Latest / Generations Church / The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 1B: Practicing the Way - Apprentice to Jesus | Andy Yeoh

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The Be.Attitudes of Following Jesus Series - Part 1B: Practicing the Way - Apprentice to Jesus | Andy Yeoh · Generations Church

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Hey, you welcome to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray you will be
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blessed by this message. Today I made a word of God both encouraged and
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challenge you to be all God purpose you to be. Now, let's dive
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right in. We are going to continue on our discipleship series. Yes,
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I must warn you most of the series will be teaching as opposed to preaching.
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What's the difference teaching? I tell it preaching, I will yell it.
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So today being an apprentice? Just so, what do you call this
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process of being with Jesus, Becoming like Jesus, behaving like Jesus. What
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do you call this process? It's called being an apprentice. Being an apprentice
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to Jesus is practicing the way. Why do we use this word apprentice?
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Ah? Now we're going to go into some Bible studia you okay? Why
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why the word apprentice? What do just just say disciple? We understand the
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pastor do we do we? Because you can put two Christians in the room
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and they explain the discipleship different to you. But apprentice? Why apprentice?
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Number one? The word disciple in Greek is the word methetists. Okay,
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strongs three one oh one if you've got a song song courrence, you can
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search it up. What does this Greek word methodists mean? It means a
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learner, a pupil, a disciple. In fact, it's why the Bible
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uses the word disciple, because it's literally what it means. The only problem
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is we all understand the word differently. So this word methodist, which is
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translated into the word disciples in the Bible, literally means a learner or a
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student. So if you're a disciple of Jesus, you are a student of
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Jesus. You're a learner of Jesus, you are a disciple of your methodist.
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Problem is when we use words like student, learner, and learn,
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we may import our own model of education. We think, oh, therefore
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it's attending a class for example, Oh therefore is learning hate knowledge? I
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need to know what are the ten steps? See that's the problem. Or
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we may import, case this one our previous experiences with discipleship. Let's assume
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it was a very bad one and we import that experience. We think discipleship,
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No, I will never be disciple again. Ever in a church.
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That's also not good. Right. So, actually, the word disciple is
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a beautiful translation of the word, my theorists, it's just not a word
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we use on a daily basis, and not always in a good way.
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Right. We don't walk around say I'm a discipolo Jesus. For various reasons,
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misunderstanding of the word, or bad experiences with the words, we avoid
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it. But disciple is actually a very good translation. But in order to
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help us understand this without some of these prejudices and biases, we use a
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different word. Okay, now let's look at the Hebrew word for disciple lor
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mad lomard. Disciple in Hebrew, it means to learn, teach, or
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exercise, So there is an activeness in this. It's not just hate knowledge.
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It's to exercise what you learn, and there's an expectation for you to
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also teach others. Is it no wonder that Jesus said, go you therefore
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and make disciples and teach them what you have observed a man? Makes sense?
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Now? Okay, there is another word for disciple in Hebrew, which
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is tell me, tell me. It means scholar. This one gives you
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this this impression that you know and Bible school. How about the next word
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next one? Limood sounds like a restaurant. Okay, this one means to
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be accustomed to something. Disciples. All these are Hebrew words that means disciple.
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Okay, next, slight please, So I searched up what it means.
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I searched up some Jewish writers and try to understand from their point of
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view what these words means. The Hebrew word for disciple is tal mead.
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Tell me we saw this earlier, the scholar one talo med. This word
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stresses the relationship between the rabbi, the teacher, the master, and the
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disciple. The relationship, relationship. The relationship is important. Okay, tell
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Mead. A disciple of Jesus in his day would actually give up his entire
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life in in order to be with his teacher, like literally, leave home,
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live town, live business, leave his burger stall and live with this
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Rabbi that he wants to follow. Understand, Liza, Today, when we
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receive disciple, we get to keep our house, our credit card, our
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car. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying in those
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days when these words were use, it means a whole different thing. It
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means an entire complete change of lifestyle. The disciple didn't only seek to know
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what the teacher knew, As is usually the case today, it was not
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enough just to know what the Rabbi said. But the foremost goal of any
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talmade was to become like the rabbi and do what the Rabbi did. Next
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live will give you a bit more context next life. Please. The whole
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point of being a disciple is that you live exactly like him. Listener,
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I know some of us have followed imperfect figures in our life, and maybe
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there have been manipulative, abusive, controlling, and all this bad stuff we
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do not want in a leader. And so sometimes because of the experience,
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we say no to discipleship. Can I say this, We don't get to
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change what discipleship is. We don't get to change what the Bible says.
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Amen. We learn what the Bible says, and then we find a way.
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So I get it. I get it when we listen to this.
