Follow Me - Week 3

Hello Go Church Family, welcome back to week three of our September series called Follow

Me.

What a great series it's been so far.

I'm so looking forward to getting into this.

My name is Gilbert and I'm here with Pastor Matt Haddable.

Man, I am so glad to be in the middle of this series and I'm glad to have Joseph here with

us.

Hello everyone, it's a pleasure and it's been fun being with you.

We should keep Joseph for October.

I think so.

Yeah, this has been a lot of fun.

We're so glad to have Joseph here as a third voice on the podcast and more than just a

voice, you know, he's the person who really put together this series and is taking us

through it, you know, he's pouring out from his heart the things that the Lord has shown.

And like Pastor Matt has said, Joseph is a model at walking this out, at really living

as a disciple, you know, living according to those words of Jesus where Jesus says,

follow me, I will make you fishers of men.

Praise God.

And it's been such a great journey going through this, going through this topic and unpacking

those words of Jesus, you know, who knew that we could sit here all month and talk about

one thing that Jesus said.

Yeah, exactly.

Because the words of Jesus are full of life.

That's right.

They are spirit, they're eternal.

These words are containers.

These containers are full of something heavenly and holy that is changing us.

That's right.

And what we're trying to do here is tell you what's in them and also help you unpack them.

And you, this is your part at the end.

When we come together and grow groups, we encourage everyone to speak and to share because when

you do that, you're not only, you know, listening to the word or understanding that this word

is a container and it contains something, but you're taking it for yourself and you're

opening this container up and you start to drink from it and you start to experience

it in your own life.

And this is the starting point.

So you know, podcast, grow group, it's not the finishing point.

It's the starting point for your whole life.

And this is from, this is the point from where, you know, obviously we say we want you to

experience the unconditional love of God to grow in his love, but then to go out into

your world with his love.

That's the way.

We open up this container full of the life of God's spirit and we receive it into our

lives and we pour it over our lives so that we can do something with it.

And that is the goal of our podcast, our grow groups and everything that we're trying to

do at Go Church.

And the purpose of this follow me message is we want everyone at Go Church to understand

that following Jesus is not about gaining biblical knowledge.

You know, several people have come to me with the question of like, I'd like to be used

as a leader, but I'm afraid if someone asked me a question, I won't know the answer.

Great.

You're like everybody else.

Like, we don't know all of the answers.

If you get asked a question, if you don't know the answer to, you actually do know the

answer.

The answer is, I don't know.

And but it's not about gaining biblical knowledge.

It's about a lifetime journey of discipleship through every shared experience or like Joseph

said, it's putting yourself in a position where you can be discipled.

Yes.

Yes.

So I just want to pick up on that point and you know, I'm going to go back to the scripture

that you refer to in 1 Corinthians chapter eight where Paul is talking to the church

in Corinth and he says, you know, knowledge puffs up, but love edifies love builds up.

And if you, you know, have it in your heart that, you know, I want to step into my position.

I want to be a leader, you know, Pastor Matt explains what leader means.

Leader means a person in a position of influence over others.

Everyone to some degree is a leader in their area and everyone to some degree is a friend.

A follower in their area.

And if you have a limitation because of knowledge, that's exactly what you're, that's exactly

what doesn't qualify you for leadership.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Our job is to love people into getting built up.

Our job is to look around us and see how we can build God's dream home.

I love that, you know, Pastor Matt Beamer was an architect and by profession.

And, you know, he always, you know, in those times I've talked to him, he brings up this

point where, you know, you almost see him building God's dream, you know, and that's

something that we're all called to do as leaders.

We're not called to answer every question.

We're not called to debate in every arena of, you know, knowledge because knowledge

puffs up, but love builds up.

So it's, you know, I'm going to go back to our, what we've been talking about so far.

And we've taken the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter four verses 18 through to 20, where

he called Simon and Andrew.

And he told them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

We've been looking at those words all month and week one, we talked about follow me, which

is a call into relationship.

And in week two, we focused on the, I will make you.

So we talked about the transformation required, the change required, and that is a call into

discipleship because discipleship is basically the process of transformation or the process

of change to become like Jesus.

