Disciple Follower | Pr Julian

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your.

Day is and today I'm also going to reiterate and

bring to remembrance and look into the Word of God.

What that team disciple first is. So if you're a

partner of X church, if you call X your home ground,

if you if you call this church your family, I

should know that this year our focus is on the word.

Two words disciple first, disciple first. So I've got some

slides up and yeah, David's going to help me with that. Uh.

I think just just for some context and just to

bring the remembrance. Disciple first just means like we are

all first called to be disciples of Christ. Okay, So

like you know, before you are a mom or dad,

before you are a son or a daughter, before you

are a thief or a cheetah, if there are any

teeth or cheatahs in the house this morning, before you're

a doctor or an engineer, or a pastor or a

musician or you know, whatever it is, you are first

a disciple. You are first a disciple, Okay. So turn

to your neighbor and said, I am a disciple of first.

If you have a neighbor. Right. We also learn that

these three words disciple or a follower or a Christian,

they all mean the same thing, right. I remember Jason

preaching from it, like you know, I think he was

trying to pull the fast one on this. What's the

difference between a disciple of Christ and a Christian? Nothing?

Nothing is different about that. You know, A disciple of

Christ or a follower of Christ, a Christian, they all

mean the same thing. Right. Of course, when you fill

up the form in the government form and they ask

you what religion you are, you know your rights there?

Christian in k starts you know that's okay, But it

essentially means we are a disciple of Christ or a

follower of Christ. Right, So there's no distinction between these

three terms. We've established that ready. But I want to

start this morning with a question, Okay, gratually for a question.

And I asked the same question to our homies like

two weeks ago, and I'll tell you something like quick answers.

I heard it quite funny. But this is the question

this morning, Okay, to start as a Christian or as

a follower of Christ, as a disciple of Christ is

our life happier than non Christians. So it's like a

rhetoric question, rights our life as Christians happier than non Christians?

So think about it. You know, that might not be

an answer, but I remember if you're from KG three,

I asked this question and I heard someone say straight

away no. I'm like, oh my gosh. Yeah, that says

a lot about answering the call to be a disciple

of Christ.

Uh.

The question is, as Christians are our life, is our

life happier or more fulfilled, more joyful, more fruitful than

being a non Christian? Okay? I think most of us

here are in the room called ourselves followers of Christ. Right.

I think it's a good question to ask because if

you really are going all in as a disciple of Christ,

then you want your life to be more fulfilled. You

want your life to be happier. I mean, we talked

about the term happier, so all I like, okay, is

you know, how do you define happy?

You know?

You know, like getting all you want or getting enough?

Or how do you define being joyful? You know? So

so but in general, again rhetoric question, as Christians, is

our life more fulfilled? Right? My answer is yes? I

hope all of us here say yes. Also because I

was thinking about it. I'm mean, I have the benefit

to think about it a little bit more over the

last couple of weeks. Why why having Christ in my

life is better than not having Christ? Because that's the

difference between a follower of Christ and a non follower

of Christ, right right, having Christ in my life? And

I thought about it. It's because when things are bad

and going through a difficult time, I have someone to

reach out to, someone to pray to Jeuse Jesus. Right

when things are great, I have someone to give glory to.

Right when I have a guide of how to live

my life through the Bible.

Right.

So imagine if you're not if you're not a believer,

if you're not a Christian, Like, where do you look

to when there's when there's difficult times? Who do you

turn to? I don't know, Google or chat, GPT or

who do you ask your parents? Right? Uh? So it's

our life more happy as being Christians as non Christians.

