Disciple First | Elder Rosalind Ang

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Imitate. Don't your neighbors say imitate? Imitate? Okay, Now, the

portion of scripture that I'll be sharing with you this

morning is taken from a letter. And you know Paul

wrote most of the letters in the New Testament, right,

and so this was a letter written to a church

in Corinth. All right, A see you maybe this is

a letter written to the church in US. Okay, so

those days they had scrolls and that's why you know

that's a letter written there. End.

What is the reason for writing letters?

Can you tell me to send a message? Okay, to

send a message, to send greetings even right? Right? And

maybe today young people you're like, huh, send letter? What

is that? What is a letter? Most of you are

probably more familiar with texts? Right? Your shot?

Sms? No, no, nobody used SMS?

Now right? Use what's that? Whatever? So you use that

as a way to send a message. Right, So that's

the key of it. Now, there is a reason why

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. So you know

what prompts you to send a message to someone? Usually

what prompts you to send a message to someone to

tell them something. What do you want to tell that person?

Usually something important? And what causes what triggered that response? Yeah?

So you know, for example, right, everything in your life

is going normal at right, You're going to world, everything's

fine as usual, and then suddenly you heard something. Oh right.

Usually is triggered by you heard something and then now

it triggers a response from you.

You can either ignore what.

You heard or you address it, right, and then that's

what causes you to want to write a letter. All right.

So this is exactly the same thing in the Book

of Corinth, the Letter to the Corinthians, because Paul, as

you know, that he was planting different churches and suddenly

he heard something that was going on there right now, okay,

so that prompted him to write a letter. Now from

your knowledge, right, can I ask you? Do you think

this was a nice letter?

Hey?

No?

Nice letter? Why? Ah? That's right? God issues, So do

you like receiving a letter from let's say, past the Kenna?

Dear Benny, I hope this letter finds you. Well, the

reason I'm writing is because I heard, right, Oh, that's

something you're like Alama, you know when for those of

you working people, right, something your boss asked you to

go into their office. Ah, that kind of feeling that

that kind of feel like, Alama, what do I do wrong? Right?

Straight aways? Like what do I do wrong? Okay? That's

human like human Okay. Anyway, so you are right. So

what Paul hurt was there was actually strife going on

in the church. You know what strife is. Okay, since

you'll know, tell me what is it? Ah. There were arguments,

they were this agreements. Hey do you know that this?

Agreements can happen in the church everywhere? Right, So let's

not be this illusion to think that I thought church

people are very good and nice and right. I thought

everything should be okay, right, you love Jesus. I love Jesus.

Then why I got problem? People are the problem? Okay?

So Nick is speaking from experience. Okay, people are the problem.

So next time, right, he never say hi to you?

Are you better pray for Nick? Okay? Ah, because he's

thinking people are the problem. People are the problem. But anyways,

so it's true. So there is strife and there is contention,

and I love that the Bible is so real. Don't

you think so it doesn't just gloss over and say,

oh yeah, because you love Jesus and everything is perfect now.

In fact, what you will find in the Bible, and

I encourage all of us to be students of the Bible,

is that you will see again and again, not a

lot of human issues, a lot of this obedience, a

lot of heartbreak and tears.

Moms, You'll know, right, all these things you keep inside

your heart.

Nobody knows what right outward Leah, you carry your strong

but inside your Oh but I like that how God

is so real with us and he doesn't hide all

these things, right, So let us not hide from the

Lord the truth that he wants to speak to us. Amen.

And so so there was strive and there was also division.

Now one of the great things that is very, very

unhealthy for a church is when they begin to have division. Okay,

And how division happens is remember just not a ship

with your pastor cannot he had one vision? Right now,

what happens if there's someone else who comes with another vision.

So there is dual vision, and dual vision always causes division.

Much English class, all did they Okay? So division happening

in the church, And I think if you've been a

Christian for a long while, this is not new to you.

You probably experience it yourself or you know it's it's

something that you've heard. But this is not good and

this should not happen in the Church of God, right,

you know, God, God's heart is always unity, but man's

heart is always me.

So me and unity is very very different.

Okay, me is me myself and I unity is us.

So it takes a lot of dying to ourselves to

make us happen. All Right, relationships as well, right, you know,

if you both want to be individuals, then I say, hey,

you need to be in a couple relationship because you

will always have fights, you will always have your own way.

