The Call to Imitate | Elder Rosalind

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

And where we will be going into a text this

morning is a letter written to the church in corerint.

All right, so can you guess? Okay, why do people

write letters?

Do you know? Why? To communicate? Yeah?

Exactly to communicate? And what will you usually communicate to

the other person? Things that happen you will write?

Right? So? Now what is the modern version of letters? Today?

What'sapp email? What else? Video called telegram? What else? Letters? Oh?

You still write letters?

Up?

Brother?

Right?

Let us do where to yourself? Now us? Dear me?

I like your hair today? Future me? No, seriously, who

do you write to? Oh?

Nothing like old school, right brother? Nothing like writing the

heart you know x o x Oh?

Yeah, a stick a sticker, traditional way it works, all right?

And where is she by the.

Way right now? She's in Thailand? Okay, and the letter

actually reaches Thailand. Yeah, the letter actually reaches Thailand. Oh

so the letter that you write to her?

Oh even more special? Wow?

Okay, guys take note, no husband's husband's husbands Okay. Nothing

like a handwritten note, deliver it by hand, stealed with

the kiss saying are you telling I can can't care?

I like ah, I love handwritten okay, And some people write,

you know, because usually you want to write things of

the heart.

True.

You don't just you know, take pen and paper just

to write about Yeah, the weather is hot, you know,

yesterday I couldn't sleep. You know, it's for you know,

you don't write about things that doesn't matter. You usually

write about things that is deep in your heart. Right,

And so there is a there's a reason for why

Paul was writing this letter to the church in Corinth.

Now we have to understand the scenario at the time.

What was happening in a church in Corinth? Would you

know anyone you know? Have you read through the letter

sort of ish?

Can I remember? Lah? Yeah? Yeah, I know.

But now my we do a bit a Bible study today.

But can you give me a guess whether is this

a strong word that lets meaning there's a lot of

teaching insight or do you think this will be like, oh, yeah,

how are you I help?

You're nice? You know? And yeah?

Is it is it like a nicey letter or is

it like a who hot letter?

What do you think?

Sorry, it's a hot one? Yeah, And how would you

feel if you receive a hot letter from someone burnard

honestly speaking, right, who likes to receive hot letters?

Right?

But do you know that that's why the letter was

written because there was an important message to be given,

Okay at that time. Let me give you like a

basic scenario or what was the Church of Corinth Light

at the time.

So it's it's in a like a big city like.

Imun right, in the city center, right, And what happens

usually in a city center.

Business? Money? What else? Sorry? Food?

There was also food issue addressed, administration, Yeah, yeah, traffic jam, summer,

gathering of people, yeah, gathering of people.

And what else do you normally see in big.

Cities parties high rise but let's kind of go into

that parties.

Clubs, they're hear clubs, yeah, clubs.

Parties, vices, areas of prostitution, drugs maybe right, gangster.

You will see that more in cities, correct, if you.

Go outskirts into the villages or we call it tampongs,

less of that.

Why is it heavy? Ever thought about why cities concentrate

all these things? More people exactly? That's it? More sinful people? Morrison?

Does that make sense? Right? And so this is exactly.

What was happening in Corrin the city itself. Now, imagine

if you were a church that is planted in a

city like that, what do you think will happen to

the church?

Division? Why? Why would you say division? Right? Right?

So there's differences of people coming all right. So again

with cities, you will have a concentration of different nationalities

like here, you're beautiful, I love that. You know, there's

so many tongues and tribes represented here. You're not just one, right,

there's many of you. And so when there is a

melting pot of different types of people, there's bound to

be division.

Right.

Don't have to say the whole world, are right, just

married couple, husband and wife also two different people already, right,

And if you're not careful, it's very easy to get divided.

Okay.

So Paul was trying to address this issue of vision

in the church. It's addressing issues to a church that

is living in a pagan society.

Does that sound familiar?

