Disciple First | Elder Rosalind Ang

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Ah can yeah? Can you imagine it was just go

there and say come follow me and they obey. Isn't

it crazy? Sas or not? By the way, please teach

your children to don't follow strangers. Okay? When they said

come follow me, like, okay, I learned about disciples, I

must follow. No, all right, but but you think about it.

The element of tribes when Jesus said this, follow me,

and what was their response? They immediately love theirs. If

someone comes to you and say follow me, first thing,

kiler will say, who are you? Why? Right? So there

is an element of trust that seems to be needed

in this follow me thing? All right? What else? What

else did you'll say? Just now? What else did you

learn from that exercise? You wanted to say something? Just now? Yes,

he's there, it's true, right, it's true. Right? Do you

know that there are many times when someone says something

and we either don't hear it or we plane ignore it. Yeah,

it happens all the time. Okay, all right? What else?

What else did you learn from that very simple exercise? Yes,

it's easy if the instruction is sharp. And yet we

saw that by the third person, we're already lost two messages. Sorry,

it's just follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me. Correct.

You see that at the third person it was just

follow me already and then the rest will be like

just follow mela. Nice. It's it's good because it's easy

and short. Right, But you know there was some element missing,

and there was a very very important element missing. What

was that? Yeah, and sometimes when we think about discipleship,

we we always think about, yeah, it's just about you

follow me, let's have a dataret session, you know, let's

have a good time. But if you see how Jesus

did it right, you see? Okay, when I think before

we even go into this Matthew chapter four, when Jesus

started this work of ministry, uh, and you recognize the

first thing that he did was to call disciples right now.

Before that, what happened was if you read now in

Matthew chapter four, let's go to Matthew chapter four, MATTHI

chapter three. What happened? Now? Tell go to your bibles.

Now.

I encourage you to bring your physical bibles and flip

to it. What happened in Matthew chapter three. Yes, there

was a baptism of Jesus. You see them. What does

the baptism mean? Let's go to the next line. There

was an anointing, yes or not. Jesus went into the

water that was, and then he arose, and then the

dove descended upon him. There was an anointing. And what

did the Father God say to Jesus. This is my

beloved son whom I'm well pleased. Hey, can I tell

you before you do any discipleship yet God loves you? Amen?

He already says that even before you do anything, I

call you. I am pleased with you, and I want

to give you an annoyting to prepare you for the work. Right.

So the anointing is upon us, ex church, Amen. There

is an anointing upon all believers, all Christians, all disciples

of Jesus Christ. Amen. Right. So there's an anointing upon us. Right.

And it was so cute right just now when we

pray for our mission, our youth that's going out. There's

how many of them? Twelve? I count Vincent as one

of them as well. He's also a disciple of Jesus.

Right Ooh, twelve disciples call it's gonna be an anointing. Man,

I really believe that the youth cam is going to

do something very powerful, very deep, very long lasting for

our young people. Amen. And so it's amazing. It's really

you know, God is just doing something for our young

people here and starting them young. Amen. So there's an anointing.

Now after the anointing, what did Jesus? What happened with Jesus?

There was the wilderness experience? Hey, church, guess what we

will all go through some wilderness experience. Amen. All right,

so it's gonna be that. But let's go Then after

he was anointed, he went through testing and then he

went on. Right. So that's where chapter four. Let's go

to chapter four. Now before the chapter eight. The verse

that we always use for discipleship is Matthew Chapter four,

verse seventeen. And what this verse seventeen say? What does

verse seventeen say? Yeah, Jesus began to preach repatance. Now,

the second thing that we must realize that as we

receive the anointing from God to do this great work,

we must think about what kind of message do we

tell people? Sometimes the message is yeah, just come, you know,

and all your problems will be soft. Come you know,

and live as you are because God loves you. But

what did Jesus start off with. Let's go to the

next slide. He was advocating a repentance, people who repent

towards God. And that's what you turn means, you turning

from your ways to repent towards God. And that's why

this you turne is so special. We are not just fasting,

we are praying. We're saying God, I want to come

back to you right when we have been so busy

with different things in our lives. This is about coming

back to you. So we need to repent church. Amen.

I think it's a good practice to daily repent before

the Lord. You know why because it's so easy for

us to start off the day and by the end

of the day for good all about God. Been there,

done that? Yes, all of us we can start off right,

But at the end of the day we go like, oh,

you know, I was angry at my wife, I was

angry at my boss, I was angry at my kids.

Then we think like, er, where is God there? How come?