Mine says yes again, because I have a hope that

goes beyond this life. Right, we have a hope that

goes to eternity. And that's the promise of Jesus when

we receive Christ, so fundamental. But it's for us to

remember that our life goes beyond eternity and we have

life even after death. And sometimes you need to go

down to the basics to like really question the foundation

of our faith. Right, why did we say yes to

Jesus so many years ago? Why do we say yes

to Jesus today? What is the reason for us to

call ourselves followers of Christ? Right? And that is that

is essentially what I want to to cover today. So

we'll just quickly go into some definitions of what a

disciple is. Like, okay, so we've covered days. I want

to just remind all of us what is the meaning

of this word disciple. And in fact, the word discipleship

is not even found in the Bible, Like the word discipleship,

the that noun of discipling someone, discipleship, it's not even

found the Bible. But the word disciple is found many

times in the New Testament. And we want to learn

if the team for this year twenty twenty five, disciple first,

what does it mean to us? Okay, so very quickly,

a disciple just means this someone who adheres to the

teachings of another. Right, So you can be a disciple

of you know Andy, and I want to adhere and

listen to what he says, follow his teaching is a

follower or a learner, right, So you follow someone, you know,

your your children. If you have children, you're technically discipling

them because, especially when very young, they follow you everywhere.

You know, they kind of like have to survive based

on their parents, right. I mean as they grow older

than they become more and more independent, they can stay

home alone with te t TV watching them, or they're

doing at home. But essentially our children are people that

we disciple as well. Okay, So a disciple is someone

who takes up the ways of someone else. Right, So

you not only follow them, but you you sort of

imitate and follow their actions. Okay. So in Greek the

word disciple is mataitous, which means a learner or a student. Right.

We also learn in the World of God met Tew

chapter twenty eight that Jesus commanded us to go and

make disciples. Right, we are not just disciples, but we

are called to go and make disciples. So I won't

be covering that part today. I want to cover about

how our position as a disciple of Christ is and

what is important to us in that in our life? Okay, uh,

one thing a disciple is not. So this is not

a disciple. A disciple is not like a second stage Christian, right,

meaning meaning like my kids start into Pokemon, so so

you know Pokemon is right, you know you shouldn't be

talking about Pokemon here, but but uh is a is

a fictional character or devra nos Pokemon very well? Like yeah,

so there's like basic characters, right, and then these characters

can evolve into like stage one or stage two. You know,

they they become more and more powerful and more and

more uh stronger and more like attack power. Thing is,

So a disciple is not a stage two Christian. Right.

You don't have a convert into a Christian accepted today

and then my goal is five years from now, I

want to be a disciple. No, we already say a

disciple means a Christian, a Christian means the follower of Christ.

So they all mean the same thing. So a disciple

is not a leadership program. Right. We are all here

if you have said yes to Jesus, we are a

disciple of Christ. We're a follower of Christ. Okay, let's

just establish that. So today what I want to do

is I will just talk a little bit about what

that word disciple or a follow of Christ is in

the Bible. Then I want to go into three points

about how from the Book of Matthew chapter sixteen, Jesus

sort of painted the picture of what a disciple is

or a follow of Christ is. Okay, very simple, Okay.

So the other word I want to look in is

the word follower. Follower, right, follower? Uh, like it or not?

All of us are following someone in our lives, were

learning homes like it? And not all of us are

worshiping something. You can either be worshiping God or worshiping

something else. Likewise, we are all following someone, right we

especially now like we it's so easy to follow people

on Instagram or with social media you can you can

follow someone from across the globe and get information about

that person's life or what their beliefs are, what's important

to them, and be influenced by what they view life.

