The Role of Disciples in the Bible | Elder Terrence Atkinson

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

We hope this message will light up your tea.

It's going to be my excitement and my pleasure to

share from the Book of Corinthians, probably unless the Lord

directs me otherwise, for the whole year, and in order

to understand that, today I will be sharing with you

the introduction Wow, introduction one message. I hope that you

will be blessed, even as I've been blessed learning about

it now as you know that this year it's discipleship first. Okay,

how many of you the moment I mentioned this word

disciple thought in your hearts? Oh no, not again, Please

don't put up your hands. You know discipleship is not

a bad word. Do you realize that each and every

one of us a disciple? We are disciples or something?

All right? How many of us have have heard this

statement being said about us? You exactly like your father? Okay?

You have any of you heard that statement? Or you

just behave like your mother? How many of you you

know why that is? It is simply because somewhere along

the line you learned from them, and whether they chose

to teach you or not, you were being disciples. You

know how many of you learned cooking from your mom's

I see some hands discipleship. I give you another word

that I understand. This word discipleship. Apprenticehip what apprentices Apprentice

is someone who learns under somebody. Hell, it could be

you could be an apprentice carpenter, You could be an

apprentice painter. Do you realize that in the early days

of medicine there was no medical college. Did you realize

that medicine was by apprenticeship? Are you aware? So you

see this process of passing on information, this process of

teaching somebody else is discipleship. And in order to understand

it a little bit further, let's just read that famous

scripture all of us already know, but you know you

should read it. Matthew twenty eight Versus nineteen to twenty.

I just want to draw something to your attention. Ah, okay,

reading actually, and in order to understand this context, I

think we should go a little bit before verse nineteen.

So it says, then the eleven disciples, Okay, then the

eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which

Jesus at the point for them, and they saw him,

and they worshiped him. Disciples worshiped, and Jesus came and

spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to

me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make

disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you.

And lo I am with you, or always even until

the end of the age. Armen, then the eleven disciples,

the eleven disciples. Do you realize that Jesus when he

say go and make disciples, who was he telling? He

was telling his disciples. And when I thought about this,

it means that we cannot teach unless we have been taught.

We cannot teach what we do not know. We cannot

ask of someone else to do something that we ourselves

do not do. So if you realize that this whole

aspect of discipleship first is an aspect of understanding that

you have to learn in order to teach, so it

doesn't become so much of that bad word. Oh, No, discipleship.

You know how many of us have had and this

one you can put up your hands. How many of

us have had this idea that when we talk about

you should go and maybe be in somebody's huddle, or

you should be discipled. How many of you think that

we don't want to do this because we feel that

the fellow over us, the person over us, is going

to tell us you gotta do this, you got to

do that, you gotta do this. You don't do that.

He becomes your boss, and that's the reason why you

don't quite like discipleship. Haveever you ever felt that way? Oh,

I'm the only one, but you see, Maybe that's the

reason why we don't want to go into a huddle

relationship or go under someone in order for that person

to speak into our lives. It's because deep down we

may have this thinking that to be a disciple of

someone is to have that for a boss. It over me.

You've heard this statement, You're not the boss of me, right,

and we feel that way. Maybe because we have some

experiences with our parents, maybe they can be unreasonable. I

am a parent. I can be unreasonable at times, not

all the time, but sometimes I can be pretty unreasonable.

Don't you think telling your children to call you genius

is unreasonable? I used to teach that to my kids.

So I was just telling elder people I should have

taught them even more because today they don't see it.

They should see it. So anyway, that's not what you

want to teach your kids. Okay, So this is the

understanding that we when we talk about disciples or discipleship,

we're talking about learning in order to teach. We are

all students, are we not? We are all students? How

many of us can say we know the Bible inside out,

that's to say that we know Jesus inside out. Can

any of us ever say we know Jesus inside out?

Can we ever say that we know all of God

there is to know about God? Because if we say

we know the Bible inside out, that's exactly what we're saying.

So that means once you know the Bible inside out,

you can call it worse for verse, chapter for chapter,

line for line, nobody needs to teach you. If that's

our understanding, we got it wrong because we are saying God,

we know all there is to know about you. But

my Bible also tells me that God's thoughts are unsearchable.

