful.

I'm not saying that the miracles don't prove that he's God.

But you see, you see how this idea is kind

of messing us up. It's a it's a flawed logic,

flowed logic. If Jesus did this miracle stuff because he

was God, then naturally we can't do these type of

things because we are not God. So if those things

Jesus did he did because he's God, then we can

all wrong conclusion.

We cannot be like Jesus.

South can we start a new series next week if

we think that the miracles of Jesus is the only

proof that he is God and that's why he's God. See,

if Jesus is God, he's got without the miracles. We've

got to first understand that God is still God even

if he doesn't perform one miracle. Remember the laymen that came,

the four friends, the four friends that drop him from

the roof and then drop him.

We all know.

Why he was there to heal, to get his legs healed.

But Jesus said, what your sins are forgiven you. There's

a powerful story that's telling you the miracle is not

more important than this salvation anyway.

Can you see the flaw in the logic.

If Jesus did all those things because it's God, then

we can all lie.

Now if this is the logic. See we don't.

If this is the logic, it's dangerous because we won't

just apply it to the miracles.

Oh, Jesus can walk on water. I cannot.

Yeah, sure I can accept that, but then you will

start going into I can't be as loerving as him.

There's no way he's god Ma. I can't serve others

like Jesus did. Impossible, he's Godma the fluit of the spirit.

At the most I can get five point five Lah,

I can't get all nine. Cannot be because I'm not

patient enough to get ahead.

See one down. You see selfhology.

So when we read the miracle stories of the Bible,

if like I'm proposing today, don't just read them as

proof and only prove that Jesus God.

How should we read them?

Then will read them how Jesus preached them.

There's another way of reading these stories.

So there's a theologian called tom Right or Anti Right

that describe it this way. When you see the gifts

of the spirit and the miraculeus, these are signs of

the inbreaking kingdom of God. Jesus said, the King of

God is here. I'm here to preach the kingdom. He

often thought the King of God is like he's obviously

trying to establish something.

What is the kingdom.

We often think of gospel as the part that brings

the forgiveness of sins, and of course that is part

of the idea. But Gospel is the announcement that everything

has changed in the coming of Jesus, and it leads

us to a new kind of living, new kingdom. So

there's a new king with new rules. It is a

Kingdom of God lifestyle with allegiance to a king as

the ultimate restorer. We are his workers to reflect that

good news and a new way of life in a

world that is seeking answers in profoundly short sighted ways

rather than in.

The way of Jesus.

So the Gospel, it's not just good news, it's a

new way of life. So these miracles designs another way

to read them, not just as ah, this.

Is just all this is just to prove the Jesus

is God.

It does, but it's more, and that it's signs of

the inbreaking of the King of God. There is a

kind of God. It's here through Jesus who live in

us and through us. So in other words, we're saying

this is what it looks like when the King of

God breaks into your world, your workplaces, your relationships, your marriages,

your schools, your sports team, your thought life, your emotional life,

your everything, when the King of God breaks in.

This is what it looks like. So again we must

be careful.

I'm not saying miracles don't prove that Jesus God, but

it can't just be the only way, because we've got

non Christians performing miracles. My own grandfather, I think you

can call him a miracle walker or worker.

He walked through walls. He's got knife.

People try to stab him in a knife and then

I will not go through his skin. He can make

money appear out of thin air. He's not God. Here's

my grandpa who accepted Christ minutes before he died. He's

not God. Neither am I saying therefore is not God

he is, and miracles cannot happen apart from God. I'm

just proposing, in the light of discipleship, in the light

of jess say follow me the things I do, you

will do also, and greater works will you do?

He said all these things, and what did he mean?

The inbreaking of the Kingdom of God.

We can be here like Jesus in our worldly office,

because the Kingdom of God can break into the office

through us and the Kingdom of God. It's not some

mumbo mumbo jumbos and spiritual stuff is a new way

of life. So it's kind of like it's kind of

like saying the light bulb Okay, imagine when the light

comes on in a room and we say, look, the

light bulb works. Yes, that will be correct. We look

at the light bulb. Depends on Oh, the light bob works.

