Disciple first | Pr Matthew Chang

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Let's start with a scripture. Okay. Now let's turn with

me to look chapter fourteen. Okay, look chapter fourteen. I'm

going to read here from verse twenty five to verse

thirty three. Okay, look chapter fourteen, verse twenty five to

verse thirty three. Okay. Now it says here, now great

crowds accompany him, which is Jesus. Again, there's a lot

of big crowd that accompanied Jesus, and Jesus turned and

said to them, if anyone comes to me and does

not hate his own father and mother, and wife, and children,

and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,

he cannot be my disciples. Start a very strong radio. Okay.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after

me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring

to build a tower does not first sit down and

counter course whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise,

when he has laid the foundation and is not able

to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying,

this man began to build and was not able to finish,

Or what King going out to encounter another king in war,

will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is

able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against

him with twenty thousand, And if not, while the other

is yet a great way of he sends a delegation

and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one

of you who does not renounce all that he has

cannot be mine disciples? Wow? So how wants to become

disciples of Jesus Christ? So we ask everyone the theme

for this year is what's the theme for this year?

Disciples first? Okay? The theme for this year is disciple first.

And it's a very very powerful theme. I really believe

it's the theme of the year for all of us,

and some of you might not. I'm not sure what

is disciple? Am I a disciple? Or is he or

she or disciple? What does it include? What does it entail?

Is it relevant nowadays? You know? And how does it

affect my life? How does that affect me as a professional,

as working a down, as a parent, as a teacher,

you know, as a student? How does it affect So

all this we're gonna discuss a bit. But before I do,

I want to read a letter to you guys. Okay,

and this is imagine with me that Jesus came to earth.

You know, you read the earlier, earlier passage right about

Jesus stating down the requirement for his disciples. If you cannot,

if you want to be my disciples, you need to begin.

You need to hate your own father and mother, your children,

and your brothers and sisters and all this as well,

and even renounce your own life. Well, such a job requirement.

You know, if you put the job requirement on job

Street or LinkedIn, how many people will apply for this job?

We'll be like, whoa. This is one of a kind

job requirement, isn't it. But let's look at some of

the job status or qualifications or some of the disciples.

And imagine with me that Jesus hired a professional hr

to assess his team. Okay, all his team members, to

assess his team and to give their analysis whether they

are experience worthy, they have leadership managerial competency so that

they are able to take on the challenges of the

ministry of Jesus. And so this consultancy grew replied to

Jesus saying, here, pay attention, dear sir, thank you for

submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked

for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them

have now taken our battery of tests, and we have

not only run the results through our computer including CHGBT,

but also arrange personal interviews for each of them with

our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. The profiles are all

of all tests are included, and you will want to

study each of them carefully. As part of our service,

we make some general commands for your guidance, much as

an auditor will include some general statements. This is given

as a result of staff consultation and comes without any

additional fiefs and goodness. Okay, it is the staff opinion

that most of your nominees are lacking in background. They

are lacking in education qualifications and any kind of vocational

competency and aptitude for the type of enterprise and endeavors

and services that you are undertaking. They do not have

the team concept. We will recommend that you continue your

search for personnels they have more experience in the fields

of managerial ability and proven capability. Simon Peter is emotionally

unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely

not qualities of leadership. He's hardly even mentioned. The two brothers,

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interests

above company loyalty and have trouble gathering uh what do

you call it, uh, trouble gathering buy ins from the

people around them. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude and extreme

pessimism that were placed and undermine any morale that you

would establish. We feel that it is our duty to

tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater

Jerusalem for being UH and the Better Building and the

Bureau for previously involving in black market text collection. James,

the son of l feers Stadius, definitely have radical leanings

and they both registered a high score on the Many

Depressive scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential.

He is a man of ability and resourcefulness. He meets

people and he meets people well, has a keen business

in mind and has contacts in high places. He is

extremely highly motivated, extremely ambitious and very responsible. We recommend

Judas Iscarried as your financial controller and right hand man.

All of the other profiles are self explanatory. We wish

you every success in your new venture. So do you

think this new if there's a new startup, do you

think this is off to a great beginning? Huh? So

if you take a consultancy to review all this, the

all starting that Jesus as assembled, I think many people

who have a lot of adubtion, isnt it? You know, people

with highly any backgrounds, people have not gone through any

training much as well, people with a lot of severe

lags and deficiencies in many areas, skill wise and character wise,

isn't isn't it? Skill wise and character wise? You know,

you think that Jesus will hire the people who can

rarely the people who can speak very well, who are

at least be good in managing finances, not really good.