Because in the course of the day, many things happens

to us, you know, and without being continuously staying close

to God. And you know when if I did another

illustration of just walking around and they were supposed to

follow me the moment they stop, are they still following

me the moment they stop. If I'm walking and walking

and then they stop and then it got distracted. Are

they still following me? No? And that's how it is

in our relationship with God. We can start off following him,

but the question is are we still following? Are we

still walking close enough? Do you know that when I

had to tell Jess something very close to my heart,

do you know how close we got? Sometimes in our

journey we feel like, you know, hear God, what is

he saying? Without recognizing that actually Jesus is here and

you're there at the back of the room, and we

don't even realize that we are so distant, so far

away from God. Even though you can be in church

every Sunday, even though you can go for homes every Friday,

it doesn't matter. If you are not walking closely. We've

got yourself, you will be distant. You know. Sometimes you

can say yeah, you know, but yeah, I follow Jason

and Jason's very close. We got Yeah, Jason is close

to God, but you can be very far from the Lord.

The only way is that if you follow Jason closely

and he follows God closely, and then we are all

following God closely. Do you see that this following needs

to happen in that proximity, meaning close to one another,

not far away. Amen? So there needs to be an

advocate and think about what kind of messaging are we

saying as we ask people to because ultimately we will

have to ask others to follow me, and then the

question is what are they following or who are they following? Amen?

Now the final part about this is let's go to

the next verse. Yeah, so the appointing. So the appointing

is when Jesus actually issued the call follow me, right,

I appoint you now as my disciple. Okay, so you

got this. Now I want to go to let's move

on to the next It's like this, this come follow

me right? Follow me? Is it an invitation? What can

you do with an invitation? You can accept and you

can decline, And sometimes we say, ah, yeah, this invitation

I need. I think only for Juliana see Pastema, right,

and not for It's not for everyone else. This discipleship

thing is not for everyone? Is that true? Jason did

a good job right last week, so you know that

it's not it's well, it's an invitation. Do you know

that it's also a calling? Do you know why people

reject the invitation because you got all work to do?

Can you imagine it's like I invite you to a

birthday party? Right, come to my birthday party. I'm celebrating

my birthday, and yes, you have to cook for three

hundred people. Not really come for my birthday party? And

can you please cook for three hundred people? Because it

looked like when Jesus come and sit follow me, he

didn't stop there. What's the full sentence of Jesus? What

did he say? I will make you call for three

hundred people. I will make you fishes of men. And

sometimes we feel that, ah, yeah, that's too much man.

How come you ask me to follow you? Unima? You

asked me to come and have a good time. But

why is there a job description attached to it? And

we're like, oh, yeah, no, Lana, I'm too busy. Do

you know that we're all busy catching something, all of us,

We're all busy catching something. The question is what are

you catching? And Jesus has a very specific task in mind.

He wants us to catch make fishes of men. Right,

fishing for men, fishing for souls for lives? Is that

our top job description? You think about it? When I

am making disciples? Now, when I'm following Jesus, Am I making?

Am I catching men? Or am I just following Jesus

and doing church? Is very different? Yeah? Do you know

that following Jesus and being faithful, serving and all that

does not count until you actually fulfill the calling of

making fishes of men? Do you see that? It can be? Yeah?

But I thought I serve. I thought I gave I

go for a mission trip. I do everything until Jesus

is But I call you to make fishies of men?

So how many men you caught? H I thought? I

thought that one the evangelists do? Lah, I'm not evangelist.

You know, I'm a teacher. I just teach. Do you

see that? And sometimes we always like, no, but this

is not for me because it's not my gifting. Do

you know? It's not a gifting thing. It's a calling, right,

It's a calling with a job. This scription, that's what

discipleship is. Right. Another thing is this follow me. We say,

follow me so easily, but it's it's it's a big title, right,

and it's not just a colleague, it's a commandment. Let's

go to the next one. So we already say this, right,

it's a commandment. Although you can choose to obey, right,

we agree an invitation, you can reject a commandment. You

can this obey, we can obey or this obey. And

do you know how I link this? Do you know

that the idea of discipleship did not start with Jesus?

Can I tell you that? Some people say, right, ah, yeah,

this one is you know what you know? In modern days? Right,

in modern days? Sometimes when we preach truth from the

world of Gods, Ah, yeah, why you bring us back

you know to old school, Like, hey, this discipleship is

so old school. Discappen is so old school. We should

be just be free to whatever we want. You know,

God still losses and all that. But when we preach

the truth of God, some people say, oh, yeah, what

you bring us back two thousand years ago? Hey? Hello,

Actually I think we should go back maybe six to

eight thousand years ago when God created the earth, because

God never changes, He's the same yesterday. Today and tomorrow.

And so you think it was Jesus who started this

idea of discipleship? Was it Jesus idea? It went all

the way to Genesis? Right? It went all the way

to Genesis, because do you know the follow me right?

