You are invited to start today by opening your Bible and letting the Holy Spirit speak to your specific situation. As you grow in this relationship, remember that true discipleship means sharing that life with others. If you haven't surrendered your heart to Jesus yet, now is the time to do so.
So today, I'm planning on continuing the Corinthians series, and we'll see how far we get. We started the Corinthians series back in October, November. We're taking it 1 verse at a time, and we're just going as far as we can go each Sunday. When we run out of time, we run out of time. It's kinda like bible study with with your pastor.
Just overflowing what God gives me. Are you guys good with that? Yes. You okay with that? So we're gonna walk through this together.
And you have to understand, every verse that's in the scripture connects with other verses all throughout scripture. Like, this book was written by, I believe, if I remember correctly, 40 different authors. It's 56 different books slash letters written by 40 different authors over about 6000 years. I mean, that's pretty amazing, and it's perfectly tied together. There is no like, it it doesn't counter 1 another.
It might seem to in a moment, but you don't just don't understand it in context. When you walk it out in relationship with the Lord, you're like, wow. This is applicable for this moment, and this is applicable for this moment. It's a beautiful thing. So as we go through these verses, you're gonna see how it connects with other places in scripture, and it's gonna be it's gonna encourage you.
Are you ready? Yes. Alright. We're gonna pick up where we left off. *1 Corinthians-4* and verse 6.
We got halfway through this verse 2 weeks ago. And now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself. That's Paul writing. Remember, he's writing a letter to the the Corinthians, to the people in Corinth, and Apollos for your benefit. And we talked about what things was he was he talking about, what things was he referencing.
It was the things previous that he had previously written in Corinthians, but also it was the rest of scripture too. K? Watch. So that you may learn from us the meaning of saying, do not go beyond what is written. All scripture, the bible says, is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and instructing in righteousness.
Training up in righteousness. We're learning who God is and who he says that we are. So it's all important. And I don't know about you, but I wanna follow his word when it says, do not go beyond what is written. Amen?
Do not go beyond what is written. I wanna let you in on a little something about your pastor. I see life in many many ways through the eyes of scripture. Every situation I go through, I have a scripture that comes to mind. Oh, that's like this or that's like this.
When I have a decision to make and I'm praying about it, scripture comes to mind. When situations come up in my life, scripture comes to mind. And I think, oh, that's like Samuel with Eli and and how he couldn't hear the voice of God, but he needed Eli, his mentor, to to teach him what it was like with the voice of God. Thank you, father, for sending this person in my life so I can learn to hear God in this situation. Oh, that's like David where you built his confidence with the the lion and the bear, and now he's ready to take down the giant.
And so you put him before the giant so he could stand in faith and take his next steps of faith. Oh, that's like Paul and and and or or Peter and John as they got out of the prison, and and and now they're standing, and and they walk away. And the the Pharisees and stuff, they say, man, I I can't believe these unlearned men are speaking like this, and they took note that he'd been with Jesus. Like, Lord, I wanna live my life that way. Or when I'm tempted in a certain area and I lose gratitude, I lose thankfulness, and I get down, I go back and wait.
Wait a second. I lost gratitude. I lost thankfulness, so I need to rejoice in all circumstances and all situations. I need to learn to how to be thankful even in the tough times. And, Lord God, so I begin to thank him, and then I get the peace that passes all understanding because I'm viewing every situation.
I wanna view it through the lens of scripture for a specific purpose. This isn't just a history book. Although it could be used as 1 because it's accurate and archaeology is showing that it's accurate more and more as they dig up the cities and the towns. I just saw a video that they they found evidence of king David as well. It's not just a a thing where we can read and see how these apostles and prophets and mighty men of God did things back then and celebrate them, but not live that way today.
No. This shows us who God is and commands us to be imitators of him as dearly loved children. It says we get to participate in the divine nature, the nature of our heavenly father through these very precious promises. How can I participate in them unless I know them? But not just this.
I see how God moved in the lives of these men and women back then. I see how he unfolded things. And it gives me confidence because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever that he's gonna do those same things in my life today. And so it shows me how to look at life and understand what's him and what's not. Understand what to say yes to and what to say no to.
