Sermon
Multiply | May 10 2026 (Part 5)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Well, good morning and Happy Mother's Day.
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Nobody wished me a happy birthday.
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That's fine. I'm good.
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If you got a Bible, turn with me to Matthew's Gospel.
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We're in Matthew chapter 25 this morning.
Matthew 25 chapter mention
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This is not a Mother's Day message per se, but we do
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particularly at Forest view value motherhood and and it is
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certainly worth noting the the just the the incredible impact
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and role that a mother does play in multiplying disciples.
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This is where the middle of the series on multiplication and a
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Dave Ferguson, who you may know him.
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He's the president of exponential church planter.
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He has been he's been instrumental, starting many
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multiplication movements globally.
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He tells about his grandma, reflects on the life of his
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grandmother, who at 15 years old is married at 15 years old.
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By 17, she has her first child. She has six children and she
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kind of raised in the Christian home.
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So she learned how to pray and to read the Bible.
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But her husband wasn't much into church and so they didn't attend
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church as a as a family. She would teach her kids to
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kneel beside their bed before they before they slept in order
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to pray. But some children's neighborhood
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children invited her children to a church service, very vibrant
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church in town. And the children went, but she
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went with the children and so did the husband.
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And all of them ended up making a commitment to Jesus Christ.
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And everything turned around for this family.
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And she took very, very seriously this idea of of
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discipling her kids and making them disciple makers, gathering
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them together on a regular basis to pray together and to read the
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Bible together and praying for them and teaching them not just
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to believe in Jesus, but to pass on their faith in Jesus to other
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people. While three of those kids became
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pastors, the other three were leaders in the church.
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The impact that they have had over generations just continuing
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to bless beyond their town, their city, their state, their
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nation globally. She did not hardly leave her
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town. And yet the impact that she has
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had globally is just incredible. For those of you women who are
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at the the the Tea Room last week heard Eileen Godworld share
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her testimony. Part of her testimony, the
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impact that her parents had on her faith, bringing her to
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church every Sunday and reading scripture and praying before
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each meal. But she focused on her mom and
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the impact that her mother had on her.
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Just seeing her mom with a Bible open and her journal opening
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open, communing with God in the living room each morning had an
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impact on her. Also seeing her mom committed to
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the prayer ministry of the church and also joining the Kids
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Kids Club. Just a community outreach
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through the kids in the community, bringing the love of
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Jesus to them really had an impact on her life.
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And also speaking about some of the older women in a
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congregation who would take an interest in her, check to see
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how she was doing, write her little notes of encouragement
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and scripture when she was away and and university had an
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amazing impact on her. And I think of GAIL, my, the,
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the mother of my children and the impact that she has had on
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them. Just living out the Proverbs 31
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woman, hard working, committed to the Lord, just her love for
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Jesus who's just been passed on her good counsel, the number one
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cheerleader of, of, of my children and just just seeing
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how they have thrived and just the commitment to the local
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church as well. Is that a tremendous impact on
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our children? Passing on the faith.
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Passing on the faith. This is this.
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This is what this this message series is really all about.
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Psalm 78 encapsulates this, this, this heart that we're
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after. The Sama says We will not hide
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them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation
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the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders
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He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob
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and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our
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ancestors to teach their children so that the next
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generation would know them, even the children yet to be born.
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And they in turn would tell their children this commitment
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to passing on the faith. And this is not a calling just
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for parents. This is a calling for every
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single person that calls themself a Christ follower.
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We are, we have a mandate to multiply Christ followers,
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sharing the goodness of God throughout the world.
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This is what following Jesus is all about.
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It's bringing, making the goodness of God tangible in the
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lives of other people. Matthew 28 Jesus words to his
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disciples last words to his disciples, go and make disciples
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of all nations. This is the call that we have to
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multiply. You know, when you think about
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what it means to live the Christian life, what are some of
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the things you think about? OK, well, we're meant to love.
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We're meant to serve and meant to, you know, speak the truth.