The first commanment that even okay, I go before Genesis

is Moses time. Right. God gave Moses the ten commanments

to be given to the children of Israel. What was

the first commandment? You should have no other gods before me?

Right now? In this idea of following Jesus right? And

I mentioned that earlier, the moment you stop and the

moment you follow someone else, I used to following me no, right?

And do you see that that's the same thing why

you should have no other gods before me? Because our tendency,

and our human fallen tendency, is to continue to follow

other things other than God. All right. So discipleship was

a restoration of this commandment. I go back even further,

which is in Genesis. And I tell you, discipleship has

been on God's mind since day one that he created

you and me. What did God say when after he

created Adam? What did you say even before he created Adam.

Can I can I go there? In Genesis one twenty six? Okay,

so I give you the reference. Go to Genesis one

twenty six. What did God say? Genesis one twenty six?

What did God say? Let us make man in our

image according to our likeness? Right? And God's idea was

he was looking after us. He was looking for sons

and daughters. Do we agree in that God was not

just looking for people, He was looking for sons and daughters.

And of course you know that sons and daughters, especially

Adam and Eve, they went into sin and they lost

their image in Christ. And you know that all of us. Right,

when we talk about discipleship, we talk about being in

a Christian being churched. We always say I want to

be more christ Like? Do you ever pray that before?

I want to be more like Jesus. This is wherey

because we were made in the original to be in

the likeness of God. But we have lost that, We

have lost that image. We are no longer bearing the

image of God because of sin. And so what God

did was to restore all of this. And then he's

using Jesus as the role model as he discipled others.

So that the disciples could look like who look like

Jesus himself, And when they reflect Jesus, they look like

they look like God. Can you see that? So this

discipleship thing goes all the way foundationally to Genesis. From

the beginning, God wants us to look like him. Amen.

All right, okay, so let's move on now. I want

to go a little bit into the process that this

high people making journey. Can I tell you that making disciples? Yes,

it's a commandment, it's a calling, but it's also a process. Yeah,

all right, and we have some project managers and process engineers,

so you kind of depict the whole journey right to

understand because yeah, I can say go and make disciples,

and you're like, what do I do? Where do I start? Correct? Yeah?

Do you have those questions in your mind? Okay? Firstly,

I must ask you, are you convinced that you are

to make disciples? Yeah? Are you? Okay? Not everyone's convinced,

And like I said, it's straight out from the mouth

of God, but most of us struggle with that. We

still struggle with that. Okay, It's okay, it's a journey,

all right. But I just want you to know that

that is the truth, and God will call us to

account for this part of our life. Are we making disciples?

Because you know in gen in Matthew twenty eight, you

know the verse that we always says and Jesus is, now,

go and make disciples of all the nations. Right, go

and make That's all he says. He didn't say go

and build your family. He didn't say go and make

more money. Ooh, out right, But we still need all that.

I'm not saying, don't. I'm saying in the process. Remember,

top priority is making disciples. Amen. Okay, so let's go

to so I want to share a little bit on

this journey that I have in disciples making. Let's go

to the next one. Now, okay, the business are making pots.

How many of you have tried pottery making before? Yeah? Okay,

a few of you. It's a very very good experience.

It's very fun. Now when you're trying to make pots.

Can you imagine if I run a business now a right,

how many business people we have? Your business people, you're

trying to run a business and you're making pots. What

is your aim of making those pots to sell it

to to gain profit? Yeah? Simple as that? Correct? You

want to profit from any business that you do. Correct? Not?

Now if I ask you you want to make profit,

what kind of parts would you make? How would you

make this pot? Luxurious parts? Let's go to the next light. Okay,

so we we we heard earlier that we want to

make profit. Right, you want to make profit out of it,

and that's one of the purpose of making the parts.

And okay, yes, thank you for this picture. Luxurious parts. Okay,

what what other kind of parts would you want to make?

Think about it? You smile because it looks like an urn.

Is there a need for earns in this day and age? God? Right? Hello,

I mean okay, I don't want to go there, but

cremation land is so expensive now right, we like, if

you know, if there's funerals and burial, no more barriers

but funerals. There's still the urn right where you keep

the ashes in. So is there a need for it?

There is a need for it, even though you might

be like, oh right, people die every day. We don't

have enough land. According to Jason, right, we don't have

enough land. I told my husband if I die, just

catter me. Not in Klang River, but anywhere else except

Klang River. Okay, yeah, so so there is purpose, right,

some beautiful and some like eurn right, but needed may

not be beautiful but needed. Correct? Uh sorry for cooking? Hello,

yeah clayper chicken rice? How can we forget that back?