It shows me as I read this, what is what is the Holy Spirit speaking to me in my mind and how to discern what's from him and what's from my flesh just arguing against it. Or or what's the enemy trying to influence me? My capacity to hear and know and follow the Holy Spirit is dependent on my understanding of his word. I only got a few head nods on that 1. On that 1, you all need to say amen.
Amen. It's a big deal. You might say, well well, pastor, I haven't been reading the bible since I was like before I could remember like you have. So what? Start somewhere.
Start today because he will redeem the time. And before long, as you get in the word, like we and look, I'm I'm not reading the word in order to find some secret knowledge that I've never heard before so I can hit you over the head with it and impress you so you're like, man, he he knows all these secret things. I gotta get in and study secret things so we can just that's gnosticism, and that's dumb. It's it's egoism. It's pride.
I'm not reading it so I can have this big head that my life my life doesn't back up. Mm-mm. I'm reading this in relationship with the Holy *Spirit* consistently as a discipline because relation you you need discipline in your relationships. You need disciplined consistency with the ability to have times where you go out outside of that spontaneity. So disciplines consistency in your relationship with the Lord with spontaneity.
It's important. Amen? Amen. Every relationship needs that. So I'm reading it in relationship with the Holy Spirit, which means he's breathing life on these words, and it's becoming my life.
And certain words jump off the page, and it matters for me that morning. And and not every day that I read this thing doesn't mean that it's this huge life changing thing. Like, for instance, the the Bible talks about itself as bread, as like food. When you read *scripture* or when you when you go to eat food, every meal, is it something that you remember for the rest of your life? No.
Do you remember every meal that you eat for the oh my it was life changing breakfast this morning. I ate wheat toast, and I put some butter on it, and it was filling with a glass of orange juice. I'll never forget that. No. But you might remember that steak you had the first time you ate at Ruth's Chris.
The first time you had or if you ever ever got to taste Wagyu steak or, you know, whatever the whatever your favorite meal is, you remember that time. There's times when I get in the word and and, man, he he gives me exactly what I need for the day, and it's sustenance, and it gives life to me. But then there's times when he gives me those kind of meals that I never forget as well. Both are important. But I'll tell you, if I get in daily, a lot of times what I eat that morning, what I take a drink of in his spirit that morning is just a drink, but it multiplies into rivers of living water that flow out of me.
And before you know it, a lot of times, there's other people that needed that very same thing. He happened to speak to me that morning through his word. And then I begin to tell this person and and they're touched and healed and encouraged. And then I tell this person and they're touched and healed and encouraged because in conversation, it just happens to come out. And it happened to be the very drink that they needed from the Lord through my belly because I took the diligence to take a drink myself that morning.
It's vital, and we encourage 1 another in the body, but also draw the world into a relationship with a loving Jesus who cares for them and has been inviting them the whole time, but also waiting on you to step out of yourself in order to impact them too. Amen? Amen. You know, there's a lot of people that think that they know the word but really don't. Thank you, Kevin.
There's a lot of people that know chapter and verse and know you know, grew up on this thing, know all the stories, but don't know the word. There's a lot of people that go to church every Sunday, hear the preaching smile and receive it with joy, but don't know the word. It's a parable that we know and a scripture that we know, but I just wanna bring it out again today. Matthew-13, the parable of the sower. If you don't know it, I'll describe it for you 1 more time.
Sower went to sow seed, sowed some seed on the path, and the bird came and ate the seed. Well, the seed is the word. And the bird that came and ate the seed on the path, it's that represents the heart of the person that doesn't believe it, doesn't receive it, and rejects it. Give an example of that. Yesterday, I got done working out because I like to work out, and I went on a walk after my workout because I like to do that too.
And a lot of times, I'm just taking time to pray and to think and to process with my Lord. And I walked by this father and son who were playing on a playground, like outside workout playground type of thing. And I felt in my heart to tell the man Jesus loves him and ask him if he had time for me to share the gospel with him. And I ignored it for about 10 yards. Walked past him, just wouldn't go away, and I knew if I kept walking, I'd be being disobedient.
So I turned around. What's the worst you could do? Reject me? You gotta love him more than I love what he thinks about me. Right?
Amen. Amen? Amen. Does that go does that hit a little bit for some people? That's okay.
