The TrueLife Mandate: Learn

Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16 and meet me at verse 18,

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And Jesus says, I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock,

I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And we started a couple of weeks ago a

series called the true life mandate and in

this series I want to talk to you about the purpose of the ministry that you

are in the local church and in this passage of scripture we find out that the

first time Jesus used the word church is found in this scripture.

Now in this passage, if you remember correctly, the disciples were asked by

Jesus, what are people saying about me?

And they had various answers of what people were saying about Jesus.

Just like today, there'll be various answers. If we were to ask people,

what do you think about Jesus? What do you say about him?

We would get thousands of different responses to that question.

And so Jesus asked his disciples that.

And they gave a variety of different answers. Then Jesus asked Simon,

or he asked them all that, who do you say that I am?

And Simon was the only one to say something back.

He said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And then Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood didn't

reveal that to you, but my father in heaven.

And then he says this passage here, and now I say to you that you are Peter.

And so he was Simon Barjona, but now you're Peter, which is a piece of the rock. You are Peter.

And upon this rock, he wasn't talking about upon the rock of Peter.

Upon the rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living

God upon this rock, this revelation,

I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

What Jesus is saying here is that he is the one that establishes the church.

He's the one that has started this church.

He's the one that will construct the church.

He's the one that has founded the church.

He's the one that is building the church and the church he is building.

Hell itself cannot withstand the advance of this type of church that Jesus is building.

We like to think that hell is advancing and we're on defense,

but the truth of the matter is the church is advancing and hell can't prevail

against the advancement of the church.

And when we hear this word church, we tend to believe that this word means some

form of a religious organization or religious people,

or maybe simply a building or some form of organized religion,

some form of control or manipulation.

When we hear church, we think of all these sort of things, but that's not what Jesus came to build.

When he said he came to build the church, he's talking about this Greek word,

ekklesia. Say ekklesia.

See, you speak Greek. You didn't even know it. You speak Greek.

Ekklesia, which simply means the called out ones, the divinely selected ones,

the ones that have been chosen.

And it doesn't mean they've simply been divinely selected and chosen.

They've actually been divinely selected and chosen to gather,

to come together in community.

And so Jesus is saying, I am building a church, divinely selected individuals

and families to gather together for an assignment.

Every church needs

a pastor every church

needs a place to gather this is why we're

purchasing a building the building's important

the building's not everything but it is extremely important because it allows

us to gather and allows us to disciple and to encourage and to help and to strengthening

and to be a place of comfort and to be open doors that welcome in broken and hurting people.

I don't like to hear people talk bad about the building.

The building is important for the ecclesia to accomplish its goal.

And then the third part that every church needs is an assignment.

An assignment. Every church needs an assignment. Now you have the universal

church and the assignment is to go into all the world to preach the gospel and,

and baptize and make disciples and et cetera.

But every local church as well has an assignment.

And so God has divinely selected,

called us out so that you and I together with an assignment and an assignment,

generally speaking, is to have jurisdiction over a city and community.

See, we weren't just called to get together and hide somewhere.

Although in some countries they are hiding because it's not legal for them to get together.

And those churches are exploding in growth because they are defying the opposition

because there's an assignment on their life to let people know about Jesus.

And so we're not gathering simply so that we could feel good,

simply so we could check a mark off a box, simply so that you could tell someone, I went to church.

No, we're gathering because we're to receive an assignment and that assignment

causes us to have some jurisdiction in our community.

We are supposed to dictate and determine what happens in our cities.

This was the purpose of the church. We weren't supposed to just go with the

flow or assimilate into what the city's doing or to look like the city or act like the city.

We were supposed to have a voice in the city and have the ability to have the right to command.

The right to determine, the right to dictate what happens in a community.

And God has divinely selected us for that. Say this after me. I am divinely selected.

Say I am chosen. Say I am called to gather and receive an assignment.

And the assignment not only is for the city, it starts with you first.

The assignment you receive, every week I'm giving you an assignment.