Good day? You must talk about bakute every time you're inclined. Correct.

Without the pots, you are not able to have the best,

awesome bakute. So it looks like it's not just profitable.

You want to make it useful, cory, because if you

don't make it useful, who will buy? I mean, you

can have the nice pots, but yeah, profitable, useful and

it will bring if you are the owner of it, right,

and everybody say, wow, your pots are the best because

they can hold the heat and make the best barkute

and it gives a new aroma to it. Doesn't that

come back to me as the owners that yeah, always

buy rose claypot, roses claypod. I should start a business

now because there's something about it and it brings glory

to me. It brings good reputation to me. Do you

know that when God is making disciples, this is what

you're looking He's looking at. He's looking whether firstly this

disciple profitable or not ooh, this disciple useful or not

this disciple? Are you bringing me glory? Think about that? Right?

There is always a purpose because you will not start

a business to fail. Anyone want to start a business

to fail. No, And Jesus said, I must be about

my father's business a serious You know upstairs they are

talking about real business. How profitable is this discipleship making business? Okay,

let's move let's move on. You know. In Isaiah for

the three seven, he says is bring all who claim

me as They'll got all of us claim Jesus is

O God. Yeah. In Isaiah it says, bring all of

you here who claim me as your God. For I

have made them for my glory. You are made for

God's glory. Tell your neighbor you are made for God's glory.

It is it was I who created them. So some

of you might ask, what is my purpose in life?

You ever asked that question? What is my purpose in life?

I want to say that your purpose in life is

to bring God glory? Are we doing that? Are we

really every day bringing God glory? If not, then I

guess we can read a line Amen, praise God for

you turns where we can say God, this time, I

really want to be serious about bringing you glory. Amen. Amen,

let's move. Now you know that there is a pot

making seen in the Bible, Yeah, Jeremiah, Okay, let's read this. Okay,

So there is a word for us to learn from this.

It says this the word which came to Jeremiah from

the Lord, saying, arise and go down to the potter's house,

and there I will cause you to hear my words. Amen,

explain here God's words are. Then I went down to

the potter's house, and there he was making something at

the wheel. All right, let's move. And the vessel he

was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hands,

and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed

good to the potter to do. Okay. What is the

message that God is saying here? Okay? Firstly, I want

to ask you this question. There was a potter. He

was making something at the wheel, right, and what happened

to the vessel that he was making? It was spoiled.

Does anyone start making a vessel with the intention of

spoiling it? Okay, let me ask you this question. Why

did the vessel spoil? Can you tell me? Okay, those

of you who've gone for pottery making, right, so what

tell me your experience? What what makes it spoil? Clay

is too soft? Okay? Right? What else? No experience? Right?

Like if you're doing it for the first time, like

even one little, then woo right because it's spinning at

the first level. Okay, it's spinning. Experience me and you're

like the moment you are inexperienced. Okay, you don't put

out water, too much water. Everything happens right, the clay

is to So what else? What else causes the clay

to spoil? Not enough water okay? Too dry? Yeah? Too dry?

Have you experience that? Have you experienced making? You saw

your dad? Okay? Okay, the party observe good? What else?

No skilla, no scilla? Okay, no skill okay okay, low

tell you lousy potter. Now. I want to just draw

two things out of this. Firstly, one was the skill

of the potter, and one was the condition of the clay. Correct.

Two things right. It can be the skiller, but they're

not skill enough. They didn't put in a water, too

much pressure, less pressure, da da da all that. And

then there is one was the condition of clay. Now,

if I transposed this to God and us, which one

do you think would be the case? Is it the

lack of skill from the potter? Why you make me

laight dinner? Why you make me laight? Dinah? I got

people here? Oh I'm so short? No? Was it the

skill of the potter or the lack of skill? Or

do you think something's happening with the clay clay? Right?

Because I think none of us would just say, dare

to say, God, I think you like Skuler true or not?

So it seemed that as though the vessel that he

was making spoil in his hands because it was a

condition of the clay. It was a condition of the clay.

And then what did he do? He didn't just a yah,

spoiler already, throw away? Correct, Sometimes we do things we

spoil already. You're like, oh yeah this one. No hope,

no hope, no hope already. Then what do you do?

Throw away? Normal? Right? Why? Why waste your time? Do

you know that it's very difficult to rework something that

is spoiled because you have to start from scratch. You

cannot just like try and repair here and that if

you try pottery making it doesn't work that way. You

have like I have to what do you call it?

You squash everything back, you throw and you slap it again, ouch,

slap it again, and you start from scratch, and he

reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to

the potter to do. So amen, okay, So where am

I going with this? Okay? Now, in the next fifteen minutes,

we're gonna go into a workshop, all right, which you

already are. And I okay, So I how many of

you like sour dough? Sour dough? Oh? Okay, only a

handful of you never mind type of braid ler okay.