Lord the Holy Spirit hits me too sometimes. So I I I say, hey, excuse me, sir. Can I can I talk to you? I just believe Jesus loves you a lot, and I wanted to know if you had about 90 seconds, 2 minutes for me. I'd love to share the gospel with you.
He said, what'd you say? I said, Jesus loves you a lot. Just wanted to know if you had 2 minutes for me to share the gospel. He said, sure. You can do that as long as you let me share my gospel with you.
Okay. What you got? I said, well, do you believe that you can have a relationship with God? He said, yes. I said, do you believe that sin separates you from that relationship?
He said, nope. Don't believe that. I said, why not? And he went into this, well, you just opened Pandora's box, my friend. I said, what?
And he said, yeah. I'm a psychotherapist. He said, and, you know, sin is just a construct of the mind and we get into Christ consciousness and he goes into all these different religions where or relation, cultures where, you know, sin is in in this culture, it's what's culturally norm here and cult culturally normal here and all this different stuff. And I'm just listening, and and what he's saying is a lie. I just want you to know that there is truth in the world, and truth is is Jesus, period.
Just is. I'm a go here too. And then he tried to pin me down. And then he said, he said, are you 1 of those people that if you you went into India he didn't know I've been to India before. And you preach the gospel or to a Hindu family.
He didn't know I'd done that too. And they reject it. Are they going to hell? Eternal damnation? I looked at him and said, sir, Jesus is the truth.
He said, you're avoiding my questions. No. I'm not. Most I'm not I'm not trying to argue with him. Right?
I just I'm really I'm I'm trying to listen so that can understand and learn how to better reach people the next time. And I said, yes. People who reject *truth* and reject a relationship with God end up experiencing eternity without him, and that's hell. He said, well, what if they'd never even heard the gospel? What if they'd never even heard somebody talk about Jesus to them?
People are without excuse. Romans says it. The qualities of God are clearly seen throughout creation. The Bible says seek and you will find. And those that seek him, find him, and those that don't are too busy with whatever end up spending eternity separated from him.
It's biblical. He's like, well, you're the problem. And he went on all this stuff, and I'm just like, Jesus loves you, my friend, and I walk on. I I I wasn't trying to argue back and forth, but this is an example of those who reject the word. They don't believe it.
Don't want it. And I pray that maybe there was some watering or some, you know, softening of the ground of his heart, but who knows? I might never see him again. I pray somebody else comes along and helps to soften that ground and the Holy Spirit does. Amen?
Amen. But some people really don't know the word that think they do. There's 2 grounds that are next, and that's where I think a lot of the Christian church finds themselves. 1 is the ground that receives the word with joy. They're excited about it and it shoots up, but then it's thorny ground and the distractions choke it out before it bears fruit.
It received and was excited initially, but it didn't know the word. Only those that bear fruit know the word. Do you understand that? Just because you receive it with joy doesn't mean you know the word. Only those that bear fruit know the word.
I'll prove it to you in a second biblically. Okay? But they were distracted. They were excited about it, stayed for 6 months, 2 months, 1 month, 6 years. But eventually, the cares of this life, wealth, riches, stresses, relationships, business, whatever it is, They were distracted by it and went after that because it was an idol.
It was something that they put as more important than their relationship with Jesus. And it proved that that was Lord and not this. And their life, it didn't end up bearing fruit. Only those that bear fruit know the word. The second type of ground after that 1 after that first 1 we talked about is the third type of ground.
I think it's actually second on the list. Is the rocky ground. Sadly, I think this is a place a lot of people who call themselves Christians are as well. The rocky ground, they receive the word with joy, and it springs up quickly, but there's no root. And the sun scorches it.
The day is hot, and the sun scorches it. And because it had no root, it withers and dies and doesn't bear any fruit. Sadly, there's a lot of people that come to Jesus for a good time and to experience all of the benefits of him without really knowing him and without really believing and trusting him. And so when it gets hard, and it will get hard because we're in this world, suffering will come. Trials will come.
How you respond with the word that you have shows whether or not you know the word. And if you trash the word in order to find something on your own and don't stand in what he said, you're showing that you really don't know it. *John-8:31-32*. *Jesus* is talking to the Pharisees. But then he says before, he's talking to a big group of people, Pharisees and disciples.