You cannot put a number on it. So let's go

on now. Moved to the first slide and okay, do

you like these slides looks nicer. It's a little bit

different than mine, maybe because the fonta. But anyway, I

did not well, I prepared the slides, but I really

did not prepare the slides. What I did was I

prepared the notes and then I went to Chat Gipt,

not Chat. I went to Ai, and I wanted to

see what AI could do. So I said, Ai, can

you make these lines for me? And these are my points?

So I copied all my points and put it in

and it threw out all the slides. And I'm thinking myself, Wow,

it's so good. I am blessed. Okay, praise the Lord.

The role of disciples in the Bible? Do you know

that when I decided to actually study this a little

bit look into it, I realized that why the question

is the role of disciples ship not from Genesis to

the New Testament. Why is it only from the book

of Isaiah. Do you realize that this word discipleship or

disciple is used only once in the Old Testament, only once?

And it is it Isaiah chapter seven? I think, yeah,

if I'm not mistaken, chapter seven, chapter eight, I think

chapter eight or sixteen but I could be wrong. It's thereabouts,

but only once. But in the New Testament it is

used over two hundred and sixty times. It's used over

two hundred and sixty times. So we actually want to

explore the role of disciples in the Bible, emphasizing their importance.

We want to know how important is We want to

study the characteristics and what is the lasting impact of

the faith and the teaching. So you must remember, this

whole message is an introduction, God willing, the next time

I come to Klang, I will start on the Book

of Corinthians. Now disciples. In Isaiah, this word disciple was

used only once, like I said, in the Old Testament,

and it was from Isaiah chapter eight, verse sixteen. All right,

can you put that up? Can you? Can you get

chapter eight, verse sixteen? Is that possible anyway? While while

you get that up, and it comes from this word

limb limb mood, I guess right, if it can be

pronounced that way, maybe I can turn to Isaiah chapter

eight was sixteen. It's a little bit small here. Can

anyone of you just turn it? Turn it for me?

And so I want you to know what exactly Isaiah said. Okay, yeah,

can I just borrow that that okay? And it says,

bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God's

instructions among my disciples. That's what it said. It says,

bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God's

instruction among my disciples. What was Isaiah talking about. You're

gonna love this because he was talking about what happened

in the chapter before. In the chapter be For, Isaiah

was introducing the birth of Jesus. Go unto us. A

child is born, a son is given, and his name

shall be called wonderful counselor mind. That was what Isaiah

was talking about. And when Isaia Isaiah received this from

the Lord, he told his disciples to do what bind

it up so that it will not be lost. You see,

because this was the time, the beginning that history was

going to change. Isaiah was preparing for Jesus. Even from

then he was getting it ready. God had revealed to

him Jesus is on his way and the world is

going to be blessed. And we save this every Christmas,

you know, we remind ourselves of this of this verse.

So the first time the discipleship or disciple was mentioned

in the Old Testament still referred to Jesus. Isn't that wonderful?

Because now when we go to the New Testament, it's

mentioned two hundred and sixty time. There's only one thing

it's talking about. It's talking about Jesus. It's talking about Jesus.

You know what is? You know, when God teaches you something,

he always teaches you something for you to learn and

for you to do it somebody else. I remember sharing

this testimony with you fifty five years ago, fifty four

years ago, fifty four years ago. I was walking this road.

I was going back from Larsile School and I was

walking to Tamman and Bira. You'll know where it is,

okay that now it's a six lane road right three go,

one way three going. Those days, it was just one

lane going up, one lane going down.

No.