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We're meant to uphold justice, etcetera.
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Care for the poor. All these things are very
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important, but do we think of multiplication?
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Multiplying the number of disciples on the planet you know
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it is 1/3 of a disciples job description is passing on the
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faith. What do we say?
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What is a disciple? Disciple loves God, loves people
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and passes it on. 1/3 of everything that we were meant to
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do as followers of Jesus Christ is to pass on the faith to other
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people, to multiply the number of disciples.
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And this is what we've been seeing in the parables.
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The parables are all about the expansive nature of the Kingdom
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that God wants to spread his goodness throughout the planet.
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And this is such an important theme throughout the throughout
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the parables, but in particular the parable we're going to look
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at today, which is in Matthew 25, and the application of this
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parable critical when we think about this.
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So today we're just gonna focus on why and how to make disciples
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to multiply disciples. So we're in Matthew chapter 25,
Matthew 25 chapter mention
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and this chapter has three parables in it.
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Parable of the of the 10 virgins.
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The Parable of the bags of gold and the parables.
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Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
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And so the Parable of the of the 10 virgins is, is really saying,
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hey, we need to watch carefully. We need to be vigilant in
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staying close to God. This is about the abiding peace.
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This is about the loving God, peace, the last parable, the the
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one of the sheep and the goats. It is about not ignoring the
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poor, not ignoring those who are hurting.
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We need to be loving. This is this is the loving
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portion. The middle one is the one we're
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going to look at today. And that is the parable of
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really about bearing fruit, of expanding, of, of making an
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investment so that the Kingdom of God can be expanded.
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Each one of these parables is talking about what are we
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supposed to do now until the Lord returns, God is going to
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return again. We don't know at what hour or
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what day it's going to happen, but we need to be about the
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Father's business. We need to stay close to him, be
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watchful. We need to care for those who
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are are are are in need of care to be, to be loving and we need
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to be bearing fruit. We need to be investing.
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And so today we're gonna look at Matthew 25, starting at verse
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14, this parable bearing fruit. And we're gonna look at this
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over the next two weeks. There's just so much in here.
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We can't, we can't, we can't handle it all today.
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So we're gonna spread that over a couple of weeks.
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It'll be well worthwhile. So let's, let's pray together
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before we read this text. Father in Heaven, thank you for
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the incredible goodness that you have displayed to us in sending
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your Son into the world, and Lord also in giving us this
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word, the book, the Scriptures. Lord, would you speak to us as
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we open the Scriptures? Share with us Lord, your heart,
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give us everything that we need to know this day.
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We pray in Jesus name and by the power of His Spirit we ask,
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Amen. Yeah, Matthew 25 starting in
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verse 14 again, it will be like a man going on a journey who was
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call, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to
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them. To 1 he gave 5 bags of gold, to
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another 2 bags and to another one bag each according to his
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ability. Then he went on his journey.
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The man who had received 5 bags of gold went at once and put his
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money to work and gained 5 bags more.
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So also the one with two bags of gold gained 2 more.
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But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the
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ground, and hid his master's money.
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After a long time, the master of those servants returned and
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settled accounts with them. The man who had received 5 bags
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of gold brought the other five. Master, he said, you entrusted
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me with 5 bags of gold. CI have gained 5 more, his
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master replied. Well done, good and faithful.
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Sir, you have been faithful with a few things.
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I will put you in charge of many things.
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Come and share your Master's happiness.
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The man with two bags of gold also came.
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Master, he said you entrusted me with two bags of gold.
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See, I have gained 2 more, his master replied.
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Well done, good and faithful servant.
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You have been faithful with a few things.
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I will put you in charge of many things.
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Come and share your master's happiness.
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Then the man who had received one bag of gold came.
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Master, he said. I knew that you were a hard man,
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harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you
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have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and
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hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to
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you, his master replied. You wicked lazy servant, so you
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knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gathered where I
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have not scattered seed. Well, then you should have put
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my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned
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I would have received it back with interest.
