12+1 Core Values: Discipleship Focused | Pr Ronson

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today we are going to do discipleship focus.

Now.

When you're in AXS, you will probably have heard of

our tech techline before, which is making disciples. That makes

the difference. The church exists to make disciples. The church

doesn't exist just to make converts. Where on a Sunday

or from a Monday to Saturday, we lead people to Christ,

they say, yes, I want to receive forgiveness of my sin,

I want to follow Jesus, and then full stop we

leave them hanging. The church is always built on discipleship.

It exists to promote discipleship that will in turn help

people to not just grow in their faith, but to

mature in their faith. So today we're going to look

at discipleship focus. Now, we very familiar with Jesus's commandment.

Before he ascended back up seated at the right hand

of the Father, he gave a final commandment to his disciples,

and most of you would be able to remember this

bahad where it is found in Matthew twenty eighth, Verses

nineteen to twenty. It's easier go therefore and make disciples

of all the nations. Let us stop here for a while.

The word go basically means it's an active word. When

you receive Christ as your Lord and savior and you

begin to grow in your faith, you're expected to go

and do what you're expected to go and make disciples

of all nations. The Gospel is for everyone, whether you

are from the west, from the east, north, south, the

Gospel of Christ is for everyone. It also tells us

that disciples ship can be cross cultural, so we shouldn't

just limit to Oh, I'm a Malaysian, therefore I disciple

a Malaysian, or I'm an international, therefore I disciple and international.

Though one of the key ingredients in discipleship is common ground.

Having common ground helps in building relationship. It helps in

building connection. But we must not limit ourselves to say

that we can only disciple certain nationality. Discipleship is for everyone.

Discipleship is cross cultural. So he says, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things

I have commanded you. Often, in the context of discipleship,

the teaching of Jesus must be the focal point. It

must be the anchor, right, because discipleship is not unique

to Christianity. Discipleship happens even in a secular Discipleship happens

in different faith. But in the context of the church.

If we say that we want to disciple someone or

we are a disciple of this church, God's truth must

always be their anchor. Because people can spend time in discipleship,

and if they don't grow in the likeness of Christ,

that defeats the purpose of discipleship. So one of the

goal of discipleship is to make sure that people grow

in the likeness of Christ. It builds in us a

form of Christ's likeness. If discipleship happens where we grow

more like the world, then there's something wrong, right, So

always remember this. The teaching of Christ must always be

the anchor of discipleship. And he says, yeah, I'm with

you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.

So when you look at the life of disciples, even

in a book of acts, you will know that the

church grew because of discipleship. Right from eleven disciples. Of course,

Judis didn't make the cut. Then they needed to vote

in another one. Matthias from from twelve disciples, the church

grew and the day of Pentecost came, three thousands were saved,

the disciples were multiplied. We basically or wherever you come

from is a recipient of disciples who will also do

cross cultural missions. All right, So we know that the

Gospels started in the Middle East, then he went to

the West, and then it spread across across the globe.

So discipleship essentially will also grow the church. And we

are saying that discipleship is not a program, it is

relationship driven. So we say that for ex church, goal

is to make disciples that make the difference. And the

key with here that we want to consistently remind ourselves

is intentional discipleship. Discipleship cannot happen without relationship. So you

must understand that the church is not a building. We

all know this. The church is a collective people. We

are the church, and the church cannot thrive without relationship.

Coming to church without building relationship, coming to church without

getting to know one another. Getting to know a person's

name is just the first level. Getting to know who

they are, what their dreams are. Getting to know them

at the deeper level is another stage where we would

like to build relationship because if we were to disciple

someone without having that relationship, it can be very religious

where people will follow you because you have a title.

But the highest calling of discipleship is that people would

want to follow you because they see Christ in you.

They see that your life is worth following. And I

want to say that all of us has the potential

to disciple someone because God has a calling for you.