And then that's why divide a la right. I mean

I've heard sad cases where marriages, you know, after twenty years,

after the kids all grew up, ready, right, then they're like, oh,

I don't know who you are, you don't know who

I am. Let's go on separate ways. So said, And

it's true. I so heard this couple in their sixties

one thing to get divorce. I'm like, hello, please lie,

just finish the race line and be with the Lord. Okay. Anyways, anyways,

so what was happened in the church. Happening in a

church in Corinda was suddenly there was this great teacher

and his name is A Paulus Rapaulos, and and he's

a very learned man, very gifted teacher. And then the

church started to have a following. Oh no, I followed

this one, you know, Oh no, I follow this leader.

And so you will notice what Paul addresses. It's like,

what is this.

I hear in the church?

Right, some of you are saying I follow Paul and

some of you saying I follow a Paulus. But in

fact he says that you know, I planted the church,

Apollos watered it. It is God who gave the increasing man.

So we should all be looking to God instead of

looking to men. And that's a danger. That's a danger, okay.

So something that we are very careful about all the time.

All Right, So he was trying to address strive and

division in the church. But you see, even as he's addressing, right,

and there is this danger, danger of following men. Yes,

because Nick Sayridia, men are the problem. Right, So I'm

gonna keep on anchoring on that. Okay, Humans are the problem.

So if humans are the problem, and Paul acknowledges this,

he addressed this in that letter. The whole letter was

just talking about that. And yet he dares to say,

and let's read this. If you have your bibles, I

encourage you to open your bible to the Book of Corinthians,

the first Letter to Corinthians.

And I want to read.

From chapter four first. All right, let's go to chapter

four all right, and we will be reading from Versus

fourteen in say of fifteen. Read from Versus fourteen onwards. Okay,

so are you there? Are you there? Okay? All right,

let's go verse fourteen. This is Paul writing to the church.

I do not write these things to shame you, 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 have

begotten you through the Gospel. Therefore I urge you imitate me.

For this reason, I've sent Timothy 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.

Now do you know this that Paul already recognized that

humans are the problem. He says, io y, suddenly there

is division in the church. Why you say you follow

this one? Follow apaulos follow Paul follows cephast and say, no,

I follow Christ or everybody it can all be really

in their life. You say, I follow Christ? Right, So, so,

but that is it's true. I think it's really a

hard check, a hard check of what is it that

we are truly truly after, what is our motivation? Right? So,

but you see, even in the midst of this, Paul

now writes to the church and say, hey, hello, you

can have many YouTube teachers. Okay, very good one. You

can listen to great messages, all kinds of preaching. And

we we know this since COVID, Right, since COVID, everybody

at home noely God church. So while the whole world's

preaching became my buffet, and Christians became buffet goers on

Sundays because they say, ah, today I want to try

this church. I sample, oh, very good worship were maybe

I try next one another church? Right, And so we

went around tasting and sampling the buffet of good Christian messages.

After that, and what you recognize is post COVID, right,

many many Christians decided, I want the buffet. Hello, and

many of you like the buffe. Not you like the buffey?

Oh no, I love buffey okay everything, I love it.

And but the thing is that eat buffe every Sunday,

you know, not the best right, very fattening. Lah. And

what happens is people started, you know, I read this

article recently and it's quite alarming. You know, this is

doing a statistics in America and they say, now forty

million Americans have considered themselves d churched d E c

h U R c h ed d churched, meaning they

have stopped going to church. A forty million is a lot,

you know, that's more than the entire population of Malaysia.

Forty million Americans have considered themselves de churched. And I

don't know what was going on in your mind, but

it becomes like, yeah, then I can just tune into

the message wherever, whenever I want it. But do you

know if you follow closely to the original church, and

that's why we're called ex church, right, because we go

back to where the churches started in the Book of Acts.

And you know that what made the church grow was

the people always met together. Yeah. So, church, I just

want to encourage you. Never go on this mindset that,

oh I can be part of the universal church. But

God always has a plan for the local church. And

what He wants to do for you through the local

church is to grow you, is to equip you, is

to bring character to you. You cannot do this on

your own, okay. You cannot do this when you're worshiping

nicely in your own room, in your own living hall.

But it takes coming together like this, It takes commitment,

It takes serving together, rubbing each other the wrong way

or I would say the right way, so that you

will develop christ like character. Okay, So please never think that, Ah,

you know that there is no place for the local church.

God build the local church. God's plan is for the

local church. And my prayer is that every local church

will thrive. And I'm not talking just about ex church, Okay,

I'm talking about any church that believes in Jesus Christ.