But the people who are actually most competent are the

ones okay, that one person okay, are the ones that

actually misunderstands Jesus and what Jesus was about, isn't it?

So con'tspect to the question what does being a disciple

or what does the theme disciple first actually mean? Okay? Now,

the thing the world I wanted to start with, the

with with the with the with the first statement is

that the theme these are to be disciple first means

you are first a disciple. Okay, The theme disciple first

means that we are first a disciple. What do I

mean by that? Means that before you are a business owner,

before you are a professional, before you are a student,

before you are a parent, you are first a disciple.

Now why is that important? Because that radically changes the

way you engage the world and the way you behave

in this world as well. You are firstly a disciple

before you are a parent. You are firstly a disciple

before you are a business owner. Okay, let me give

you a story to illustrate this the most. Okay. I

have a friend who recently asked me, Okay, he came

to me with a business problem. He feels that his

call partner okay, that started this business together are not

equally compensated. The partner has sixty percent and he has

forty percent. But he feels that he has contributed way, way, way,

much more in terms of bringing in the sales and

doing all the different things as well, and he feels

that without him, without him, the company will not stand.

In fact, the company has done so well that they

are not He's not even taken a salary. Some of

you will probably understand what I'm talking about as well,

because when you start to measure, you feel a sense

of hey, it's not fair. I did so much, isn't it.

I did so much, I brought in so much, and

I'm not even taking a salary. But yet I feel

you are slighting me. You don't give me the credit.

And sometimes when I talk to you in front of people,

you even dismiss me as being younger or anything as well.

How many of you know what I'm talking about. People

don't give me the respect that I I deal with

when I do so much and I owe so much.

And because of that, he has certain grants taking the

lower portion of the shareholding. And he's been praying very hard,

very hard, God, what is your will? And he thought

for a while that, you know, God's pen was. God's

way of helping him was to lay down his case,

do a PowerPoint presentation of how he should be. He

should be entitled for maybe at least forty nine percent

instead of forty percent. Fight for it, you know, because

that's just right. I thought about it for a while

and I went back home. I didn't say much and

I was praying for our brother here and I was

doing my threatmill Okay, not very fast, okay, I'm not

like not like, I not benning, no, okay, No, I'm

always in my personal lowers and not my personal better.

Just joking. But you inspire me. And maybe I should

do a marathon someday, Okay, Okay, you inspire me. Okay,

I should take I should take some guy some tips

from you. I was doing some working and then it's

dawn upon me, and I was like wow, And then

you know what was the thing that dawn upon me

is that firstly, you are not the owner. It's God speaking.

It's like God do on thing to me and me

speaking to him, and the work God wants to release

to him was that, firstly, you got forty percent, not

because you discussed or negotiated with the person. You got

forty percent because I gave you forty percent, okay. And

if you cannot see that, then there is your own failure. Okay.

And I put you there and I gave you forty

percent because I entrusted you to be the stupid and

so this is very powerful and all right. When I

talk for for a while and I realized that this

is a very radical change because if you are not

a disciple first, but you are a business partner first,

you will fight for what is yours, that is your

main agenda, and that will consume you so much. You

feel so unfairly treated that all you pray about is

about how to be fairly treated and what to get

what's yours, because that's your mindset, because you are a

business owner first, prayer not but God has to speak

to me, to him to remind it. No, you are

a steward first, and that requires a lot of humility.

You know. It's not what written on the paper, is

not what people say who you are, it's not even

what you assume to be. But it's according to the

scripture and according to God's red Ma word releads to you.

Do you believe that you are there as a steward?

And if you are a steward, how should you pray?

And what should you pray for? You? I mean, it's

totally different and all. And when he started to realize that,

he realized that I've been fighting the wrong fight. I

should not be even fighting for that, you know, I

should be just be contented my purpose. I'm not there

to get forty to fifty sixty seventy eighty percent. My

goal is not there to get one hundred percent or

whatever to do. Everybody wants to have more because of that.

When you actually you can become more rich. Man say,

God is able to make you rich anywhere, whether it's

in this business, that business, or any business. God is

able to do that. But God places you there to

see whether will you still carry the identity that you

are first a disciple. It's very powerful or not. It

changes to agenda, you know, it changes the way you

interact with your partner. No, it changes the fights that

you engage in. You know, and a lot of us

are engaged in the war and that we are not

meant to fight because you carry the wrong identity. Say,

for example, you are a spouse and you fight. You

start when you find you start to take out this

ledger called receipts. You know you talking about receipts. You know, receipts.