It proves that the light bulb works. But doing that

would be missing a very big part of it because

it also means there's electricity coming through into the house.

There's power coming through you see. So when see Jesus miracles,

we are to think not just the light bulb works,

that this works. That's oh, there's power coming through the

said invisible power coming through.

Somebody say amen.

So when the Kingdom of God breaks into our world

through Jesus, which it has because Jesus coming to the world,

amen and invited us to follow him, it looks like

what it looks at, blind people seeing again, lameing people walking,

ostracized people being brought to the table and into community

the unlovable, loved, the loss found. That's what it looks like.

That's what the Kingdom of God looks like.

Amen.

So if we had to become and behave like Jesus,

we have to ask a question where did he get

his power?

The answer the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what Paul says. We need to be continuously filled.

Being filled by the Holy Spirit is not like an

event in the past at a youth cam and the

no more, you don't pump petrol for your car and

then don't bump anymore?

Don't. We always said.

You feel any you get feel again and again. But

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. This is you

want to call it a secret, that's his secret.

This is the key.

He was full of the Holy Spirit. Right after this,

can you read yourself? You know what happened. He went

to the wilderness and got tempted, and overcame the temptation.

How do you come temptation? Full of the Holy Spirit? Amen?

So Jesus, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore he was full of power, full of electricity, not

just the light bulb works electricity. Power is coming through

the power is the Holy Spirit, and the key facet

of the New Testament theology is that the same spirit

that was on Jesus to empower him to do all

of those wonderful, miraculous, powerful, loving things is now on

you and me. Jesus says, abiding me all these things

makes sense. I'm the vine of the branches of bodying me,

and I'm you. And then he talks about I will

send you another helper. I will send you another menak

now is on everyone who is a follower of the

way Jesus. If the spirit of Him who raised Sasm

from the day do us in you, He who raised

Christ Jesus from the dead, will also give life to

your mortal bodies through his spirit.

Who do us in you?

Now to Himho's able to do far more bandli than

all that we could ask, a thing according to the

power that at work within us as disciples. Since apprenticeship

slash discipleship is learning from the Master to become the

type of person that he is in order to say

and do the things he said and did. Then, as disciples,

we are to continue the works of Jesus on earth,

the works of Jesus, both in character fruit and in

acts and practices gives. That's why Jesus said, go therefore

and make disciples.

Go.

Oh you do, I help, My Holy Spirit helps you do.

I watch, and I say, well done, my good and

faithful servant. John fourteen twelve tru Literally, I say to you,

whoever believes in me will also do the works that

I do, And greater works than this will he do.

Because I'm going to the Father. Now this this creature

has been misquoted. Oh he just raised one person today,

I'll raise one hundred. Maybe it's not so much the

quality of what Jesus did, and then you can do

better because you can't do anything apart from him. But

it makes sense because technology is more advanced now, we

can reach more people now in minutes then they could

way back then. In that sense, we have no excuse.

We can do greater works. I mean we literally the

whole world experience a pandemic. If the pandemic happened a

long time ago, and I think the Church of God

would have been down.

We don't where to go.

But because the panemic happened in twenty twenty, oh, there

was this God, there was zoom I ran I and

a team ran a whole conference for nine hundred people

on discord. So we have the Gospel can advance much quicker,

much wider today than ever before. In that sense, we

can do greater works. But we have to do the

work everybody, all right, So, as disciples of Jesus, we

are to go and do likewise, do what This includes

both the fruit of the spirit as well as the

gifts of the spirit.

But here's the caution.

Here's the warning. Don't get too hung up on your success.

How many souls you say, how many years and eyes

you open? Sometimes we get too cup with the success.

So when you pray.

For or a headache and it doesn't go away, you

pray no more because, oh, it didn't work.

Maybe you're not holy enough.