That should be our heart, right. We should want our churches,

our neighbor churches, to do well. I pray that whoever

they can draw right their students or the campus or

the moms that they're reaching out to or to the

Nepalese guds. I don't know what God is calling them to,

but I want them to do well. Amen, that that

is the right heart to have. Right. We are not

here about building a brand, but we are here to

say these are kingdom principles. Right, and so if God

has called us to ask, then let's plan ourselves here,

be rooted and grow in this church. Amen, wherever God

has called you, tula okay, so and God speaks all right,

so yeah, not that as Paul was doing this yet

you know he says, right, you have a thousand instructors

in Jesus, in Christ, everyone who can teach you good

word Bible study all right, BSF whatever. I'm not knocking that. Okay,

In fact, go for it if you can. Some of

you don't know what that is. It's like a Bible

study on a weekday. Yeah, and many people go on

it and you get very blessed to it.

Great.

But I'm also saying that, Paul, as we are reading

scriptures and we know that this is the word of God, right,

this is canon, This is the word of God. Paul says,

you only have one father through the gospel. And this

is because Paul was the one who shared the gospel

with this church and they came to Christ because of him.

And now he some people might say Paul very proud.

He calls himself the father. He calls himself, I'm your father,

your spiritual father. So in you know and there is

a biblical truth to it, we can you know in.

I have been in ex church for twenty years. That's

pretty long, right, ever since I started coming to work

in Kre. I studied in Penang. When I started working KL,

I joined X and that's it one church till death

do us part. So that's a different vowel, right, I

think with my husband then also with my church. But

it's because I believe, and it's because I have a

spiritual father and mom, and I call him Passna and Passsandra.

We have become in that kind of relationship where it's

no longer just how I'm a church member.

I come and go as an when I won.

But it's become family, right, and that's why we love

coming to different church months because you are also family. Right.

We are not like ah, you know, just another satellite Chiche,

but we are stronger than at our born is family,

and that's why Paul uses the language of I'm your father. Right.

Many of us don't want to claim responsibility of parenthood.

It's true. If you go to America now, right, the

whole mindset is, oh, I can have free sex, but

I don't want to have responsibility. Yeah, you know, I

don't want the responsibility of parenthood. But Paul is taking

up this responsibility, and he's telling the church whom he

loves that you should imitate me. Hey, that's a some

of you might not like it, you know, because you

might even say, hey, look at your own life, ah, true,

or not look at your own life and see what

is there to emit? And so men because of the problem.

The problem is men humans we have developed distrust with

each other, right, distrusting each other from the beginning, from

Genesis itself. You know when Adam, when God gave the

commandment to Adam and Eve, and then if took it,

what did she do straight away? When when God asked Adam, right,

so imagin we come to this side of the world.

Adam and Eve, Okay, but they're not married. By the way,

Adam and Eve. God gave a commandment to Adam, right,

who ate the fruit? She took it? Eat really never mind,

not give the husband no more. And then when you see,

un God gave the commandment to Adam. And who did

he hold responsibility with? Did he go to Eve? He

went to the man and he said, Adam, have you

eaten of the fruit which I commanded you not to eat?

And what did Adam say? Ha ha ha, Tell me,

tell me, tell me if you know your scripture? Did

Adam say, blame her? She's the one I fall, She's

the one who took it. Right, So that was the

first downfall when men refused to take response. Hey, I'm

going to preach to men here as well, Right, guys,

husbands take responsibility. Don't say everything mammy, mammy, mammy. Okay, Ah,

please take responsibility because that is God's spiritual authority upon you. Okay,

maybe I should say this for Father's Day again in June.

Invite me come back again in June and I will

speak again. But this is according to the word of God.

Amen, so you know.

And he straight away refused responsibility, blame me to the wife.

And of course, then who what did Eve.

Do after that?

Ah?

She also punihed, oh my husband, now pass the bucket

to me. Okay, I son, I passed the bucket to

the supon is the one who deceived me, right, And

so we have gone around passing the bucket of responsibility

to other people because we refuse to account for our

own mistakes.

And that is very true, right for all humankind.

All right. So, but Paul now wants to reverse this

and go back to the original again. And one of

the ways he's doing this is he saying, now, I

am responsible as a father to this house of believers

that God has given to me right and therefore the

right thing, the responsible thing.

Okay, what is the greatest responsibility of a parent?

Tell me? Take care of the children is one responsibility?

What else.

Raising up the children to be the future generation?