And this week we're going to focus on the third and final part, which is follow me, I

will make you fishers of men.

And if I could compare, you know, a call into relationship, call into discipleship, I would

say this third part is a call to into purpose.

And there is a purpose on that call.

And there is a, you know, obviously God has a purpose for your life.

But you could never know it, right?

And it's important that, you know, both, we both see his purpose in us and we see where

we fit in it.

And that's really what we're going to, you know, dig deeper on in the discussion today

and in the illustration and in our grow groups.

So as we start this discussion, here's a question.

How many people do you think live on purpose?

I wouldn't say that there's so many.

We could say that the purpose that consumes a lot of the energy and the resources that

we see around us really is either selfish or it's kind of without thought or without

end.

And Gilbert, I like what you said this third part, and this is what happens when we follow

Jesus.

He leads us into truth and we follow him and then he connects us to the purpose that he

has created us for.

I love that you made that statement.

That's so powerful.

It's interesting just in the world, just not talking about church studies, just natural

worlds in the world of psychology.

They say that the at the root of most depression is a feeling that I don't matter.

What I'm doing, the things that I'm going through, the things that I'm experiencing,

the things that I'm doing are not making a difference.

They have a fancy term for that.

It's called self efficacy.

But it doesn't matter about the fancy word.

The idea that, well, if I wasn't even here, no one would miss me.

That's a lie and it's a lie from the devil.

But it's the result of being disconnected from purpose.

And Jesus here in Matthew chapter four, he says something to Peter.

He said, if you will follow me, and that's something that anyone can do.

Joseph, you said it so well, you said it's a personal decision.

The beautiful thing about that is anyone can make a personal decision.

I can't make a decision for you, but I can always make a decision for me.

If you follow me, Jesus said to Peter, I will make you into something that you are not now

and you can't be on your own.

I will do the work if you'll put yourself in a position where I can do the work.

And the result of that is I'm going to connect you with your purpose.

Yeah.

And you know that adds value into it the way that you are saying it.

You are saying that purpose adds value on what I'm doing and what I'm going through.

Because I know I am going somewhere.

So the thing is that I have been called to follow Jesus and to be in a relationship with

him and I am in the process of the making of someone that I am not yet, but I will be,

but that is not in vain.

You know, I am, I am created and I'm being made into something that I am going to be

somewhere doing something that is a great value.

And I'm not just saying this to say like, okay, you are called as a preacher, you are

called as a prophet or evangelist.

Maybe you are putting like a cup of water on a table in front of a preacher.

That is the value that is added value and that is for a purpose.

Maybe you are coming and setting up tables.

Maybe you are hosting a grow group.

Maybe you are whatever you are doing, you are serving a purpose.

There is a value in it.

So I say that because I want to put it out there and highlight it.

Whatever you do for the kingdom of God, it's not small, it's big.

Even if it seems small to you, that's valuable because you are serving a purpose.

You are serving God.

I want to, I want to just share this little, you know, light illustration here.

But have any of you guys watched the Karate Kid?

I did.

I did.

Wax on.

Like at some point, you know, there's that very famous part where, you know, his sensei,

his master just keeps telling him, you know, wax on, wax off.

Keep practicing this wax on, wax off.

It's like, what's going on?

I have no idea what I'm doing.

It was free labor is what it was.

And you get to that point where, you know, that action has no meaning whatsoever.

Like there is no consequence to that, you know, that exercise, right?

Or what he is doing there.

But in one like instant, you realize that this has.

This has an application beyond just what I'm doing.

And it's a great illustration.

And it's, uh, Joseph, I love what you said about the water because it reminds us of the

illustration we discussed in week one from Elijah and Elisha.

Elisha was known, his reputation was he is one that pours water on the hands of Elijah.

And if you think about that, that seems very like not glamorous.

Yeah, honestly, very not spiritual, very not spiritual.

It's very much sand, sand the floor and wax the car and paint the fence to use the karate

kid references.

If you haven't seen the movie, you're not missing anything.