Maybe I didn't read the Bible enough, maybe I didn't

wake up early enough. Ah, and all these excuses coming in.

And then you somehow subconsciously believe this idea that you

cannot be like Jesus, and subconsciously you're like Discipleship is

for those people and not me. Now, it's for everyone

who would believe.

You get there.

When you get too hung up on your success, here's

a fact.

The miraculous and.

The supernatural involves mystery and therefore disappointment too.

It is a mystery we often.

Get hung up, particularly when it comes to the more

miraculous gifts of administration. I can do because if I

put this in, this will come out. Yeah, I can

do that. But healing, prophecy, interprevision of tongues, what how

can when I pray they don't get h We get

to hung up on that. See, the thing is is

none of us are really sure how it all actually works. Yeah,

so he actually produces mystery, and sometimes it comes with disappointment.

I prayed and it didn't work. I prayed and it

got worse. Oh mine. All of that is very very real.

It must be acknowledged. But it also must be acknowledged

that every sign and wonders of the kingdom we don't

always know how it works. So mystery and disappointment is

part and puzzle of that.

Amen.

We may regularly share the gospel, just like Jesus did,

and sometimes people respond positively, and sometimes they don't. And

when when people respond positively, say I preach today and

fifty people say our received ges, you can't act And

some of you will say, maybe passed and he preached

really well today.

Well the message was on point. Well he has some

spiritual reason.

Man. Whatever you say, lah, but if you really sat

down and think about it, you can't actually tie the

result of those fifty hands went up to the message.

Because I can preach exact same message the exact same

way somewhere.

Else and no hands will go up. I know this

was I've done it before.

I've preached the exact same message, sometimes even better in

the second place, and no one got saved.

I will never forget this story.

There's a young chap, young little boy in a village

in Sarahwah who was taught to pray, and the only

prayer he was taught to pray is to say grace,

thank you Jesus for the food, blessed the food in

Jesius name.

Amen.

That's the only prayer he knows. There's the only prayer

he prayed. And so when his mom fell sick and

was just too far to get to the hospital, he's

too young to bring her there. Guess what, he laid

hands on her and thank you Jesus for the food

and bless the food and jails them.

Amen.

And how his mom got healed, and so it's mystery.

Can we just accept that? I think we can. If

it's not about you, does it matter if I pray

and one hundred people blind eyes open, and some of

us pray and it doesn't Who cares? It's not your glory.

It's not about you anyway. Yeah, we don't know when

God is choosing to work on someone externally expressed, like

God's God, God in his infidite with some things that

you know what, if I hear this persn't right now

is the best thing for him? And if in some

cases he wants to do it a different way, he

wants to form something within them.

Who has to build something in them? Character, patience? I

don't know. We don't know. Yes, God's prerogative. Amen.

It's kind of like make baking chocolate chip cookies. I

started in the pandemic, and I'm happy to announce to

you now four years later, I still haven't got it.

I'm trying to make the subway kind like the this

crunch outside and the soft in the inside.

How do I get it? There's tons of video on YouTube, everyone.

Claiming it's the best, it's the best, It's the best

guess what Mega church local Mega church even did this recipe?

Yes, I followed it. I thought this Christiane one sho

can work. It didn't work. Oh did I get ingredients wrong? No?

Flower, eggs, sugar, brown sugars, sometimes butter, Like what did

I get wrong?

Every ingredient was correct.

Sometimes we know the equation, like we know it's fly, butter, egg,

chocolate chap. We know the ingredients, but maybe we've got

the proportions wrong. But sometimes knowing the ingredients and the

proportions both and you still don't know how it actually works,

Like how does fly and ache? And how does these things?

When they come together, it becomes like how how does

it work? Nobody actually knows. It's a mystery. He works

on white ipo white coffee. Don't buy roll black one.

It only tastes that in the EPO. So I don't

know what they put in there. I know some limestone water,

some I don't know, like ipo drop, I don't know.

I've never tasted any iple wit coffee like I did

in Apol.