All our churches this day we are living in the

pagan world, correct, and especially unfound This is like a

perfect analogy because you're right in the city center of Ko,

right where all these things are happening, and it's very

easy to let all these things.

Creep into the church.

So we've got to be very careful about what's happening

within the church. And Paul was trying to address this,

and there was strife. You know what strife means?

Strife? What is strife?

Fighting, quarreling, arguments, disagreements, all of it right.

Within the Church of God.

So I think we need to sit up and pay

attention to what God wants to speak to us.

Okay, okay, so let's open our bibles.

I would encourage you to take out your bibles first, Corriningians,

and I want to give you the context. Okay, So

let's go with chapter one, all right. Chapter one, I

will read from verse eleven verse okay, so there is

some verses there, but I want us to I want

to give you a bit more context.

Okay, So can you show me your bibles? Okay? Good?

For the rest of us, we highly encourage you to

bring a physical Bible to church, right so that we

can study deeper. I know, now the phone is very convenient, okay,

but you know, we don't live by convenience.

We live by convictions.

And one of the things that we want to pass

on to the church is that when you go to church,

bring your Bible out. Okay, canna, all right, So encouragement, encouragement, Okay,

So let's read from eleven.

Okay.

So this is Paul writing to the church in Korein.

And this is what it says verse eleven onwards. For

it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren,

that those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

So contentions mean strife, right, disagreements Verse tive. Now I

say this that each of you says I am of Paul,

or I am of Apaulus, or I am of Sepherst

or I am of Christ. Well, the one who say

I am of Christ? When all right?

When already, just like the one who says I'm a

child of God. Okay, that's it.

When already verse thirteen he says, this is Christ divided.

Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in

the name of Paul? And then Paul goes on to

say that he thank God that he didn't baptize many

people except Christmas and guyas all right, And in verse

seventeen he says, is for Christ did not send me

to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom

or words, lest the cross of Christ should.

Be made of no effect. Amen. So you know that

he was talking about this.

He was addressing right from the get go that there

was division in the church. So he recognized, do you

know that when there's division in the church means there's

one person who is more popular than that person that's

more popular than that person. Yes, okay, So he's trying

to tell the church, Hey, guys, this is not a

popularity contest. He's not talking about what this leader is

the one that preaches the best. Oh, this one can

sing the best. You know, that's a human mindset, right.

And when you're talking about comparing to others, we are

not here to compare.

You to each other. Right. And so he's addressing.

This is acknowledging that as humans, it looks like we

like to take sights. Okay, okay, we like to take sides.

Do we agree we will take sides one? Okay, that's

a human thing. He's acknowledging that now. But you see,

even as much as he acknowledges that human nature always

like to follow something, you know, Okay, can I ask

you one question just now? When you were thinking about

resembling someone?

Right, did you?

Resembling outwardly is one thing, but resembling inwardly is another thing.

Right? Who do you think you are following? Oh? Yo,

Jesus last?

Okay, this is a church last, So you'll give me

very standard answers. Okay, never mind, let us go deeper.

A bit now. Although we all like to say.

That Jesus is the answer, and he is the answer,

but there is something that I wanted to you know,

and it.

Was quite bold of Paul to say this.

Right, Let's go now to chapter four, chapter four, and

this is a really important chapter. Okay, So I want

to read from worse one first. Okay, Worse one first.

Before that, okay, don't worry about the slights. Let's read

from First Corinthians, Chapter four, Verse one. So let a

man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards

of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in

stewards that one be found faithful. But with me, it

is a very small thing that I should be judged

by you or by a human court. In fact, I

do not even judge myself for I know of nothing

against myself. Yet I am not justified by this. But

he who judges me is the Who's the one who

judges us? Who the Lord? The Lord judges us. Amen,

So that's what he says in verse five. Therefore, judge

nothing before the time until the lod comes, who will

both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and

reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise

will come from God.

Verse six.