Is right, So, how many have you got Instagram? Is

Instagram's been? What's your Instagram? Yeah? Come on? All the

teams they're like, whoa ig? The Graham tiktoks in. I

don't have a TikTok account, but it's it's so much

easier to be a follower of someone now with social

media and be influenced by what this person you're following,

you know, talks about allah, right, So it's very important

for us to be sure that we're influenced by the

right things. And also the other thing is there are

many There are many types of followers, right, so that

you look at your follower account like, oh, man, I

got one thousand followers. I don't know, there's still a

lot like come on man and popular, or I got

four thousand followers and in my account, right, So you

imagine in that group of followers following your life as

you post about your otd otd's outfit of the day,

right snap shot in front of the mirror, or your

breakfast this morning, and you posted all your followers, so

all your follows gonna like it. I don't know. Some

of them might comment on them and give you a

thumbs up. But there's different kind of followers, right. Some

followers are like they're just to judge you or see

you fail. It's ah, you got to an accident or

some of them are dad to cheer you on, give

you some support. And I'm thinking about how when the

Israelites were following Moses out of Egypt. Right, So there

are all these bunch of people. There's millions of them

going out of Egypt away from slavery, following Moses, and

there's so many types of followers there. Also, some of

them are like gang ho, I'm gonna support Moses all

the way. I believe that he's the chosen one, chosen

by God to lead us out of slavery. Then you've

got kids who just follow their parents, like blur followers.

They don't know what's going on. They are still following, right, yeah,

you know, or you got the doubtors. Right, It's like, man,

I don't know. I don't know whether he can or cannot.

He cannot even speak properly, right, you know Moses started,

so why am I follow him? But I'm still gonna

follow first and see what happens. Or I'm following because

my whole nation is going. But there's different tile for us,

but they're still following, you know. You know in Tewo

chapter twenty eight, the verse before that great commission to

go and make disciples. Is this verse that says, the

eleven disciples sort the top disciples, and then Judah betrayed,

restless eleven remaining. The eleven disciples went and see Jesus,

and they worshiped, and then some doubted. They worshiped and

some doubted. Imagine, these eleven disciples are the closest people

to Jesus. They walked with Jesus like physically through his life.

And when Jesus was about to be brought up into

heaven again, they worshiped him, but some still doubted. And

then Jesus, should we give the commandment go and make

disciples of all nations. You know, I'm just thinking about, like, oh, man,

that's why didn't he address the doptors first. Why didn't

he say, like, repent you doctors, and then gave the

the great commission? One is, we we may be in

different places as followers of Christ this morning, but we

still need to follow. Bring our adubts to God, bring

our adopts, our questions to Him, but still follow. Okay

uh yeah. So next up another another sort of definition

or team that I've been exploring about being a disciple

or being a follow is everyone is invited to be

a follower of Christ. Everyone is invited to be a

follower of Christ. All of you are invited to be

a follow of Christ. There is no prerequisite. There is

no requirements to become a follower of Christ. Okay, A

prerequisite is like, you know, before I get into this

top school, I need to take an entrance exam to

prove that I'm good enough to muscle this school. Get

into this school. Right, there is no prerequisites. So you

can be a sinner, you can be a doctor, you

can be a cheetah, you can be the best person

in the room, you can be the most good looking,

it doesn't matter. You are all invited to be a

disciple of Christ. You're all meant to be a follower

of Christ. How do I know that? Let's go through

a fuel scripture. A few scriptures. First Timity, chapter two,

verse four. Who this is talking about God, God who

desires all men to be saved and to come to

the knowledge of truth. So all everyone, everyone is invited

Romans ten twelve to thirteen. For there is no distinction.

There is no distinction, no prerequisites, no requirements between you

or Greek. So you can be a pure bred Jew,

or you can be a Samaritan a Greek. For the

same Lord over all is rich to all who call

upon his name, For whoever calls on the name of

the Lord shall be saved. There is no prerequisite to

be a follower of Christ. Everyone is invited to be

a follow of Christ. Let's look at another verse Luke fourteen,

verse twenty six. If anyone comes to me and does

not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes,

even their own lives, such a person cannot be my disciple. Ooh,

are we reading the same Bible. Everyone is invited to

be a Christian. Everyone is invited to be a follow

of Christ. The Book of Luke say is this? If

anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother,

wife and children, brothers and sis, yes, even their own life,

such a person cannot be my disciple. What's going on? Somebody?