And so last year one of my girls said, oh

you I want to eat sourdough break. I say, okay, wait,

because it's very expensive. Do you know soud o brain

is very expensive to buy. It's easily fifteen to twenty

ring get a loaf. I'm like, it's just flour and water.

I'm not gonna pay penny ring it for So I said,

never mind. I will try to make. I will attempt

to make. And I've attempted this in during MC your time,

which is like five years ago. I say, okay, I

left it already maybe I'll try doing now again. Because

of this and because i'm very cam set, I don't

know if y'all know how can people? It means I'm

very what's the word stingy? I don't want to pay

money for dough flower? Okay? So I said, okay, let

me try making it. So let's go to the next slide.

Is the process of making bread or making disciples? Think

about that? Okay, I want you to to see how

it relates. Okay, let's go next. Now, what are the

ingredients that you need to make sour dough? All these

four things? Okay? Correct? So you have a sourdo starf,

you have plain flower water, and so do you have

these ingredients at home? Yes? Everything except the except the

start You don't have the starta. So if you want

to make bread, how can you get the starta? You can?

It's a yeast, right, it's a year? So how can

you obtain these years? If you want to start making

sour dough bread, you can get from someone else, or

you can buy it correct correct not? Or you can

you can make it yourself. But you know, just now

we hurt that there's years? How you make years? Buye? Huh? Sorry?

Can you make years? Oh so this is interesting. Okay,

So what I learned is that actually how you make

the sour dough stata, it only needs two ingredients. Everybody

say two. You just needed fly and water? You just okay?

So the process is you add in fifty grams of flower,

fifty grams of water, You stir it a little bit,

and you leave it in your pantry. Yeah, so you

gotta make before it you watch a lot what you watched,

but you know me yah ah ah exactly, it's too

troublesome right correct? Why why why when you can just

buy it off the shelf flower?

Right?

Sorry? I asked myself, like why I'm so celila, I

want to do this? Never mind, Okay, I'm stingy la.

Maybe you're right. Yeah. So so anyways, I realized that

actually all you needed was fly and water. Just fly

and water. But like all of the gentleman and say,

it takes time. Do you know that after you mix

the fly and the water, you don't just stop there

because the next day you gotta watch it and then

you will yeah, and you gotta start feeding it, like

feeding what fly and water? Yeah? Because it becomes a monster. No, no, no,

it becomes you know, a a organism. Right. Do you

know what happens is when you mix flat and water,

it interacts with the air that contains yeas and bacteria.

Do you know that our air full of yeas and bacteria?

You didn't know that, right, You're like, gally, that's why

some people always like this infect everything, right? But anyways,

so you add it and then what happens. You don't

just feed it. There is a process of discarding. Okay,

by the second day, right, you will come down from

your room and you go like, what is that smell?

The second day of the process of fermentation, it gives

all this smell like you want to Ah, it's not

just pungent. Have you smelled Gym socks? Ah? Yeah, exactly

like Jim socks. And you go like, what is this

straw away? The whole thing, right, is such a nasty smell.

And sometimes our experience in discipleship smells like that. It's like, ooh,

so oh, what's the smell? Why so difficult? One? Why

it's so Smellia? I don't want this, like, and most

people would forget it, la, forget this whole discipleship thing.

But you see it once you're committed to it, right.

It's committing all the way. Right. You don't just start

and say, okay, I throw away and then I go

and buy buy howerd after that already. Ah, but that's

the thing. You know, many of us like to eat sour,

though we don't like to make it. Many of us

like the idea of discipleship, but we don't want to

make it. We like the idea like we like to

eat of the fruit of it, nice one, but to

make it because it involves time and commitment. So I'm

gonna shot cut the process. So what's happening is you

see it, before it becomes an active sourdo statter, it

needs to go through a test. The test is called

the float test, right after seven days. So you know

what happens, right, if you feed it day two, Day two,

you don't feed, day three, you start discarding. You have

to cut, you have to remove half of it. You

add in fresh flour, fresh water, and you stir it

and you wait twenty four hours, same thing, discard and

you're add in discard. I know. Caleb is like, why

are you going through this, silly woman? Right? Why are

you going through this process? Because in this process. You

realize that as you are following Jesus, you are this

following your disciple. There is this process of discarding myself

and adding more of God. I have to discard my flesh,

my old habits, so that I have new word of God,

new mind of God, new mindsets of God. And you

go through this process. Do you see that people say, yes,

why so? Ways, why so wast I wasted a lot

of flah throwing and discarding, But it was part of

the process. And do you know that as you follow

Jesus and you are being made a disciple, first there

is this process where you have to discard yourself, this God,

my sin, this God, my fears, this God, my anxiety,

this God, my mistrusts, this card, my unbelief. And you

add in belief, you add in faith, you add in love,

you add in peace. But then you have to go

through a test. And the test is what's happening. You

take a glass of water, you put half of the glass,

you feel it half, and you use a dollop of

the sour door and you put it on top. Now,

if it sinks, it's not ready, it's not ready to

be used. But when it floats up to the top

because there's a lot of air insight. Now, then you're like, Okay,

my sour door stata is ready to be used. But

do you see you haven't even gotten to making break yet.