And it starts with you first, and then it's your family, and then we can start

looking at the community. But you've got to receive the assignment first.

There's got to be a change in you first.

And so in 2011, July 2011, the Lord called Stacey and I to start True Life Fellowship Church.

And the reason we started it, there was an assignment he placed on us,

and really, it happened really fast.

Let me tell you what, sometimes walking with God, things seem to take forever,

but when the grace is on it, it begins to happen really fast.

And over the weekend, we started hearing God clearly, and the Lord asked this

question of us, is there more to life than what you are experiencing?

And we knew right away that our assignment was to help people experience true life.

We exist so that people will experience true life.

And so he gave me four words that weekend. Love, learn, live, and lead.

And as we started the church, you got to understand, God himself was building it.

But we had to get started.

We had to take a step. We had to reserve a band room at a middle school.

We didn't have any equipment.

We didn't have any money.

We didn't have any musicians, these beautiful musicians you see today.

We didn't have any of that. We didn't have anything.

I should show you some pictures. As a matter of fact, I will show you some pictures

of our very first service. We didn't have a microphone.

We didn't have speakers. I was just talking. We had to just get started.

And there were just a handful of people that were bold enough to say,

I'm going to start with you.

And we got started. And the Lord said, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to help people understand that they are loved by me.

That is the foundation of true life, believing and receiving the love of God.

He said to me, people are trying so hard to love me, but I want them to know

that I love them, not as they should be, but just the way they are.

I want them to understand that I died for them and I have plans for them and

I have a purpose for them.

And I want them to grow in the love that I have for them, that they'll begin

to understand that they're children, and I'm a father, and they're children.

Matter of fact, when I talk to God, rarely do I even say the name God. He's my father.

There's a relationship. It's personal. It's intimate that I have with him.

It's all because of his love.

I mean, he's patient and he's kind and he's long suffering and he's helpful.

And when I'm faithless, he's still faithful and he's always on time and he makes

ways that there is no way.

And he goes and opens doors that I could not open myself. And he's allowed me

to go places that on my own, I should never even be there.

It's all because of his love. And I believe there's a deficit of Christians,

saints that don't understand how much they're loved by God.

He loves you so much that he wants to heal you.

He loves you so much that he wants to provide financially for you.

He loves you so much that he wants to take care of your children for you.

He loves you so much that he wants to make sure that everything in your life,

every area of your life is healthy and whole and right.

This is how much the father loves us. He loves us so much that he doesn't want us to have any fear.

He doesn't want us waking up every morning afraid. He doesn't want us going

to bed every night worried.

He wants to take away the fears that we have.

This is how much he loves us. And he's like, let my people know that I love them.

At the time, I was trying really hard to love God.

Oh, look at all the stuff, Lord, that I'm doing and I'm working and I'm tithing

and I'm giving and I'm doing all this stuff to love God. And God said, stop, stop, stop.

I want you to know how much I love you.

You know the commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind, body, strength, and your neighbor as yourself. You know you cannot do that.

Unless you understand how much God loves you.

You can't do it without the foundation of how much you're loved by him.

First John says he loves us, or let me back up.

We love him because he first loved us.

And so everything flows from his love for us.

We cannot even love God with all of our being unless we know that he loves us.

And so over that weekend, the Lord spoke to Stacy and I. He said, let my people know.

That I love them. And there's an emphasis on my ministry that people understand

and recognize and know my father loves me.

And when you know that it is the foundation to experience true life.

Well, the next word he gave me was the word learn. Somebody say learn. Learn.

He said the foundation is love, but from that foundation, we're going to have to learn.

Colossians chapter one, verse 10 and 11 in the new living translation says it like this.

Then the way the way, let me back up. That's verse nine, verse 10. Let's go there.

No, let's go to verse nine. That's good. Go to verse nine.

So we, so we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual

wisdom and understanding. Look at verse 10.

Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord,

and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit, all the while you will

grow as you learn to know God better and better.

