Latest / Citipointe Church Caboolture / Belonging Before Believing | Ps Greame Politanski

Transcript

Belonging Before Believing | Ps Greame Politanski · Citipointe Church Caboolture

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  Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.
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  Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to
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  take hold of so we hope this message inspires you and build
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  your faith that it helps you have more of the God perspective
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  for your day. Enjoy SO.
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  Today I just want to continue on the theme that we have had of
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  discipleship. So Mel and I have obviously for
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  this year, we've got in our hearts to direct this church
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  into full alignment down the lines of discipleship in order
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  for us to grow into our future. And so the title of my message
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  today is belonging before believing, belonging before
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  believing. And So what I'm going to do this
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  morning is take us on a different angle when we are
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  looking at the concept of discipleship in the life of this
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  church. So Matthew 2819 says, go
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  therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
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  in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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  So I have a question for us this morning.
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  Where and when does discipleship biblically begin?
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  Where and when does the Bible teach us that discipleship
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  actually begins? So the apostle Paul wrote in the
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  Bible. In Romans 10, verse 14, he says,
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  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
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  And how shall they believe in Him on whom they have not heard?
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  And how shall they hear without a preacher?
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  And how shall they preach, unless they are sent as it is
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  written? How beautiful are the feet of
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  those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of
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  good things, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.
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  For Rosiah says, Lord, who has believed our report.
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  So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
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  You can have faith that Jesus is the Son of God, but until you
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  exercise evangelism you do not see the power or the evidence of
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  your God flowing through your life.
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  See, the reality is is God does many things for us, but there is
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  a level that God calls His church up to and too many people
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  don't go up to that next level. And I'm talking this morning
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  about a level where our discipleship is not just for our
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  fellow Christian, but we move into a an evangelistic idea
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  where we are disciple in the world that God has given around
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  us. In other words, discipleship is
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  before people even become Christians.
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  Before people have a relationship with Jesus, they
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  may must hear all about him. See what it's like for someone
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  who has Jesus in their life. They don't see that unless you
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  and I example that. Let me tell you, being a
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  Christian isn't a fad. It's not something that we go,
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  you know what? I've given my life to God, but
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  I'm just going to live the way I want to live or I'm going to
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  come to church because that's what Christians do.
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  But I'm going to hang around in my voluntary time environments
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  that aren't showing Christ in me or doing things that don't show
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  Christ in me. You know, I'm never hung up
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  about things like drugs or smoking or alcohol and things
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  like that. But the reality is, is as we
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  mature in our salvation, in our relationship with God, we begin
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  to live a life that examples the Christ transformation that is
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  inside of us. And so every person, no matter
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  how big or how small your struggle might be, we all have
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  to come to a, a maturing in our faith or our relationship with
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  God where we say that thing is no longer acceptable by me in my
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  life because it does not evidence to the world around me
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  that God is bringing, bringing, bringing transformation into who
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  I am. Does that make sense?
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  And so there is an onus on all Christians to allow God to
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  challenge us, as Pastor Dan so greatly did today, that to allow
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  God to challenge us and then transform us and grow us into a,
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  a, a greater reality of what it is to live like Christ, to
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  behave like Christ, to talk like Christ.
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  Does this make sense? So you and I in the church, we
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  are the carriers of the Holy Spirit.
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  But that's not a simple byproduct.
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  You have to be in your word and and in prayer to understand what
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  you're carrying. Does this make sense?
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  We, we are living in an era where words alone don't carry
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  enough. Words alone don't carry enough.
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  Saying I love Jesus, people want the proof saying that Jesus is
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  he loves me in spite. People need the evidence.
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  Does this make sense? And so this is what discipleship
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  is about. Even before people are in the
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  church, in your lunch room, at work, in your university rooms,
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  in class. You know the Bible says to do
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  all things as as though unto the Lord.
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  So you might be in class and you might hate your class but fake
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  it. This is awesome.
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  You know God's transforming. I'm learning from my lecturer
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  right now. You might hate it, but God is
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  growing you through it. Does this make sense?
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  So you might hate the thing, but you love the transformation
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  God's bringing into your life. And so we have to evidence if we
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  gossip and stay at the same level at lunchtime that of the
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  conversations that are around us, what's the difference?
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  Why would they want to come to church then alone give their
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  whole lives to Jesus Christ? So we have to live as people
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  that are being transformed. If God's transforming your life,
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  which I know He is, He's transforming all of our lives in
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  this great church. If it's transforming our lives,
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  we need to let that out so it's seen by other people.
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  We need to evidence what God is doing on the inside by wearing
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  it on the outside. So belonging before believing
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  it's it's discipleship before salvation.
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  Now discipleship has many layers to it and all layers begin to
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  disciple someone when there is intention behind it.
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  So you might go, well, how is that discipleship like in the
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  church? You I've been talking about
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  discipleship groups or life groups that are discipleship
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  focused. We do discipleship in our YA