In that shop.

Maybe it's a sweat like it's a mystery. But friends,

we don't stop preaching the gospel. We don't stop praying,

and we don't stop loving. Let's not throw the baby

out with the bath water.

No. Now, this is.

Where the apprenticeship metaphor breaks down a little bit, because

if you're apprenticing under a mechanic to be like him,

he will teach you everything. You know everything, you just

need to get the right information and issued work. But

when it comes to spiritual stuff, that's a mystery. That's

the only difference.

Yeah, So.

Let me share with you now a three part framework

of behaving like Jesus, doing what he did, and this

and then. Now there's many different lessons out there. Other preachers,

teachers may frame it differently. That's okay. It's not like

someonere right and someonere wrong. It's just different ways of

thinking about it. I just found it is helpful because

I'm basing off the practicing, the way book and the

cost they were doing together. So I found it good

because it's based on the four Gospels. Looked at the

life of Jesus, looked at his example, and we go, okay,

there's three things that Jesus did that we can also

practice as disciples if we are to behave like him.

Amen.

So it's this three making space for the gospel, preaching

the gospel and demonstrating the gospel. So making space for

the gospel, what does this mean? Making space for the

gospel is cold. It's just code for hospitality. Someone was

saying hospitality as oh the ministry, right, they want to

prepares food.

Oh oh oh.

Sometimes football uses this world as well, like oh, your

ticket comes to hospitality or not? Is it just means like, oh,

you are VIP when you go to the stadium, they

take you to a separate room. It's air condition and

there's coffee and tea and stuff like that. Hospitality. So

I thought maybe I'll use other words. Making space for

a gospel is hospitality. Now I'll explain what that means.

But also basically, love your neighbor, love your neighbor, making

space for the gospel, or if you want to remember,

just one word is love. That's making space for the gospel.

We're not at preaching the gospel yet, we'll get there.

We're gonna talk about that talk. But making space.

Jesus.

One of the best examples that Jesus gave us of

making space for the gospel, of being hospitable, of loving

your neighbor and love is he was constantly having meals

with people. Of the seven deadly scenes that he could

be accused of, Jesus was not accused of last greed.

He was accused of gluttony because he ate so much. Yeah,

he was constantly. You know, there was this guy, Robert Carris.

He's a New Testament scholar. He's an expert on the

Gospel of Luke. He said this about Jesus. Jesus is

either on his way to a meal, add a meal,

or coming from a meal.

M When Jesus wanted to turn Jesus Zachi's.

Life around, He's like, I'm coming to your house to

have a meal. I mean, Jesus he was Asian as well.

I think I can relate. I think we can relate.

Right.

He ab with his hands. He did his bread in sauces. Yeah,

m hmm.

It's almost like if read the gospel, it's almost like

the whole gospel is about Jesus going from table to table,

meal to meal.

And it's interesting.

When Jesus was dealing with what we would call religious conservatives,

he would often use preaching like you will preach the Pharisees.

He was used preaching to call them into a deeper

kingdom life. But when he was dealing with text collectors,

sex workers, disabled persons, people who are exercised by society,

we don't have a lot of examples of them him

preaching to them. As the first step. He would normally

invite them to a table. And when I say table,

it can be literal table or as a concept that

means a place where conversation, life, love can happen amen

not a surface, not a preaching session, but a table.

And the same New Testament scholar Robert Carries he said

that wherever Jesus went, hm, wherever Jesus went, he was

always the host, not the guests. Even at Zaccheus's house.

It's not his house, but he behaved like the host. Now,

if you can take this example from Jesus and you

can live this way, I think you'll be wonderful.

That reason, when you walk into your office, you are

the host.