But my point is the natural things that we're called into that's that process of making,

but there's a connection with purpose.

Yeah, exactly.

So I want to, I want to ask a question, you know, because we're talking about purpose

and we're talking about a purpose from the context of being a fisher of men.

So obviously Peter is a very famous character in the Bible, right?

And he's, he's accomplished so many things.

So I mean, he went from being a disciple and we talked about him, you know, on week one,

week two.

And he went from, you know, having obviously his character flows, I want to say limitations

and that changing and that developing and he, he does very specific things.

So within the church, he, he's actually the first leader of the church in Jerusalem.

And he brings, you know, Joseph, you mentioned 3000 people to Christ, I'll say men to Christ,

right?

And that doesn't include the women and the children in one day.

And then over the week, you see like 5000 more people.

If you read through the book of Acts, you know, chapter two, chapter three, you see all of

this stuff happening.

But what if I'm not called into full time ministry, like you mentioned, like, is there

a place for me?

Like, is there a purpose that I fit in?

Yeah, exactly.

Before I speak about that, I want to share this out.

The goal in me first starts involving others, you know, others around me.

I'm called to be a disciple where we shared about in week two, like I am a disciple.

But also the, the goal involves in me that I make disciples.

And this is something Jesus shared with, with his disciples.

This is the great commission where he says, go preach the gospel and make disciples and

baptize in the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And basically it's what happened inwardly inside of me.

I'm sharing it with others and I'm putting it out there to your, back to your question

is that the goal in me a lot of times involves apart that I am taking or being apart in his

church doing whatever I'm called to do, wherever I see myself fit in and I'm just being there

doing it.

So it's a piece of a puzzle that I'm, I'm being in to create this big, beautiful picture.

That sounds a lot like our belong message.

Yes.

You know, the go in you, the go in me, that's that borrows from something that we call I

go that we're going to begin doing regularly here at Go Church.

And it's all about connecting you with your purpose.

We think that we not think I'm a hundred percent convinced that if God has called you to be

part of Go Church, that there is a part of Go Church in you and God has connected you

for a purpose.

And so we want to connect you that purpose with the vision of Go Church because that's

where not only do you experience the change that develops in you, but Go Church experiences

the change corporately that allows it to develop into all that God has called us as a church

to be in this country.

So I mean, if we, if we go back to the belong message, you just mentioned that.

And I think that's a very important, there's a very important illustration there about

the building, right, and how Peter actually talks about that in his first epistle about

the, the building that is being built up.

So if Jesus, that's right.

Yeah.

So in that image, Jesus is the cornerstone.

He's the foundation stone.

He's the first stone that gets used to build a building.

Now if we think of a building before the building is ever built, there is already a plan for

the building.

How big is going to be?

How high it's going to be?

How high are the rooms?

What's the function?

Is it, is it going to contain an auditorium?

Is it going to contain a kitchen?

What is the purpose of that building?

That is already predetermined, predefined.

It's not something that, you know, we change as we start building the building that would

be disastrous.

So there is a, an exact plan, an exact size, an exact dimension and an exact requirement

of materials.

So you're not going to use tiles to, to build the structure of the building.

You need something a lot stronger than that.

You need stone, you need steel, you need, you know, you need cement.

You need a whole bunch of stuff that is actually going to hold up the building.

But you know, you're not going to make a couch out of stones either, right?

You're going to make a couch out of, you know, very comfortable material, whatever that may

be.

And you're going to make the table out of wood.

And you know, all of, all of the different materials have a different, have a specific

purpose and function within the building.

And it's already predetermined.

And that, that is an image that we can carry in our lives.

Obviously, if we are a stone that is just sitting on the road or a stone that is out

of place, we're not in our place.

We're not carrying our weight and we are not within our purpose.

We're not within our designed place.

So it's important to see it that way that each of us have a place, a purpose.

We're all made of something.

We all have strengths.

We all have qualities.

So it's not because I'm not a stone that I don't have value within the house or it's

not because, you know, you are a stone that like you fit everywhere in the house.

Everyone has a place.

Everyone has a function.

And it's so important to understand how God designed things so that we understand where

we fit in it.