The Lord took me to this verse. He says, this is how you're going to grow.

When you begin to learn God better and better. When you begin to discover knowledge

of God more and more, you're going to grow.

We need to grow. We cannot just camp out in God loves me.

We're going to have to grow from that place of understanding that we're loved by God.

We cannot be an infant all the days of our lives being hailed and coddled and carried and burped.

Okay. We're going to have to grow. And now, hey, buddy, I need you to wipe your own self.

I need you to take care of your own self I didn't mean to say that but you know

what I mean I need you to do that kind of stuff yourself You got to grow up

And so the Lord said learn.

People are going to have to learn from the foundation of love And in this day and age,

I've discovered that people don't like to learn people know everything.

They already know. They know it all.

They know everything. It's a sign of immaturity that you already know.

My kids, I'll tell my seven-year-old, I'll say, hey, you know,

we got to do this and that. I already know. You don't know.

You do not know. How do you know that? Sometimes I entertain that. How do you know that?

I know, Dad, I know. No, you don't. You don't know.

It's a sign of immaturity. People in this day and age are unteachable.

Many people don't want to learn.

They don't want to grow. They don't want to acquire knowledge and information.

Although in your pocket right now is a phone that has a plethora of information

and knowledge, we want to spend all day looking at cats doing jumping jacks

or something silly like that.

We don't want to learn. We don't want to grow.

There's a definition of this word learn that I want you to get.

It's this, to gain understanding that produces transformation.

To learn means to gain understanding that produces transformation.

To receive truth, apply it and allow it to shape how you live to receive truth

apply it and allow it to shape how you live.

People don't want to learn anymore. When we first started the church,

one thing that we always had was the recording of our messages.

There's a guy named Darren. He still works with us today.

Darren on day one is like, you've got to record your messages.

And he began to record them. And I had a little, I didn't have a mic,

but I had a little recording right here.

And we recorded, I've got messages from the first service. He's like,

record them, keep them all.

And even to this day, he still is editing our sermons. And now,

bless God, they're all over on podcasts and Google and Spotify and YouTube and in the thousands.

Praise God. People are listening.

It started with him saying, you've got to record these things so we can get this word out.

But when we first got going, I remember a friend of mine listened to one of my messages.

And he said, hey, do you have a music team? At this time, we had just started to get some musicians.

He said, you have a music team? I said, yeah, we do. He goes, I don't hear them.

I said, what do you mean you don't hear them? All you get is the message.

He said, that's what I'm saying. I don't hear them.

I said, yeah, you're not supposed to hear them. He said, man,

you're supposed to hoop and holla and get it going.

I said, no, no, no. We're trying to teach.

Nothing wrong with preaching. But I believe God called me to teach I said I

don't want to do that because I want to teach And if I get into that I'm not

teaching anymore I'm entertaining.

And I want to entertain you. I want you to learn something.

Because if you can learn something, you can rule in this life.

There is something. I played a lot of cards in college and some dominoes and

that sort of thing. Don't rebuke me.

And if you've got a problem, I'll play you today. All right?

Okay? And so, nothing from the peanut gallery.

Okay. And so, and there are times you can look at someone's hand,

right? You're not playing.

For example, you're not playing. You're watching.

You can look at someone's hand, and you can tell they have no idea how to play.

They don't know what to do.

And I'm standing behind looking at their hand like, man, you can do wonders

with this hand, but they don't know it. What is the difference?

I have learned how to play. I know some things that they don't know.

How did I acquire them?

Well, through instruction. That's one way we learn is through instruction, teaching.

We also learn through experience. How many of you have learned some things through experience?

We learn through observation. I can look at you and say, you know, I don't want to do that.

You can learn through some observation, and you also learn through application.

You begin to apply some things. You begin to go after some things,

and you'll learn some things through that process, through observation.

I remember the pastor that really got me into ministry, that really believed

in me. He gave me opportunities. He really did.

And I learned some things through him, observing him, watching him, instruction.