How many of you like to keep receipts? How many

husbands and wives here open up your book or receipts?

Some of you like, remember I don't remember, I know

I know couples who actually put that on your note

on your iPhone and your notes are why she did

this to me? She said this, sir, She always asked me,

when did I did that? So now I'm keeping a legend.

You know when she said this, she said this, she

said this, he said this, She said this is Oh see,

I'm really so I am. I am treating you the

way that you that you treated me this day, this

day before. So we take out receipts and then you

compare seats. Okay, oh four and back four fan back.

You'll fight because you know I was hurt and you're hurt,

and everybody fighting for moral high ground. Okay, So if

you are, if that is your first identity, you will

fight for what is fair, for what you feel you

are entitled to, well, what was wrong against you. But

if instead of being a husband first, instead of being

a wife first, you say I'm a disciple first, what

does the disciple do? A disciple is always about the

disciples' agenda. When she sees me, does she see me

as a husband or does she see me as a

disciple verse. I'm not saying that, oh you have a disciple, No,

but she sees the quality that does not come from

a from a husband who was hurt, she sees a

person who leaves a birth and beyond his emotions and

his predicaments, a husband makes a mistake, or the household

goes into a financial debt. Does he sees that she

sees someone who is defeated and compressed under the way

of financial burden, or a disciple first who goes and

soaks himself in the world of God in prayer and

say that, honey, this is what God has spoken. Does

she see just an husband or that she sees a disciple?

I'm saying the same for the otherwise, does your husband

see a woman? Ladies, you go through different challenges, biological

challenges that we don't go through as men, age and things.

You know, have taught me something through my wife as well.

Sometimes you just listen. Okay, actually most of the time

you just listen as well. And my my children a

lot better already. I see is my wife like that?

Actually says Mommy, are you okay? Then I look at

my children or are You're faster than me? You know,

faster to cool down the temperature, And I'm like, well

that was fast, so now I'm smarter. They send my

children first, okay, So oh, I know. I got Mammy

angry and said, send my children for cool down the temperature. Okay.

Then I thought, okay, it's like that. Do they see

but it's not easy? I know, I know, but you know,

we cannot fully comprehend. But we know there are challenges

that you guys go through as well. Okay, But at

the same time, do your spouse and do your children

see uh, just a mom or do they see a

disciple of first when they look at a working professional,

when they are the way they behave, the way they work,

how you invest your time. When your colleagues look at

you consider you, do they see someone who is just

fighting for positions trying to you know, hey, there's only

one CF or role, okay, five people competing for it,

you know, and some of them you know, don't want to.

You know, they have their own lunch crew. What'sapp within?

You know, within within or WhatsApp? You know, they talk

different things, They back by and talk and stuff. You know,

do you get involved in that? You know, if you

go there feeling that you are one of the people

climbing up and you carry their identity. People can smell

it from a farm and people know. But if you

are there, you know that I'm thankful. I'm just like Joseph.

Whether you put me in Portifast house or whether you

put me in the jail, or whether you put me

in the court of the king, I'm still the same person.

I'm a disciple of Christ. You get me right, I'm

a discipled crime. Doesn't matter where you climb. I don't

have to. I don't have to climbs the Lord promotes.

You get mean right, It will never define who I am.

And even if I'm before the King, I would say

that it is not I who interpret the dream. I

would even say it is not even you who had

the dream. It is God who gives you the dream,

and God gives the interpretation. You get what I'm saying.

You know our identity is always found in Christ first.

So when you think about disciples first, what is it

about that we are first disciples? Can you repeat after me,

to have disciples first? We are first? We are disciples first.

That's the most important thing in this theme. You know

that you are first disciples more than anything else. And

when you start to embrace that, when you start to

really understand this is the most important picture for our lives.

Then you start to realize this theme, this this vision

that God has given from passing it to us, starts

to have profound daily implication for us, profound daily implication

every one of us. You start to act and behave

and respond differently. You know, I love the testimony, It's

like wow. You know, sometimes like hey, in this season,

I want to lose weight, and this is I want

to break a p our personal record. And sometimes you

do that because you imagine yourself to be someone that

you want to be. You get what I mean, right,

You want to be like that, and then you try

to aim for there. You try to do that, and

you don't realize it that we are actually we are

projecting and identity that we want to reach. We're projecting

and then we hope we do all this, we reach

there as well, and that will guide you and that

will influence you and change your behaviors, and you start

to have goals. You start to have distractions. I'm not

saying they're bad, you know, they're just distractions, you know,

very very very very powerful distractions in our life that

you end up doing things that maybe good but not godly.