But then he says to the disciples that believed in him 31, 8 31. To the disciples that believed in him, He said, if you abide in my word I don't wanna I don't wanna mess it up. If you hold to my my teaching, another version says, if you abide in my word, if you remain in my word, same thing. You are really my my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Amen. You don't know the truth until you've remained. You don't experience the fruit of the truth until you've remained through the distraction and through the suffering. Because those that remain through the distraction and the suffering are the ones that produce fruit, 30, 60, and a hundredfold. Those that don't, don't produce fruit and prove that they didn't know it in the first place.
Amen? Amen. Church, I wanna say, I believe you are a church that knows the word. Some of you may or not but not not be producing much fruit yet. That doesn't mean you don't know it.
It just means it hasn't been tested yet. Stand with me. Let's stand together. Let's encourage 1 another through the distractions and through the trials because your life will produce fruit. He's worth remaining in so that you can know *freedom*.
What is the fruit of the gospel? *Righteousness, peace, and joy*. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faithfulness, self control. Your life will produce those things as you remain through the suffering knowing that he's good and he's enough no matter how hard it gets, no matter how much things look like, you know, the enemy's winning or or Jesus wasn't telling the truth. He was.
Stand in it. Your faith is being tested. Don't "grow weary" in doing good because at the proper time, you will receive a harvest if you do not give up. As your pastor, I'm encouraging you and challenging you. Don't give up when it gets hard, but stand.
He's worth standing. So then you know the meaning of the saying, do not go beyond what is written, then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of 1 of us over another, 1 Corinthians-4:6. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as this as if you did not?
I wanna sit there for just a second. A lot of times we fall into this trap as well. You gotta understand first, Paul is fathering the Corinthians. Later, we're gonna see how he tells them, you've had many guardians, but not many fathers. And then he says, follow me as I follow Christ.
Paul is fathering the Corinthians, so sometimes a father has a tough conversation with his son. Not because he's mad at him, not because he's trying to condemn him. He has a tough conversation because he loves him, and he wants to teach him the principles of what it looks like to be a man. Or a mother with her daughter, father with her with the daughter, mother with the son, teaching the principles of what it looks like to grow up and reflect the same character and goodness that you need. You need discipline as you're growing.
Some people are like, wait a second. The Bible says don't call anybody your father. Only God is your father. And you're right. The Bible does say that.
Don't call anybody your instructor. Only God is your instructor. And you're right. Jesus himself did say that. But you have to understand that we're a part of the body, and Jesus is the head.
And so in that, don't you know that he uses his body to father people, father other parts of his body? He uses he he disciples people through people. He disciples people personally and disciples people through people. It's it's both and. Let me explain.
There are there are gonna be seasons in your relationship with the Lord where you won't sense fulfillment or you won't sense like you're getting anything useful from me, from your pastor. You won't sense like you're getting anything useful from people in your lives or those, you know, spiritually mature around you that you've always sucked the word of God from. You won't sense like you're getting anything from them. And it's like the reason is God has has shut up your ears from receiving from them so that to train you to go to him personally, to teach you to get alone in your word Monday through Saturday and and and and to say, Lord, I need to hear you. I need to know you for myself to learn and grow in your relationship with him so that you can come and pour out on a Sunday.
But then, equally or almost equally as important, there'll be times when the next thing that you need in your relationship with Jesus or in that area of your life or the next understanding of who he is and how he works, it'll be like God shuts the heavens. And you can't hear anything, and you fast and you pray and you get in his word. You're like, I don't know what the answer is. And it's because he's teaching you that we need each other. In humility, we need brothers and sisters that's gonna spur us on.
And there's somebody that has the answer that you need that you're supposed to build a relationship with, but maybe you've been too prideful not to to to do it. Or there's a church that you're supposed to be a part of, and you've been that loner Christian that likes it. No. I'm I'm all out here by myself. And God's training you.
No. Like, there's other parts of the body of Christ that know me in the way that you need to, and you need the humility of of connecting in relationship with them and learning from them too. It's both and. How do you know which one's which? In relationship with the father through the Holy Spirit and learning as you go.