Divided in between. So I was disobeying my parents, not

that I was disobeying them, but kind of, because I

was given a school bus to go home, but it

just took too long. And I don't know what a

seven year old kid wants to hurry home for. Because

there wasn't any TV those days. There was no computer,

there was no games as the only child that was

there at the time. My brother was just a baby,

So why would I want to rush Horom? But I

felt I needed rush Horom. So every day after school,

I take my bag and walk home. And nobody taught

me how to cross the road. Look left, look right,

look left again. How many of you learned that? Were

you'all told that when you were growing up? Nobody told

me this, look left, look right, look left again. Nobody

told me if you are in the states, and make

sure it's look right, look left, and look right, because

you do the other way, you will not survive. True, true,

you won't survive. So anyway, I walked home and one day,

as I was crossing the road, a motorcycle decided to

test and see how strong I was, and it came

into me at full speed. It hit me at full

speed as I crossed the road. And when it hit

me at full speed, I felt, and this has to

be the power of God. Even before I knew him,

I felt where he hit me. But I remember this

motorcycle and this motorcyclist and his motorcycle. It when flying, tumbling,

and when I and I'm on the ground and I

look up, Thank God, I looked up the right way, okay,

because if I look the other way, I wouldn't see

the cast behind me. I look up and I saw

a trailer coming for me. I rolled to the side

of the road. It's a little bit like like like

you know, milit tary like that. I rolled to the

side of the road. Don't ask me how, but my

bag was on that side of the road. So when

when the bike hit me, my bag landed on the

correct side of the road. I was facing the right direction.

I saw this trailer coming for me. I rolled to

the side of the road. And you know what I

did after that, I just got up, picked up my

bag and continued walking home. One shoe missing. I remember that.

I don't know what became of that shoe. And as

I continued to walk, I looked to my left and

I saw the poor guy who hit me. It wasn't

his fault, okay, it was my fault. I those days

no helmet man, So his face was all scraped and

scratched and whatever, and his bike was somewhere else, and

I don't know what became of him. So as I

walked home, there's another trailer coming, and the guy stopped

and he said. He looked at me and he said,

what happened to you? Because now my white uniform was red.

Those days, uniform was white, white shirt, white pants. You

could not see the white anymore. It was fully red.

But this one guy stopped. He said, what happened to

I met an accident? Somebody said, oh, I'm sorry, I

cannot help you. I have to go to work, and

he drove off. This is like the like the good Samaritan,

you know. Yeah, I don't know if there was any

other guy who stopped, but there was one person who stopped.

An Indian gentleman riding his bicycle. He came and he

saw me. He said, ah, what happened to you? Say?

I met an accident? Where do you live? I live

some I was pointing to Tamangabira and that time it's

not so far in Okay. It was just two or

three roads on me. He put me on the bike

and he cycled me home. And when my mother saw me,

she pani, I mean that's only natural, right. Do you

realize that in nineteen sixty nine you could call for

a cap That's what she did. She called for a

taxi and while she called for the taxi. I decided

to see where I was bleeding from. So I went

to her dressing table, took her cotton, and I wiped

my face and there was a hole. There was a

hole in my face. So this dimple, it's not natural.

It was a hole. I mean a literal hole. So

then I went to the doctor. The doctor check me

out and I said, don't worry, no needs to ches.

The whole will will heal up. Do you know I

went to school the next day. No aches, no pains,

no scratches other than this hole in my face. Isn't that? God?

So where am I going with this story? God had

to teach me a lesson in order for me, so,

in other words, that what was the lesson here? The

lesson was not look left, look right, look left flood

Because I learned that lesson. And do you know that

for six years after that, I would not cross a road.

I would not cross a road, even if that road

was four feet wide. I had to have somebody hold

my hand and take me across that road. That was

trauma okay for me. When I came to form one,

I told myself, this is ridiculous. You are already growing up.

You have to get over this fear. So what did

I do. I found the most busy road I could find.

That was in front of the Catholic Church, Lady of Routes.

At that time, that was the most busy road I

could find. People have died crossing that road by the way,

I crossed that road. And after I crossed that road,

I lost my fear. So anyway, many years after that,

a couple of maybe about a month ago, I was

walking as I do on a Sunday at four am,

preparing for my message, all right, preparing what I praying

and asking the Lord to annoying the message. And as

I was walking my house, there's a kind of a

hill and you know the main road Jaalam Moktadarry is

quite a distance a way. I was having my headphones

on and I heard an accident. So this was now

five in the morning. So I heard an accident. Now, firstly,

how I could hear an accident my headphones on? I

have no idea. Could I see anything? No, But in

my heart I had this. This is the lesson. Someone

helped you when you had an accident. There's an accident,

go and help someone. That's what discipleship is. About. So

what did I do? I actually walked to that place.