Okay? What else? Say again, to educate them? Okay, okay,

what else? Save good example? Poor you want to preach? Now,

let you take over. So, actually, you know that I

learned this, Okay, I learned this in my years of

parent thing, that the role of parents right is to

help your children obey you. Huh. You're like, huh what,

I didn't see that anywhere? Do you know why I

say that? That's why God gave you earthly moms and dads,

so that they will teach you submission to authority. I

know you don't like this submission to authority there, I

don't like We want independence, we don't like submission. Because

I'm gonna ask you this question and ask Christian parents,

if your earthly children can not submit to you as

parents that they can see feel touched, ooh, how will

they ever submit to a God that they will never

see here or touch? Think about that and one day

and that's what we want as parents, right, that our

children will submit themselves unto God the Father. And if

they cannot learn obedience from the earthly parents, you think

it's going to be easy for them to learn obedience

to an invisible God. So now, parents, you have a

different view of parenting. Now it's not that you're there to, yes,

take care of them, provide for them, educate, Yes, all

this right and true. But the greatest responsibility is to

teach them obedience because when they can obey, that they

can learn to submit. And you know that this is

a monk of Jesus, right, Jesus himself was the greatest

example of submission. He's God, you know. But what it

mentions all the way through in the scriptures, is that

when he was twelve years old, he submitted to his

earthly parents. Hey, hello, he's the one who made the

parents laugh from the beginning. But he learned submission to

his earthly parents. What about when he had to go

through the cross, He says, Father, if it be your will,

can you let this cup pass me by, because it's.

Not going to be pleasant to be crucified on across.

Hello. But they said, not my will, but yours be done.

Isn't that submission? Isn't that obedience? And that is the

mark of Jesus. And if we say that we are

truly followers of Jesus, do you have this mark of

obedience over your life? Right? And so Paul is really

his whole idea is that children, he calls the church, children,

learn to obey, learn to submit as parents, right as moms. Actually,

the greatest thing is when your children obey you. Right.

Don't have to say ten thousand times, egg, go clean

your room. Moms are like nodding vigorously. So I have

to look at the children. Hello, mom, say one time,

obey right. Don't have to know, ay, how many times

you haven't showered? Yet yo, white people don't shower one moms.

Oh come on, children, just go and shower.

You will be better for it. Trust me on this.

Obedience. And so he's saying, imitate me as I imitate Christ,

and my key verse is taken from First Corinthians, chapter eleven,

verse one, and the NKJV version just simply says, imitate

me just as I imitate Christ. All right, there's so

many versions. I put that on for you.

Whichever one you like.

Okay, yes, we says be imitated of me as I

am of price and healthy, and you should or not,

just say if you want tula, he says, you should.

You should imitate me just as I emitted Christ. And

the message it lumps up verse one and two. He says,

it pleases me, and as parents, I can really say this.

It pleases me as a parent that our children continue

to remember and honor me. Not by giving me flowers

on Mother's Day, not by spending money to buy me

a nice dinner, although that's nice. But the best way, children,

that you can honor your parents is to keep the

traditions that I've passed on to you. That's it, right.

The Bible talks about honoring your parents, right, and one

of the greatest ways that you can bring honor to

your parents is to keep the traditions of the family.

And okay, we can go into not cultural traditions again,

not talking about like oh yeah, you must wash your

feet before you enter the house. Okay, some traditions are good,

but I think it's more importantly the faith traditions. Okay,

not just physical traditions, not cultural traditions, but the faith traditions.

And when I say faith, it means.

The Word and the way of God. Okay, going by

the traditions of the Word of God and the ways

of God, that is what will really bring honor to God,

our Father. Amen. All right, So I hope that you

understand where we're going with this. Now. The first thing

you will notice right in first Quarantines eleven, verse two,

this is the NKJV version. He says. Now, I commend you,

meaning I praise you, all right, children, I praise you

because you remember Me in everything and maintain the true

traditions even as I delivered to you. Okay, So for

maybe some of our leaders, what are some of the

things that your leaders have delivered to you? What are

some of the traditions or some of the principles that

you've learned, and some I'm going to look at my

leaders now put them to the test. So what are

some traditions that you have learned? Surely happened Conjung already,

what name one thing that has become your tradition as well?

To love people? That's a good tradition, right, love people? Okay, yeah,

giving our best. So that's one thing that passed Canna

have passed down to all of us as leaders, and

I'm glad that your leader has passed it on to

you as well. Other things. Oh okay, my husband, okay,

I'll tell him, I'll tell him thank you for honoring

him this way that you give your best, and that

is seen. You know, we don't say things only you. No,

whatever that we practice becomes something that is seen. And

I can see it from the way he dress. I

can see it from the way he's like trying to

chair his best right, trying to get you guys excited

about worshiping God. That's him giving his best right. I'm

gonna go to this side. Uh, don't escape, no escape, Edward.

What is one tradition that you have hold on to yeah, yeah,

so good because I can testify this of Edward. Whatever

is big things, small thing that you entrust to him,

he will do it, no questions asked. Whether he's good

or not, it's a different thing, brother, But he's faithful. Right.