When you're at a coffee session with your friend, you

are the hosts, at least in mentality. You are there

because you have something they don't. You can offer and

serve something to them that they don't have. You are

the hosts. You don't have to be an extrovert to

be a host. When it comes to discipleship, you can

be an introvert and to be a host. A host

just means you are proactive. You're looking for opportunities to

serve somebody. You're looking at opportunities help to see How

can I mean a need? That means you can be

invited to someone else's house and they're hosting you. But

you can still be a host if you're a disciple,

If your mind is how can I serve you? How

can I bless you? What need can I meet? What

can I say to live you? Up?

You follow me so far?

So Jesus was constantly always the host, not the guests,

even when he's a guest.

Now why meals why?

Now I'm not saying behaving like just means just mycan,

although I'm also saying that it's a very good way.

But see it also symbolic meals meals meal is life

because food is life, meal life just doing life. Why

did Jesus when he was walking on earth, knowing that

all these things will be recorded in writing and thousands

just later people will be reading about it. And when

they read, they is reading about his savior having macan

Why because meals was deeply symbolic, especially in Jesus' day.

I think even today, especially in our culture, sociologists will

call them boundary markers. Boundary markers means where you eat dinner,

how much money you spend on your food, who you

eat dinner with. All of these things are like lines

of demarcation, like certain people won't eat at five star hotels,

and if you ate at a five star hotel, oh,

you must be so and so, such and such a person.

You get saying there's this idea, it's a way to

demarket people, like, oh, meals, how luxuriously you eat, like

if you went to China, for example, that they have

this idea of being having abundance, So they will always

almost always over order, Like if you finish all the

phone on the table, it's not good for them, it's

not a good look. The host will be embarrassed. You

must leave the table with lots of leftover someone's ago.

Such a waste.

They will go, Ah, I'm a good host because I

gave you abundance.

Meals.

Meals have a way of delineate people, delaying people. So

Jesus took that like he almost always does, and turn

it around and say, no, I'm not gonna use meals

to demarket. I'm gonna use meals not as an opportunity,

opportunity to keep people out, but to invite people in,

not as a boundary marker, but as an open welcome

of the Father's love, like I would have a meal

with a prostitute. No now, today, if you do it,

it's a different story. But when he did it, he

was trying to say, no more lines. My love is

for everyone, not for the Brahmins, not just for the

the white man, or the the Chinese Ouk or the

Indian jet there no, no, no, no, It's for everyone

and anyone who will come to me. So he he

chose the one thing that people used to different ship people.

He said, no, come, let's come to a table.

Amen.

So the table is where preaching the gospel can begin.

The table is where relationship. Now. I love church, and

I love that today is quite packed. It's wonderful. We

just have to put less chance that looks back. No, no, no,

it's it's really quite back today. This is great. But

please don't fool me and fool yourself. We're not building

relationship here. No one's getting more trusting just because you

said next to me, oh, bro, I trust you with

my life. Here's my here's my banking number. Oh why

you said that to me in church? I trust you?

No?

Please, come on, this is not where real relationship is

being actually being built. Doesn't doesn't make this not important.

It is.

But I like to propose something called table Christianity. We must,

like Jesus, take Christianity to the table, the one on one,

one on two threes four at the marcam place or

at running ten km and then after that banding and

then looking for breakfast, and then you sit down and

you talk about health, fitness and dying soon because your

heart is right, and then oh you're dying sooner? You

would have an insurance? A do you have insurance? But

if you're talking about oh, this one eternal one, you know,

it's it's just like just finding opportunities.

Table Christianity. Let me explain, Let me explain this way.

I'm gonna tell you now before I tell you what

I'm gonna tell you.

Both are important.

So basically, too much emphasis in Christianity on the temple.

This is the temple coming together, worshiping together a man.

It's important we need the temple. It's literally what just

means ecclesia, coming out of your homes and gathering in

a particular place. The Book of X talks about the

table house to house. This was literally the pandemic. Bro

There was no temple together in it was only table.

You were sitting at your table, wasn't you this one

on one? These meals, these chats, this life on life, this,

how are you doing? When I say being hospital roomin

go sign up and join a hospital hospitality team, I

mean that too.

We need help.

We sign up, but be hospitable. Meaning it's six fifteen.