You're just activating the stata seven days and I'm like

mine still saying. You know, I'm like, who am I

such a Can I not follow instruction? Easy? What flower water?

Discuss add flower water? How difficult is this? But it

was because I had to take fourteen days, not seven days.

Everyone or the website YouTube whatever I say, seven days,

it should be ready. I'm not. Oh, bacteria not strong?

Is it? Malaysia? Ye is not not strong? Is it? Why?

Or maybe my kitchen pantry not strong? Is it? Feel?

So what do you do through the whole thing? Continue? Continue,

even though you're like, I don't know what's happened with

my disciple. I don't know what's going on here. She

never called me for two years already. Never mind, that's

why we start now. Do you know? The beauty of

the Sawado stata is that there is a one hundred

year old Sowdo stata serious one, because what you need

is you just continue feeding and discarding ma. You see

that and it keeps it alive. It keeps that relationship alive.

So I want to say to you all of us,

if you've never entered into a discipleship relationship, you can start.

But if you're in a relationship that seems very stale

and it's not floating, then just say, okay, let's just continue.

Let's see what needs to change, what needs to happen

to make this work. Amen, all right, so let's move on.

Let's move on. So I did it, and then the

story is, I did a first successful batch. I was like,

Praise the Lord, I'm the expert now. And because of that,

I said, I'm so junk kind and generous. I said,

and let me make one for us and one for

my sister. Right, my sister lives nearby us. So I

made two batches, right, same ingredients, correct on, exact same ingredients.

And what happens, let's go. Oh. Now, you see, after

you have a very bubbly active sour dough stata and

you add all the ingredients, right, then there's this series

of folding and stretching, folding and stretching. And sometimes we

don't like this because we are being molded, we are

being changed, right, and sometimes that takes a little bit

of encouragement. Sometimes that takes a little bit of a challenge.

We all like encouragement, correct, encouragement, give me, don't give

me a challenge. Please don't challenge me to come for

prayer service because I cannot. You can encourage me to

get prayers, but when there is a challenge, we say no.

So you see, without this process of stretching and folding,

something's gonna happen. Okay, anyway, so I did two batches,

I did the same thing exactly my right, it's the

same two batches. I did exactly the same thing. Let's

move on. And so what happens is it needs to

go through a bug fermentation at least eight seven six

to eight hours. So after you fall and you stretch,

you leave it right, and after six to eight hours,

this is what we are expecting, something that rows up

and looks like great, right, correct, it holds a firm sheep.

But in my second bowl, same ingredients, same process, same time.

What I saw was, huh, where is my door? Where's

my bull of? They call it? It's now flat and sticky,

like have you played with flour and water? Flat and sticky?

I'm like, oh no, I've never encountered this before. What's

happening here? Now? If you have a flood, that is,

you know, this mixture flat and sticky, what would you do? Rationally?

What is the thing to do after this? Heat it?

Eat it? Okay, that's what she will do, eat it.

Poured more flower. Our engineer has spoken, put more flow

logic or not logical, right, put more flour. And that's

what I did. I added more flower. I added more

flower and attract to more and stretch. But then after

that I read on the internet that is gone case. Really,

there's no point adding more flower. You just either discard

it or make it into something else. Spoil. Can you

see the spoil part of it? Not in the potter's hand,

not in the break maker's hand, but spoil. All right,

So let's let's move on now. So I added flower,

which our engineers correctly say, rational man, right, if it

sticky means too much water. So natural thing is to

just try and add a bit more flower to firm

it up, right, because the end of the day, I

want to firm it up. Okay, So let's move now.

What I realized was and I did all this as well,

second time, let's move on now, Okay. When I realized

that it cannot be safe anymore, I just like you said,

bake it, and try right bake it. And this was

the first one, right, it rose up in a nice

bull shape. And the second one was just flat flat. Okay,

so let's move to the next. So this is the

flat one. Can you see that at the bottom here

it's not fully reason Okay. Now, if you were you,

you were in this situation, can I ask you which

one would you give to your sister or your friend,

the one that rose nicely or the one that was

flat and sticky? Every church lawn read out fail. Someone

will say give the flat one, because you say it

depends on the relationship, right, you give them never mind life,

it doesn't matter. It's a thought that counts anyway. She's like, oh,

freeze our door break, how come right right right right now?