And you know, I can share a personal example on that because for me, I want to people to

know Jesus.

I want to speak about Jesus.

I want to preach the gospel to the whole world.

And that is something I want to do like my whole life with Jesus.

But one of the things that I could do, I'm not a preacher.

I didn't go into a plane where I traveled the world just meeting every person and telling

them about Jesus.

But there's something that I could do and I did is simple practical steps.

There's something called that we developed.

It's called I'mina.

It's a leadership online training program.

It has the same purpose as to train leaders that in the future they might become preachers

and shares the gospel and it talks about the Bible and all of that.

But for me, it was like just sitting behind the computer, just clicking on that mouse,

you know, putting content together, adding questions and spending some time doing that

just behind the computer.

When you started that, did you know a lot about computers?

Well computers for me was about scanning cars and reading wiring diagrams, which I had to

develop myself in a whole different direction.

But what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to be a preacher or a pastor or like

to be in the five-fold ministries to serve a great purpose, you know, that God has called

you to do.

It could be as we talked, just putting a water or, you know, installing wires or microphones

or speakers.

So we can say it like this, the place of discipleship, where the change is going to happen is in

the inside of church, right?

Not inside the building, but in the relationships that I have in church.

And then the place of going, the primary place of going, the primary place of that connecting

with purpose is also going to be related to church.

Even if it doesn't, maybe it doesn't mean that you're in front of a microphone, but

there is a place or purpose in church.

And the reason for that is, I think, Gilbert, you wrote this down in your notes, Ephesians

chapter three, verses nine and 10.

The church is God's plan to reach the whole world, all of creation with the message.

His plan is to do that through the church.

If you, you know, you think, wonder what God's doing now in these days.

It seems like the world is upside down.

What is what is the Lord doing?

You don't have to wonder.

He said in Matthew chapter 16, I will build my church.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Jesus today is building strong local churches that know how to apply the word of God and

flow with the and cooperate with the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what he's doing in Go Church Beirut.

And that means that there is a place of purpose for all of us to connect with.

That's so good.

So if I, if I relate that back to the illustration of the building, the building, you know, is

the plan of God.

So like, if you're going to be part of the plan of God, you need to fit in that building

no matter what.

But the building can be used for so many different purposes, right?

It can be used for as a school.

It can be used as a help me.

I don't know, like as a, as a restaurant, right?

It could be used as a home.

It could be used as a commercial real estate.

It could be used as so many different things.

But the way that God's going to do it is through that building.

You know, and there, there is.

So basically, like you just said, I want to, I want to reemphasize what you just said

Pastor Matt, that the plan of God is the church, but then from the church, we can all

go out to different areas and really bless others in different areas of our life.

So we could think of, you know, I could bless, I can bless people at my work, right?

I can, I can reach people in at the gym, right?

I could reach people.

How do you say, I can, I can fulfill the plan of God even at home in my marriage and

even with my kids raising up Godly children, right?

I could do all of those things, you know, from that place where God has called me into

the world that I've been called into.

So it's not necessary that, you know, I stay in the church in order to be, to be effective

for God.

I can go from the church into the world to reach people and to exercise the plan of God.

And that looks like different things to different people.

So everyone has a, you know, has a common platform to operate from, but we all go into

different areas that God has called us into.

And even within the platform, like we just said, we have different strengths and we help

build God's plan from different places.

So you can either be the external stone or you can be the furniture.

Like there, there is everything has equal value to God because we all complete his

design and his plan.

Amen.

So basically, I think we can say that first of all, we position ourselves in a place of

discipleship, then we position ourselves in a place of purpose.

You know, in the church, you see a lot of elements, like one of the things I always

think of like, I, I cannot lead worship.

I cannot sing.

And I won't put myself in, in that place, but I know that that is not my purpose, you

know, and I'm not going to go in there because, because I see that I'm not called into that,

you know, if I'm doing that, I'm out of that purpose, you know.

So I'm going to intentionally position myself in the places that I'm called to be, you know,

and to function effectively.