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So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has
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10 bags. For whoever has will be given
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more and they will have an abundance.
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Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken from
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them and throw that worthless servant outside into the
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darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Again, we're going to cover the ground of this parable over the
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next two Sundays, but let's just make a note of a couple things.
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One, we have a master who is really referencing God himself.
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And this is a wealthy master. He can afford to give an
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incredible amount of money. Now, if you have an NIV, it
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doesn't matter what Bible you have.
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But if there's a text note down at the bottom that says that
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that that this like like a bag of gold was worth about 20 years
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of a day labour's wage. So we're talking about like 1
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bag of gold. We're talking about like 7 or 8
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thousand $100,000, seven or seven hundred 800,000 bucks so
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far. We're talking about an
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incredible amount of money that has been entrusted to these to
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these people. Now the word for bag of gold,
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Talanton, which is where we get talent from.
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Maybe you think of no, but those of you who have grown up in
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church and know this parable, it's the parable of the talents.
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And we know of talent is being kind of an ability or a gift
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that God has given. But the word actually means
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wait. And So what it is associated
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with a, with a, with a significant amount of of money,
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really investment capital wasn't just I'm giving you cash, but
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I'm giving you this to make an investment here in order to
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expand what's what's being done. So the word, and I'm sure the
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word that Jesus used this word in order to be quite broad to
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mean something that can be invested.
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I'm going to trusting something to you for you to make an
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investment in in order to cause this to grow.
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And notice that. Notice that it's untrusted.
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Everything that we've been given, everything that we have
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has been entrusted to us by God. But it's given here specifically
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to multiply and it's given according to their ability and
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verse 15 according to their ability.
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In other words, the master knows the situation of each of these
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servants and he knows our situation too.
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He knows our capabilities, He knows our personality, He knows
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our giftedness. And so he gives us in accordance
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that gives an entrust these things in accordance with that.
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And notice also that when it was given to to to the first one,
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the five bags, it says in verse 16 that at once he put his money
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to work, got right at it. I'm investing it right now, but
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the one who was condemned, he wasn't.
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He wasn't trying at all to make an investment.
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Now when we look, when we consider the response of the
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master, at the end, the 1st 2 are commended.
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Well done, good and faithful servant like come and come and
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share my happiness, share my joy.
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It's meant to be a joyful thing. Come, let's celebrate, Look at
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what's happened, look at the expansion, look at the
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multiplication. But when it comes to the one who
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failed to do anything, that's a pretty harsh.
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Do you know that I remember reading this parable thinking,
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Man is that ever harsh, wicked, lazy servant?
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I mean, he gave, at least he gave back what belonged to the
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master. Like he hit it.
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He kind of kept it safe and yet he's, he's considered a wicked
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and lazy servant. Now this, this should be, this
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should throw up a whole bunch of alarm bells because this is God
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speaking to this one who's been entrusted with something to
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multiply and they've failed to multiply.
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Now we'll get into some of the reasons why he did not multiply
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next week, but he he, he obviously did not experience any
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joy in the idea of multiplying and he had a pretty grim view of
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the master. We'll talk a little bit more
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about that next week, but just letting this settle in for a
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little bit. How important it is to the
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master, how important it is to God that we multiply what we
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have been given. So what have we been given?
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What is the weirdest thing that God has given to us that needs
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to be multiplied? Um, it's the gospel, it's the
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message of Jesus Christ. It is the engine for our
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transformation. It is the good news that God has
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given to the world. Jesus himself and all of what
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his ministry involves. That is the greatest thing.
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He's he's given us many things, but that's the one thing that we
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don't wanna miss multiplying. How do we do that in Second
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Timothy chapter 2 verse 2? I call it the 2T22 verse.
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We're gonna if you wanna turn there Second Timothy 22, you can
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in your Bibles, but I'm gonna have it up on the screen.
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Very instructive. The Apostle Paul in the in the
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in his letter Second Timothy letter to Timothy is instructing
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Timothy what to do with what is being entrusted to him, which is
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the very word of God, the Gospel.
