Disciple First part 3 | Continuation of discipleship-Pr Yvonne

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I talked about what being a disciple is, I think

the last time, and I'm trying to quickly recare for us.

From Mark four Mark, chapter four, verse twenty six, twenty seven.

I will read it, but you can turn to your Bible,

so you can turn with me. You can flip the pages,

and if you're there, you can say hallelujah, I'm there,

okay verse twenty six.

He says yeah.

He also says that this is what the Kingdom of

God is like. A man scatters set on the ground

verse twenty seven, night and day, whether he slips or

gets up, the seat sprouts.

And girl, though he does not.

Know how, you know, our decision uh to be a disciple,

of our decision to get rooted here in the house

and allowing someone to walk, you know, walk with us

through this journey of faith. We can determine that, but

we cannot entirely determine the growth. You know, the words

say right now and then, whether he sleeps or gets up,

the seat will still sprout.

Anyway.

You can just leave your green been soaked overnight. The

next day, that's early sprout's going your towel, get bean sprout, yes, uh,

bean sprouts growing, and then you can make your edge

hike guy, your bri sprout chicken rice that April is

famous for.

After that.

But it is the lot that determines and and I

want to encourage all of you here today, if that's

one word that I'm going to leave you with before

I go over Anila, is to see this place as

your family, and you know, to desire to be a

disciple of Christ because this you know as as as

much as you know as this whole like okay, freedom

and you know, human rights or whatever not. But in

the Lord h we need we are held accountable for

every single decision and single action that we do. All right,

when we decide to be part of this family, when

we decide to allow someone else to journey together with

us in acts, you know, we call it a discipleship relationship.

It's relational. Uh So in a relationship there's a journey together.

So being part of this discipleship journey, you know what

definitely caused you to grow in always if you ask

me how, I do not know exactly. For agents, every

one of you but that's going to be definitely growth.

Because we will.

Be held accountable as well, and you know, being part

of this journey together. What caused us to one to

continue to do that to others?

All right?

I actually prepared six points to share, but I think

I'll do it again when I come back. But I

would like to start with this a very very important point.

It is from Mark chapter twelve. You can turn with

me Mark chapter twelve, verse twenty eight to thirty. Okay,

I'll be reading from the amplified version, and it says

in version it then one of the scribes. Okay, who

are the scribes? They are actually experts of the law,

very modern day lawyer.

Okay.

They came up and listen to them, arguing and noticing

that Jesus answered them well, asked him. They asked him

which commandment is first and most important of all? Jesus

answered them, the first and most important one is this,

cheer old Israel. The Lord our God is one lord.

Averse study and you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart and with all your soul, or

you know, in our version says with all your life,

love the Lord your God with all your life, with

all your mind, okay, with all your thoughts, with all

your understanding, and with all your strength. Okay, what would

cause us to continue? You know we talked about.

Because you know.

Our life is ahead of us. How do we continue

being disciples of Christ without g moving up?

Halfway?

Is this very important thing? That is to love the

Lord our God?

All right?

Without love ring him, we have nothing. Without loving him,

we do not have anything. And love ring God. Okay,

Loving God is what motivates us to continue to follow him.

And to serve others? All right? Verse thirty one? What

do I mean by that? Verse thy one?

It continues on It says, this is the second So

first you have to love the Lord. Second is you

shall unselfishly love your neighbor as yourself. There is no

other commandment greater than this, okay, Uh, to love the Lord,

to serve him, to follow him, but to also love others,

to continue to put each others need above ours, you know,

to continue to put our neighbors need above hours and

and it.

Takes a lot of sacrifice to do that.

Loving God itself is a sacrifice because you have been For.

Example, you have to be here on a Sunday morning.

Uh, You have to be there for homes h and

those are just very it's it's a commitment.

Uh.

And and you know the god Lot, the Lot commanded

us to you know, be where his house is as well.

But loving others is the she would just sacrifice why

because the other person is not like this?

Uh?

They can irritate you to the max, like why but

then to continue to love them?

Uh?

Like you know the the girl I talked to told

you about who founded the Small Girl in a campus

you know very well, a friend step her guard right

for for me? For me, I would have just turned

away and you know, called out fire from heaven and burn.

But she first out and prayed for her.

Until that girl experienced a healing. It takes a true

disciple of Christ to be able to do that, uh,

you know, to deny ourself and to follow Christ, to

take up the cross and follow Christ. You know the

word from verse thirty one. I just want to bring

our attention to that. You know the understanding of these

words itself. Uh, the word love you is to agape, right,

So it's actually not so much of an emotion like

emotional I love you, you love me, be a happy family, right,

But it is of doing things for the benefit of

another person. That is, having an unselfish concern for another

and a willingness to seek the best for another. When

we loved the lot, we feel him, so we do

not want to do things that will break his heart.

Uh.

And what is his heart? I can't cover everything, but

his heart is written here uh and it takes us

to read it to know his heart and and and

not break it. But for the other person is to

put their needs above above ours, to care for them.