Amen. Amen. Yeah. *1 Corinthians-4:7*, back to that, for who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as this as if you did not? It's a little pointed thing Paul's fathering these Corinthians that he was a part of leading them to Jesus. You have to understand that when you come into a relationship with Jesus, you become a child of God. People say, well, we're all children of God. No.
We're not. There are everybody is on the road to hell and are "children of the devil". *Jesus* said it. He called the Pharisees children of the devil. And and and and the father wants to draw you back into life, and he loves people so much that he sent his son to send a life raft to those that are on the way to hell, saying, no.
Stop. Turn to me, and I will give you rest. And so you're born wrong, but then you receive Jesus, and you get "born again" of the father. Then you become a child of God when you confess Jesus as Lord. Amen?
Amen. And when you become a child of God, you realize that everything that you have was given to you. Everything. Every relationship, every responsibility, money, even your breath. The fact that you're breathing right now is allowed by our father in heaven.
It's a gift, and you received it. And not only that, he calls you a steward, which means a manager and an ambassador of the *kingdom* of heaven. So he gave you these gifts for you to manage, and in your management of them, enjoy it, take care of those and what he has put under your responsibility, and leverage it to **expand the kingdom** of which we're an ambassador. For instance, the wife that God gave me I'm even hesitant to say my wife. My wife, just because it's normal language.
God gave her to me. I get to be her husband. I'm supposed to manage this relationship with her in such a way that I'm leading her into a deeper relationship with my father. But at the same time, I'm serving her and helping to push her saying, baby, you're gonna do the same things I do and even greater. I my prayer, because God has gifted her to me, is that because she's in relationship with me, she'll know Jesus better and live out the purposes, every purpose that God's put and and created her for better because she knows me, because she's experiencing the life of Christ through me, not just in front of everybody, but even behind the scenes when nobody's looking.
And don't you know out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak? So what you think and say about your wife in your heart will come out of your mouth and your actions. So in your heart, you need to treasure her as a gift from the father that you are created to manage, to enjoy, to serve, to lead, because lead is serve, and to leverage that relationship to expand his kingdom. My children, they're a gift. I get to be their daddy.
God gifted those children to me in order to enjoy, to lead by serving, to disciple, to show them Jesus, to be an extension. Like, when they look at me, they're supposed to see how they're supposed to relate to the heavenly father, to push them in relationship with Jesus, and to leverage to extend his kingdom. I get to be their dad. Their gift. The money he's given me, he's put in my hands.
It's not my money. Well, but I use my talents to to make that. Yeah. You did. God gave you those talents and the ability and then entrusted you with that job.
It's not my money. It's his money. Every bit of it. That's right. And he put it in my hands to manage, to steward, to enjoy as I use it to take care of those that he put under my influence, but also to leverage, to multiply, and extend his kingdom as an ambassador of his kingdom.
All of it falls under that 1. Yes. You're supposed to take care of your family. As a matter of fact, the Bible says a a man who or who's not taking care of his family is worth worse than an unbeliever. Gentlemen, take care of your family.
It's important. But in your taking care of your family, demonstrate how to leverage what God's put in your hand to expand his kingdom because you're discipling them to do the same. Everything he's put in our hands is a gift. My time, every breath that I have, it's a gift by him, this life. Thank you, Lord, that I get to wake up today.
*Lord* God, use every aspect. Lead me in every aspect. I want to enjoy you and enjoy the relationships you put in my life, Lord God. And and I want to experience more of you day in and day out. And Lord God, I wanna lay my life down as a as you're my Lord, you're my father, you're my friend, And willingly, I'm at the same time your bond servant.
Willingly saying, lead me and guide me so that every moment of my life is used, Lord God, to expand your kingdom because I'm so grateful for what you did for me. Thank you for this gift and I wanna manage it to leverage it well. So at the end of my days, I'm not looked at some somebody that's selfish, but looked at someone like you, Jesus. You laid your life down for me. I wanna lay my life down to to so people around me can experience the love of you through me.
Teach me what that means, Jesus. It's a gift. So I don't wanna, as it says in that last sentence, boast as if this is mine and I did it as if I didn't receive it. No. It's all his, and I wanna live that way as a manager of what he gave me, being faithful to multiply his kingdom.