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Good summary of the of the chapter in in chapter 1 verse 13
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and 14 says this he says what you heard from me.
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So this is Paul speaking to Timothy.
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What you've heard from me. Keep us the pattern of sound
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teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
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Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.
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Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
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The good deposit is the gospel is the message of Jesus all
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about his ministry. Guard this with your life.
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This is the good deposit and I'm entrusting it to you.
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And how is he gonna? How is he gonna guard it?
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He's gonna he's gonna talk about how to guard it here in chapter
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2, starting in verse 1. He says you then my son Paul
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talking to Timothy be strong in the grace that is in Christ
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Jesus and the things you have heard me say in the presence of
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many witnesses. This is the this is the the good
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deposit entrust to reliable people who will also be
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qualified to teach others. Sorry, trust to reliable people.
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Yeah, who will also be able to, who will be qualified to teach
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others? He he is describing this action
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of passing it on. We think of guarding the truth,
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guarding the message, guarding the gospel with some, OK, we
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gotta protect from heresy and we gotta make sure it's alright.
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But actually, part of the guarding process, an important
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part, is making sure it's being passed on, because it's gonna
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live beyond Paul. It's gonna live beyond Timothy.
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It's gonna spread. I mean, the very gospel that
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started over 2000 years ago, it's impacted you and me.
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It's the reason why we're sitting here today because it
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was passed on. It was passed on.
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It was passed on. And we see here in verse 2 4
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generations of a pass. So it starts here, So and the
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things you have heard me say. So we're talking about Paul
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speaking to Timothy heard me saying the presence of many
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witnesses entrust to reliable people, that's the next
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generation. So Paul's giving to Timothy,
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Timothy now is giving it to reliable people, passing it on.
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And then those reliable people are teaching others.
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See the the expansiveness here. We're talking about this.
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It's, it's a multiplication move.
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It's not just adding, but it's multiplying the number of people
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are being impacted by that. And then he gives 3 metaphors to
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encourage Timothy in this task. Verse 3.
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Join with me in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
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No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs,
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but rather tries to please his commanding officer.
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He's encouraging Timothy be like a good soldier.
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Don't get entangled in the other things.
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Make sure that you are after your commanders happiness
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focused on the task of passing this on.
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Then the next metaphor he uses in verse 5.
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He says Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not
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receive the victor's crown. Except by competing according to
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the rules, if you're an athlete, you wanna do, you wanna compete
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by the rules, you're not doing your own thing.
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You're gonna, you're gonna be very diligent in following the
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rules so that you're not gonna be disqualified.
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And what and what what is he doing?
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He's he's passing on the faith. It's like a, just like a runner
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who is passing on the baton to the next runner.
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I'm not doing my own thing. I'm coordinated.
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I'm making sure that this is being done for the for, for the
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expansion of the gospel in our midst.
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And then the last metaphor uses verse 6.
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He says the hard working farmer should be the first to receive a
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share of the crops. It's all, it's all
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multiplication imagery for us. We're like farmers.
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We talked about that that last time that that we should be
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sharing in the joy of seeing a harvest come.
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It's all about it's all about the crops.
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It's all about the multiplication of God's work in
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the world. And then verse 7 says reflect on
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what I'm saying for the Lord will give you insight into all
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of this. The this is something that I
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gotta admit I have not really reflected on as much as I should
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be. This just kind of hit me
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between, you know, he's not hitting me.
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He, His truth is hitting me that this is something to be
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reflected on. How important it is for us to be
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multiplying disciples on this earth.
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It's all about the personal, just to get kind of a personal
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transactions that are going on. It's, it's personal transmission
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that's going on. You know, as a church family, we
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do a lot in order to encourage discipleship.
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We have life groups, we, we're even meeting here on a Sunday
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morning. All of it is, is is to encourage
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one another to follow Jesus. But it's that personal contact
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that is so important. Paul, the Timothy, Timothy the
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reliable people, reliable people to others that that movement
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that is taking place one person at a time, investing in a few,
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you know, the the, the mission of Jesus.