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But but but but that guy, that leader, you know he, you
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know he or she didn't I get it. But the point of discipleship,
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has mentioned the Bible is to live exactly like the master, the Rabbi.
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You treat people like him, you make the same choices like him. You
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love and befriend people like him. You live fearless and bow like him,
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your bath fruit like him. The tammidim, which is the plural for disciples,
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tamidi means the total disciples, the whole group. The Tammidim would live
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with their rabbi, so they could literally know how to live in every single
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situation, even to the point of following the Rabbi into the bathroom in case
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he says a special prayer before or after using the bathroom, Like you know,
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they don't want to miss a second. And by the way, there
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is such a thing. The Jewish rabbis do have a prayer before and after
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bathroom. And if you're a disciple, you don't miss a moment. You
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try to follow. What is the Rabbi doing, what's he saying? Their
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memorize is teaching, so they could then go and teach others. This is
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an expectationer. This Tamadim were not there to observe. They were there to
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become so close to the Rabbi that they live exactly him in every situation.
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Next life, please. Louis Weberg explains the ypership as what we might think
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of as apprenticeship. The reason we use the word apprentice, because apprentice is
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someone who follows after like I'm if I'm apprenticed to say Donald Trump. I
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think that was a show, right, the apprentice. I'm there to learn
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everything. Like what we just described exactly, I follow exactly apprentice. Apprentice
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gives you the impression that you're not just there to have knowledge. I'm here
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to learn every action and behavior and emulate exactly that, and then I teach
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others to do the same. So it's one of the best words we have
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in the English language to convey the meaning of mathist's apprentice because learning from a
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master not it's not for just information, but you're learning how to become a
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type of person. Listen. Yeah, we're not just teaching you behaviors like
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oh, when the speaker come on stage, stand up and clap for him.
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Those are behaviors. It's not just that you can do that. In
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fact, I saw that in Indonesia, no one had to ask. I
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saw when the one speaker comes up. You've got people in the front rower
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who themselves lead churches of thirty thousand. There's one parcel there who's got eight
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thousand churches under his care, and no one asked them to but they stood
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up to honor the other person who's on the stage. Then they do it
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willingly. But we're not I'm not here to teach you all these like behaviors.
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It's not just that we'll get to that. It's more of learning to
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become a type of person. I am an honoring person. I am a
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honest person. A disable Jesus would be a hungry person. A disable Jesus
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will be a loving person. We're learning to become a type of person,
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Amen, not just behaviors, but a type of person. And when you
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learn to become that type person, you can with your master, like your
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master one day, do what your master does. And this is this is
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this what apprentice captures what it is that Jesus is calling his followers too,
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Amen, learning to become like him. You're following me so far. You
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know. In the Gospels we see Jesus teaching his disciples. He sat down
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and he taught them, and he preached to them, and he taught them.
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But we also see Jesus taking his disciples with him to watch him do
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what he does and to participate with him. You know the famous I do
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you watch? I do you help? And then you do I help,
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and then you do. I watch the four stages of discipleship and training in
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the Gospels. We see that, right, Jesus just didn't teach. Jesus
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brought them along, come with me, and then he sent them out.
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It was on the job training. We see Jesus sending out the twelve and
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then there's seventy two sometimes on their own, and the expectation is they do
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what they have seen Jesus do, and ultimately Jesus commissions always follow us,
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and then now all of us to go and make disciples of Jesus. So
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this is definitely a participate, participatory style of learning. Not just hate knowledge,
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not just classroom, not just information. Amen. It involves our bodies.
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It's relational, it's practice based, it's holistic. Amen. Next line,
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So why is it important to be an apprentice or if you understand the
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word apprentice, now, I cannot interchange the word disciples when I say disciple.
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You know what I mean? Now? Right, when I say disciple,
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it's not just program, not just some kind of like decipit program.
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It's it's the idea of learning to become exactly like a master. So why
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it is important? Next life because everyone is already a disciple of something or
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someone. Every single person sitting here today, You're already a disciple of something
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or someone. It just may not be Jesus. That's the part we have
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to be careful of. You may be a Christian, you may come to
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church, but you're you may not be a disciple of Jesus. That's the
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part we need to watch. But the part that is guaranteed is you are
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already a disciple of something or someone. It could be a sports personality,
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it could be a business person. It could be someone you follow on podcasts.
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It could be a superhero from Marvel. It could be an ideology,
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it can be whatever. But you are already a disciple of something or someone.