Amen? Amen. I'm almost done. Paul Paul kinda goes into this tough dialogue where he's really correcting them. We're learning.
He says, already, you have all that you want, exclamation mark. Already, you've become rich. You've begun to reign, and without us, how I wish you had really begun to reign so that we all might reign with you. For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle of the whole universe to angels as well as human beings.
We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are so strong. You are honored. We are dishonored. To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty.
We're in rags. We're brutally treated homeless. We work hard with our own hands. We are cursed. We bless.
And when we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answered kindly. We have become the "scum of the earth", the garbage of the world right up to this very moment. The more you grow in Christ Jesus, it doesn't mean it's more glamorous. It might seem that way.
Shoot. Some of you might travel and speak 1 day. That's awesome. But I hope you always, no matter what you're doing, you carry and continue in the heart of a servant, realizing that just because you travel and speak on a stage doesn't give you the right not to set up chairs and clean a toilet. It doesn't give you the right to delegate making disciples, every single 1 of you, no matter no matter for the rest of your life how much you grow in Jesus.
You are all called to lead people to Jesus and lay your life down to to help those brand new believers experience and know the same Jesus you know. You don't grow out of that. Amen? Amen. He says this in verse 14, I'm writing this not to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.
Even if you had 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. Therefore, I urge you to imitate me. For this reason, I have sent you Timothy, my son, who I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
When you're fathering your children in your home, don't ever tell them do as I say, not as I do. That's the dumbest words that you'll ever say in your life. But when when you say when you say do as I say and it is what you're doing, your words carry authority. Yep. They carry authority of a life lived.
You know, need more spiritual fathers and mothers in the church. And praise the Lord, we're a blessed church where we have many, many who understand it. But I'm just saying the church in general, we need to come back to an understanding of of being a spiritual father and a spiritual mother and brothers in Christ that encourage brothers and sisters in Christ that encourage 1 another forward. So important. Like, for instance, when a lamb is born from a ewe, like a mama lamb.
Heard this from somebody that I I learned from a lot, Bill Johnson. When a lamb is born from a mama lamb, that lamb does not understand the shepherd's voice. But it follows the mama lamb, And in following the mama lamb, it learns from the mama the mama sheep how to hear the shepherd's voice and how to follow the shepherd's voice for itself because it's watching how the mama follows the shepherd. That's spiritual fathering and spiritual mothering. That's what it is.
It's when you lead someone to Jesus, you find somebody, or somebody comes to you that doesn't understand how to hear Jesus in that area of your life like you do. You lay your life down to help them and show them what it means to hear God and to follow him in the same way teaching like the great commission, not the great suggestion said, teaching them to obey everything that I've taught you. And then they grow to maturity because they're learning to hear the shepherd's voice, the great shepherd's voice through your life. That's what it looks like. As I was going through this scripture, I I texted a Gabe Rogers.
And he texted me back, and I told him I was gonna use it on a Sunday. I thought I was gonna preach this 3 weeks ago. But he said and pull it up. When I read this, even if you had 10,000 guardians in Christ, you have not had many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel.
He said, oof, I've had 1000000 babysitters. Every podcast, YouTube channel, get rich quick book, Instagram reel, Facebook quote, thing your friend says, what you think about the bible is about, what you believe scripture means, what that smart person said that 1 time about Jesus. Yeah. I've had 10,000 guardians. Who have you opened up your life to that knows Jesus a little bit better than you do and given them the the ability to rebuke you, tell you when you're wrong?
Someone that you know that cares about you and loves you and wants to encourage you forward. If you haven't, maybe you need to. *Hebrews-13* says, consider your leaders, consider their way of life and imitate their faith. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Who in your life have you considered their way of life and said, man, I see the fruit of the gospel in their life.
I see the way they treat their their wife, their kids. I see the "fruit of the gospel" in their life. I wanna imitate their faith. Imitating their faith is imitating the way they hear from God, the way they believe God, and the way they obey God. That's faith.
Hearing, believing, and obeying. Man, if you do that, you're gonna experience the fruit of the gospel in the same way that they do to the extent that you do that. Who are those people in your life that you're following as they follow Christ? Because God put them there in those areas of your life. If you don't have any, you need some.