And then there were some things I observed from him that I learned that wasn't positive.

And I'm not talking about any integral things, just some things like,

hmm, I don't, just observation.

I don't, I don't want to, to do that. I'll give you an example so you're not wondering.

My particular pastor used to get up and he used to say a lot of stuff like,

we're going to go do this and we're going to do that. And most of the time it never happened.

And I learned, don't get up and say stuff like that because people won't trust

you because it doesn't happen.

Now, when I get up and you hear me say things, it's happening.

Amen. I learned through that, like, okay, that was just observation.

That was just, he was a visionary guy and he would say stuff and a lot of times

it never happened and people begin to question him. Like, well,

what about this? What about this?

I was just talking. Like, no, no, no, no. I don't want to just talk.

I want it to happen. Amen.

And you can learn some things. Just observation through experience.

I've learned to appreciate health while I was sick.

Listen to me now. How can you really appreciate health if you've never experienced any sickness?

You can't really do it. It's the moments that, man, I don't feel good.

I'm down. I'm out. I'm hurting.

It feels good to feel good. I thank God for health.

I thank God I can wake up strong. Why? Because I remember times and seasons where I was in pain.

I learned to appreciate income when I didn't have any income.

See, that's all through experience. I learned to appreciate a job.

Even if I didn't like the job, Sierra, I learned to appreciate it because it was paying the bills.

And I'm believing God for something better, right?

But let me appreciate this nickel and dime job right now. That's experience.

You learn through experiences. Paul said, I have learned to be content in Philippians 4.11.

I've learned. How did he learn? not just instruction through

experience through application and through observation

i've learned to be content and i've noticed that we don't want to learn anymore

you know why i'm gonna come down here with you we don't want to learn anymore

because every time we train it goes against the.

Every time we train, it goes against the grain.

Every time we learn, it goes against what we are used to operating and how we're used to doing things.

Every time you want to learn something new, especially as we get older,

it becomes a little more difficult.

And it becomes more difficult because we've gotten caught up in what I would call strongholds.

We like to depend on what we already know.

We like to fall back on tradition.

We like to fall back on what we think is right. We like to fall back on how

we feel something should be.

And we never allow ourself to develop and grow and learn because it's hard.

It's hard. I could sit up here and tell you, God wants you blessed.

And you could have grown up in a church that being close to God means you need to be poor.

Matter of fact, my mom would tell you she took a vow of poverty.

She vowed to be poor all the days of her life. That's before she realized what the word says.

So it took a lot of word to break that stronghold because she grew up being

if you're poor, you're close to God.

And if you're rich, you're far from God.

But every patriarch in the scriptures was pretty wealthy and they were close to God.

You can be wealthy and close to God. But if you have a stronghold, it's going to be hard for.

To learn because you're going against the grain.

You have to train yourself. You have to put it into practice.

You have to apply yourself.

I've always wanted to be a better preacher. I'm not going to ask you if I'm

good or not, but I always wanted to be a better preacher.

When I first got going to the day, it's night and day, I think from my preaching.

And I think the next 10 years, is this going to get better?

I've had to apply some things. There are certain words that I would say.

It's like, you can't use those words anymore.

And it would take weeks for me to stop.

I had to go and apply myself to learn because learning is hard.

And I begin to say, okay, I need to not say that. That's not a good word to say.

Stacy would help me with that too. Don't say that word. That's not good.

And I had to learn to get it out of my vocabulary.

I had to learn to connect. I had to learn to be compassionate.

I remember a time when somebody had, they were hurt. I still remember this.

They were devastated and hurt, Sharon.

And they came to me to talk about I wasn't pastoring at the time.

They came to me to talk about it. I said, build a bridge and get over it.

No sympathy, no compassion. Mean.

Thank God someone hurt me. And I said, thank God on purpose.

I got hurt. Stabbed in the back.

I finally could relate to what that person went through. Because I was devastated.

Couldn't believe that person did that to me.