And I can say this because your homies, Lah homies

for a long time, and we've known Edward and he's

really grown in the Lord, very fit and God likes

faithful people. Amen. Remember what he told the servant. He

didn't say, oh, very good and handsome seven. Huh, very

fair and rich seven. God Jesus told and what he

commended was good and faithful. That's it. What are the

two criterias that God, our Father is looking in us?

Good nurse and faithful nurse? Do you carry that or not?

That DNA within you?

Good and faithful? That's what God is looking at. I

cannot miss Elena, so I have to go to her

as well. So what is one thing for you? Eline?

Grace? Wow, marcom grace.

It's showing grace. It's accepting people where they are at,

being able to walk with them. And this is Elaine. Okay.

Can you see that the different things that we have

passed on, it has become them.

Do you see that?

It's not that? Do you know that they didn't all

say the same thing, although they all believe the same thing,

but their expressions are different, and certain marks of it

you can see very evident. And that's how it is

with children, right. You know you have three kids, four kids,

and you go like, hey, this one looks like mummy,

this one like dead dy true or not? So that's

what it is, right. But when they imitate you like that. Wow.

As a parent, you're like, that's something good in me

that's being passed on to others. Am I hope you

catch this, this idea of imitating. Now I give you

four points quickly. Number one, we all imitate. Agree, you

all imitated me even through a simple clapping whatever thing? Right? Why?

Because we are social creatures, right, and and the thing

is we will do it whether we think about it

or not. How many of you just know when you

were in that social experiment when I was clapping like

a crazy woman, that you were looking around and you're like, oh,

I think that's what I should be doing. How many

have you thought that? Did you know what the exercise

was all about?

No?

You just follow me? Gongong some people say, if you

know hockn Rye Gongong, you just follow on me.

Sometimes we imitate blindly, right, and.

Do you know what people who say I'm authentic, I

am all Regina. Hello, I can look at the way

you dress, and I kind of know what you've been

looking at on social media and what you've been who

your friends are, because you know, after a while you're

dressed the same one no, tro not, Troy not. You

begin to like the same things. Even husband, and why

the face was so change your you know they say

fool for water?

Ah, that one I will.

So it's like after a while, right, well, husband, but

like why what? How coma?

They are actually different individuals?

But after what.

Your face also can change? They're small? Also look the same.

Look at Benny and his wife. Uh see they're smile.

It's so beautiful. Okay, married, and and they take on

each other's DNA. Right, that's something about it? Right, we imitate.

Do you know that they've done social experiments and this

is called the elevator. I don't want to show the

video to you, but basically what happens was everybody entered

the lift, right, usually entered the lift, and then you

just face the dollar because you can see my thing.

So they ran this social experiment and one only one

person was the person who don't know anything. No, every

everyone else knew what was going on. So what happened

was they all entered the lift thing and then they

all face like it the back. What do you think

the person it pulola? Why? Pure pressure? Awkward? Many of

us imitate because it's just very awkward to just not

be in the flow right with others. So now while

we understand the psychology around this, right. Psychology says that

people tend to mimic the body language of those they like.

Or a mile wooh.

Ah.

This is called mirroring.

Okay, So this is signs low okay, So that the

more you like that personal you also like, oh spa,

also spa, you hold the hand. Also you hold the hand.

You know, you mirror.

And some people use this in a negative way, especially salespeople.

If you're in sales, please don't try to do this

because the moment you mimic that person, right, you actually

try and observe their behavior and like then.

You know you mirror that person.

Immediately the person feels a connection to you, right, and

you can use that adversely, like oh killers, we're so

good friend, ready right kill Bilasproda. It's only three thousand

onima installment plan two years each man, only three hundred

yd you see. You see we can use this to

our advantage. But anyways, we all imitate it. We all imitate, whether.

We like it or not.

So don't despice this idea like oh no, I don't

imitate anybody, or hello, you probably imitate more than you think.

I've learned this thing. You know, there's nothing really original

in this world. Really, there's nothing really quite original. We

have developed all these things from other people, and every

think that, oh, yeah, this is my own branding. Okay,

the only branding that you have is got Okay, he

made you uniquely. So it's true. But so having this

idea to know that we actually imitate, right, The more

important question is not that whether you are imitating or

not true or not. It's not whether you imitate or not.

So like it or not, you will imitate. So my

question to you now is who are you imitating? I

think this is a more important question because we like,

whether we like it or not, we are imitating something somewhere,

some viral trending thing. Do you know that seventeen million

people pour ice water on themselves for the ice bucket challenge?