God has given all the resources we need to fulfill

the great commission. So what is a great commission? Go

and make disciples. But there must be a starting point,

you see. The starting point is we ourselves must be

disciples because we cannot disciple others. If we ourselves, we

are not a disciple. See, the church can grow on

many things. The church can grow on Bible study. Right.

But Bible study itself is good for understanding the word

of God. Bible study itself is good to apply the

word of God. But often Bible study has a limitation

where you go deeper with individual life. Right, because often

Bible study, when you come for homes is very collective.

The discipleship that we practice in church often is one

on one where but kind of your disciple twelve guys,

Zendra will disciple twelve ladies. These are their key leaders,

and then we would disciple others. And when we talk

about relational discipleship, if you're part of this church, you'll

realize that when you're new, often people will contact you.

I don't ask you'll come for church first, spend time

with you. They'll get to know you. And to us,

relationship building is very, very important. Every life that comes

through the daw of church is a miracle. Whether you're

a Christian, you're not a Christian, yet every life that

comes through the daw of this church, we believe is

a miracle because for this season of your life, you

could have ended up in other places. You could have

been elsewhere. I could have studied elsewhere, It could have

worked elsewhere, you could have stayed elsewhere. But there's a

reason why God brought you here. Means He has a

plan for you. And our role as a church is

to disciple you to be christ Like, to disciple you

to a place where you fulfill the calling that God

has for you. You know, a church often focuses a

lot on program right you have relationship program like T

four two for example, right for Godly marriage programs are important,

you have campus programs. Programs are important, but to really

grow individuals at the level where they reached another potential,

there is a birth of the current level. It is

true discipleship, you say, My first exposure to discipleship as

a very young Christian was I think in less than

eight months. I was a new Christian twenty year old

year old, and I knew that when the spirit of

God came into my life, there is a conflict between

what the world thing is good and what God think

is good. Because for the first twenty years of my life,

I live like the world. I live a life where

I thought everything that I do is about myself and

it's good. Until one day I struggle in that journey

of condemnation. I said, now that I'm Christian, why is

it that every time I watch porn and I engage

in different behavior, my heart is just burned with condemnation.

And I needed a way out because the spirit of

God is just convicting me. And my first mentor was

Ela Kina. After Sunday service, I woke up to Elder Kinja.

I say that I don't know how to tell you this,

however you feel and relate to what I'm talking about.

We're struggling in something we don't know how we want

to open now, and then the spirit of God gave

us a courage finally to walk cup to someone and

say that we need help. He started there. So I

opened up the other King here and he prayed for

me and for at least a good three to four months,

every Friday, I remember, I will go and see him

to be prayed for, to be counseled personally, take the

bus from my campus to the church office. Sometimes if

I needed to wait an hour for elder because he

is meeting, and all our wait, our wait, and that

builds the foundation of my faith. I will let you

know that discipleship is not for perfect people, and true

discipleship happens when there is a space where we create,

where it is safe to be vulnerable, it is safe

to share our weaknesses, it is safe to receive correction.

That's the heart of discipleship. The goal of discipleship is

not to produce perfect Christians. The goal of discipleship is

not produce Christians who are good in the doing everything

good on the outside. The goal of discipleship is to

produce Christians who can be better. The goal of discipleship

is to produce Christians who are well in the being.

That means in our heart, in our spirit, in our mind.

That is the goal of discipleship, and it takes relationship

to do that. Relationship is important because it speaks of trust.

If I don't trust you, why should I open my

life to you? Why just because you're a pastor open

up your life to you? Do you know that more

people actually will high things if they know you're a pastor.

I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth.

But if you build a relationship with your pastor and

you know that your pastor too, at one point has

his struggle, you know too that at one point your

pastor has weaknesses, chances to open up is there? Why?

Because we have a common ground. So when you come

to acts, you realize that most people when they take

the pulp here, they will also preach from a place

of weakness. Paul says, when I'm weak, then I'm strong.