Stabbed me. Cut me. I'm wounded. I'm broken.

If somebody would have told me build a bridge and get over it,

I would have punched them in the face.

But it's in learning. I had to learn to have compassion when somebody else is hurt. And so do you.

What are we talking about today? We're talking about learning.

If our assignment is to go out into a lost and broken world and let them know

God loves them, we're going to have to feel what they feel.

But if you're so head knowledge without experience you're never gonna feel what

someone else feels and the way to feel what they feel is called sympathy and compassion,

sympathy feels what they feel and that's good compassion says I'm gonna do something about it.

But if we're not willing to learn, I'll listen to people that I disagree with.

I'll talk to them and listen to them.

I'm not going to change my biblical beliefs, but I'll listen to them.

Why? I want to see where you're coming from.

Because once I've discovered where you're coming from, now I can put the word of God on it.

And I can share with you what the word of God says about that.

And more often than not, once I have listened to them, they'll listen to me.

Trying to help you to reach people stacy says

this all the time every time we go somewhere devon someone is stopping you and

talking to you and i mean we can be in home depot we can be in target it it

never fails i am getting pulled over and talked to and i used to bother me i

got somewhere to go lady my goodness i've got to get there,

but the lord started teaching me no no i'm putting an anointing on your life,

so you'll listen and I'll do it, I'll listen, now I know how to get away if I need to,

but I'll listen and I'll encourage and then I'll move forward I had to learn,

it wasn't easy I had places to go, people to see but I had to learn.

To walk to,

In the ways the Lord is commanding us to walk.

I was, years ago, I was going to Creflo Dollar's church. This was decades ago.

He's got a large church in Atlanta. I had never been. I was in Atlanta. I wanted to go.

And so here I am. I had my suit on.

I was ready to roll, looking good. I said, I'm going.

And man, I want to get there. And at the time, I listened to him a lot during

that season. And I thought, man, I'm going to his church.

I was dressed up, got up early. I was heading that way. And somebody was on the side of the road.

And the Holy Spirit said, pull over. I said, Lord, I'm trying to get to church.

You see how good I'm looking? I'm trying to get to. He said, pull over and help him.

I pulled over, came back. What's going on? Ran out of gas. They had a gas can or whatever.

Gas station up there. Come on. Got the gas can. They went up there,

put gas in and came back. He had to get on the loop, came back.

We put the gas in the person's car. And I'm like, I'm going to be late.

But the Lord said, this is how you learn compassion. What if you was on the

side of the road? Come on, listen to me today.

Let me tell you the rest of that story. So the first time I was there,

Pastor Creflo Dollar's ministry, pull up. I thought I was late.

Somehow I get in, I park. They didn't put me on the second row. Hallelujah.

Glory to God. All of that. And God said, I already got a seat for you.

Don't worry about any of that.

It takes being able to be mendable, pliable, flexible, open to learn.

I'm not asking you to learn a new theology, to turn into a Buddhist, to be Mormon.

No, no, no, no. I'm not asking you to learn different religions.

No, no, I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about learning the word of God, but being open to be flexible,

to hear from other people, learn where they're coming from and begin to be a blessing to them.

Tell them what how God has helped you.

Tell them what what he's done for you. Share with them how God has impacted your life.

I wrote this down. Now, you can memorize something and still not learn it.

You can hear something and not learn it.

All training requires a rearrangement of your thinking.

All training requires a rearrangement of your thinking.

Learning is the bridge between hearing the truth and becoming transformed by it.

Learning is the bridge between hearing the truth and becoming transformed by it.

To learn is to receive, understand, apply, and become.

Believers and disciples are not the same.

God called believers into discipleship.

Believers and disciples are not the same. You can believe and not be discipled.

God called believers into discipleship. What does that mean?

He called them into learning about his ways, his character, his kingdom, and how he operates.

To be discipled means to be a learned one.

It's someone who is learning. You're open.

You've got the podcast. You know, our podcasts are available to you for free.