You know how far away it was, It was about

took me about one kilometer. I had to walk in

the opposite direction, come on my housing and walk back

to the main road. Took it was about one kilometer

awhere I walked, and true enough, there was an accident

that took place. It was, you know, one of the

big bikes. There's about thirty big bikers, so one mad

an accident. And then I looked on the left and

he was okay. I mean he was sitting down on

the ground, all his friends around him. So then in

my heart I could hear the Lord say, I just

wanted to know whether you would go. I didn't need

to do anything, but you see, somebody went for me,

so I go for somebody else. That's what discipleship is

all about. Jesus has done something for you, will you

not do something for somebody else by sharing them about Jesus.

You know, Jesus didn't tell the world to do it.

He told his disciples go and preach and make disciples.

Did he tell everybody? But now it applies to us

if we are his disciples. Certainly it applies to us.

We are supposed to go out and make disciples. What

is it what God has loved us and done in

our hearts? Just go and share it with somebody else.

Not wonderful, It's not difficult to do. And you know,

it boggles my mind that I have actually told people

if you have difficulty in sharing with your old folks

about Jesus. Christ called me. I'm come and I'll help you.

You know, I have not received any requests, and some

of them I know are not safe. And I'm thinking

to myself, hmm, how come it's like this. It doesn't

matter whether I'm called or not. But I have to

be ready to go out and tell someone about the

love of Christ because somebody told me about the love

of Christ. So when you realize that, you only need

to tell what you know, discipleship is not difficult. It's

not difficult to have somebody that you help and help

grow in the faith. Nobody is asking you to be

a pitter. Do you realize it that Peter, although he

was a disciple, was still a man with failings. He

had not arrived. Oh, I'm all that, you know the

state all that. No, Peter was not like that. How

do we know this. Paul rebuked him because Paul said, Hey,

when these people are not around you or with them,

but the moment some Jews came into the picture, he

withdrew from the gentiles. He says, that is hypocrisy. Paul

called it out. So how come Peter could be like that?

Because Peter is a man like you and me. We

have a good points, and we have points and not

so good. Some of us don't have any points. We

have all bumps. Bad job. Okay, so what was the

testimony they were to bind and seal the testimony about

you see, disciples as followers and students of the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah's disciples were dedicated followers who learned from his teaching.

They played a crucial role in understanding and transmitting God's

messages in their time. Okay, that's the next life. Let

me see that. See that's what I mean. I love

this picture. It was Ai. This whole size is Ai.

I did not have to do it, but praise the

Lord that he helps those who are technological dinosaurs to

achieve something. Anyway, what is it saying. It's saying that

they played a crucial role in teaching, in sharing. Hey,

this world can only be disciples from your experience. I

was asked this question just now, or rather I was

that testimony which we heard from you and heed just now?

I felt like I didn't want to preach anymore because

that was such a powerful, powerful testimony. But do you

realize that sometimes? And I've got my parents who are

also not doing as well as they could. And I

was telling some people, it's so difficult when you see

your parents and these are the ones whom you always

looked up to. They were always in control. They were

the ones who gave you the answers, they were the

ones who gave you support, and all of a sudden

you see them as weak, needing now, needing care. And

it's so troubling, isn't it. It makes your heart distraught. Hey,

these are my parents. All of a sudden they are

so frail, they're so weak. And then when you see

them suffer, you tell the Lord, maybe it's better that

they go home. Maybe it's better than they go home,

especially they're safe. But you know, and the Lord just

I'm just sharing this. I just this is just a

counsel that I just gave someone, and it's from the Lord.

I believe.

Sometimes our parents don't immediately go back to be the

Lord when they're having difficulties, because that is the time we.

Have an opportunity to honor them. Two things are taking place.

One is you have an opportunity to pay them back

for all those years that they were there for you.

You know what's the other thing that God uses them for?