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If you think about it, it seemed like such a feeble attempt.
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One man is gathered 12 disciples.
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And if you look at the 12 disciples, think these guys
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capable of doing anything following this one rabbi around
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Palestine, you know, in these backwater towns and it's
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impacted us today. Why?
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Because one man invested. I mean, it happens to be the Son
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of God, but he invests into 12 individuals who then invest in
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others and it is exploded throughout the whole entire
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world. It turned the Roman Empire
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upside down. I mean starting with a few,
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investing in a few, and watching God multiply, not adding one by
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one, but multiplying that ministry.
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Note in the first message of this series, I shared a chart
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with you and I saw a lot of blank stares because I don't
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think I've explained it too well, but there's a video I want
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to show you right now. And so Greg and Jackie Verberg
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shared this at their life group. And so I wanted to share this
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with the rest of the congregation.
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So take a look at this. Would you rather be given $1
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million or 1 Penny doubled every day for 30 days?
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Do you remember this question from math class?
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Right? This is when we all learned the
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power of compound interest and exponential growth.
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At the end of 30 days, that doubled penny becomes just over
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$5,000,000. Turns out the same concept
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applies to missions. Imagine you filled a football
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stadium with 100,000 people for a gospel outreach event and 20%
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of them came to know Christ that day. 20,000 people would come
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into the Kingdom. If you did that every day for a
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year, over 7 million people would come to faith.
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That sounds pretty great, right? Here's the question, though.
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If you kept that pace of 7 million people each year, how
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long would it take to reach the world's population of 8 billion
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people over 1000 years? 1095 to be exact.
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A 100,000 person outreach event every day for 1000 years?
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From a pure number standpoint, mass evangelism will not reach
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the World for Christ in our lifetime.
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What about a different strategy inspired by that original math
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problem? Instead of preaching to 100,000
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people every day, suppose you made one disciple each year,
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focused on their development, and equipped them to make their
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own new disciple every year. At the end of the first year,
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you would have two followers of Jesus, you and your disciple.
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At the end of the second year you would have 48, the third
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year 16, the 4th, and so on. 30 two 64128 How many years would
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it take to disciple the world using this strategy?
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34 years? Do the math.
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Something profound happens when we take a multiplication mindset
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in the Great Commission. Jesus tells us to go and make
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disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
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the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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He continues by instructing us to teach those disciples to obey
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everything He commanded us. What was His final command?
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Go and make disciples. So our role is to make disciples
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that obey the command to make disciples that obey the command
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to make disciples. Where to go to all nations and
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make disciple making disciples. That's multiplication.
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Reach the few in order to reach the many.
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What if you didn't feel the burden to preach to an entire
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village or city or country, but instead we're faithful to the
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simple multiplication principles of the Great Commission?
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The entire world could be discipled in our generation if
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we started with just one. What about you?
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How might God want you to be involved in making disciples
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that make disciples and seeing movements of Jesus among every
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tribe, tongue, people and nation?
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Would you rather fill a stadium every day for the next 1000
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years or commit to making one disciple this year?
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Let's do this together until all have heard, starting with
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Discipling 1. So who's your one?
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Makes a pretty good point. Who is your one?
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Who are you investing in now? The whole idea of disciple
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making it can be a pretty intimidating concept.
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Me. How am I gonna be making
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disciples? If we were to break this down,
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what do we mean when we say make a disciple?
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There are two components to it. One is the evangelism component.
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That is, I'm sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with
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someone else. And there's a development
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component. I'm developing this person to be
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an A minister of the gospel. We're all meant to just be like
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Jesus, to be filled with his love, to be walking closely with
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God, to be loving and serving others.
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There's no agenda beyond that and to pass that on to another
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person. But there's that evangelist and
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component, gospel sharing component, and then there's a
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development component. I'm training you up to be a
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disciple maker yourself. Those are the two.