You think about it. If God were to present us

as disciples to the world, which one would he present?

The one that is fully risen or the one that

did not make it? Which one the fully reason one?

You know this. You know this because it's voice glory.

So the thing is, if you are a disciple that

is fully risen. And this rising up is rising up

to your calling. Do you know that it's not just

rising up for for the sake of puffing up, it's

the up to your calling. Many of us we don't

rise up. We are happy with just being like that,

and we can be happy. We just sometimes with the

test in life, we sink and you're like, oh, right,

But but God is saying no, I want to rise

all of you up. The Church of God must rise up.

And when you rise up and you are beautiful to

be whole, I can present you to the world. Do

you know that there is a great recipe for sourdough bread?

You cut it, you toast it, and you put veggiemine on. Mama,

and I have a cut out. Sorry firsting, right, I

know all of us are fasting. I'm making you think

about bread now. But you see when there's something that

tastes so good and you pass it to your claque

and you try this tridays jaye, try to pass your

clia and you lad it. Whoa so good? Where you

buy from? Isn't that the first question that they'll ask?

Where'd you buy this from? Where is this from? And

do you know that God has a plan to use

ex Church to make strong disciples, that when we go

out there from a Monday to Saturday, people will taste

us and they will say, whoa, this is good stuff.

Where is this way you buy from? Like, hey, I

came from a bigkery called ex Church. This is a bakery, guys.

This is a process. This is the factory. Some of

your factory management and project management whatever, This is a process.

Whatever we are doing right now in church, God is

preparing us so that he can present us out into

the world so that they can taste and eat of

us and say, Wow, your maker is awesome. Who's your

make again? His name is Jesus. Do you see this?

Do you see? The whole point of discipleship is so

that we can rise up to our calleague and to

be served for the needs of the world. Do you know?

Discipleship is not just all about us and God is

about bringing God glory in the marketplaces where God places

us six days of the week. You know you're only

here half a day on a Sunday, six and a

half days of the week. How is others tasting us?

When people taste of your Oh a bit bitter. Oh

and the cooker, how comer. There's a bit of unforgiveness. Oh,

so much anger. Can you see how people are tasting us?

Let's move on, let's move on, Okay, quickly and quickly.

I just want to delve into the signs of it,

because I'm a gig in this way. Okay. Now I

want to understand why it didn't rise. Remember I said

everything was the same, correct? Why you know? We can

be making disciples and we're like, why some juddy, why

something juddy? Okay. What I realized was in the flow itself. Okay,

there's two things called gliodin and glutening. Okay, within the

flood dry flow. But once you add the element of water.

What can you see the red and the green one.

When you add the element of water, it changes the

structure to become something like this. It creates a bond.

And then when the bond mixes with all the other bonds,

it becomes a mesh. Do you see this? And a

mesh is a structure, and it becomes It's what holds

the shape, It's what holds the ship. Got it? Okay,

Now let's go on to the next one. So the

analogy is we are the flow. Okay, we are the

flower in this process. Anyone likes to eat plain flower,

you open a bag of fly like oom, you're me No, okay,

you're not the weird one. Okay, there was one place

there that I say, oh I eat plain fla. I'm like, huh, okay,

never mind. No one need prayer, no taste ma plain flower,

no taste dry, you'll chok you. But once you add

it with the water, which is the Word of God,

the Word of God, it forms a bond the Word

of God and earth. Just us by ourselves is useless

to the world. They're not gonna eat you. Us by

ourselves in its original form doesn't taste very good. But

when we bring in the element of water, the Word

of God. So the question is this, you can be

reading the Bible, but if it does not become part

of you, it is not borne you that it changes

your structure. You're not gonna change. Yeah, it's so important

that there is this element of bonding with the Word

of God, because just by ourselves it's not gonna there's

no transformation. Yeah, I'm just a bag of flower. The

moment you add water, whoa, and do you know with

the active Paudo stata. When there is an element of

combination between the water and the flower. Do you know

there's something in the years that can you see years

or not your naked eye? No? But what you invite

is you invite the element of the presence of God

and the Holy Spirit. Can you see the Holy Spirit?