Now this thing's brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself

and Apolus for your six, that you may learn in

us not to think beyond what is written, that none

of you may be puffed up on behalf of one

against the other. For who makes you differ from another?

And what do you have that you did not receive?

Think about this church?

What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did indeed receive it, why did you

both as if you had not received it?

Verse eight.

You are already fool. You are already rich. Hallelojah Amen.

Just as our brother Saka said earlier, you already have healing.

You are already rich.

Why do we walk as though we don't right and

this is Paul talking to the church. You have reigned

as kings without us, and indeed I wish you did reign,

that we might also reign with you. And this is

what he says in verse nine, for I think that

God has displayed us the apostles last. Okay, so he's

talking about himself now that he is the last. As

men condemned to death? Whoa do you consider yourself condemned

to death?

Nope?

Okay, Well, we have been made a spectacle to the world.

Have you been made a spectacle to the world?

No?

Right, we are all reputable people here, right, we're all religious,

We're all honorable here.

Hmm, looks like we are above the apostle. Paul both

to angels and two men. Verse ten.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise

in Christ.

We are weak, but you are strong.

You are distinguished, oh Church, But we are dishonored. This

is Paul talking to the church. You know, he's telling

the church in Corinois. You are honored, you are distinguished,

But we are the fools. We don't have wisdom because

you're very wise, right Verse eleven, to the very present

hour world, we both hunger and teast. Anyone hungry and

thirsty here, Yes, because you forgot to eat breakfast, not

because you didn't have food.

Right.

And we are poorly cloth and beaten and homeless, anyone

beaten and homeless? Year Nope, And we labor working with

our own hands. Being revolved, we bless being persecuted, We

endure being defined, We entreat.

We have been made.

As the filth of the world, the offscoring of all things. Now, okay,

and this is what I want to focus on Verse fourteen.

I do not write these things to shame you, Exampang,

But as my beloved children, I warn you, for though

you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do.

Not have many fathers.

For in Christ Jesus, I've begotten you through the Gospel.

Therefore I urge you. Therefore, I urge you. Therefore, I

urge you.

Imitate me, imitate me.

For this reason, I've sent Timathy to you, who is

my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will

remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach

everywhere in every church. Amen, do you see that Paul

recognizes that there is a danger in following men right?

Correct?

Now?

We established that.

Initially, he said, some people following paul, some people following

a Paulus, some surfers, some say Christ. When you use

christ name er, you trump everyone already, right, But then

he's saying why would he? Now just a few letters down,

a few sentences down, he says, now now.

You imitate me? Wow? Yo? Right from a person who says.

Hey, don't follow honest leaders, now he's saying, imitate me.

Have you ever thought about that?

Where would he have this boldness to say this? Now,

there's a few things we can learn from this. Number one,

you know that we are all influenced by anything and everything.

Agree easily.

You think about the way you dress, You think about

the next purchase that you'll make on shopping Lasada, You

think about what you want to present, how you want

to present yourself to the world. Do you know that

it's really not quite original? We like to think that, yeah,

I'm uni. Yes, you know God has made you fearfully

and wonderfully. But in that sense, we all take after

a DNA of something or someone, and that's why there's

viral hecks everywhere.

Right.

You know, there's something called the ice bucket challenge. Have

you heard of this, not all of you have, but

to let all of us know. So there was a

trending thing on social media at one point during COVID,

right I think I was during COVID time, and so

they poured ice water themselves and do you know how

many people follow that?

But I must ask how many of you did that?

How many of you did that? Okay? One one? Why

did you do it? It was a trend.

Then you have to do it right? And what did

you learn from that experience?

Oh? And what else did you learn from the experience

after doing it? You don't feel like you have accomplished anything. Hah?

Whoa hashtag that?

Because you know what, seventeen million people followed that, seventeen

million people. And I wondered whether after they did it

right and then they posted themselves on social media, whether

it's like whoa, I think I'm part of the gang.