Some has gone to church on thing already and hospitality

team already keep the coffee machine. Some people are keeping

the chairs covers. And there's a newcomer. And when I

say a newcomer doesn't mean it's first time, it's his

fifteen time in this shirt and still alone. And you

notice it. And then you have a choice because someone's

noticed the guy and say, no, La, not me, La,

I'm not friend li La, I mean introvert, La, I'm

the introvert introverts. But you notice you saw the guy

being hospitable. It's like, hey, man, you look like an introvert.

Yeah I am. Oh, you know, because I am one.

Can we both quietly go together thing and then do what?

We just sit together? I need to talk, You need

to eat, right, yeah, as we eat, eat together? Okay,

Then two intruts go to such a thing together, and

Eira and that guy will go home thinking, finally, finally

someone notices me. You mean there's other introverts in generations

just too. It's not hard, my friends, It's really not

that hard. You won't believe me, But I'm super shy, bro,

I am. I'm not shy here, but here you have

a camera on me. When I'm overseas attending some overseas conference.

You watch me. I hide, Bro, I go to the

toilet very long because I don't know how to talk

to other people, especially the.

Young man the American accent with me. I'm like, I

got toilet.

Really. One I was in a conference and it was

this There was this coffee room, this green room where

all the big names are there. I'm talking Rick Warren,

Niggy Gumble, I'm talking big names, Russell Evans, They're all there,

and I have the same tag.

I'm thinking to myself, man, this is my chance. To

go talk to them. This this this stuff with me. Wow, okay,

didn't get that. What did I do?

I went toilet and waited until the sessions start because

I'm shy, I really am.

But I want to be like Jesus.

So somebody needs somebody to just ask them a simple question.

Are you going for dinner? Just walk out?

It wasn't just like like I. I mean I would

literally read your introvert me too. Shall we quickly go

dinner together? Yeah, let's do it. You can see my car.

No one's gonna talk to you. Don't worry unless you

want to talk. And by the way, I've just said

the most post I've ever say in church. So you

better come something that I don't know. It's all you

are extroverts. Use that gift. So we must have the temple,

but we must also have the table, the congregation, but

also the community. What about the non official organic stuff?

That phone call that that? What's that message that? Hey,

I'm gonna buy some new shoes anyway, why don't you

follow me? You don't always have to know what will

actually happen. Sometimes I don't even know. Like this boy here,

I met him last year October No March. First day

we met, he made me buy soft drinks for every

one of his.

Six girls. That's how you get the girls, Ah, get

an adult to buy drinks for your friends.

Huh, never mind, never mind. Because of him, I make

seven friends. He said, can you wear me soft drink?

I'm like, oh sure. At the counter he said, can

you buy six more. On the very first day we met,

he told me about his mom. Asked about your family

and said, you share about your mom having brain cancer tumor.

So I'm so sorry to hear that. I started praying

for your mom since that day, and then once in a

while we'll check in. How's a mom doing, how's a

mom doing? How's a mom doing? The night before her

his mom passed away, and she stopped, he passed away.

She's in heaven now. But night before eleven something, he

texted me and said, please, can you pray for my mom?

She's having fever right now, leven something, Please pray for

my mom. She's having fever. She's not supposed to fever.

Can you please pray for her. I saw the message.

I said, I'll pray right now. I pray for her mom.

Then I fell asleep when I woke up in the morning.

There was two missco from him. Want something, do something.

I'm like, oh no, what happened? Call him back in

the morning. He said, my mom passed away. You were

the first person I called.

I don't know. I don't know why. Maybe maybe my

name is A so it's the first person you call.

I don't know.

First you could have called somebody else first, you could

have called, but this, I don't know. I saw that

as a sign of we have relationship, and it was

literally formed at the table.

Till today.

Sorry to make money from me, buy me this, buy

me that by me this table Christianity, Amen, move from

people to the person. People are important. We need the church.

One day I'll preach about the church. It's important.

We need this.