Because when you honor them through your difficulty, God is saying,

I now have the opportunity to bless you with a

long life. I have this opportunity that has been created,

you have passed it, and because of that, I can

bestore upon you long life. It's still God's blessing because

for them to live is Christ and to die is Gain.

So either way they're going to be with the Lord

if they're say but what's important is God gives you

an opportunity to do that. And the other thing is

this what you sow you'll read if you look after

your parents, guess what you can believe your children will

look after you because the principle of God will never

be put to shame. The principle of God will come

to pass. If you are the sort that we're looking

after your parents, then the Bible says, what you sow,

you reap. You can expect that God will minister your

children to look after you. So you want to know,

what's the great deal about being a disciple? What's the

great thing about discipling others? Hey? Teach what you know?

Teach what you know. You see, the disciples were given

that they were tasked with safeguarding the revelations given to Isaiah.

Isn't it what a disciple is to save God, to

ensure that God's words were accurately transmitted and respected true

the generation? Are you and I a disciple? It has

been entrusted on us to be accurate in our discourse

to others about Jesus. And how can we be accurate?

Just tell what you know? Hey, Jesus heal me, he

can heal you. Is you're being accurate? But because he

healed me, so I tell someone he can heal you,

I'm being accurate. I cannot tell what I don't know.

I don't talk a lot about the Book of Revelations

because I don't know as much and that requires a

lot of study. So I don't talk about the Book

of Revelations very much because if I would talk from

the Book of revelations without understanding the whole thing, I

am not doing justice. But what I do know, I

share the Lord is pleased because it is really in

my life. So what has God entrusted me with? What's

your message, what's your role? What's your life? And how

has God been helping you? That's all you need to

share with somebody else. I had one guy, yes last week,

who came and they were doing a photostap machine. I mean,

you know, we change the photosty machine in the school,

and so this guy came and I liked him. So

because I liked him, you know what I did, I said,

let me tell you about Jesus. Actually shared the gospel

with him. So he told me, oh, you know, I

just got a child. I said, no one can look

after your child better than Jesus can. Then I started

sharing with him about the testimony is how God because

his child just came out of hospital. You know that

morning that he came the day before the child came

out of hospital. So I told him how old his child.

Child was one year old, so a child was having

one or to his own child was having some kind

of fever, so it needed to be So I just

told him I said, I had my cay, my kid,

who was crying non stop. So I took him to

this hospital here. I came back from KR. So, now

Ashley was crying for about six hours already. But you see,

we were at worship service. So what do you do

when you're in worship service? God comes first. Look, that's

how God was dealing with me. Okay, you have to

know and hear what God is telling you. So after

that we decided, no, what was wrong. We took her

to this hospital. You know now it's no longer hospital. Uh,

it's on the it's on the main road. It's a

corner lot and three stories that there was a hospital

there right now it's no longer hospital. M No, No,

it's on the way. It's going on the way. Uh yeah, yes,

sometimes on the leftist on it's on the other side.

So anyway, the issue is I brought them and the

doctor came and checked out Ashley and said, she has

a dislocated shoulder. One year old, I mean one year old,

she has a dislocated shoulder. I'm going to prepare the

X ray to confirm. While you're doing that, I told her,

I told her, maybe, no, this cannot happen. I don't

want actually one year old already taking X ray. Not

not too good. Let's believe God. So I stood up

here and she was sitting in the chair like that,

and I had a toy in my hand, and she

was having actually a lap, and we prayed. We inter

city in tongues, and we prayed and said, Lord, do something,

healer in Jesus' name. The moment I said in Jesus name,

actually reached out and took the toy from my hand,

the one from the arm that was giving her trouble.

And then she started giggling and laughing, giggling and laughing.

Why she was giggling off, I don't know, but she's giggling.

You know, there was no she After that point, the

crying stopped and she was just laughing. You know what

we did, We just walked to the counter and said, no,

she's okay, she's fine. We don't need any X ray,

thank you very much. Left exactly that, you know. So

I told this guy, Jesus looked after my daughter. You

and I we need someone greater than ourselves to look

after our children. And let me tell you that one

who is greater. His name is Jesus. This guy was

so taken up. I said, come to church. He is

I only speak man. It's okay, we have a manin service.