I'm part of the popular one right, I'm trending. Okay,

But if you do further reflection, you got two things right.

Number one, you got very cool. Number two, you're like,

what did it profit me?

No? Did it profit you or not? Other than maybe

your friends say, oh yeah, cool, cool learned?

Will you do it again? Interesting, what would you do

it for them?

For a game? Okay, for a game?

Now, you see Paul, when he was writing to them,

he recognized one thing, and this is my first point,

that we are all imitating something or someone, whether you

like it or not. Yeah, so he's saying, if you

are already going to be imitating, and we cannot say

we don't imitate others on you know it's true. You

just look at the way you live your life, the

way you make decisions. You are following after someone. And

genetically many of us take after our parents. Yes, we

inherently we already inherit their looks. Some of us inherit

their voices, right, some of us inherit their you know,

behaviors of making sure everything needs to be in a

particular way. You know, maybe saka. You know who do

you think you resemble that their partner? Like everything needs

to be proper? And is that Mom or dad? Mom?

Straight away? Right, mom?

Because Mama was like that. So many things that we

are and who we are we inherit from someone, whether

you like it or not. Do you know there are

many married couples that we walk through right, and they say, oh,

I'll never be like my mom. When they became a mom,

they're exactly like your mom. Saynila will never be like

my mom. You cannot help it, right, it's within you.

So but Paul is saying to the church, and this

is what's happening right in the church, that there will

be many influences from the outside. And that's why he says,

you know, in COVID, you know, in COVID, the church

seeing became like a buffet.

Oh, yes, so someone knows what I'm talking about.

Why I say it's a buffet, It's because you couldn't

attain your local church, right, and then it became like, oh,

I can be international church. I can today. I like

this pasta from America. I will tune into him next

week and pasta in Australia or maybe next week another

pastor in the Indonatia. Oh, some revival happening there. So

it became a bufface spread for Christians, right, And do

you think it's healthy to it buffet every Sunday church?

No, but Christians do that.

We feed ourselves in a buffat spread like whatever I like,

I take la okay, And you know, and and that

is a very unhealthy trend that we've seen post COVID

and so actually right post COVID and we are still

seeing some remnants of that repercussion is that many people

have stopped attending church. So you are the few brethren

to give yourself, you know, a clap for still believing

that it's necessary for us to meet together this way.

Do you know this is of the Lord.

This is in scripture that do not neglect the meeting

of together in a local church because this is a body.

A body cannot be dismembered. You know, when the church,

the local church has many members and they're all over

the world. How to function as a body because as

a local church, you need lakes to walk, you need

hands to play the bass, you need voices to sing,

and it needs to be in one body.

Can you imagine his team is playing in Where's open

g tower? Right, because he's like, yeah, I like better.

This play is not so nice, you know, you know,

And then yeah, then the worship leader says, oh, I

prefer to be in Suban because that's you know, where

my home is. There's no worship band, guys, you're everywhere,

spread it out, and there's a reason why God loves

the local church because you know, this is where you

exercise your faith, right, you know your faith needs to

be exercise. It's not just like oh I think I

worship God. There was a great worship on TV. You know,

you watch all your worship services on TV. Last time great.

You know that's it, and then you leave away like yeah,

today's a great day. But the expression of a true

living church is one that is filled with real people

who was coming together and working.

Things out as a local church. Right.

And so that's why we are going around planting local churches.

That's why we believe in xts, right, and we believe

that there should be more. Okay, turn to your neighbor

and say, ay, you are you gotta plan a church

or yo? Scary right?

I know you're don' want to ask each other. You

don't ask me. I don't ask you. I know, purposely

and purposely, but you know, truly, you know.

I the reason why Pastor started ex church so many

years ago, it is because he believes that there is

potential in everyone. Everyone who walks into our church. There

is a potential in you. And that's why we spend

so much time in discipleship because we want to sow, right,

and every time we sow into one person, its seeds, right.