Is that crazy?

Because everybody dum.

When everybody does it, it seems like, oh, then I

think it's a cool thing or it's an okay thing

to do because I also want to be trending. Right,

So there's a lot of social pressures. So don't say

you don't imitate. My question is who are you imitating?

Which is the second point?

So do you know that?

In acts? Right? And I took this on very serious.

We went for our leaders retreat and we were talking

about this, what is the real true measure of whether

our discipleship has gone well or not? Think about that?

What would be the mark of a good discipleship relationship?

And what would be the result of that? Think about it? Okay,

if you're trying to disciple some of.

What would be considered like your goal or your measure.

Of success, what would that be? Let's talk parents?

Are parents, mom, and if what would you consider a success?

You know, as you raise your children right right right?

And I believe that what you want them to and

you you see, I can already see that that is

a trait that you carry. Right, you are able to

stand independently and to be able to make decisions raise

the children, right, and that is one thing that you

are passing on to them, all right, So this is

something that we know that that is, if they catch

this from me, it has to come from you first.

Whatever you pass on, whatever you hold from them are

It's not something out of tinnet. Oh yeah, I saw that,

Guru Diy did it like that. No, it's something that

you believe in, right. And so for us now, the

mark of true discipleship, for me, at least as a

leader in acts, is that I want to have faith

like Passic Kenneth. And if you know Passi Kenneth, his

life is just one heck of a faith journey. Right.

Some of you may not know him. I will encourage

you to get his book.

You would see how a man who had absolutely nothing

going on for him. His mom left him, his biological

mom left him when he was two years old, His

dad was a drug addict. His sister committed suicide when

she was twenty one or twenty two. Yeah, yeah, So

with all these tragic things happening to him, what is

the possibility that he would turn out to be a

man after God's own heart. Quite crazy, you know, everything

he's like again, myself just end up being a drug,

a deicula, or you know, going to something else. But

it was only by God's grace that he was redeemed,

transformed change and now he leads us, you know, And

so I want to my way of imitating him will

be to imitate his life of faith. Right, and so

you know, we're gonna think about discipleship in a more

serious way. It's not discipleship is no longer just hey,

you know, let's have young chard and let's talk about

sports or hey, you know, yeah, okay, maybe I'll pray

for you over your job, and then let's talk about

everything else. Now even think about discipleship. And how Paul

talks about discipleship is he's talking about, hey, imitate me.

You know, I will tell you how to behave in

a marriage. And this is what I believe. So you

you meitate you just follow the tradition. Don't try and

do things left or right or your own way or

the world's way. Do you see that? And so this

is the goal of discipleship, that the person that you

are there, Okay, firstly is do you look.

More and more like your disciple?

Some of you may not. You know you're new to church,

and that's fine. But I really believe that the way

of discipleship is the Lot's way. We can all have

a direct personal relationship. We got agreed, totally agreed. But

there is a reason why God plays human leaders for us.

There's a reason for it, and he knows that. Huh.

With me, you can behave whatever you want. But with

another human leader, I think you also behave differently true

or not, it's true and we can't. That's why a

lot of Christians, right, they are like they don't like

this idea of disciple. She's like, no, I'm only discipled

by God. Why why do I need a leader to

tell me how I should dress or you know, how

I should behave or dad is the working out of

your faith, my dear brothers and sisters, because that's the

one that someone is visible to say, Hey, Nick, why

are you lay all the time? Because you know what

if you're laid all the time to church? Right, you

think God's gonna boom, Nick, I'm gonna rain now thunder

on you. No, not gonna happen. But the leader who's

there always watching me. Nick, you're late all the time.

I have a responsibility to address that. You see that.

So many people don't like this.

They're like like, oh, I just want to come to worship,

you know, love God. But then there is no discipline.

Do you know? The word disciple comes from the word discipline,

and our lives as Christians is alive marked with discipline.

It has to be that. You know. If it's not discipline,

then don't call yourself a disciple, just call yourself friend.

I would rather, I would rather you be honest and say, hey, Nick.

You know, Nick tell me like, hey, it's okay, elder,

you know, don't have to speak into my life and

we just be friends. I say, okay, sure we can

be friends. But I don't expect you to look like Melo, right,

I don't expect you to walk like me, behave like me,

think like me, because you're not my disciple, ma. And

that's fair.

It's an expectation, right.

But if I want to disciple someone and say hey,

you're serious or not, you allow me to speak into

your life. Not you know that boyfriend, the non Christian

boyfriend that you're keeping on the side I think that

was no gola. Yeah, you see, we go deeper and

that's how the Word of God comes to life. Do

you know that the word of God needs to be experienced?