You know what I'm saying. I'm saying, now, yeah, good,

but not Godle. You know it cannot be this year

another year where you did good stuff but you did

not do godly stuff. You know what I'm saying, No,

good but not Godlee. Okay, everybody will here's off I Okay,

let's proceeded the next Okay, now, let's turn to Matthew,

chapter four, verse eighteen. Matthew Chapter four, verse eighteen. It's

gonna read a scripture here, Matthew four chap Verse eighteen.

It reads here, while walking by the sea of Galilee,

Jesus saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew,

his brother, casting a net into the sea, for there

were fishermen, and he said to them, follow me, and

I will make you fishes of men. Immediately they left

their nets and followed him. And going on from there,

he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee,

and On his brother in the boat with Sebi their father,

many in their nets, and he called them. Immediately they

left the boat and their father and followed him. So

how does that link to the earlier scripture when Jesus

calls them to hate your mother, to hate your brother. Okay,

hate is not the kind of hate. Okay. Stace is

where sometimes there are limitations in translations. Okay, hate is

not just about purposely actively hating with a murderous intent. Okay,

oh no, that's not what the Bible is proposing. For

What it means is that the first identity you carry

and the thing that occupies your heart and your affection

should not be your parents, should not be even your children,

should not be even your siblings, but should be for

Christ first. Okay, should be always be for Christs first.

You know why because if you continue, if you straight

become a parent first, you straight away become a spouse first,

you straight away become a son's first. You will realize

you will elect the guidelines to be the ideal parent, son, spouse.

You need to be that God imagined for you, for

that got imagined for you to be. You get mean right,

you try to build on your own. God says that

I am the first. I created all this what they

call it institutions in your life, marriage institution, a family institution,

a workplace institution, all this in stitution I created for you.

And so you need to look for me first and

seek me first, so that all these things will have

a solid foundation. But the other thing that is very

important about identity, about disciple first is that it has

to dominate our past, our presence, and our future. Doesn't matter.

You were a fisherman before, it doesn't matter. You were

a text collector before, doesn't matter. You have you know,

you have, you know, problems with your temper and still

having temper problems. Okay, Jesus is able to use you.

God is able to use you. Some of you, you

may be going through very difficult challenges. Some of you

you feel like, I don't even know how God can

use me when I can't even you know, cause my

accounts to balance. You know, my expenses are way higher

than my revenues. You know, I can't even get my

family in order. You know. It's like, Wow, God, how

can God use me? Maybe you don't know about my

past before God can use you. Okay, it doesn't matter.

But that's why I started with that letter, isn't it.

God wants to make a disciple out of everyone, regardless

of their past. Okay. Presently, God wants to make use

of them so that they can transform them who they are,

so that he can take them into the future as

well to become disciples. Next one, when you see a disciple,

what is the first thing that you observe? What is

the thing that distinguished and distinguishes a Christian disciple? Is

it because they go to a church? Is it because

of the social media? Because of the Spotify playlist? They

listened to? What distinguishes a disciple? Okay, let's look at here.

I'm turning to John chapter eighteen, verse fifteen to verse seventeen.

John chapter eighteen, verse fifteen to verse seventeen. This is

when Jesus was being arrested. Okay, So Simon Peter followed Jesus,

and so did another disciple, since that disciple was known

to the high priest. He entered with Jesus into the

courtyard of the high Priest, but Peter stood outside at

the door. So the other disciple, who was known to

the high priest, went out and spoke to the seven

girl who kept watching at the door, and brought Peter in.

The severn girl at the door said to Peter, you

also are not one of the men's disciples, are you?

And Jesus says, I am not. Now how did this

girl or this lady, this servant girl began to become

suspicious of Peter that he was a disciple. Why. The

answer is very simple, because everywhere Jesus was, Peter was there.

Isn't it everywhere Jesus went there. When they when they're

you or Peter was there, they know that you are

a disciple because you are always with Jesus, simples, not

because you cross your way and stuff like. You are

always with Jesus. Okay, wherever master is, I'm going with

Peter saying so much, Lord, I will wherever you go.