Please tell me first Peter two twenty one. For to

this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you. Yes,

he did, leaving you an example so that you might

follow in his steps. So Christ paid the price, first

suffered bat the cross took away our sin, took away

our sickness, and he leaves us an example that we

might follow his steps in that suffering. Okay, Matthew sixteen

twenty four. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone

desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take

up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to

save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his

life for my sick will find it. It seems like

the Bible is split into two. I said earlier. Everyone

is invited to be a follower of Christ. Everyone is

invited to be a disciple of Christ. There is no prerequisites,

even that even that teeth that was on the cross

beside Jesus at his last moments, he called out for mercy,

and Jesus said, today I will be between paradise. Right.

And then we see in the scripture so many scriptures

talking about how following Christ has this standard. Hate your

mom and dad, your brother and sister, hate even yourself.

Even though you cannot be my disciple, right, you have

to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him.

I want to say this morning that everyone is invited

to be a follow of Christ, but there is a

high standard of living it out. So tell a neighbor.

You're invited to be a Christian, but there is a

high standard. That standard is Christ, that standard of being

a disciple of God is Christ. This balance sort of

like has been has been in my mind over the

last two weeks about how how really anyone can say

yes to being a follower, but the requirement is very high.

And I want to break it down this morning as

we go through Scripture. I don't know whether you have

this in your minds now like this kind of thought.

It's almost like a sneak attack, like just be a Christian.

Then then you realize, like, oh man, the bill to

pay is very big, right, So it will break it

down a bit more. I want to say that that

first of all, this is very consistent in Scripture, right,

meaning that the moment we are safe, we are justified

and adopted into God's family. The moment you acknowledge that

Christ is our savior and our savior, we are adopted

into His family, were justified, all our sceins is forgiven.

Thereafter there is a process of sanctification where we work

out our salvation, we work on becoming more like Christ. Okay,

to illustrate this, let me give you an example, So

I've been married for eleven years now, this will be

my eleventh year to Laura. If you don't know my wife, Laura,

she's outside the next kids and the day the day

which I when I said yes to her at the

altar eight of November twenty fourteen, right, twenty fourteen, I

became a husband because I said my vowels to her.

She said my vowel to me, and I became a husband,

and my position in that relationship becomes a husband. Right, yeahyay,

who married made in environment. Yeah, but there's this process

of me becoming a better husband. Right. So on day one, right,

I'm like, Okay, I think I know what a husband

is like. I think I know my wife, my new wife,

or I just became a wife. I know what she likes,

I know her love language, I know her hobbies, I

know how many kids she wants she said doula. But

then you know, now it's and I and I I

have this impression that Okay, great man, I'm gonna it's

gonna be rocking relationship. You know, but you'll know right

that is not the case. They one when you said

yes is probably the easiest thing. I was like, Kenny,

Natine Nancy, like how many years have they been married?

Auntie Margaret and Uncle Alex. It's going to be a

journey of becoming a better person, a better husband, a

better wife, and that process of getting there. The process

of getting there is one I'm talking about. There's a

high stand of leaving it out. Right. But did my

position as a husband changed the last eleven years? No,

it's still the same. I didn't become like husband number

one and now No, I'm staged two. I might be

in the final evolution soon. Right, No, it's the same. Right.

If you look at scripture, you look at the prodigal son.

The prodigal son also had his own journey, right, the

oldest son, and he he demanded that his dad gave

him his inheritance for him to go and spend it

the wrong way. Did his position as a son change

when he was in the pig sty or when he

was spending all his inheritance on the leisures and pleasures

of life. No, but he had to work out his

behavioral call as a son. Position didn't change. When his

dad saw him walking back to the house, he didn't

call him a servant. He didn't call him an adopted son.

He was still a son. He was still a son.

And all of us here this morning, if you have,

if you have given your life to Christ, said yes

to Jesus. We all go through this journey of refining

and this process of becoming more and more like Christ,

becoming more and more like Christ. And there will be

seasons where there'd be more refinement or feel like we

are in the wilderness where God removes the in purities.