So let's, let's take a look at that in scripture in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And love the illustration of the building that you're talking about.

And if you, if it's been a while since you've heard the belong message, I would encourage

you to go to the YouTube channel for Go Church Beirut and watch belong.

We actually shot it.

We filmed it in sewer, which is one of my favorite places.

I love, love sewer.

But anyway, I would encourage you to watch that here in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Paul switches from the illustration of a building to the illustration of a body.

But the point is, like the same thing with you're saying with the building, the same

thing as with the body, it is one thing that is made up of many parts.

And those parts have to be in the right place for a purpose.

Yeah.

Romans chapter 12 verse four says, for as we have many members or parts in one body,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

and all the members have not the same office or purpose.

Verse five, so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone is members of one another,

which is an important thing to remember.

Right.

And I think if you skip down and you see verse 10, it says, be kindly affectioned one to

another with brotherly love.

It's funny that you have to write a letter inspired by the Holy Spirit to believers that

says, be kind to one another.

Right.

He knows we need it.

It's not an automatic setting.

That's right.

Right.

So this is a divine command here.

But why?

Because we are members one of another.

Or to go back to belong, one stone supports another stone.

In good company, you talk about the message.

Good company.

You talk about how we support one another and our ability to support more actually increases

our capacity to be used by God.

But if you keep reading here in Romans chapter 12, and I would encourage you to do this on

Romans 12 · chapter mention

your own, you'll see lots of different examples of ministry that maybe don't look like, you

know, someone waving their arms, holding the microphone and shouting.

Ministry is more than just the single thing of preaching and teaching, although that's

an important part of spiritual leadership because it is what God has used to confound

the wisdom of the world to make to make the things that the world say are wise look silly.

He chose the silly thing of preaching.

But and that's, and we see that in Corinthians.

But ministry is very, very natural.

And there are these natural elements.

And all of those natural elements need to be done in line with the purpose that we're

looking at in this message.

It starts with relationship with him.

So what I'm doing is not the most important thing.

He's the most important thing.

And I'm doing these things for him, not for, not for me, not for others.

And in doing those things, I'm being changed and I'm being connected to his purpose and

his purpose is the church.

Yes, that's so powerful.

You know, and those the passage of scripture that you, you refer to in Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

if I look at it in the NLT, there is a comparison of, you know, if you have a grace of giving,

give generalists generously, if you have a capacity to be a leader, lead.

And in the same breath, if you, you know, if you have the grace to be kind to each other,

be kind to each other, it's literally all these parts form the requirement for an able

church or an able body.

And none of these are unimportant.

You know, if we, if we look at the example of, in, this is another example, which we

talked about in the Good Company message, which is in Luke chapter eight, you see that

Jesus actually begins a tour around of, of some villages and he starts preaching and

he starts sharing good news and you know that wherever he goes, there's, there's healings

and there's amazing things that are happening.

But in the same passage of scripture, so Luke chapter eight versus one through to three,

it says, you know, he took his 12 disciples along with some women who had been cured of

evil spirits and diseases.

And among them he names a number of women and many others who are contributing from their

own resource to support Jesus and his disciples.

Like some women who are following had a grace of giving and were supporting, you know, the

natural requirement that people have and humans have when they're going out and doing these

supernatural spiritual things.

We can all contribute in our own capacity.

We all have a, we all have shoes to fill and we all have a purpose for our lives.

You know, whether that purpose is towards the church or even going out from the church,

you can see that Paul was very effective in, in different spheres of life.

This is not, he wasn't only, you know, he'd always go to the synagogues and you'd always

find him, like when he goes somewhere and you, he enters the synagogue and he starts

trying to share the good news in the gospel, but when they wouldn't receive him, he'd go

different places.

Like you see an Athens, he ends up in, in circles of like prominent philosophers and he'd, he'd

preach to them and you know, he'd find himself in Gentile courts.

Like he was, he was, he was literally brought in front of Caesar, like the emperor of the

Roman empire and preached the gospel, you know, he was used in jail when he was put

in jail.

He says in, in the letter of Philippians that he reached others.