We rather bose in our weakness because it speaks about

the grace of God rather than we both in our

Because often people may think that just because you're a pastor,

you are holy you do this, you do that, you

feel that there is a distance, but I want to

say that not in this church, because we have come

to understand that we're all flash and black. So it

takes relationship to build trust. And people can always offer

us that time, people can always after us that space,

but we need to give ourselves the opportunity to be connected.

We need to give ourselves that opportunity to build relationship.

And it is working with someone committing to them, investing

time and life into their transformation. I've walked with I mean, elder,

I've worked with me for many years. I've been in

this church for twenty two years. Twenty two years, and

most of our campus students here young adults as well.

We have seen them grow from a campus student to

an adult, to getting married, to finally get married and all.

It is a commitment, guys. It is a commitment and

the greatest investment you and I can make. Honestly, it's

not in finances, though they are spectacle. You invest in

whatever a portfolio that gives you a return. You can

invest in career, you can invest in different things, but

the greatest investment is always the investment of life of others.

Because when you see them grow, that is your greatest

And my goal is for people to do better than me.

And in past Cannev has that as well, that the

highest goal of any mentor is to have their disciple

to be better than them, to do better than them.

In fact, Jesus told his disciples greater works than this

you shall do. Not to say that disciples is higher

than Jesus, but it basically means the work that they're

expected to do will be greater, will be greater. So

it takes time, it takes commitment. The definition of a

disciple is a learner, a follower, someone who learns from

and follows a teacher. I want to say that the

world today is looking for role models. For the past

few weeks, the Spirit of God through different people even

in my corporate prayer group as well, have shared that

they are missing fathers in this generation. More and more

young people are struggling in areas where if fathers are

being more present in the family, they wouldn't be struggling

in areas like self esteem, confidence and all. And I

feel that the Church has a great responsibility to disciple

the fatherless, meaning the fathers are in the family, but

the fathers are not influencing the children in a godly way.

That's when the Church must come in to disciple people

in that godly value. And I know that there are

many young people here. You live in an age where

information is accessible for you. You live in what I call

a generation where you have on demand sermon, on demand

topics that you can always explore. And when I speak

to people, they often say, is that, well, I'm reading

a book and the author is my mentor I'm following

this person listen to his podcast. There's nothing wrong with it.

If it helps you grow, it helps you grow. But

to say that you receive discipleship through a book, to

say that you receive discipleship through a video, it's something

that I would like to offer a new perspective because

we say that discipleship is relational. Jesus spent three years

with the disciples. He ate with them, did life with them.

He preached in public and in the private. He revealed

more to the disciples, and he corrected the disciples. Paul

and Timothy was the same. They did live together. An

anthology I wanted to give you is this right? I

heard this from a coach. Chan Chan used to be

our church plant coordinator in Exprikambangan. But the grace of God,

now he is in Bintulu together with his wife Selin.

Chan gotten a teaching role in UPM UPM in Bintulu

and he will be helping us to start an aya

also in Bindulu, a y business sends for Asian youth ambassadors.

So Chan is a powerlifting coach. How manna if you

hear you're in the powerlift like you see the the

plates on the left and right you left hundred kg

two hundred cag and all powerlifting. Recently I saw online

a sixty year old grandma lifted hundred cag you know powerlifting.

By the way, he's a powerlifting he's a powerlifted coach. Right.

So he was coaching his disciple who is part of

our church as well. Right. And you know, because of

exposure of information, we get exposed to a lot of

good things online and sometimes we hear another person sharing

this technique how to lift up we share. We hear

another person share this technique how to have good diret thing. Right,

And one day a chance disciple came and say that

you know this person shared this disperson shared there? Why

you didn't teach me. That sounds very familiar, right. And

then then the spirit of God revealed to chant very

important thing you know, and chant in a way I'm

just Paraphaci told them very gently, Look, I'm here, I

can observe you. I know your physic I know how

you usually lift up. These people that you're referring to,

were they observing you? Were they observing you? Because the

diet may work for them, The technique may work for them,

But I, as your coach, who have spent time and

hours observing you, observing your life, You've got to trust

me enough to know what will work for you. So

it goes back to trust. Trust. The church must continue

to build a place where people flourish in a relationship

of trust. And the only way to build trust is vulnerability.