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  youth Friday nights. They break up into the
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  discipleship. This is more influenced than
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  what It's discipleship. No, if you, if you just allow it
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  to stay in the word influence, there's this connotation that we
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  do something and then we just walk away from it.
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  We've influenced or we've put a smell or an aroma in the room
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  with our words, but then we walk away from that.
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  What I'm saying to us as a church is discipleship because
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  more than that we are standing with those people.
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  Sin is sin. So don't be shocked by that.
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  But through their sin, we can still be there for them.
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  We can just say, hey, here's my number.
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  If you ever need me, here I am. I'm not talking about giving
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  personal bank accounts and and making them your best friend.
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  But what I'm saying is we don't just say God loves you and walk
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  away. What we do is we say God loves
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  you and then we show them through our own lives the an
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  example of what God could do in their lives.
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  Does that make sense? But words alone don't doesn't do
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  that. It's going to skip for the sake
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  of time. The system of discipleship isn't
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  really all that clear in the Bible.
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  And this is because discipleship is a journey that requires
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  growth, learning, maturing, and the application.
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  In the church. We have systems to help people
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  grow in knowledge, faith, relationship with God, connect
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  with other believers to disciple and big disciple to outwork what
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  we learn. We do this through life groups,
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  next steps courses, youth group conferences, Sunday gatherings,
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  camps, counseling, so many things.
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  But there's belonging before believing.
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  Discipleship starts as someone hearing from you, then someone
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  trusting you, and then someone following you, hearing,
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  trusting, and following. But the goal is that people
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  follow Jesus, learn from His word, the Bible, and live more
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  and more like Jesus lived when he was here on planet earth.
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  How do they understand that? It's not by telling them, it's
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  by showing them. So it's the next level.
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  This is a call up that our whole lives has to if we're having a,
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  a party at our house or over a friend's party.
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  It's not an exception card from Christian walking from your
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  faith. Does that make sense?
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  It's an opportunity for you to bring Christ who's in you into
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  that environment. If you've been invited into
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  something, you've been, you've been given an opportunity.
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  If someone's invited me, that's because they want me to bring
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  Christ to that situation. That's they don't, they're not
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  after my dancing. I'm not a good dancer,
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  definitely not after my karaoke. I make karaoke sound bad, like
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  they're not after that. They've invited me because they
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  want Christ to walk into that room.
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  And that's the way I view it anyway, right.
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  And so if you're in the shopping centre, in a workplace
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  lunchroom, This is why. Now evangelism and discipleship
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  are joined at the hip. Christian, let me tell you
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  today, if you're in this room, you've been called to
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  evangelism. Discipleship and evangelism are
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  joined at the hip. 2 more minutes and we'll we'll pause.
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  The relationship between discipling and witnessing is
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  seamless. Evangelism without its partner
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  discipleship either creates religion or rebellion.
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  I'm going to say that again. Evangelism without its partner
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  discipleship either creates religion or rebellion.
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  Billy Hull and Bobby Harrington says evangelism is simply a form
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  of pre conversion discipleship. The two evangelism and
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  discipleship are the front and the back of the same coin.
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  So let me tell you evangelists in the house, if you've got that
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  definite gift on your life, I don't OK, but doesn't exempt me
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  from evangelizing. It just means it's it doesn't
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  energize me. It just means you're not going
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  to see me putting in to my calendar, walking around
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  shopping centres, OK, What I'm probably doing is leadership
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  training and leadership resourcing, OK.
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  But everywhere I go, I'm an evangelist.
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  And so if you're an evangelist, well, you are right.
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  So as evangelist, when we say the word evangelist, we are also
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  saying the word discipleship. So everywhere you and I go,
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  shopping centres, work rooms, University, School, no matter
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  where it is, if you're retired, every friendship, relationship,
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  every time you're out in the caravan, whatever you're doing,
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  you're not leaving Christianity behind at the church on Sunday.
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  And we'll get back to that in two weeks when we're back from
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  our trip. Everywhere you go as a
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  Christian, you're evangelizing and discipling all at once.
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  You're evangelizing someone and telling them about the goodness
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  of God, but you're also imparting into them Christianity
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  or the faith that God or the transformation of God has placed
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  in your life. We are imparting, not just
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  telling. We aren't just sharing, we're
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  also showing. We also giving them tips of how
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  to move forward in this area of the We are not just telling them
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  of the goodness of God and leaving it at that.
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  If you're going to tell them of the goodness of God, you also
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  need to show them that God heals, which means you need to
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  pray. Does this make sense?
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  And as they see the power and the wonder of God move through
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  their life more and more, and God sends them people like you,
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  you will find them in a church on a Sunday because the Father
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  draws people to the Spirit. Does this make sense?
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  And so you might be in this place this morning and you're
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  hearing and watching and the testimonies and even just what's
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  happened with young Jay. And you're like, man, this is
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  like real stuff. This is real life.
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  This is real living. Let me tell you.
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  It sure is. It's very exciting, actually,
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  every day. Nothing more exciting than
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  getting her a text from from Pastor Rach.
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  He's going all the way. I are at my house.
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  My son just grew 2 centimetres. Yeah, it's pretty exciting
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  stuff, being a Christian.