So my point is saying all of that is, you know, whether you're looking at your purpose

in building God's plan in the church, you can do it in so many different ways.

You don't have to be a preacher.

You don't have to stand in the front with a microphone.

And if you think that your purpose is limited to church, that's not true.

Your purpose begins at church, but then it reaches outwards into the world.

That's the way God designed these things for us to be built up and go out.

And we see that example in Paul's life as well, where he went out in so many different

areas and so many different circles and, you know, spheres of, of society and reached so

many different kinds of people.

Yeah.

You know, I had an experience like that one time.

I used to go and, I used to go and visit people, you know, to pray with them or preach the

gospel or whatever.

So there was this, this woman where I, I didn't have a vehicle to do so.

This woman offered me her vehicle, her car, and she always kind of like made that available.

One time I was thanking her.

I was telling her, thank you that you are doing that.

And how can I thank you in a more practical way?

She said, no, you don't have to do that.

Your part is to go and do whatever God called you to do.

My part is to provide for that, you know, and that made it so much easy for me to do

what I was called to do, you know, in that time to visit people, talk with them, pray

with them and all of that.

Praise God.

So how about we, we look at the illustration that we're going to discuss in, you know,

the week three grow groups.

This is the final week.

And the goal is not only to emphasize that part about purpose, but to tie it all up.

And we're really going to talk about the story of Paul, you know, we're going to look at

the book of Acts and see where before he was called Paul, he was actually called Saul,

and he was a Pharisee and he was a very, how do you say, very religious type of person,

very, very hard person.

And he was actively fighting the church.

He was actively fighting this movement of people who believed in Jesus and followed

Jesus, talking about follow me.

That's what they were doing.

Essentially, they, they, they followed him and he was against that, you know, they, they

initially referred to Christians as the followers of the way, you know, and, and basically

we see this, you know, what, what we see in our, our key scripture, which is follow me,

I will make you fishers of men.

We literally see that in the, the, you know, what Jesus did for Paul in the first encounter

in Acts chapter nine.

And so I want to talk about Acts chapter nine and what's amazing about it is not only that

this is what we see the Lord do for Paul, but Paul recognizes that and Paul, you know,

talks about these different elements that we've been talking about.

So we've been talking about follow me.

We've been talking about I will make you and we've been talking about fishers of men.

And Paul recognizes all those three parts and he says it himself and we're going to

pick out some scriptures, which reveal, reflect that.

So let me, let me tell you the story in Acts chapter nine.

So actually, Saul was on his way to Damascus.

He got the rally, the support of the top Jewish, you know, leaders, including the high priest

who commissioned him to go to Damascus and find all those people who are followers of

the way, followers of Jesus and imprison them and bring them to trial in, you know, in the

Jewish court, basically.

And on his way, he has an encounter with Jesus himself, right?

So we see that there's a, there's a bright light and let me, let me read, let me read

a couple of bits.

So in Acts chapter nine, we see in verse four, we see that Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are

you persecuting me?

Right?

He opens with that.

And then they have a discussion and Paul is asking him, who are you, Lord?

And you notice that Jesus asked, why are you persecuting me?

Yes.

But Paul was persecuting.

That word persecute means, you know, you should look up the word persecution because it means

more than just like call them bad names.

He was putting people in prison.

He was seizing property.

He was causing to be beaten and we know of at least one instance where Stephen was stoned

to death.

So this is, you know, Paul is orchestrating these things.

He's at the center of this, but these are believers in Jesus.

But Jesus shows up and he says to Paul, why are you doing this to me?

Yeah.

That's really powerful.

Honestly.

You notice that Jesus takes his body personally, right?

Yes, he does.

And we should do the same.

We should do the same.

So the next time you're tempted to say something about a group of followers of Jesus that don't

sing like we do, don't pray like we do, worship in a different way, you know what?

I would just turn those comments to something else, like not say them.

Yeah.

Like would you poke yourself in the eye?

Yeah, that's what I call it.

I mean, you know, if a part of your body is fighting another part of your body, it's called

an autoimmune disease in the natural.

So why would you do it spiritually?

Yeah, makes no sense.