That as your leaders open up their life to you

in a private setting, you two are encouraged to open

up your life. The greatest lie that Satan will always

tell us is but what if I open up, they

judge me? But what if I open up they radio

killed me. Remember, any scene that is hidden will cause

God's people not to prosper. But if we were to

bring that scene, we were to bring that struggle into light.

That's when we will prosper. And sometimes in the church

it happens also where because I also talk to different people, right,

it was not like being a church plank coordinator or

being a pastor of particular church we have. We know

people where they are at different stages. With my guys,

I definitely know because we do life together, right, But

there are also people who often they will go to

pastor to pastor, elder to elder to seek for advice

for the same thing. Okay, for the same thing. Let's

say a person struggle to keep a job. Again, struggle

to keep a job. Every three months, you change a

new job. Then you give testimony, Oh I was jobless,

Praise God he gave me a job six months later,

tendering resignation. Can't keep a job. Where as your pastor,

I know, Actually the challenge is you are unable to

submit to your bosses period. You can't submit to bosses

who tell you no. You can't submit to bosses who

can't receive your idea yet, and you feel rejected. But

as your pastor, I told you, really I say that, brother,

I think it is hold on to this job for

at least one year, at least one year because it

is your character. No pastor, you don't understand, then you

go to another elder. You share, share, Share, share share,

Let me pray, pray, pray, pray. But what is the call?

What is the call? Discipleship is a place where we

tell you the truth lovingly. The truth will offen, but

we speak in love. So when I was twenty four

years old, my mentor told me this, you know, because

I struggle in different understanding of responding better with my leaders,

and I remember looking. I tell me, you know, Amerson,

if you continue this way, when you grow to be forty,

you will have a miserable life. You tell that to

a young people today, they'll live church. Say my church

is judging me. Say don't understand. Hey, I'm I just

stand for it too. My life is good now, amen,

because I decided to change. Discipleship is about transformation. It's

about transformation. It's about giving perspective. Romans child to say,

is and do not become form to this world, but

be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you

may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect

will of God. Let me share that the transformation of

the mind comes from God's word. Transformation of a mind

comes from meditating on God's word. But it is also

discipleship that will present to you God's word so that

it challenges you to apply God's word. Discipleship is also

about a counterability. Discipleship is a place for us to

hear what we need to hear and not what we

want to hear. That's a difference. Let make a very difference.

You guys noticed in the past one year or so

one and a half years, work hasn't been the best

for me. And then I shared this couple of times,

probably about one and a half years ago. There were

certain changes at work that I felt I was being discarded.

I felt I lost a voice. I felt that I

was just being sidelined at work. I remember having a

conversation with past Cannev. I said, Pastor, I think working

in the company for seventeen years plus, it's enough. It's enough,

seventeen years in the same company. I remember, Pastor just

shed this one thing. You know, Ronson, I think you

are in a season like Joseph being in the prison.

You know, when you're at the tail end of one

thing to quit, it's easy. Isn't it to say that, oh,

you don't understand the pain, Oh you don't understand this,

What do you mean? Like Joseph in the prison? But

I choose to open my heart to the voice of

my pastor because I choose to believe that whatever my

pastors say is for my best interests. Doubt is a

discipleship killer. Really, the moment you doubt a godly counsel,

you will not prosper. The moment you doubt a godly

counsel done in good faith, there's no safety. Because about

proverbs say it's in the multitude of godly counsel, there

is safety. It's not in the multitude or worldly council.

More and more people they tend to go to the

council of the world than the counsel of God's wit.

Just because your pastor don't drive a big car, you

mean you're a pastor can't disciple you. That's because you

earn more than your pastor. Your pastor can speak into

your life. Just because you have a degree qualification or

a master's qualification or a PhD qualification, your pastor can

speak into your life. We have to come to the

place where we acknowledge that in the apps and in

the downs, our Mentor has always been there for us.