Out tell us where you are going and we will

follow you as well. Then Peter, then then Jesus, Look,

are you sure you will follow me away? I tell

you before the cross you with denime three times, you know,

but Jesus said, is that? And I was like, good,

But you have no idea where you are. So one

of the first important things we have to understand is

that we to be decided to become true disciples, we

have to be where God is. You really want to

be with Jesus. It's not about no the titles, you know,

do you want to be with Jesus? You know? There

are many things that they take away attention, you know,

you know, you know when when we said disciples first

are it's not you know, identity is one okay, and

then need one. But the second thing is your desire. Okay.

You are disciples because of your desires, your desire to

be one, to be with Jesus in the morning, in

the evening, before you sleep. You are a disciple. There

are many Christians nowadays, including myself. Sometimes I say that,

and we say we are. But our desires are not

compatible with the calling. You know I'm saying our decip

our desires are not compatible with the calling. You cannot

call someone that lady will not call Peter or suspect

he is a disciple unless she saw him everywhere. If

people look at us, what do we what do they observe?

What do they see like? What? What do we desire

the most? I tell you give you an example. Morning,

when we wake up, what do we check first? Is

our phone? Is it the blue light or the light

of God? Right we wake up? What the blue lights

and ring first? Before the light of God comes in

and before even the sun comes up. But the blue

light comes out first. I tell you the blue light

gets your attention, isn't it? Before you sleep? Was the

light that closes on you. Is it the light of

God or the blue light? Also put it beside your

bed side. Also, it's true, isn't it? These are not

bad things, you know, good things, but not godly things.

You know, what do we desire the most? Are we

always with Jesus? Okay, so keep it simple, okay, to

be disciple? First? What does it take for us to

always be with Jesus? Even Jesus he himself all the

time when he was doing so much ministry, found time

to be with the Father. It's not just about the

I mean, prayers and everything are just all the expressions

of responding to God. But to be with God. You

know what I'm saying, I'm trying to take out some

of these elements of worship and word because sometimes we

think that it's just reading the word. It is just

you know, putting songs. You know, it's about being with

God and to be with a person that you need

to remove everything else. You know. That's why Jesus say,

I say, hey, if you cannot love you know Me

more than your parents, and everything else are means that

if it cannot be with Me more then with your parents,

you cannot be my disciples. Why on people wouldn't recognize you? You know,

people know that you are this person and person's son

because you are always your parents. He isn't there? He said?

Whose child is there? Always follow their father and mother

and what not. There's the child. People know that as

well as the name, because they're always with them. Sometimes

you see a child running around on the way their

parents don't with their friends and stuff like that. Whose

kid is that? There? Were ask you whose child is there?

You know s sometimes you run to the god shopping more. Hey,

this child running everywhere up the escalator. Then this child

lost you know why because distracted by everything lost their parents.

Whose child is this? Have to go ahead find out? Oh?

This parents child? Oh you are a Christian? Oh? I

didn't know that? Queer true or not? Do you want

to be? Do we want to be? Is there what

Jesus caused to be? Disciples? Have to call this Jesus?

Is there your disciples are? He said? Are you? Oh? No,

wonder la he got lost lot in the world. You're true?

You know say what I'm saying. You know we are

so lost in the world, so destructed, I myself included.

I honestly tell you I'm not bols in it. I amself.

So there are times that we have to take a

stock tank. There are times that we have to I

believe the word is too fast, you know, to really

take a take a time too fast, fast food and

not upcoming. We have a fast and upcoming fast and prayer.

Food is one. But I feel that fasting. Social media

and your phone is actually more powerful nowadays, really really

more powerful. How many of you really believe that? Just

delete your YouTube or your Instagram? Try it. I tried

first thing. For a while. I realized that, oh my goodness,

I realized this phone dominates so much of my time.

You know, I really struggle, you know, I honestly, I

will tell you I really struggle. I was like, wow,

I don't go online social media so much then, but

I consume a lot of information. I like to watch this,

watch there, you know. Some the other day I caught

myself how to survive for eighty days without food? You know,

I don't know, why would that good? I started it

from there. I started looking at all how to prepare

camping food to survive for two weeks? You know, like,

how does that help me? You know? Really? You know, like, oh,

I started learning about Pemmican and all this, you know, like,

how does that help me? You get me right? It's

taken me so far off, you know. But then I

realized that, how does that make me look like a

disciple of Christ? Am I a disciple first or not?