There's many in this church. Start to build relationships with people. God's waiting to speak to you through them in certain areas of your life. Have the humility to say, I don't know something, and I need something. It's a big deal.
Now you ready to flip the coin? You're all. If you're a disciple of Christ, then you that means you're a disciple maker. That means that you're supposed to have people in your life that you're doing that same thing for. That means that we wanna live lives that we can confidently say, follow me as I follow Christ.
We wanna be in such passionate I'm not saying we're getting everything right and everything perfect every time, but we have a heart that's in "passionate pursuit" of him to learn more and grow in him. And you can have that heart from day 1. So when you lead people to Jesus, when you get people back in church or back in a relationship with the Lord, you're in passionate pursuit of him and you're helping them to grow in the same way that you are, just like me running with my son. Man, he pushed me to 7 miles when I wouldn't have run but 3 of my own. When you're giving out, you're growing more.
When you're making disciples, you can't be stagnant. God is going to help you grow more than you ever could. So who is it that you're helping to know Jesus more in your daily life? Are you 1 that can say, follow me as I follow Jesus? Do you have a pure pursuit of Christ, or is the life of Christ being choked out by distraction or by the trials and suffering that's going on?
I would say today is an opportunity for some of you to *repent* and turn to that passionate pursuit of Christ that's pure. When you took communion together, you're in right relationship with the Lord. Start free and start today. Lay all your junk at his feet. Get up and go share with people what Jesus has shared with you so that you can grow and they can grow and we can grow in the Lord together.
I think that's all I got today. Courtney, you're closing this out. Right? Why don't you come on? I wanna encourage you, invite you to stand.
God loves you so much, and he cares about you. Some of you were encouraged today, some of you were challenged, some of you were like, oh man. Some of you were kicked forward. It's all good. It's what we need in our relationship with Jesus.
Both and. All of the of the above. I'm going to ask our elders and and those that have have been deacons and prayer team, those that have prayed before to be available. As Courtney closes this out, we if you'll you guys will come forward because there's people that need ministry in here today. There's people that need prayers for healing.
There's stuff going on. Maybe there's people in here that you know that you don't know God is father. You've never given your life to Jesus before. You've never been born again. The bible says no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless you've been born again.
Born again doesn't mean water baptized. It doesn't. Bible says you gotta be born of water and born of spirit. We were all born of water. Your mama's water broke, my mama's water broke.
Born of spirit means you believe Jesus died on a cross, rose again, but you also confess him as your Lord. I'm not gonna live for me anymore. I'm gonna live for you. When that happens in that moment, he puts his spirit inside of you, gives you a new heart, washes you clean, and you become a child of God. If as I'm saying that, your heart's burning, you know you need a relationship with Jesus.
You've never had what I'm talking about. I want you to be bold. I want you to raise your hand high. I see. That's 3 3 hands.
Is there any over here? Let's pray. We're gonna pray a prayer together. It's not the prayer that saves you. It's the position of your heart, and you position your heart and you confess with your mouth, saves you.
So I I those that need salvation, I want you to pray this out loud. Nobody's listening in such a way that thinking in it's not about what they think. It's between you and the Lord. Say this. Say, Jesus, those that need salvation, say, Jesus, I believe you died for me, and I've been a sinner.
I've been living for me. I ask you to forgive me. Say it out loud. I ask you to forgive me. Good.
Come into my life, Come into my heart, and make me new. I surrender my life to you. I receive your spirit right now. I thank you, Lord. Teach me what it means to follow you.
You are the Lord of my life. The bible says that right now, are forgiven, washed clean. So just everybody in here, say this. Say thank you, Jesus. Thank Jesus.
That I'm forgiven. That I'm forgiven. Thank you that I'm loved. Thank you that I'm loved. Thank you that you're my heavenly father, you're my father.
Thank you, heavenly father, that you're my father. Teach me to know your voice. Teach me know your voice. If you gave your life to Jesus, you were born again just then, don't walk out of here without talking to 1 of the leaders. They're gonna they're gonna pray for you, they're gonna encourage you, and they're gonna get your number and your email because we don't wanna leave you alone.
We wanna help father you to know the heavenly father.