Now I can't speak that for all, but at least

I know for my life, for the life of people

under the care of our leaders here in acts, in

your apps, we were there. In your downs, we were

there because we always have the church in our best interests.

So based on that word, I stayed on for another

few months to a year because I was ready to go.

I was ready to quit, and you guys noticed that

there was an opening for a higher role in my company.

I applied for it, I got it, and I felt

that God has restored dignity to me. At word, I

felt that from a point where I don't have much

influence today, God restored back that influence. I was at

a point where I was responsible to ten staff. Today

I'm responsible to close to one hundred staff. And I

remember when that role was entrusted to me. I remember

what passed to say, you're at the prison moment, like Joseph.

I'm not saying that now I'm in the palace yet,

but it felt like a palous moment next to Pharaoh.

But you said, Pastor, can only speak that into my

life because I open up my heart. Pastor has been

walking with me for close to sixteen years now and

he knew my journey. And I want to let everyone

here know that church doesn't have to be lonely for you.

You know, people can come to church and they leave

church without building relationship. It doesn't have to be lonely

for you. The question is how do you want to

build a community within a church that God has brought

you in. So the goal of discipleship is not merely

to save people, but to mature sons and daughters. Discipleship

is about vision vision. All of us need to have

a vision in our life. All of us need to

have that purpose in our life. Next, like all of us,

has must live a life that is vision oriented. You know,

my mentors often see potential in me before I can

see it in myself. I think any good men tours

will do that for you, where they are able to

see that potential in you before you see it for yourself.

And there are so many examples I can give you,

like planting this church was never part of my plan. However,

you can have your own plan. You can have your

own plan, but ultimately God will use people to speak

his plan into your life. So it's given the opportunity,

the privilege to plan this church. It's about vision, guys.

I feel that to live a fulfilled life, every one

of us must have a vision that is from God,

a vision that will drive you. And whatever that vision

is to me, it doesn't always have to be in church,

because not many of you are called to be full time.

God will place you in areas where He will place

you in because he knows the plan that He has

for you. Discipleship to me is about being an example,

is about being an example. All of us can be

that example. Paul in First Corinthians eleven one says, imitate me,

just as I also imitate Christ. You know, it's easy

for all of us to say that we are a

disciple of Jesus. It's easy. It's easy to say that

I follow Jesus. But how many of you here have

seen Jesus. We can see Jesus through his word. Again,

here's a written word. We can see Jesus through his teaching.

But for us to be fitful in the teaching of Christ,

for us to be fitful in following Christ, we need

to have someone to walk alongside us, someone who will

prompt us and say, how's your quiet time with God?

Someone who will walk alongside and say, what is God

saying to you in this situation that you're praying about.

Have you been growing in God? It helps, but it

takes example. And I want to say that the church

is also built on examples. Whenever we feel challenged, we

always tell people that when you overcome the challenge, you

will be an example of others. Gives example to others.

Here that a point where things don't go your way,

at a point where you turn around and you realize

that you have sown a lot and there's no growth.

At a point when you look around you give up

a lot of things and you feel that you're not

hating anywhere in life. That's the point where you don't

give up because your story will be an example of others.

So discipleship is also about empowering others to flourish in God.

When Jesus and his disciple, he sent them out two

by two to teach, preach and to heal. I want

to say that we are not a cult. Here. We're

definitely not a cult. Okay, you don't see us were

the same attire, Not to say wearing the same attire

is wrong. But you don't see us behaving very cultish.

But I want to say that it's easy to identify

who's who's disciple by looking at how they carry themselves.