So looking at the story, the first thing we see is that, you know, Jesus tells Paul

I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the goats.

Well, he basically is telling him is you're going the wrong direction.

It's not only naturally you're going the wrong direction, but spiritually you're going in

the wrong direction.

You're going against something you should be going with.

And this is the first part of what we've been talking about.

Follow me, right?

It's, he goes on to say he goes on to tell Saul arise and go into the city and you will

be told what you must do.

So there's a point where he's leading Saul to start following him.

So you're going the wrong direction.

Okay, you shouldn't be going in this direction.

I'm paraphrasing now very, very broad, broadly paraphrasing it, but arise, go into the city

and you'll be told what to do.

So there is a point where you see that Jesus interrupts Saul's mission.

He interrupts Saul's thinking.

He interrupts Saul's life and effectively tells him that he's going in the wrong direction.

So he's being called into something else at this point.

And then you see that after that encounter, Saul is actually blinded.

So he doesn't see anything.

He doesn't see where he's going.

You know, he gets led into Damascus and he gets brought into a place and he's sitting

there for three days and he can't see a thing.

And Jesus then sends a disciple.

This is literally what he's called ananias is not a, you know, not an apostle, not, you

know, a five-fold ministry office person.

He's just a, I don't say just, that's the wrong word.

He's a disciple.

He's a follower of Jesus.

He is in a position.

He's put himself in a position where the Lord can speak to him and he can be changed.

That's right.

That's right.

And so he calls the disciple ananias to go and to meet with Saul and basically lay hands

on him so that he might receive his sight.

And that's eventually what happens and ananias goes in and lays his hands on Saul.

And as that happens, the blindness goes away.

So this is an image of seeing a transformation.

So Saul went from not seeing from a place of darkness and ignorance and a place of me

being in the wrong position, me having the wrong attitude, the wrong character, the wrong

mentality to now seeing, seeing clearly, seeing Jesus, seeing what Jesus has for him.

And that is part two.

I will make you, you know, that's just an image of that.

That's a very quick snippet, but you see these things throughout the life of Paul.

And the third part is fishers of men, right?

It's not like Jesus just did this to mess with Paul's life.

You know, it's not like he just did this for no reason whatsoever.

He had a great big purpose for Paul.

And he basically says this, this is the instruction.

He says, go for he is a chosen, this is Jesus talking to ananias.

Go for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children

of Israel.

For I will show him how many things he must suffer from my namesake.

This is literally a very big commission, you know, that when, when at that point in time,

remember the gospel never went out outside of the Jews.

Now he's saying that he will, he's a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name and to basically

take this gospel out into the world towards the Gentiles to kings even.

And this is what we see happen eventually, right?

He stands in front of Caesar, the emperor of Rome and shares the gospel.

And so we see that side of the story.

We see Jesus call Saul.

So he says, follow me, I will make you a fisher of men.

And the best thing about all of this and the beauty in all of this is that if you look

at the book of Philippians, you actually see that Saul recognizes this in himself.

He recognizes that I am called into relationship with Christ above all things.

Follow me, right?

I am called into discipleship.

And this is a lifelong transformative journey like Joseph said, like, and it's not done.

I'm going through this.

And then I'm called into a purpose and he recognizes that purpose all the days of his

life until the moment that he says that I'm ready to leave earth.

So we're going to, we're going to take that time and read through those scriptures during

our grow groups.

But I would encourage you to read through Acts chapter nine, that encounter between

Jesus and Saul, and I would encourage you to read through those scriptures that your

grow group leader is going to send out in your groups so that you can have a discussion

about this.

Can I add something on that?

Of course.

I couldn't stop imagine like all I'm seeing all of this events happening with Peter and

Andrew and the disciples or Paul or all the elements that work to serve that purpose that

the Lord wanted to do and the lives of people at that time.

But I couldn't stop asking the question, what if they said, no, what if Peter said, no,

you cannot come up on my boat?

What if he said, no, I don't want to follow you?

What if Ananias said, I don't want to have Paul or Saul in my house?

What would happen?

And the question is, would the purpose of God still be fulfilled?