So I'm not like blasting you guys. You know, I'm

speaking to myself. Sometimes you really have to like, wow,

just take a stock take, just put everything aside. Some

of us. We just need to redeem our mornings and

our nights, you know, redeem our morning and our nights,

you know, like how Jesus did, how Jesus did in

the morning, and do it in the night as well,

reading our morning and our nights before you see that,

like you said, God, I'm just gonna walk even I

don't feel like reading the Bible. I'm just gonna gonna walk.

And I'm just going to be with you, like how

Peter was with Jesus. Give me a right. I want

to be with you, you know. If I want to run,

I want to be with Christ. Sometimes you don't even

have to put music one to know. Sometimes it's harder

to put without music, you know, when you're running, you

know nothing and he said, Oh, I'm just running and

I look around and I just mean I got my

thought bare naked. We got whow why is God down on?

Need to me? And then the night before you watch

any video before you go and Netflix and binge, you know,

and chill, you know, whatever you want to read the

word of God, put your phone outside the room, use

the traditional alarm cock. Okay, even my son Yea there said,

can I have a phone? And why I need it

for alarm clock? No? You don't, No, you don't like

what kind of excuse is therefore you know you don't

put in my room. You know you don't. You don't

need that, he says, So put traditional one and redeem

the time. Redeem the times that we can be with

the Father. Sometimes you don't know what to pray. That's great.

Actually that's the best thing. You know. Sometimes we don't

know what to pray. That's the best time to spend

me God. You know why this when realize that God

can finally speak to you, It's true. Now we don't

want to pray it. That's when you need to be

there because finally God can speak to you. I'm done talking,

I'm done on whining and complaining about my situation and stuff,

and God, what do you want to say? Then God

releases the word that boom. You never even thought that

comes to your mind. Wow. I give you an example.

I was, okay, I wind a bit here and there

as well. I was mistering to some guy, and I

go frustrated. Over the years, you know, we invest I

invested so much into this person, and the person meets

a challenging time in his life and he just caves

in and just shuts everything out. And I was upset

because you know that this person couldn't overcome. So I

became a bit self righteous and stuf like that. When

I walk and I was like, ah, you know, upset,

and God, can you speak to this guy? Can you

do all this and stuff like that? And they did

this for quite a few months, you know. So after

that's one day and when I walk, I'm so ran

out ready, I don't know what to say anymore. God,

I just walk. Then finally I heard a word. If

you care for him, then then you pray for him. Now, oh,

I don't know where you know. See, if you really

care for him so much, why didn't you pray for him? Said?

But I did pray, did you No, you didn't pray.

You were complaining about him. You're complaining about him, and

you were complaining about me. Oh, sometimes you are not

praying to God. We're complaining about God. And all that

makes me realize that, oh my prayers are not without faily.

When you pray without faithor its complaining. You know, did

you realize that when you pray without faith it's complaining.

I'm not saying there's no time that you cannot bring

up petitions to God, but when you pray without faith

and without submission, that it's really complaining, you know, again

and again and again and again, and God just say okay, okay, okay,

you can go for days, weeks and months. Finally your start,

your stop, and you're done. Radio And God said that

are you going to really pray right now? By faith?

So when I heard that, right, I was like, whoa,

why did you pray for it? And it's not just

about praying, you know. I realized that I I, you know,

I try to do so much of my own strength,

all my own understanding, and all my own you know, perception.

And I realized that God, right now I'm gonna do

by faith. I'm going to pray out of true compassion

for our brother. He said, God, I don't know how,

but you know, and I really want the best for him,

that he comes out from where he is and find

your strength and your comfort in life. And I pray,

and for a long time, I've never experienced the peace

in dealing with such a problem before. I just released that. Wow.

So sometimes you think that person ministry. Actually I'm the

one who needs ministry. You need the one who needs ministry.

And from there I realized that I've done my part ready.

I'm not there to solve every person's problem in church,

you know. I really I'm not there to solve everybody's

problem in church. I can't. Some people have to run

their rounds. Some people will go around. Some people left

church and come back again. And I met people people

do two three times, money left, come back, disappointed, left again,

come back, come back. Some people are after that are

they just say thank you for being there with me.

We are not responsible to save people, you know, but

we are being there just to do whatever we can.

Like sometimes we're not responded to convert. Now, we're just

there so that we are the perfect vessel, the perfect

blood vessel. To supply the support needed to keep them alive,

and they turn to God. Amen everybody okay, so fa okay,

and the last one as I do a close here, okay.

To be disciples for means we need to abide in God. Okay.