And that's also okay. Even in those seasons, we are

still we still have that position to the son and

doctor of Christ. As a follow up Christ, Yeah, this morning,

I will just look into Matthew chapter sixteen, and we're

gonna draw just three points from Matthew chapter sixteen about

following Jesus. Okay, before that, because there's a lot of verses,

I thought i'll give you a quick summary of what

Matthew sixteen is about, just the second half of the chapter.

In Matthew sixteen, there's from verse thirteen onwards, Jesus asked

his disciples, right, who who? Who? Do the people out

there say he is? You remember that question? Like, imagine

Jesus with his room today. You know, not everyone knows Jesus.

Then Jesus asks who do they say I am? Who

do those people say I am? Right? And then they answered,

you know, some say your you're a prophet. Some say

John the Baptiste or Elijah. It's just a prophet, just

another another person. And Peter answered this very simple statement

that you are Christ. You are Messiah, the son of

the Living God. That's all he said. He had this revelation,

and then Jesus really gave him a wonderful calling, reaffirming

his identity. Right. He said, for flesh and blood has

not revealed this to you, but my father who's in heaven.

And then you know, he goes on to say, Peter,

you are the rock that the church will be built around.

Really powerful calling. And then after that, Jesus started to

share about the suffering that will happen to him. He's

going to go to the cross. The church back then

will torture him and he'll, you know, he'll be suffering.

And then Peter, from giving such a wonderful insight about

who Jesus is, then says that took Jesus aside. And

then when it rebuke Jesus, right, you remember the story

and say Hey, man, you shouldn't say that kind of

stuff like this won't happen to you. And then Jesus said,

get behind me, Satan, so really strong rebuke that he

was having a worldly mindset about the suffering instead of

a godly mindset. So that is Matthew sixteen. Okay, And

Matthew sixteen ends with the verse we read earlier. Wish

I can repeat now Matthew sixteen twenty four. Then Jesus

said to his disciples, after all that that happened, if

anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me. Let him

deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For

whoever desires to save his life will lose it reever

lo that's his life for my sake, we'll find it.

Matthew sixteen, in my study gives me the three different

parts of what following Jesus is. So to recap, we

started with a question earlier. It is our lives happier,

more fulfilled as Christians. So I think most of us

would say yes, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, So yes we

say yes, we still want to be a Christian. This morning,

my salvation and faith is reassured today. And I'm going

to follow Christ, and I know that there's a process

which God will bring me through to become more and

more like Christ. Okay, right, So how do I do

following Christ better? How do I do being a disciple

of Christ? Better? To me? Matthew sixteen speaks about these

three things, and I'll show it quickly up here. All

three points are here in verse sixteen. It talks about

recognizing who Jesus is. Okay, verses seventeen and nineteen, remembering

your identity in Christ, and verses twenty four to twenty five,

be ready to carry across. So tree simple points and

will end. Let's talk about recognizing Jesus. Recognize Jesus. Matthew sixteen,

Verse sixteen. When Jesus asks who do you say I am?

Who do the people say I am? Sevent Peter said this,

you are the Christ, the son of the Living God.

To be a follow and disciple of Christ, we need

to recognize who Jesus is. It sounds very simple, but

I think it's very important because as Christians, we do

not follow a system, We do not follow a religion,

we do not follow a way of doing things right.

So I'm a Christian, So I go to church on Sundays,

I fast and pray during u turn. It's not just

a set of rituals or cultural practices that we have

as Christians celebrate Christmas, celebrate Easter. But it's so important

as followers of Christ for us to know that we

are following a person and who is that person. That

is what Matthew sixteen sixteen is about. You are the Christ,

the son of the Living God. There's so much in

this couple of words here, Christs on Living God. What

do we recognize in Jesus? We need to recognize that God,

Jesus is the son of the Living God. And to remember

how big and great God is in our lives. I

remember talking about this before. You know, the size of

the universe is so massive, right, we as human cannot

even comprehend how big it is. And the word of

God says is in the palm of his hands, like

he just goes so beyond his greatness, goes so beyond

our comprehension as humans. And yet he also knows their

number of hairs on your head, like he knows the

detailing of what you need. He knows to answer your prayer,

even the smallest ones. So that is the God and

the person that we are following, so great, so awesome. Right,

we need to recognize that he's our savior, Christ, Christ

means Messiah, Messiah means Savior. That we are full following

someone who has paid the price for us already, who

has made a way for us to be right with God.