It's not just hit knowledge, no point. You know everything

from Genesis to revelational. But your life is still the same.

You live exactly like the world. How are you going

to be sot and light for the world. You're no different.

But a mark of a disciple is someone who is

beginning to stand out from the crowd. And you will

realize that many times your behavior is going to stick

out like a st Why because it's the right thing

to do, and right things are not very popular nowadays, friends, Yeah,

right things is not very popular. In fact, everything that

is wrong is viral and trending. So when you stand

against the grain, you're gonna imitate, right. I already said

number one, We all imitate. Number two? Who are you imitating?

And if you.

Imitate Jesus and his followers and his disciples, he will say, huh, hello, disciples,

the world hated me, they will hate you. Also. It's

in the Bible. Do you know that Jesus already say

the world hated him? So don't be surprised, la if

your collique hate you for saying no, I have a

certain stance. I don't bribe.

They're like, hey, hello, this contract is multimillion dollar.

No, no, I don't bribe because my God says don't bribe.

God hates bribe. So you make a stand at the

risk of losing your job possible? Yeah, it's possible, at

the risk of being persecuted by your team members. Absolutely,

But will you imitate christ? Will you imitate your leaders?

Over you who says hey, yeah? You know, as Christians,

we don't believe in bribes. What characteristics? We shun the

idea of following leaders because we, like I said earlier, right,

we think that they also not perfect man.

Who is Paul you know.

To say, oh, please imitate me? Was he a perfect man?

Not at all? In fact, he acknowledges this so many times. Right,

I want to go to the next slid, Oh, the

one that says accountability. Yeah.

Do you know what disciples do is.

That as I'm discipling other people, as I walk with

them in acts, we call this the huddle, you know,

and huddle simply means, you know, we walk with you,

we journey with you, We rebuilke one another, we teach

one another. And every time we are having those conversations, right,

I'm always aligning us me included with my disciple, with

the word of God. Are we aligning to the truth

of God or not? It's not that hey follow me,

la Edward Westcott, I think looks good on you.

Hey, Hello, It's not imitating that can'd thing.

Lah, It's imitating the way of God, imitating the Word

of God, the ways of God. And what we do

is when at what comes an account of course, we

believe in same gender discipleship. Okay, I'm just using this example,

so female female, male, male. Okay, there is a reason

for that. But for example with Edward, So when we

are in a discipleship relationship, I'm we are using the

word of God as a constant mirror. Remember we talk

about the concept mirroring. You can mirror like the world, right,

but you can also mirror and say are you o?

God says, whatever you eat and drink, whatever you do,

do it all for the glory of God. So what's

the food that you don't like to eat? Would ah?

When you eat the pro Later he says, whatever that

you eat and drink Can you just give glory to God?

Can I why seafood is not from God's idea?

Is it? Ah?

Then we go into a deeper conversation.

Do you see that that it's very real, it's very practical.

It's not some high and mighty philosophical thing that we're doing.

We're going deep in the practical things of our lives

according to the Word of God. And accountability just means

I'm just holding up a mirror to you. I'm not

saying I'm better than you. You know, when you are

discipling someone, You're not saying I'm better than you. I'm

just saying we're holding up a mirror to each other

so that we can reflect on ourselves against the Word

of God and see where are we've fallen short? And

where we fallen short? We ask for God's grace Amen,

to cover us and to lift us up. And God

wants to do that. But firstly it starts with an

awareness or where we are at. Amen. All right, so

let's move on. Let's move on. Paul was not perfect,

he was in the flesh, but he never let his

humanness stop him from seeking God and leading others to Christ.

Amen.

So don't use the excuse that I'm not a Bible teacher,

I'm not a leader, I'm.

Not an elder, I'm not a pastor.

We are no talking about titles. We're talking about If

you are a believer and a follow of Jesus Christ,

you are a disciple maker. Let that sink in. It's

not the job of pastors, it's not a job of elders.

It's every believer's responsibility to be making disciples. And parents,

you already notice you're already discipling your children. You like

it or not. You can either disciple them in the

ways of the world, or you disciple them according to

the ways of the Lord. You have the authority. That's

why parents are so special, right, and that's why God

says in the thank or moments, the fault on his

honor your parents and your father, your mother, because God

knows how great a responsibility that He's placed upon parents

to disciple their children. Amen, all right, so let's move on.

Yeah.

He You know why I say Paul was someone that

we can imitate is because he was not a person

who was like, well, I look at me better than me.

You better pay your ties to me, Jason.