You can see what how they make decisions, how they speak,

how they carry themselves because they have been empowered also

to take on role. They have been empowered to take

responsibility to grow in the things of God. And I

feel way strongly in mone even say that growth can

only come when we take responsibility. In the house of God,

for example, a starting point will be serving. Once you serve,

you begin to grow when maybe discipline was an issue

for you. Then by serving now you've got to wake

up earlier. Then you get disciples there where you know,

maybe dressing what's an issue. Then when it comes to

discipling now because you're serving, you have to wear better. Right,

So the studying point is always taking responsibility. Don't shy

away from responsibility because God often uses responsibility to grow people. Now,

transformation can only come from being open and able to

accept the challenge to grow. How many fear you have

what we clay before you? You you do vessel last clay? Okay,

So some items are made of clay. Some vessels are

made of clay. Now am by saying this right, the

mean discipleship is like a clay pot making process. Okay,

the more clay you give to the potter, the more

the potter can shape. And it takes that space to

have what I call vulnerability one vulnerability and trust so

that truth can remain the ankle. I want to say

that God often allows mentors to speak into our life,

and often mentors, in their fear of God, will have

to tell things that may not necessarily be pleasing for

us to hear. Thank God for Prophet Nathan who confronted

King David David. We all knew what happened, but yet

God raised up Nathan to speak to David, to allow

David to have a space to repent, and up to

today God remembered David. I want to say that all

of us need to have that Neiden in our life.

All of us need to have that poll in our life,

who is courageous enough to present us a truth that

not only hurts, but the truth that heals, the truth

that will cause us to grow in our faith. So

the last point is discipleship must always be the focus

of the church, the last light. Discipleship must always be

the focus. The church can invest in many things. The

church can invest in a good kid's program, the church

can invest in sound and likes. The church can invest

in just different things. But if a church doesn't invest

in quality discipleship, we may lose the transformation that God

wants us to experience. Okay, so actually comes up going

to end with this core value discipleship focus. My desire

and the leadership desire is everyone should be a disciple.

Everyone can go up to someone to share life, to

do life together. I want an next me life to

be a place where we embrace each other, to be

a place where we can be honest with one another

in our meal setting ah and be authentic in building life,

be authentic in celebrating one another. Discipleship to me is

not a place where we receive correction. No, please don't

look at discipleship negatively like, oh, if it is about correction,

it's about discipleship. Discipleship is also a place about celebration.

Celebrate each other's molestone. You know, from graduation to marriage

to eventually purchasing your own first house, and you want

to dedicate it to the Lord to purchasing your first

vehicle sofa, no one dedicated vehicle yet, But I don't know. Ah,

we are there in the good times, in the challenging time.

But you see, the door must be open. We'll be

there to try your friar rice, your jolo fries if you,

if you know, please go to walk In Cafe. Go

to Anthony's Cafe. There, very good food. We will be there.

We'll be there. We'll be there, you know, when you

expand your business will be there. Maybe the church at

Luche has been hurt before because honestly, disappointment can happen

in church. Leaders can fail, leaders can come and go,

and as a result, it may affect the church has

at large. To say that, you know, I'm here for Jesus,

but I'm not sure whether I'm here for you. I

want that mindset to begin to shift, because until and

unless we truly unpacked to say that I'm going to

grow my roots here, and to grow my roots it

requires an openness. We won't be able to bare foot. Yeah,

so on this place among the church. To understand that

sometimes when we asked you out, hey do you have

time for a meal? Hey can I come and visit

any of my leaders. Please know that we are doing

with any intention not to want to make our lives difficult.

It must to be there for you because I know

that when we're in need, you'll be here for us

as well. If many of you have been. That's church

where we do lives together. The church doesn't have to

be the most perfect place, guys. It doesn't have to be.

It can be messy, but it's okay because God will

give us the grace to organize the mess I can

tell you that I'm not the most perfect guy. Right

if I say that I'm perfect. Please don't come to

this church, right, Please don't come because you know I'll

be lying to you. You don't need a speakab who

lies to you, who tells the truth to you so

that you can consider, pray about it, and allow truth

to be angered in your life. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit aschurch dot org. We

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this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you.

God bless