We need to recognize that we need God, right, we

need him and most of all, that this person that

we are following is not just a person that's on

the other side of the planet that we follow on TikTok, right,

but we have a relationship with this person, right, So

very fundamental, very basic. But it's easier to follow someone

when you have a relationship, right, Like if not, like

why why my following person? You know, he doesn't have

my best interests? Again, like our kids. My kids follow

me because I'm their dad. Right, So it's it's easy,

you know. And uh, that is the first thing we

need to remember. Reckon who Jesus is? Okay, number two,

remember your identity again? How do we follow Jesus? Better?

Recognize that he is God, he is King, and he

still loves you. He paid the price for you, and

when we need him. Number two, remember your identity Matthew

sixteen verses seventeen or nineteen. Jesus answered and said to him,

which is Simon, Peter blessed, I use Simon bar Jonah

for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

but my Father, who is in Heaven. And I also

say to you that you are Peter. And on this

rock I will build my church, and the gates of

Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give

you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatever

you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and

whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

This morning on the remind us that we are made

in the image of God, and that is our identity.

In Christ. We are all made in the image of God.

We might not be perfect, things might be difficult, But

I believe God is saying today that he wants to

reassure us. He wants to reassure us that we are

called to be more than conquerors. They were called to

be sons and daughters of God. They were called to

live out our life in His fullness. So can I

encourage you today to see your identity. See who you are.

You're calling through the eyes of Jesus. See who you

are through the eyes of Jesus. Not about how many

follows you have on is Rea, not about the opening

of someone else, not even sometimes like what your parents

say about you. But see who you are. You're calling

your identity through the eyes of Jesus. And Jesus says

that you are worth it. You are worth it for

me to pay the price on the cross. I'm willing

to give my life to bring you back. You are worthy,

That's what he says. And the third hour is this

ready to carry across. So number one, how do we

follow Jesus better? We recognize who Jesus is, we remember

our identity in Christ. And number three, we need to

be ready to carry our cross Matthew sixteen twenty four

to twenty five. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if

anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself,

take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires

to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses

his life for my sick will find it. So you

can't talk about being a disciple and being a follower

of Christ without this part. If anyone desires to come

after me to follow Jesus, let him deny himself, take

up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to

save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his

life for my sick will find it. What does carry

across mean? What does carry across mean? Aerpasta cannot giving this? Yeah, sorry,

something taking responsibility of your everyday actions, yeah, even though

it's difficult. Right, Yeah, So that's what carrying across is,

paying the price or the sacrifice to be obedient, right,

you know, it could be you're willing to pay the

price to be rest, to be responsible and obedient on

what you have to do. Not paying, not not carrying

across means like, oh man, it's going to be a

bit difficult. Let's just drop it. I want to do

my own way, not willing to pay the price, not

willing to sacrifice. Right. So, earlier this week I was

asking God this same question. Why why is the barrier

of being a Christian so low but the calling to

live out my life as a Christian so high? Right?

Why why can't I just say a prayer and accept

Jesus into my life and I'm a Christian, but actually

leaving out that calling to be more and more like

Christ so difficult, So high be read just now you

must hate your mom and dad, hate your brother and sister,

hate even yourself. If not, you cannot be called my disciple.

Matthew sixteen. You must deny yourself, take up your cross

and follow him. Why And you know it's it's a

it's a very real question. I jokingly say earlier, like oh,

maybe it's a sneak attack, like God just wants you

to say yes first, and then he's like, oh man,

you don't You didn't realize that it's a there's a

big there's a big price to pay. Carrying a cross

is a sacrifice. To be obedient to his calling is

a sacrifice. And it's going to get a band to

come up as we close this morning. So why why?