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Those are the 2 two main pieces. We're not trying to multiply
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people who believe we are meant to be multiplying.
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People who are gonna end up being ministry workers who are
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gonna join Jesus in his work of making other disciples.
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The church, This church has 1 mission.
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The Church of Jesus Christ is only one mission to make
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disciple makers. That's it.
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Everything that we do from greeting to kids, ministry to
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life groups, it's all about sharing the gospel and
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developing people to work for Jesus to join him in his
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mission. That's that's, that's everything
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right there. Matthew Chapter 9 Jesus shares
Matthew 9 chapter mention
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his heart. He says that the the harvest is
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plentiful, but the workers are few.
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Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers
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into his harvest field. That's, that's what we're doing.
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We are, we are bringing in the harvest and we are sending out
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workers into the harvest field that that's, that's what we're
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doing. That's how we're gonna bring the
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goodness of God into this world, the church.
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Like when we invite people to become members of Forest View,
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invite people to become ministry partners.
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We're inviting people to date. Join us in the mission of Jesus
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to make disciples. That's it, That's it.
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All of our leaders are seeking apprentices that they can, that
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they can develop in order to take on areas of ministry.
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Why? Because we want to expand the
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ministry. Why?
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So that we can get more. The more people that we have
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involved in the work of Jesus, the more arms we have to wrap
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around people to care for people, to love for, love
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people. So back to the question, who are
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you discipling? Pure follow Jesus.
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Who are you? Just you, You discipling?
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You're thinking, Oh man, there's nobody.
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Just chill. It's it's gonna be alright.
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Who is it that you are? If we think of discipline as
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those two components, who are you praying for each?
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Each of us should have somewhere between one and three people,
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maybe more, but just just a short list of people that we're
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praying for on a regular basis basis who don't yet know Jesus.
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Keep that little list in your Bible or in your pocket, on your
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fridge, in your in the mirror, whatever to remind to pray every
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day for the person that's in your life that you know, doesn't
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know yet. The love of God is not walking
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with that person, walking with God and be praying for them,
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looking for opportunities to share the love of Jesus.
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That's one thing, but then who are we developing?
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That could be the person who comes to Christ, but we can also
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have an impact in developing a Christian who's maybe a little
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further, a little we're we may be a little bit further down the
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road than them and that we can help to develop them and
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encourage them in their own faith to be a disciple maker
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themselves. I love the heart of the one who
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had five bags of gold, was given 5 bag bags of gold.
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Since at once, at once he went and invested.
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He put that to work. In other words, when we think
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about who are we discipling? We shouldn't be waiting around.
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Like, who is it? I'm not talking about like going
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up to anybody, you know, like, can I disciple you?
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You know, is it like like scare anybody?
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But who is it that's in my life right now that I could be
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discipling? Like think about the
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relationships that God, we don't want to force anything.
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And again, this is a work of the Holy Spirit.
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We want to, we want to, we want the Holy Spirit to guide us in
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this. Who do we have relationship with
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now? If you're a a young mother with
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children, your focus right now is on your kids, right?
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Discipling them, raising them up.
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Same with your Father. But who is it that may be in our
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in in your life that you can walk alongside of and and and
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and encouraging the faith disciple them just I just wanna
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try to take the mystery out of that idea of of discipleship.
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What are you looking for? You're looking for a learner.
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The word disciple mathetes means learner or pupil apprentice,
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someone that's willing to learn. That's what you're looking for.
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You don't try to force things on people that aren't into it.
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Just go with the people that you know that are willing to learn.
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What about the content? The freak?
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Like, OK, well what do I do with them?
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Why? When I get together with them,
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like what? What?
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What do I do? What is the content?
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We there's a lot of great books. There's a lot of great
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resources. I'll just highlight too right
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now, Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden as well.
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The book Multiply by Francis Chan.
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Both of those are in the in the library.
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You can pick those out, but don't complicate it.
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If you think about the 1st century, those who came to
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Christ and and continue to make disciples, they had nothing.
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They had no curriculum, they had no books.