And you know this analogy very well. Paul uses this

a lot. Jesus uses it a lot. He's like, you know,

the soul goes out to sow, sow seeds, right, and

then when it's good ground, boom, good ground. Do you

know if I ask you this question, how many apples

can one seed be birthed from?

How many apples? You don't know?

It's unlimited, right, because once you have a seed you planted,

and he has a tree, how many apples?

Many? And guess what?

The cycle continues, right, the apple comes down and he's

got seats somewhere and it's growing round and wrong.

And that's why. That's how the church grew.

It was a seed that Jesus planted in his toll disciples.

And now how many believers there's about two million reported

to Bilin reported people who are who are Christians or

Catholics in the world.

It didn't just start.

Jesus only spent three years, right, and the rest of it,

the rest of the disciples had to do the work.

They became the hands and feet that spread the gospel.

And that's why as a church. This year, we are

really really coming back again to basics and answering the

question of Jesus who said go and make disciples. He

didn't just say go and make converts. He didn't just

go and make decisions. You know, sometimes we celebrate decisions

like how many people accepted the Lord?

Yay, three, that's it.

But we want to go beyond that, not just decisions,

but disciples, people who will really take after the call, right,

And that's what discipleship. And you've heard a lot of

messages on discipleship, and that's why he says that you

can have many instructors. You know, thousands of instructors. There's

so many teachings out there at church. And one of

the things that Paul was cautioning against the church in

Corinth was false doctrine. Not everyone who is a pastor

is preaching according to the Word of God. Can I

say that, honestly, just because you have a title pastor, elder, bishop, whatever,

does not mean that they are preaching the word of God.

And how would you know that? How would you know that? Church?

You have to test yourself law right, you yourself will

have to be the one who will search to the

scriptures and tests and see whether whatever you're listening to

make sense or not, just as minjo when she saw

the viral tracking the heck trending, right, we.

Don't pause to us ourselves to say, where is this

sision coming from Bible? God? Sayer Paul Ice bucket water

on yourself. No, no, just joking.

I know you can take it right, You're good friends,

That's how you can do this. So you know, so

you have to think about it, right, And Paul is saying,

I started this church, I fathered the church. Do you

know that in the church that can only be one

father biologically also the same right, you have one mom,

one dad biologically right, they gave birth to you, and

so we take after the DNA. And spiritually there's many

things that is physical that God uses to teach us

in the spiritual realm Okay, so we believe that, you know,

in one church that needs to be either a Moses,

a voice, a father, or a Paul. And so for me,

I'm proud to say that extras you know, I know

who my spiritual dad is, Spasif Kenneth. My spiritual mom

is Spasasandra, and so I know that you know this

verse verse quarantines eleven, verse one.

Many people have issues with this, yeah.

Because everyone can say, ah, yeah, why should I follow

men or women because they are fellow fallible meaning they

also make mistakes, meaning they also get cranky and angry,

meaning they are not perfect. By the way, did you

remember what you read of Paul? He says I'm poor,

I'm beaten, I'm nearing death, and he says, imitate me.

How many of you will say yes to imitating Paul?

Hm hmm.

You know I always ask this question, right, do you

know who Paul was before he became Paul?

What was his name before that?

So?

What did Saul do per secure Christian? Right?

He went around approving death of Christians, putting them in jail. Now,

if suddenly Paul came into this church and he's like

the pastor of the church, would you accept him?

He was a Christian murderer.

He put the brothers and sisters in Christ in jail?

Would you accept him or that? So this is a

hard check, right, because human maybe we will not accept

Paul as our pastor want more imitate him? Please, lah,

you know he deserves to be in jail.

But Paul is so bold to tell.

Them imitate me, just as I imitate christ Imen Verse

two says this, Now I commend you because you remember

me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I

delivered them to you. Amen, he's talking about delivering traditions.