You can listen to them all day every

day it's it's for the sake of learning and strengthening your spirit changing

your mind getting the word of God so you can apply it to your life this is why

we make it free and available for you because we want you to learn.

Romans 12, 2 says it this way. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn. Somebody say learn to know God's will for your life.

You got to learn to know God's will, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Notice God wants you to transform into a new person, and the way he'll do that

is by changing the way you think.

So everything is after the way you think.

God's after the way you think. Satan's after the way you think.

The marketing strategy is after the way you think. The commercial is after the way you think.

Pookie and Ray Ray is after the way you think. Politics is after the way you think.

Everybody's after the way you think

because the way you think is going to transform you into a new person.

Matter of fact, I believe it's Isaiah 811. He says, I give you a strong warning.

Do or say this. I give you a strong warning. I'm going to just read it to you

because I think it's powerful. Isaiah 811.

This is in the New Living Translation.

Isaiah 811 said, oh, I got in the New Kings. Hold on. Y'all still with me?

All right. 811 said it this way. I like it in the New Living.

He says, the Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does.

See, there's a strong warning not to think like everyone else does.

Because God wants you to transform into a new person.

When he called us to start True Life Fellowship Church, he told me, transform.

People into a new person by changing the way they think.

Go after the way they think. Challenge them on the way they think so they can

be transformed into a new person.

And if you're connected with me, I've said it before, I'll say it again.

One of the ways that you are going to receive is through association.

And if you associate with me, you're going to think on a higher level.

I'm telling you, God's called me to help you think prosperous thoughts,

thoughts to advance, excel, succeed, and to thrive.

You're going to prosper in every area of your life because my assignment is

to help you change the way you think about God and the way you think about yourself.

To learn is to grow in the knowledge of God until his truth becomes your lifestyle.

His truth becomes your lifestyle. That's what learning is about.

You have not truly learned something until it has changed the way you live.

You have not truly learned something until it has changed the way you live.

And so our assignment together is to learn.

We should be acquiring knowledge and information about the things of God, the kingdom of God.

We should be in a posture that I'm teachable I want to gain understanding that produces.

Transformation I want to receive truth apply it and allow it to shape how I

live and you're going to have to fight against an unteachable spirit,

We all can have moments of being unteachable.

I don't, you know, I know that already. I don't, I don't need to hear that. I've learned that.

Here's another one people say a lot of times. I had to watch myself as well.

Well, I've heard that message before. Well, you need to hear it again.

Well, I know that. Well, you need to, you need to hear it again. Faith comes by what?

Hearing and hearing by what? The word of God. I've got to hear and hear.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing.

And some of the most profound messages in my life, I've listened to 20, 25, 30 times.

Because faith keeps coming by hearing and hearing. And I want to learn.

And I want to grow. And I want to change.

And I want my lifestyle to change. I want to be the kind of person God wants me to be.

And it doesn't happen by magic. It doesn't happen by accident.

It happens by learning. I've got to receive instruction.

I've got to experience, I've got to observe, and I need to apply what I'm being

taught so that I can change into the person that God wants me to be.

He loves you as you are, but he doesn't want you to stay as you are.

Did you hear what I said? He loves you as you are, but he doesn't want you to stay as you are.

And there are some principles and some kingdom nuggets found in scripture that

we can apply to our life today and get results.

Why is it that it appears one person is getting results and another person isn't?

There is a gap between what one person knows.

And another person doesn't. And that knowing is in learning.

And in that learning, you have to have some experience and some application

that takes place in your life.

I don't want to dumb this down, but I want you to understand we should be in a posture of learning.

There are times I'll hear somebody, I'm in a meeting, and this guy is talking some nonsense.

I'm like, this is a waste of my time.

But I try to sit back and say, can I get something? Is there something I can get from this?

And sometimes the only thing I can get is that is a determined individual.

You know, that may be the only thing I can get out of it, but I want to learn

something out of this encounter.

If you receive something today, say amen.

This is how you experience true life.