Okay, you better give me money so that I can

go for my holiday, to career, nothing like that. In fact,

if you read the letter to Corinthians, he says that,

you know, I actually have a right for all these

material things, but I denied all these things. I denied

my rights. Read it in Corinthians, because he says, because

I do not want this to stumble you, he gave

up his rights to get support whatever. And then he

was a ten maker. Do you know what ten maker is?

He made tens. He literally make tens. That's why ten makers.

You know, in modern day Christian we say ten making

means you have your outside job, a freelance job, whatever,

earn your money. But literally Paul was a tent maker.

He made tends to sell to get his income to

support his life. Okay, so yeah, so that's and then

if you read Philippians, which is one of my favorite letters,

Philippians talk about him saying that you know, if I

want to boast in my flesh, I can boast. I'm

the Jew of jew you know, I am the most

learned I whatever. But he had all these credentials, but

he says, I count this all as rubbish, not just

nothing or rubbish. I count all my credentials as rubbish

compared to the knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus. That was

the most important thing for him. Okay, right, let's move

on to the last two points. What do we imitate?

I already mentioned this many times. Is not about the

styles or your preferences, or your favorite movie or your hobbies.

What you're imitating from your earthly leaders are some of

these things. Faith. Does your leader or does your disciple

display faith in their walk, in their decisions? That's what

you want to imitate. Do they display this kind of

obedience even though they disagree, but they obey, they submit

it right? Sacrifice? Many of you are even partners here.

You have sacrifice so much for the church, you have

selved the church. Those are the things worthy of imitation,

imen worthy, and those are the things you want to

be looking out. So, friends, I want to encourage you

to now open your eyes and see. Don't come to

the church blindly and just you know, close your eyes.

I want you to really look at the lives of people,

lives of people who are walking before you as examples

of faith. And very important is you look at your

own life. Is your own life worthy of imitation or not,

which is my last point. Right, when you look at

all these things, right, you have to ask yourself this question. Firstly,

we know that discipleship is a journey, right, and we

don't whatever that happens after this. I pray that you

will not just hear the word today and go from

here and thinking like, ah, there was a hard message.

I almost fell asleep. But this is the truth of

God if you believe the Bible to be the truth.

And I want to encourage you to read the letter

again first corinthents and you glean what Paul is trying

to tell the church. Right, Let's not just be hearers

of the word, Let's be doers of the word. So

there's a call to action for each one of you.

There's something you have to do no after this. Firstly

to ask yourself, hey, hey, hang on, wait a moment, right, Yes,

I want to imitate Christ. But who is the person

that God is going to place over my life in

this community of believers that I will account my life

to that. I will say, hey, brother or sister, I

look at your life and I think this part is

worthy of imitation. Can can we enter into a discipleship

relationship and we are big on that. Right, doesn't matter

how long you've been in church either one month, one year,

ten years, it doesn't matter. Today is a day to

start and to say, I want to get serious with

you God, I really want to grow in you like

I have never been before. And I want to look

for someone that will hold me accountable for this desire.

Do you know you can have many desires? Right?

I want to lose weight, I want to go to

the gym, mar Right, I want to read the Bible more.

And you never had to account for anyone. Guess what,

year after year it becomes a goal. That's it, a

goal on your wall. You look at it, you're like, hahaha,

January first to January fifteen, that's it. After I forget ready.

And so if you're serious about growing in.

The Lord, don't just let that be a goal or

a desire. You come and account to someone now and say, okay,

I have this desire. I want to read the world

I got every day? Would you hold me accountable? Do

you know? Do you know how powerful that is? Because

after three weeks, then your your friend, your brother, your sister, Hello,

how's the Bible reading going? You're like, uh oh, it's okay.

That's where grace comes in, right, and you say, okay,

let's do this again. Let's try again. What can help you,

What resources will be helpful? Maybe morning my time, let's

adjust schedules. Do you see. That's what discipleship is, is

helping you grow in the Lord. And of course I

already said this is your own life worthy of imitation.

Many of us will say, oh no, no, no, no, no,

don't imitate me. But no, I think all of us

have something to give, all of you if you have

been transformed by the grace and the mercies of all

Lord Jesus. Right, there is something new in you already.

And other people outside they need that, They need that

touch of grace, They need that transformation that you have experienced.

You know, you have something more than outside the world

does not have Christ, and you have Christ. You have

the world. You have everything, And so don't tell me

you have nothing to give. Don't tell me because Paul

also says you are rich, but you don't know it.

You are so rich, you know, but you always think

you're poor. It's all in the letter of Corinthians. Please

read it. Don't believe me, believe the word of God.

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

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

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week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you.

God bless