How many of us like traditions here? No, we are

a culture. We are living in a culture where we're like,

that's the old school. Hey, come on, lad, you never

follow social media? Is it why you still do this thing?

Ah?

Why you still honor people? And no, it's not cool

to honor people. It's not cool anymore.

Right, It's not cool to greet people.

It's not cool to I don't know, be tolerant of others,

because not the sentiment that's going on is me my right.

And when they use my right.

As the basis of all the existence, they're saying, you

have no rights. I have all my rights. That's exactly

what's happening right now in this world.

Yep.

It's like I can have all my rights, but you

don't tell me about what your rights.

I don't care. It's about me, right, And so this

is what we are battling today. Church.

I want to be very real to you, you know,

in the church on a Sunday, you have a forty

minute message, you know I will take it to one hour.

I give you extra sixteen minutes.

But then for the rest of the twenty four hours

Monday to Saturday.

You are being influenced by everyone else.

So who you think will win the world or the

word of God? You think about it serious one who

will win? Because they say, right, you are the books

you read, you are the friends you keep, and now

I want to add on to say, you are the

social media that you watch. Oh real, ah real, very real,

because you can spend one hour in the world of

God and then you spend I don't know how many

hours more, at least five hours a day on social media.

Cry on, I actually tie myself like, oh today Saturday,

right o, freema, no work. That's why what is good

for you? Okay, keeps your mind from being idle. But

then when you're idle on a Saturday, you're so you know,

I was talking to my colleague because last weekend was

where that right, so long weekend and she says, yeah,

I suddenly had no appointments that we can not busy

at all. And she's like, I'm scrolling I'm scrolling until

I'm so sick of it five hours, you know, she's

like sick of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she literally got sick of it.

And then she said, by Monday, I need to go

out and meet people, meet real people. Okay, and this

is a young working and that okay, she's my colleague.

So you know, but we.

Allow things to influence us, and then I don't know

what's happening in your brains at the time. You will

then process all these things that you allow in and

then you will come out in the way of your life,

the way you decide things, the way you choose to

spend time, the way you think.

Right.

And so this is something for us to remember that

we all imitate. So I will say that number one,

we all imitate, and this is what Let's go to

the next one.

So imitate it means to follow. We're all following.

Someone or something. Let's go to the next one, whether

we know it or not. And this is what psychology says,

Let's go to the next one. Psychology actually says that

people tend to mimic the body language of those they

like or admire. This is called mirroring, right, So you know,

social behaviors is oh, I need to go back to

social behavior.

Thank you for giving me that bullet so that I

can shuit you know.

But it's true, right we when we cease, okay, if

we see someone that we respect and admire and whatever

that they do, we tend to follow more correct.

It's normal. White.

If it's someone stranger, you'll probably be like no. But

even then, can I tell you? There has been social

experiments done where you know, everybody walks into the lift right,

and usually you want to live. Then you turn to

face the doma right. So there's one unsuspecting person, which

is the experiment. Everyone else knows the game what's happening,

so they will all walk into the lift and they're

just facing the back wall. No serious, you laugh, everybody. No,

Within a few seconds, this person, when he saw that, right,

he's also straight to then like that. And this has

been done many times because we're all conditioned to follow

social people. Why what do you think will happen to you?

If you are still facing the right way and everyone

is like facing.

You, you feel you're wrong exactly. You feel that you're wrong,

that you're the odd one out, so you try to

fit in, right, and.

That's what Christians are.

You're supposed to stand out, You're supposed to be the

awkward one, because we still uphold all traditions like integrity,

like honesty, like curt the sea. These are traditions which

Paul passes on from the church. And he says, like faithfulness,

how man, how easy it is for people to be

unfaithful these days marriages are broken left and center because

they are like, it's not about keeping faithfulness when I'm

so unhappy, because what was more important than my happiness?

And so traditions like faithfulness is gone out of the window, loyalty, faith,

And we must guard this church that the moment you

let faith leave the church, this is no longer a church.