Come to church. You see it, when you're sixty four

years old, sixty three years old, you don't care about

what people think. You share Jesus like. They don't like you,

they don't like you too bad. You know, at the

end of the day, maybe you'll get saved and maybe

you like me, blessing, Well, what for you? You like me

and I don't share Jesus with you. Protecting God's revolation,

it's important. A corresponsibility of disciples is to maintain the

integrity and clarity of God's words, preventing I'm going to

go very fast, because preventing distortions. Okay, you have to

tell the word as it is. Don't make it fluffy,

don't make it to academic because it's not about how

intelligent you are. It's about what the Spirit wants to

tell you other person, as simple as it needs to be.

Do you know that the disciples in the New Testament

is a different world. It's called matthetis. It means a

learner or follower, all right, And this concept emphasized the

importance of lifelong learning. Remember I said, none of us

will ever be able to understand fully everything it's in

the Bible, because the Bible says this is the Word,

and the Word is God. So this is everything that

God is. Do you think that we can understand it? No,

it will take an eternity. That is why we will

go and be with the Lord. All right, So we

have to imp How many of us ever feel we

stop learning? As a Christian, as a believer, it's a

lifelong learning experience. Why is it the Bible says, do

not forsake the gathering of the saints. Why would you

do that? Because you learn every time you want something

from the Lord. If it is your heart's desire to

learn when you come on a Sunday, guess what you

will learn. If you say in your heart there's nothing

you have to teach me, and there are people like that,

you will not learn. How many of you have said

in your hearts, please don't put up your hands. This

person is too young. There's nothing that they can teach

me that I don't already know. If we ever have

this feeling, guess what there were other people in old sorry,

other people in Scripture who felt exactly the same way,

So much so Paul had to tell Timothy, don't let

anybody despise your youth, because if they cannot see your

value and what you have to offer, that's their business.

You just do what the Lord has told you to do. Hey, guys,

that deliberates all of us. Okay. It means that we

don't have to be a scholar in order to share

Jesus with somebody. It means we don't have to be

a reverend in order to disciple somebody else. It takes

a lot of pressure off of us. Do you realize

that I like the mixt light because active role in

spraying Jesus teaching disciples actively shared Jesus teaching, establishing the

foundation for the Early Church, and influencing countless of lives

to the message of love and redemption. See nice to

not ei. Nice picture looks pretty here. Okay, praise the Lord.

So I guess from now on I have to watch myself.

I'll be using it for all the slies I've been doing.

But anyway, what is it is the disciples? What were

their their tasks? Their task was just to teach what

Jesus taught them. Share what Jesus taught them? What did

Paul do? Immediately after Jesus appeared to him, he went

away and he spent.

Time learning from the Lord. Why you can only teach

what you have learned. You can't teach what somebody else

has learned. You know, how many have you tried to

teach what somebody else has learned? Has he worked outway

for you? So hou is is going to work?

Well? I want you to know that the disciples have

some characteristics. Okay, they they exhibit a strong dedication to

learning from their spiritual leaders. So why would you be

a disciple under someone? Why would you be an apprentice

under someone? Because you recognize they have something to teach you.

You recognize that someone has some better information, so you

come under them to learn. How many of you, when

you went to university knew more than your Electioner, if

you knew more than your election, why go to university?

You went to university to come under that lecturer, so

that lecturer could impart to you his knowledge. If not

his knowledge of, what is his knowledge of? How do

you get there? Yeah? Amen? Applying these teachings in their

daily lives. Do you know that the apostles. The disciples

didn't just teach what they knew, they applied it to

their own lives. How can we teach Jesus's Lord if

we don't exhibit Jesus's Lord in our life. We just

did it on Friday? Right? Jesus is lord of all?

Or not at all? Something like that. Yeah. A true

disciple shows faithfulness to God, exemplifying obedience through action and

reflecting a deep understanding and respect for his divine teaching.

I want you to know that God is faithful. You know,

when I need to get up on a Sunday morning

to pray for the service, I never set the alarm.