And you know, I'm gonna just close really soon with this.

That is the point on self denial.

Okay.

So one what will continue to help us keep going

to be a disciple of Christ is to love God

and love for others. And then the second point is

to deny ourselves. All right, matth deal, you can turn

with me to Max til chapter sixteen, verse twenty four

to twenty six. If your there can say yay, wow,

you guys are first, Okay, it says yeah from the

New Living Translation version. Then Jesus said to his disciples,

if anyone desires to come after me, if anyone desires

to follow me, let him deny himself and take up

his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save

his life, well, what lose it? But whoever loses his

life for my sake will find it. For what profit

is it to a man if he gains the whole

world and loses his own soul? Or what will a

man give in exchange for his soul?

Okay?

So, the conditions of being a disciple of Christ, it's

not easy, all right, to be a true followers, To

be true disciples of Christ, we have to be denying

ourselves before we can put the needs of others before us.

We need to put Christ first in our lives and

to leave according to what He wants us to do.

And denying ourself, denying our rights before the Lord. It

is not easy at all. And you know what way

it looked like to deny ourselves. It looks like a

daughter's surrender to the Lord. Okay, And I might just

go through a few points on what we could do.

Okay.

The first point it would mean when we say that

we are denying ourselves picking up.

The cross and follow Jesus. The first one.

In situations that we have all the right to take

a revenge someone has wrong you, someone who have I

don't know burned your house down, stolen your car, you know,

burn down your tesla. The first tie, you know, denying Christ,

denying ourselves, not denying Christ, denying ourself, is that we

need to give out our right to take revenge. I'm

not too sure how they will speak to different ones

of you, but you know you have been hurted, deeply

wounded in a lot of ways, and you know very

well that you didn't do anything wrong, and sometimes in

spite you want to do something back to the person.

Right.

But God is reminding us from Romans chapter verse nineteen

to twenty. You can turn with me to this and say, yeah,

dear friends, this is from the New Living translation. Never

take revenge. Wow, leave that to the righteous anger of God.

For the scriptures say I will take revenge. I will

pay them back, says the Lord in stead, mhm, love

your enemy, Feed your enemies who are hungry. Uh, and

if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In

doing this, you heap burning coals of shame on their heads,

like what.

She did for the girl with the bone condition. Uh.

She could verry right, you know, stand up and speak up.

I'm not to say that, you know, to to just

give in to everything, but she felt clearly the Lord

is telling her to love, to pray, to fast until

a healing takes place. So you know, if they are thirsty,

give them a drink to drink, if not them, if

your enemy is thirsty, you know.

That is the first one. Second point.

Is to give up the right to spend money. However,

we please, my dear Chapter six, verse nineteen to twenty one.

What does it say here? Don't store up treasures here

on earth where moths eat them and russ destroys them,

and when thieves break in, and still store your treasures

in heaven, where moths and rusts cannot destroy and thieves

do not break in. And still wherever your treasure is,

that the desires of your heart will be. Also where's

your desire at today? I just say here money. It

might be just maybe not desiring money, but what what

you desire? That it becomes your priority. And you make

a lot of decisions based on your priority in life.

So you know, God is perhaps you know, challenging us.

Whereas it's time to readjust a priority, so that God

and Christ shall be our first priority. And and I

you know, I know passes even you know your church

plank coordinator for a while.

And I know.

His priority and first and foremost is loving God. I

know it's not his wife as well, but it's loving

the lot. Being a student at the part of time,

because we managed to see him grow up from his

students days. Right, his priority wasn't being a student first.

His priority was being a child of God first. And

he can be where he's at today because of the

decisions of denying, of reprioritizing.

So that you know, he can honor the lot.

Okay, yeah, it looks like I can't cover everything else,

but I'm going close with different.

I'm going to close right now.

I'm going to invite extreme up on stage and all

just close us by praying for us. And you know it,

disciplesh it itself is a life long journey. To be

a disciple of Christ takes us following him every single day,

so that every single day, as we follow him, we

will be more and more like him asself. We will

reflect his character, will reflect who it is so that

the whole world will know. Right, we need pray this

morning from Hybacco that the glory of the Lord will

feel the earth as the water covers the sea. And

the only way you know, for the world to be

able to see the glory of the Lord and experience

him is most of the time to us first Gods,

we are their first encounter. Ah, it'll try encountering us.

We could either propel them to know Jesus more or

to push them. Okay, the other peer is either a

propel or to push them away further and further from

the Lord because of who we are. So today, you know,

I just want to pray for every single one of us.

Here, believers.

Hey guys, you know, just trying to challenge you to

step out from where you're at and and you know

there's so much more of what you could be and

grow into because you choose and you decide to be

planted in the Lord, to be planted in his house

and allowing his his his church to continue to cost

you to grow. And today you know, if you are

here and you know you just desire God, I say

to love the Lord, your God.

Uh.

That is the first and foremost commandment. And today Lord,

I just want to heed your commandment to love you

with all that I have am and with all that

I have. And second is to love our neighbor as ourself.

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