Can you see the Holy Spirit? No? But when you

say God, me and the Word of God, I'm gonna

bond and that it activates the Holy Spirit and you

become a different person. You see, the power is in

the combination. It's not just one by yourself, Me by myself,

the Word of God by yourself, Holy Spirit by himself,

God by himself. No, it's always a combination, the coming

together that works something that forms this strength. And I

call this the strength of your character. Amen, is there

enough character? And our character is built by what we

allow to come into our lives. Right, if I allow

just the Word of God, I allow the Holy Spirit

to come into me, the flower to work in me,

I'm now forming that bond of character and strength that

will enable me to rise. Sometimes we allow other things

to come into our life. We add in orange juice

because very sweet in I don't know what you add

into your life fla. You add in sugar because it

tastes good, and you go like, hey, how come the

product is different from the way it was supposed to be.

Is there that bonding between you and the Word of God?

You know, and the Holy Spirit? Are we good? So far?

Are you tracking with me? I know? Time is running.

I just need another five or ten more minutes. Let's

move on now. So the ingredients that you need in

your discipleship journey, my dear friends, the sour dough starter

is the Holy Spirit. He's the one who activates us. Right,

it was a sourdough starta although it was just flat

and water, that activates the whole brit me. You are involved.

You are much needed in this discipleship process. The Word

of God and do you know there's also a bit

of salt, right, just a little bit, and the sort

of it is our ministry and service to others. Yes,

need it, need it? If you had just the ministry,

the Word of God and the flower. Do you think

you can make a sodo break? You makee roy China, correct,

you make something else, but you cannot make a sad break.

You need a holy spirit right, and then time and

patience is needed. Okay do you know that? Interestingly? Right

when you first add the flow and water, that's all

that there is flow and water. This is the amount.

That's why I market with a rubber band. Do you

know that when it's fully risen and fully active, it

becomes at least three times the size it's light an area.

Now you're easy like, oh yeah, people hurt me are Okay,

it's okay, forget it all right now think about but

just now we ask, right, where can you get the

soul doors start? Because to make it yourself it takes

a long time. Sometimes us by ourselves and okay, just

me and God, me and the word of God. Yeah,

I can't grow. I can grow as a disciple. But

do you know that it was only in contact with

other people that I really know what forgiveness is. Before this,

If it's just me and got me and got me

and God, yeah I can't forgive. I can laugh, you know,

I can go the extra amount. And then you are

in this community called exclang and then someone suddenly someone

comes to you and steps on your toes like, hey brother,

how can what you step on my toe? Do you

know that it is in this contact with community that

you begin to say, Okay, now I really know what

forgiveness is. You can read the world. I got all

by yourself, no problem. But it was in contact with

other people that the true essence of discipleship takes place. Amen.

And for us, you don't have to do it all

by yourself. And that's why we say, don't worry, don't

go and make your own sour door, Tata. These are

your sour those status our leaders. They have been activated, Amen,

they have been used by God through their processing, and

they've received me myself, I've received the sour door start

the activation of my own life through the discipleship of Passes,

Cannon and Sandra. I had the privilege, but you know

I needed someone to tell me a Rose, remember this,

a Ros. Think about how you do this, and what

they're doing in that process is to activate me, to

activate me, and so that now I can activate others.

Do you see that the process continues. Discipleship doesn't finish

when you say, oh yeah, I'm I bring God glory,

but it says now I need to make more, make

more disciples that will bring God glory. Amen. My last

life is this imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

You know this, Let's go to the final one, final one. Now,

this is how I view discipleship, all right. So discipleship

is this laboring in the lives of a few people

with the intention of imparting one's life. You impart yourself

into it, right, You have to be involved. You have

to kind of get into that person's life the Gospel

and God's Word in such a way as to see

them become mature and equip followers of Christ committed to

doing the same in the lives of others. Amen. Men,

I'm gonna invite the band to come up, and I

want to invite us to stand, to stand, and though

it's a long process to get here, but I hope

you got something out of this. Yeah, that God can

use something as simple as bread to bring truth to

our lives, and just really understanding what He wants for us,

Just to understand that. Hey, sometimes the question that we

need to ask is am I mixing with the Word

of God? Is there that contact? Is that bonding with

the Word of God? We ourselves Sometimes we can go

we're so busy doing different things, but we forget that

the Word of God, the water of the living Word

of God is so needed to transform us. Without the

Word of God, there is no transformation. You are just

as you are. For some of us, I sense that

there is a need to make a fresh commitment, especially

this you turn to say, God, I want to be

serious with you, and being serious means God, I need

the Word of God. I need the Word of God.

I need I need this, and I want to commit

for the next twenty days that I will make time

to seek you. I will make time to really bond

with the Word of God. And for some of us

that's not enough. Actually, for all of us, that's not enough.

We need the activation of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We

really need the power of the Holy Spirit to come in.

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

information on our church, please visit as church Org. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you. God, bless