John Chapter fifteen, verse one to verse five. As a

draw to a close. Here, I am the true vine,

and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in

me that does not bare fruit he takes away, and

every branch that does not bear fruit, he proves that

it may be that it may bear more fruit. Already

you are clean because of the world that I've spoken

to you. Abide in me and I in you. As

the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides

in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides

in me and I in him. He is that bears

much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

So oh gee, that's not the verse by company anyway.

So if a disciple wants to be with her father, okay,

a disciple will always want to be with that. This

the Master, always with Jesus. If you are always with Jesus.

The next thing that happens that you will hear what

he speaks, what he says. You desire to know and

to listen. And that means that if we are disciples first,

the thing that dominates our mind and our thoughts, our meditation,

our direction should always be the Word of God. I

know sometimes, I know some people have said before that,

but sometimes when I read, I don't understand. I tell

you a lot of things I really I don't understand

as well. When I started out reading the Bible, some

people say, oh, pas man, you got annoying thing to

a reader. No, no, no, actually I don't. The key to

understanding the Bible is to read many times. A lot

of people read one time and they give up. The

key to reading the Bible and understanding the Bible more

get not complete. More is to read many times. You

don't just read one time, you read many times. Give

your tip. For example, when you read through a shorter scripture,

read the chapter one time, two times, three times, I

would say at least three times. Read it many times.

The first time just to get familiar. The second time

you look for the details. The third time you look

for what is the meaning for it? By the fourth

time you memorize it. The key is to read many times.

You actually have to labor a bit into it. One

so much so that when you read already when you

go out, it dominates your mind. Wan, and know, you

really dominate your mind. It permits your mind so much,

or it affects the way you see your spouse, your children.

You know, it's just it just washes you before you sleep.

You read the Word of God as well, so that

when you sleep, it's the Word of God that remains

in your mind, in your rest, into your dream as well.

You can mean right, keep reading and reading and reading,

and until so much that you say that God is

your Word. I hidden in my heart. I've hidden in

my heart. No disciple will just say because I want

to do this. I want to know the disciple is

the one who abides in Christ. And to abide in Christ,

you must have the Word of God. Actually, I have

a you know, maybe I'll just do this very quickly.

That's the last part here, and I give you a

mystery getting this, this very powerful mystery. Turn with me

to the book of John. This is this is I

didn't plan for this, but I'll just do this very quickly.

The importance of the world of God. Okay to me.

To John chapter you guys, okay, just give me one moment. Okay, John,

Chapter twenty. Next time I will have the time. I

will expand this a bit more. John, Chapter twenty. I

want to read this and you play cost attention. This

is about Jesus having died. Ready he was buried, and

this is the third day, he says, now the first

day of the week. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb

early while it was still dark, and saw that the

stone had been taken away from the tomb. First person,

we have Mary, okay, and what did she say? And

what do you say? That she saw that the stone

had been taken away from the tomb. Imagine with me

that this is the stone, this is the tomb entrance

and geeah, I could if I could use three volunteers,

can come up quickly, come up quickly. Three volunteer trip

on it very very quickly. It's best to illustrate. It's

best to a three volunteers, one lady, one Mary, and

one John and one Peter one Mary. I need one Mary. Okay,

that's better, Okay, okay Mary first, okay, stand behind Mary first, emagine,

this is the tumor made. This is the tumor. Okay,

So Mary, you won aren't you here? Hear ony and

pretend that you are merry and you saw the tomb

was empty, and you react that people have taken away

my lord. No loud, and you run back talking, tell

her this is what happened. We're going to walk like that. Mary,

what spontaneous? Sir? Okay? So what did she said? She said,

they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb,

and we do not know where they have laid him.

So now we have Peter and John. Okay, who is Peter?

Who to be Peter? You'll be Peter. Okay, you'll be John. Okay,

so the two of you will hurt from Mary. So

you ran, Peter, You run a bit first, you run here,

you run not to hear these people run like penguin.

But then he says, he says, Peter therefore went out

and the other disciple, which is John, and we're going

to the tomb. So they started, they say they both

ran together. You also run, okay, they ran together? Okay, okay,

But then the detail says, and the other disciple outran Peter.

You outran You are faster. You ran to here. You

stop there, you stop there, Okay, you stop there. Okay.