This is just a club. Happy club, got okay club?

You know, you come and you sing some nice songs,

you know, you hear some good words, and then you

leave without any transformation.

This is not a club. The church is not a club.

The church is a discipleship tool used by God to

make us more like Christ. And therefore, do not be

surprised if you find yourself rubbing wrongly against each other.

It's okay, because God's gonna use that to rub you

the right way.

It's gonna reveal.

Things in your heart that you're like, Oh, you know,

I don't lie. I don't lie, you don't lie.

But then patience is on, like you know, the incident

of your accident. Who likes that? Nobody likes that, But

it's used by God redeem by lot. Do you know

that God.

Never intends to hurt his children, but he allows it

because that's the place where he teaches us.

He teaches us. Amen.

And so we must be careful to think about not

so much of whether we are imitating someone or not,

because I give you the fact is we are all

imitating someone. The more important question to ask is who

are you imitating?

Who is it? Okay?

And the thing is when we think about who are

we imitating, we need to have that person in mind.

Many of us like to say, hey, I emitate Christ.

Loerd okay, Christ?

Yes, good good? And then so example is uh Leona.

She's a child of God who.

Follows Christ man Luiah, Praise the Lord. That's why Joe

married her right woman of God. Wonderful. Hey, By the way,

I can I give a clap? You know this woman

got so many kids, you know, and still playing a horn. Okay, hello,

young people. You know, no excuse okay, no excuse for

you not to be able to do something with your

hands and your feet, you know. And she you know this,

This woman can dance like crazy okay ah for the Lord.

Dance like crazy for the Lord. And she doesn't let

age stop her. She doesn't let her back her knee

problems stop her. And it's real, right because we also

got paid lage, Lah, but never you don't have to

accept it right, just claim it La, right. So so

if she claims right that Christ is her lord, you know,

and she imitates Christ, and yet for example, La, every

Sunday now she's coming twenty minutes late. She's coming thirty

minutes late, right, And so if we just have Christ,

do you think Christ will suddenly one Sunday? Right?

Whoom?

Stop the service, you know, and speak in a thundering

voice to Leona. I said, Leona, what's happening here? Highly

likely not happening, right, And that's why God, in his

wisdom will put someone in the church, and it's called

the leadership. Right, someone will livingly come to her and say, Eleona,

you okay, not I know, Liza every Sunday, you're late

thirty minutes, La, can we talk about it? And this

is the place of discipleshit right, because you can say

I'm discipled by Christ, but really are you going to

you know, do you really account to Christ that this

is the right behavior or not?

You won't receive it.

So clearly, I know you can read the word, but honestly,

who's gonna ask you? Actually are you reading the world

or not?

Are you doing your quiet time?

And hey, you know by the time you sometimes you

can miss doing a quiet time for treatments. And you

say you're imitating Christ, you know. And then it takes

that one person who's bold enough to step into your

life and say, hey girl.

Let's talk about this.

You say that you want to follow Christ, but you

know Christ always go and pray no, and you know

he's reading the scripture yourself, like, are you imitating him

or not? And I'm gonna be using the word of

God to shine as a mirror. Leona, Look, this is Christ.

And you say you want to imitate Christ? Right, So

where can we start? And that's why the discipleship relationship

is so import and Paul is saying that we all

need an earthly person for us to imitate. Okay, and

this is what discipleship is all about. And I like

to define accountability like this. Let's go to the next one.

Accountability is simply this. We all don't quite like this word. Okay, okay,

I'm running out of time. Letter speed up. It says,

you know, accountability is someone who will truly help us

to see ourselves as we are measured against the world

of God. That's what's happening right there, right when someone

comes up to Leona and says, Hey, Leona, I think

we need to talk about this. This is accountability happening

that I see against the world of God, that we

are not measuring up, that they're not measuring up.

One. It's just saying that God, I want to measure up.