Don't think that you can be a Christian on your own.

It's just by definition not possible. You can't love one another,

you can't love your in Christ if you don't actually

have a community.

Amen.

But let's move from just people. I want to be

a pastor. There's not just about people, but the person.

That's what Jesus did. He did both, didn't he Someone

on the mound and a woman at a well fed

the five thousand and then he heard up with his

sapple and say, you know why I do what I did?

You know why I fed them bread? Because yo, object lesson. Yo,

I'm the bray of life that break the air. They'll

be hungry again by me. You hunger no more object lesson.

With a small group, he did both. We should too.

So the first step will be heaving of Jesus. Let's

learn to make space for the gospel.

What does that mean?

Be hospitable, be warm, love your neighbor, even if your

neighbor is not like you.

You don't have to make it complicated. A man temple, to.

Congregation, to community, people, to the person. Can I encourage

you to do that? I tell you a quick story

and never close. I was involved in a movement before

her revolution. We challenge and inspire young people to start

prayer and action groups in their school. Because a lot

of Christians the prayer groups no action. So we challenge

them to pray, least in and obey. And so a

lot of miracles started happening in Kansas, being healed, sculosis

being healed. All kinds of wonderful things happened. One girl

in Subang went home crying because she prayed and nothing happened.

She is not an extrovert. She could not preach, teach,

and do stuff like that. She actually went back home

into a room crying because she felt so useless and inadequate.

As she was crying to God, God, I'm so useless.

I want to make a difference. Why I can't do

anything substantial? I'm not like them, she heard the voice

of the Holy Spirit say to her, look at your table.

She looked at the table, and the hostpead say what's

on your table? She said, stationary paper cards, spends stationaries?

Why God, God, why did they?

Oh?

I love making cards for people. Go to your table.

Make a card for your discipline teacher. Why disciplined teacher?

She needs it the most. The disciplined teacher is a

very fierce lady. She had a nickname called Tiger. And

she's very very fierce and very very notorious, and no

one likes her. She's like, why her. Go write a

thank you card, give it to her. She went to

a table, she did her thing, she decorated it, wrote it,

wrote a message, said thank you. She said, okay, God,

I'm done, And Scot says, you're not done. Please put

at the bottom of the cart Jesus loves you.

She said, what, my disciplined teacher, what gouse?

She needs to hear it, So she wrote that Jesus

loves you. She went to the school the next day,

praying that the teacher will sick and not show up.

She waited to recess time, went to the teacher's room,

hoping that they'll she won't be there. Lo and behold,

she was the only teacher there. She walked up to

the desk and said, teacher. She said, what, I have

something for you?

What is it? I have a card for you. What

is it?

It's a tank you card, teacher, you can read it.

The teacher opened her card. She read the message. She

got to the bottom. She started tearing. This teacher who's

not a Christian, who's called the tiger. She's tearing, and

the girl panics, like, teacher, what happened?

Why? I'm also panicking the let's just gone out?

Teacher. Why are you crying? She said, no, no, you don't.

I said, yeah, I don't understand. The teacher said, sit down, okay,

who's sit down?

What's up? Teacher? She said, I don't know who you are.

I don't know why you know so much about me.

Thirty minutes ago before you came in, a teacher walked

into this room and told me the xact same three words.

She said, Jesus loves you. And now here you here

you are with your card. And he said, Jesus loves you.

Who's this Jesus? Can you tell me more about him?

And this now is preaching to this teacher. And then

this girl prayed for the teacher that you didn't get

saved that day, but the gospel was preached. The President

of God was there. What did the girl do? She

just did her thing. She's a card maker, stationary on

the table. What's your thing?

What if you.

Became the host? Not dominic conversation, That's not what I mean.

Just have a hosting spirit. I'm here to serf. I'm

here to serf. I've got something many of you in

this circle don't. I'm gonna find ways to share that

to offer that.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us. We trust that you have

been blessed by the Word of God. We love hearing

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Until next time, God bless,