I say, Lord, I need to wake up at five

o'clock because I need to pray. Do you know that

every Sunday at five point forty five my eyes are open?

Why fifteen minutes? Because the fifteen minutes you fight yourself

here should get up a you know, so, God is

very smart, gives you a little bit of time to

work that out, so that by five o'clock you're up

and running. And God never fails me. And this morning,

as usually happens, As I was walking to pray for

this message, it started to rain, and I looked up

in the sky and I said, the Lord is interested

for me to have this time with him. You will

not interrupt. I command you in Jesus name to stop,

and he did. He said, after I finished my time

with the Lord, have ad it? Go for it, but

not while I'm walking, not while I'm talking with Jesus.

This is just daily living. You can apply to your

your lives as well. The disciples experienced transformation. As Jesus

comes into your and teaches you, you know what happens.

Your life changes. Do you realize that, after so many

years of being a believer, you think less about yourself

and more about somebody else. For myself, I was a

very selfish kid, but you know when Jesus came in,

he taught me to think about somebody else. How can

you be a believer and not have empathy, not feel

for somebody else. Jesus makes a change in your life.

And that's why doing the book that we're doing now,

as I said yesterday, it organizes those thoughts that we

need to live in an orderly fashion. So that's moving along.

Discipleships in practice in the early Church follows of Jesus

well known as disciples. Do you know that the early

church believers were known as disciples and later they were

called a bad word? No, I was the bad word Christians.

Do you realize that when they were called Christians it

wasn't a nice word. How many of you speak Cantonese

and have you heard the statemam before? More cong yesoo?

What does it mean? Okay, it means it literally means

don't talk Jesus. But actually what it what it means

is don't talk nonsense. Am I right? Okay? More con yesoo.

So when somebody tells you and nothing to do with

Jesus at all, they're talking with your friends, I am

more con yesool, don't talk on that's what they're saying.

But let me tell you the way you call yeshoo.

Now when you speak about Jesus, Now it's no longer

a badge of shame. It's a badge of honor, because

that's how it started in the world those days when

they when when when the early people when when the

people dose is referred to Christians bad word? But today

you wear it like a badge of honor Christians. Christ

in me, the disciples played a role in also looking

after Jesus teaching, ensuring that they were transmitted accurately to

future generations, and helping establish a strong foundation to the church.

Doesn't that look a little bit like maxim? That's doesn't

it the same kind of smile? That is what I thought. Okay, okay,

So living a life devoted to Christ discipleship involves a

deep commitment to living a life that reflects the values

of Jesus, demonstrating love, service, and sacrifice in everyday action.

And I just want you to know, even as we're

coming to an end and why we're talking about why

I want to talk about Corinthians. Corinthians was a church

that is very much like the world today. Lots of

funny things going on. I mean, the way that they

live their life is much like how the world lives

their life today. A lot of trouble, a lot of

things are not so right, a lot of things that

they did was much is what we very much see

happening today. And that's why I want to focus on

the Book of Corinthians one Corinthians, because when we talk

about discipleshipment, we talk about learning how to live as

disciples in that time and how we are supposed to

model out as disciples during that time. So Paul tells

the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitates Christ. This

is in One Corinthians eleven one, using his life as

a model for Christian living and highlighting the importance of

metals models in the role of it. You see, do

you know that the only Bible some people may ever

read is the one that they see in you and me?

So you want to you want to get people involved

in knowing who Jesus is. Live like a disciple, and

we have this understanding. Living like a disciple doesn't mean

wearing a white robe, walking hunch band, and then you know,

putting in sands. That's not what being a disciple. Being

a disciple is safe, guarding the teachings of Jesus Christ,

living it out so someone can see you don't fall

to pieces when something bad happens. What you do? You say,

it's not going right now, but I'm going to pray

and I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Gus to do something

about it. And when people see your life is changed,

wah that prayer really work to I said, absolutely, That's

what being a Christian is all about. So Paul addresses

the importance of unity among the believers in Corinth and

encourages them to resolve conflicts to live harmoniously as a

testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul emphasized

the needs for harmony, support one another, reflect Christ's love. Hey, guys,

this world is a world of conflict. There's so many

things that are happening in the world today conflict. But

you know what Jesus wants us to do. Live a

life reflecting the love of Jesus. That's what being a

disciple is all about. So, in conclusion, the exploration of

discipleship reveals a continuous journey of learning. If you have

stopped learning, you are the only people who do not

learn anything are the ones we've died. But as long

as you're alive, whether you want to or you don't

want to, you are learning. You know how You know

that I want to go to the bank at eight thirty.