I want to because you know, God says, be holy,

just as I'm holy.

What God? This is impossible.

Yes, with man, it's impossible, but we got all things

are possible.

So it's not us. It's not us.

It's not like your earthly leaders are better than you know.

We are just there as a save God, as a mirror,

as a mirror to that person. So I want to

encourage you, partners in church that if you don't have

someone that you are like, I want to imitate this person,

then it's good to us ourselves, because it's what discipleship.

Who did the twelve disciples imitate Jesus when he was

on his earthly he had his earthly form right, very clear,

very tangible. And so after that Paul had a clear disciple.

Who was Paul's disciple? Sorry, timur t there's another son?

You know? Who's the other son, the spiritual son? No?

Who not Titus?

Ah, Yes, he's also in the one of the books

of the Bible. Okay, So you know he had very

clear sons, and it is to his sons that he

passes on this right. And you know what he said

to Timothy, be an example to the other believers in what.

This.

Do not despise your youth, young people, but be an

example to the believers in firstly your what.

It's funny because he talked about faith later.

On, but the first thing that he mentioned to others

is can you follow the way they speak or not?

So you think about your own speech right now? Am

I talking more like my discipler, my pastor? Do I

talk more like them?

Meaning?

Do I talk language of faith or do I talk

language of facts more? That is an important thing, you know,

if you say that I'm following someone and for me,

the life of Passes, Candeth and Sandra is a life

of faith, and I want to imitate that. It's not

like I'm imitating their favorite food or where they like

to go for holidays. I want to imitate faith, their

faith that says when we come to a road block,

when we don't have then faith says, let's go because

if God is for us, who can be against us?

Do you know what I'm saying. So it's these kind

of things that.

We continue to lead others in in discipleship is talking

about what are we imitating and what are we passing on?

So just to wrap up everything, first one is to

acknowledge that we imitate. Second one is to say who

do we imitate? Are we imitating the right influences in

our lives? And there needs to be a clear one person, Okay,

especially in the family of faith, there needs to be

one clear person to say, Yep, this is a person

that I want to imitate. Her generosity, her generosity to

the brethren, her generosity with her time to others. That's

something that I want to emit and that's how we

grow church, you know. And that's where we take responsibility

because it's very easy to say I want to be

all like Christ. But hello, which area maybe for some

of us, is in the area of our words. Do

you know that when Christ speaks right, it's always edifying

and edifying, meaning it either encourages the church, builds the

church up, or it will rebuke what is wrong so

that you will come to the right way. And that's

how we want to think about imitating Christ. And there

are many leaders amongst us that we will look to, oh,

you know, and that's why sometimes right as leaders, there's

additional responsibility. We have to God what we say. We

don't say things whatever we will, we will just say

things that God, this is what you want me to say.

It's not so much what I feel about it, but

what is in the Word of God. I want to

just preach scripture, not just what I think what I feel.

Right just now, when Selena was saying, I say, hey, yeah,

we need to have more young people here, right, but

she's say, you know, one thing she said was, ah,

there's not many of you musically inclined. Okay, sorry, yeah,

maybe that's a fact. But the fact is the faith

part is saying God called from nothing into something. Can

we speak for and declare that there will be talents

raised up? You know, you know I'm talking real things now. No,

it's not just like yeah, let's just run church like normal.

It's really saying I have the faith to call out

to say there will be new musicians, there will be

new talents.

You know who gave the talents to us? It's God

because we then we looked at Him and say, God

help us.

We're all too left feet, cannot dance one you're all

too right hand, cannot play the guitar one by.

It's okay. God made the hands and the feet, and

he's the one who can.

Say yes, even the most unlikely person can be used

by God if you're willing to be used by God.

Amen. Amen.

So let's learn to think about what who are we imitating?

And what are we imitating? Is it just fashion sense?

But are we imitating faith, obedience, sacrifice, and love.

Amen.

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God bless