Why is the God spell of Christ like this? And

I felt the Holy Spirit just telling me like, who

said that is so easy? Who said that the barrier

of becoming a Christian is so low? Who say that?

Because for us to be a follower of Christ, for

us to have Jesus in our lives, it's not low.

It's not easy. Jesus paid that bill for earth. Ready,

he paid that sacrifice for us, So for us, yes,

we said yes to him. We are considered the follow

of Christ, we're a disciple of Christ. But I want

to remind us this morning that that price is very high.

And what was required on that day was for the

Son of God to come down to earth, to be ridiculed,

to be tortured, to be laughed at, to hang on

the cross, to die the most worst possible way for

earth to receive our salvation. So the price is not low.

It's not easy for earth to become for lords of Christ.

But today today is easy. And we often say at

the end of service, try it is very easy to

receive Jesus, A, B and c. And it's only easy

because someone else took up the bill, someone else paid

the price, someone else gave his all for us, and

that's the Son of God. Let's remember this morning, as

we are followers of Christ, that yes, it's not easy.

Yes some days are difficult. The standard is very high.

But we are walking through this process to become more

and more like Him, to become more and more like Him.

And as we step into this reality, we know in

confidence that Jesus did it all for us, really, that

he took up all our pain, took up all our sin,

took up all our sickness, and the price is very high.

So no, it wasn't easy. It's not easy to be

a Christian. It's not easy to say. It's not easy

for us to have eternal life. It's not easy for

us to have hope being having a mouthfulfill life. It's

not easy for us to have this connection with God immediately,

to have the Holy Spirit with us, to read His Bible.

It's not easy, but we can today because of the

Christ Jesus paid for us. And let's remember that as

disciples of Christ. Let's remember that to know to know

as we we are going through different things, that we

have that hope because Christ is our hope. Shall we

stand as we worship God. Christ is enough for Let

just respond to Jesus this morning.

Christ is enough.

Formy not sing everything everything and.

Say everything Christ Christ is in.

Not farming, cross is in, not forarmy.

Everything I need s everything y. I have decided it.

Pology, no turning back, no turning back. I have decide

it to Pologysus, no turning back, no turning back, the

Crosby farmy, the Welb behindy. No turning back, no turning back,

the Crosby fall me, the welbyhid me, no turning.

Back, no t.

Decide.

I have decided.

To pology, turning back, back back, no turning back.

I have decided to phologyesus. No turning back, no.

Back the crom Ba me, the welbyhind me, no turning back,

no turning back, the Crosby fall, the world behind me,

No turning.

Back, no ting back, no turning back.

Nodswer thank you Lord.

This morning we say we are grateful, and we are

thankful for the price you paid for us to be

a follower of Christ. Lord. We know and we acknowledge

that that price is high. The cost was great, the

sacrifice was immense. And I pray this morning, Lord, as

we respond to you, that our response will be in

the same way, Lord, to deny ourselves, to carry our cross,

and to follow you. Because you went ahead of uth, God,

you showed us the example of what it means to

be a follow of Christ, what he means to be

a Christian, and that is to put others before ourselves.

To carry our cross means to sacrifice in obedience to

you Lord. But thank you for that example that you've

given to us, and I pray for that strength to

be upon us in our daily lives, to walk in faith,

to be a follower of Christ. And I pray that

we'll see many testimonies, many answered prayers, many fruits from

answering this call. And I declared today that as we

go from this place and walk and act and speak

as followers of Christ, that many more lives will see

your glory, many more lives will see your light the

name of Jesus. We pray Amen. Amen, Amen, Thank you Church. Amen,

Thank you Pastor Julian for the word. And right now

I just want to give an opportunity.

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 ahead

for you. God bless