I go to the bank at eight thirty and guess

what it's closed. Did I want to learn it? No?

But did you learn it? Yes? We are learning every day.

Why not make this process of learning something that benefits

a continuous journey of learning? Obedience and transformation. Obedience means

that you're not always going to agree with what you learn.

But guess what, there is a benefit to just being obedient.

I don't like it, but okay, I'll do it. I

don't like it, but I'll do it. And you know,

when you do that, you are transformed. Because we are

a people who just love to do things for ourselves,

but when we do things for somebody else, our life changes. Kids.

You know that I spent a lot of my free

time as a student teaching other students. You know why,

because I knew help somebody else, and now all my

friends succeeded. Was I a teacher? No? Did they pay

me to do it? No? Why did I want to

do it? I know? Share love? If I know something,

share what you think. It makes me feel better that

I do better than my friends. No, I make my

friends also do well. How wonderful is that? And that's

what actually Jesus. Living for Jesus is all about. You know,

Jesus is good in you. You want to see Jesus

good in somebody else. Calling believers to actively engage in

their faith, embodying christ Like characteristics and impact future generations.

Get Guess what you impact future generation. It's true. Give

you an example. You've heard this testimony before, but why

are you sharing it again? And I'll close with this.

When I was in Okay, when I was in frank

when I first became a Christian, the rule of Krank

hated me. You know, no, I mean this is I'm

telling you the truth. Uh. They hated me. And when

I started to share with other people and my other

friends became Christians, they hated them as well. And you know,

when we started off as a church, it's not like

today where everything is hunky dorian. So nice. People came

out against us, complained to the police against us, They

did all these kinds of things. It was a tough time.

People the moment they see us coming, they see me coming,

they walk the other way. That was how it was

when I first became a Christian. Know what happened. My

father said, get out of my house. So I had

to leave. Today, my father believes I had a brothers.

You want to whack me up, beat me. He became

a Christian. So the thing is this, friends, my friends

started to shun me. It wasn't easy at that time.

This was seventy nine, nineteen seventy nine. But I'll tell

you this, six of us became Christians at that time.

We were the first in the Clank church, okay, and

we were going around sharing Jesus with the people that

we knew with our friends. Parents hated us. But do

you want to know something. All our parents give us trouble.

All all our parents when they heard give us trouble,

you know what happened. They all became believers. They all

became believers. And the ones who came out against us

would years later tell us, I'm sorry. Did we do

anything to be All we did was share Jesus. I

want to tell you it doesn't matter how difficult your

life is going to be, what kind of opposition is

going to come your way. But I'll tell you this,

just continue to be truthful to what Jesus has taught you,

and he will bring everybody back. Isn't it wonderful You

don't lose. You'd never lose with that. I hope you

got something from this. God just wants us to be disciples,

follows up Jesus, and he wants us to share what

we know to somebody else. That's what it means when

it says, go you into the world and make disciples.

You cannot make a disciple unless you are one. First

that let's get ready for the Book of Corinthians the

next time I come. Halla Lujah, Praise the Lord. Okay,

with that, we can call the ministry a And I

just got to tell you this right while they are

getting themselves organized. Jesus loves you. He loves you tremendously.

He came me. He died for your sins, so you

don't have to face that kind of punishment. And you

know what, he didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead.

He defeated the grave, the Bible says. And it is

that love of Jesus that can turn your life around.

If you don't know who this Jesus is, when the

time is given to you afterwards, make that decision and

give your life to Jesus.

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

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

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this week is going to be a good week ahead

for you. God bless