So John was even faster than Peter outran him. Ah,

because John is what the disciple of whom Jesus love,

or I'm the one that Jesus loves. So I must

run faster, you know, I must see the Lord. You

know I was there. Okay, But then what they is

he say? And John when he was there in verse five,

stooping down and looking in. Okay, this is the You

didn't go in, but you bend down and you start

to look, and you observe, like as like an FBI ag,

like a SEUSI crimesy investigation. You observe and you look

and you look. Okay, and what did he say? Yeah,

he saw the linen clothes lying there, yet he did

not go in. See how the interesting thing that this

the detailer Mary came here from Afar ran away. John

ran here very near, bend down, He saw what was inside,

but didn't go in. Then what did what did some

Peter do? Then Simon Peter came following him. Finally you

catch up. But you went into the tomb. You actually

went inside the tomb okay. So okay, Now you see

in this scene there are three positions. You know Mary,

you see John, and you see Peter. Three positions, three

different levels of faith. Very powerful, very very very very powerful.

So what did he What did Peter? When he went

inside he saw the linen clothes lying there and the handkerchief.

They had been around. So he didn't just see the narn. Course,

you saw the handkerchief another detail, okay, lying there they

had been around. His head said, oh, not just that

had always been with Jesus, not lying it was separate,

but falled together. He didn't just see an object. He

saw intention and action. There was something happening inside, not

something happened, something happening, something transpired. He saw the real

things that happened there. Okay, uh, foll together. Then after

that he said, he say in verse, then the other disciple, John,

after you saw Peter went in, you went in, You

go in there. He saw another person going in there,

he went in. Okay, And when he saw he finally believed,

he finally fought it. So before I go into the

next part, so you see a very interesting thing. The

next time, I expand there are people who are like Mary,

who come here and they see outside the stone has

been rolled away. There's clearly a miracle, but because of

a lack of faith. I'm not saying that she has faith,

but faith not fully grown to the maturity too, and

concluded wrongly. You know that people had taken Jesus away.

You can see the same event but conclude wrongly. Very scary,

isn't it. You can see the same thing but conclude wrongly,

you know. But then there are believers who come here

who see Jesus but are willing to look into all

the details and not go near, but not go in,

but still don't believe or not believe in what Jesus said.

And then there is Peter. He was the one who

denied Jesus street time, sir, okay, He's the one who

doesn't have to write up, but yet was willing to

enter in all the way here, and he been here

and he saw all the details because he was hungry.

He was hungry for forgiveness. He was hungry for reconciliation.

That even me who was wrong, Lord, I still want

to be with you. I'm not asking for reward. I

just want to be with you. He's my Lord. He

realized that he realized after his denial how much he

loved Jesus. And sometimes it's sometimes Jesus. Sometimes God takes

us in a different partner. It's not what we give.

Sometimes what we felt that we realized how much we

needed God, and he realized that he needed He saw everything.

But yet his understanding was also not perfect. Why in

verse nine, it says here for as yet they did

not know the scripture that he must rise again from

the ten all three when was there, But yet none

of them had the perfect knowledge and perfect faith. Why

because they did not have scripture in your mind? That

is why Jesus said, blessed is he those who have

not seen, but yeah, have believed. Thank you very much.

Foreper why am I saying here? What I'm saying here

is this. You see, there is a greater miracle that

can happen in our life if we understand the scripture,

greater than visiting the toment of Jesus. You know, because

you can go all the way there inside there and

have not fully believed. You know, you see what I'm saying.

There are levels to it now, there are things that

there are levels to our faith. Wan. You know, a

lot of people asking God, show me a sign. God

can give you an empty tomb. Mind, you still don't

believe it. Tell you because you know why, because you

have not hidden the Word of God in your heart.

You have not known the scripture. There is why after this, Okay,

Peter was not fully even reviving, or he's still went fishing.

You know, Peter still were fishing up the after seeing everything.

He's still don't believe he went fishing. You know, when

going fishing or going back to your old passa means

while the old sin, he went back to his all

former self. There was not a full transformation until Jesus

has to come to restore him. When Jesus fully restore him,

what happened to Peter do? He studied the scripture. He

studied the scripture so much that he knew that Judus

must be replaced. That's how we know. So if to

be a true disciple, you must know the Word. You

cannot know all wor work because in the world, it's

the faith to believe all that you need to be.

You know what I'm saying. God can give you America,

but without the Word, you will not grow out to

that fullness of faith and understanding. You know what I'm

saying now will be ended up like Mary. We will

end up like John and not like Peter. But not

fullness of faith? How is it that all of us

here can believe without seeing that tomb faith? But there's

greater ones must come from the word of God. Amen.

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

information on our church, please visit church org. We are

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

week is going to be a good week, a hit

for you. God bless