I think yes, it would be fulfilled.

But the thing is that I always think about is that I'm not going to be part of it.

So what I encourage to do is while you're reading that or hearing this podcast or everything

that you are going through this theme is that think of the things that you are saying yes

and see the big picture behind it or the things that maybe you are saying no to and what that

leads to, you know, is that for me, the biggest like the biggest worry that I have or fear

with we shouldn't have fear or worry, but this is something sacred in my life that one

day I'm going to stand in front of the Lord and I didn't fulfill the full purpose of my

life, you know, because of some things I said, no, I don't want it.

So following Jesus, yes or no, being discipled, yes or no, to fulfill a great purpose, yes

or no.

So these are the questions to be asked, like ask yourself about it.

That's really well said.

I always, it's funny you mentioned that about Ananias and what if he had said no?

Who did the Lord ask before he got to Ananias?

You know, whose name is not in Acts chapter nine?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

And on Matthew chapter four, we know that Peter said, yeah, you can use my boat.

We know what happened after that, but was there a jad who's, you know, boat?

He's like, no, we're closed for today.

But we do know of that story with the rich young ruler, right?

Yes, we do.

We did tell someone to follow him and he didn't.

Yes.

And so there is that important point because when you said in the first week when we were

talking about this, this all starts with a personal decision and the powerful thing about

that personal decision is up to us.

The powerful thing about that personal decision is we can say no.

And when we say no, we're not just saying no to him.

We're actually saying no to the purpose that he's called us.

Yeah, that's big.

Let me ask you this, Joseph, as we, as we conclude this and Gilbert, as you said, this

is a great opportunity for us in grow groups to really dig in and get into the truth of

this in scripture and see it illustrated.

Joseph, as we finish the podcast today, I want to ask you, what's something that you

would say has marked your life as a disciple?

The thing that has marked in my life as a disciple, the thing that I was speaking about

like moments ago is the things that I have said no to and I later on, I knew that it

was leading to a certain purpose or it could build me up more or it enriches my life or

serves like a big thing.

I know, I know this, this is big inside of me.

I know how valuable it is because there's a certain point in my life that I lost resources,

I lost time, I lost people that could have taken me into a certain direction, could benefit

from it, could benefit from it.

Losing these things put me in a place where I started seeing the value in it.

Everything God does, does it through relationships and everything He does, does it for a purpose.

That added value of discipleship in my life or the awareness of discipleship, it put me

on a different direction, a different course in my life where I started having, how can

I say it, to be more rich with God.

It affected the relationship with Him, first of all, then affected me with the relationships

that I have around me, which is the church and the relationships that I'm building and

affected my view of life and the value that I have of life, of what I'm doing.

Yeah, praise the Lord.

One thing that I would say as we finish to kind of wrap that up is you make the point,

we've said this repeatedly about saying yes to something, saying no to something.

What we're really talking about is an unpopular word and it's called submission.

People don't like that word.

But the thing is, submission is access to God's very best.

And the reason is because He's Lord and we're not.

And so if we submit to and submit, by the way, submit doesn't mean agree with submit

means I disagree, but I'm going to do what I'm being told anyway.

And you know, we were just talking about this during the break before we started recording

that at some point, Peter said, I don't really agree with what you're telling me to do with

my fishing nets, but at your word, I'm going to act.

And that act of submission put him in dynamic contact with the power of God, but ultimately

connected him with his divine purpose.

So this is an opportunity for all of us to put ourselves in a position of being a disciple,

a place where the Lord can correct and change us so that we can reflect who He has called

us to be.

Praise God.

Yes, I'm onto that.

Well this has been a wonderful transformative journey.

And I know that we're closing the month, but remember discipleship is a lifelong journey.

Yes it is.

And we keep doing every single day.

So even though, you know, we're going into the month of October and we're going into

a new series, don't let this go.

Keep going in this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, if no one told you yet today, we love you.

We're praying for you.

And God bless you.

God bless you.

Thank you for listening to this message.

We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, growing his love and go with

his love to the rest of their world.

We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups or our next gathering.

And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.