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They didn't even have a Bible at the time.
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They just knew the gospel. It was in their mind and in
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their heart and they just shared what they had and what they did.
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That's that's simply what they simply what what they did.
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So what? What content?
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The content is what God has given to you.
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Don't downplay what God has given to you.
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You have the scriptures. He's given you a faith in Him
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and you're living for Him on a number of different levels.
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You can pass that on to another individual.
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How often do you meet? It could be weekly, it could be
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biweekly, could be monthly, whatever.
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But just taking some time and investing and remember for me,
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someone met with me every week, university cafeteria every week.
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We just had lunch together and it was just over the Bible and
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we just talked about what it meant to be a Christ follower.
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We're meant to just model that. What it means to abide, love and
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bear fruit, What it means to love God, love people, and pass
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it on. Simple.
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Just the way that we pray, the way that we read the Bible, that
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the way that we talk about people.
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All these things are being passed on.
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The way we love, the way that we forgive, and then the way that
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we're investing in one person, encouraging them to invest in
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another person too. We don't should.
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We shouldn't be complicating it at all.
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So it's who you are that you're that you're passing on.
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You might think, oh, who I am. I'm so imperfect.
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I'm full of contradictions. I'm not a good disciple, like
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just chill for a little bit. Think it'd be possible?
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Paul, he called himself the chief of sinners.
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He wasn't he. He didn't call himself.
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I was the chief of sinners. I am the chief of sinners.
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He knew all of his flaws and imperfections and yet he said
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follow my example, friends, is I'm following the example of
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Christ, Come and follow me. To the extent that I'm following
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Jesus, come and follow me. Forget the other stuff.
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Stuff where I'm failing to follow Jesus.
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That's how God has ordained it. So don't worry about how we
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don't have it all together. Step into it.
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To step into it. You might think, OK, but
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nobody's ever discipled me. I've never been discipled, so
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how am I gonna disciple somebody else?
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It's OK, it's alright. Disciple means learner.
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We're all learning, and no matter how much we have it all
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together, there's still more to learn.
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Just all we're doing is learners working with learners to help
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develop one another. And you know what?
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The people that we disciple, they're going to help us with
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things in the faith too. I learned so much with the
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people that I walk with, things that I haven't seen in the Bible
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before, and so always wanna be in that place of learning,
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learning, learning, humbly learning.
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But I'm just giving what I have. Simple, simple, simple.
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And just know that we have all the help of heaven to do this.
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We have the help of heaven. There are people around you who
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can develop you. You might think, OK, so, so who?
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I mean, who is discipling you? That's a good question to ask.
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Who is discipling you? Man's social media is discipling
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a lot of people today, and we gotta be careful of that AI chat
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LGBT that that's my disciple making right?
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And those things are, those things can be very, very
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helpful. But there are human beings
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around us who are a few steps ahead that we can approach and
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say, hey, could we meet together for coffee every once in a
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while? I wanna learn some things from
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you. I wanna walk with you awhile.
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I wanna put on your yoke for a bit and and walk with you and
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learn and learn. We can do that.
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So there's people around us. That's what the church family,
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the family of God is about. But also we've got the Holy
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Spirit going back to chapter one, verse 14 of Two Timothy.
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You know, he says guard the good deposit that was entrusted to
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you by passing it on. Guard it with the help of the
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Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is gonna help us to
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do this. Lean on Him, friends, as we step
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out in obedience. He's gonna do.
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He's gonna do the expansion. Jesus says.
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This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
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showing yourself to be his disciples.
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Don't give up. Live out your full potential in
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Christ, abide in Him, love others and bear fruit and just
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listen to this, Paul says. Let us not become weary in doing
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good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
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give up. Father in Heaven, we as we hear
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your word today. Lord, I pray that it would land
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on good soil and that You give to us a willingness to join You
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in this glorious venture, the greatest thing on the planet,
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and that is spreading Your goodness throughout the world by
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multiplying. Disciples equip us to do what we
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pray through Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit.
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Amen.