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We live in a world today they talk about radical individualism. They talk
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about being the self made man, like nobody gets to tell me who I
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become or what I do. I am my own person. Friends, that
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life is a myth. Nobody here is your own person. Really. Even
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the shirt you're wearing right now, you saw it somewhere. Your hairstyle,
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your shoe, the way you talk, we're all modeling after someone. Can
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you imagine if you were not intentional about modeling after Jesus, your body after
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someone who is not Jesus, Well, i'll call it yourself a disciple.
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That's a dangerous game. Everybody wants to be a leader, not a follower.
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Or maybe you don't agree that statement, let me say this way.
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Everybody wants to be in control, not to be controlled. We don't like
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being told what to do. I know, I understand, But if you're
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a Christian who is a disciple, this is not really an option. We
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talk about being free and at liberty. Yes, it's true we're free from
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sin, we're no longer slaves, but have you read your Bible? We're
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no longer slaved to sin, but you are slaves to righteousness. Still a
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slave. I know where you're a slave, it's just who are you a
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slave to? Either where you're a servant? Are you serving which God?
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Like you know not? The reality is none of us come into this world
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by ourselves. That's not how we are created. We are created to become
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like someone else or something else. That's how we're designed. That is why,
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left to your own you are already being discipled by something or someone,
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an ideology, a personality, whatever. Yeah, we are not as self
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made as we like to think we are. It's just not how our human
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body and human makeup is wired by God. Whether you come at it through
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the lens of Christian theology, or you think away from a very scientific point
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of view, or think away from a very sociology point of view. But
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however you look at it, none of us as human beings are made to
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be by ourself sustainable on our own. It's just not how it works.
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How it works follow me so far to acknowledge that we are all already apprenticing,
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To acknowledge that we are already in right now, in this very moment
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in our lives, being discipled by something or someone is to be honest about
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our human condition. We are humans. We are going to be discipled by
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something. We are going to apprentice someone. We are going to be shaped
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by something or someone. Admitting that it is not weakness everything that is to
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be human anything that is to say, I'm not unaffected by my environment.
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My environment shapes me like it or not. Of course I'm affected. And
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the choice I do have is where I aim my attention and my affection.
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Follow me. You don't have a choice whether you have affection for something or
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not. You don't have a choice, go to a mate. We're made
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to be affected. The choice you do have is what am I aiming my
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affection towards? What am I aiming my attention towards? That's the choice that
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you have. Am I aiming my affection and attention in a direction that makes
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me more purposeful, more meaningful, more fulfilled, and significant? If we
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aim our affection and attention towards Jesus, towards following him, towards becoming more
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like him, then yes, we will be purposeful, meaningful, fulfilled people.
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Next like whoever or whatever we aim our lives at, well, then
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shape us into its image. You get this right? It will determine who
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we become. Next night, we become who we follow. So you can
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be in a church you call yourself Christian. But if you read Donald Trump
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a lot and you like him and you follow, you're gonna become Trump Trump
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beat maybe a little Trump. I'm not even knocking him. I'm just saying,
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we become who we follow. It is ineffinitable is going to happen.
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Discipleship is asking the church, college is to be intentional. I'm not gonna
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follow Trump or Biden. Or whoever I'm gonna follow Jesus. I wanna aim
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my affection and attention towards Jesus. So to be a follow of Jesus is
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simply to say, I want to very intentionally aim my attention and my affection
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at Jesus, and by so doing, over time, I will be formed
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increasingly into his image because I become who I follow. If you follow Adam
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Grant, you will be like him with without hair. I love him.
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I really stuff. That's not what I'm saying, and I saying don't really.
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I'm saying, how intentional are you about whose image you're being forming too?
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Because it's happening already anyway. I'm answering the question why is it important
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to be Jesus, because you'll be disciple already anyway. Be intentional imen.
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The question is are you a disciple? No, the question is who or
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what are you a disciple of? Next life? Did you know that Jesus
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did not invent on earth the concept of discipleship. It was already in motion
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by the time Jesus showed up on Earth in the flesh. It was already
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in the Jewish culture. It was something that the Jewish people already was practicing
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and living by He did not invent the concept of discipleship on earth. He
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did not. He just redirected it. He was woven into the first century
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Hebrew world. It was part of the Hebrew Jewish educational system. Follow me
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apprenticeship. Discipleship. Following a rabbi is like today's term masters or degree the
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mass. You finish school, your next stemer to become whoever you want to
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become, is to find a rabbi and follow the guy follow me. Usually
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around twelve years old. That starts. That's why jesus disciples except Peter,
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the rest of them were all younger than twenty. To be your context,
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it's the exclusive thing. Before Jesus came, it was an exclusive not not
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every Jewish kid get to follow a rabbi around. If you're a Jewish kid
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and you have a rebbi to follow around, you are at us. You
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are somebody. Amen. That's why it boggles the mind when Jesus came,
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I suddenly say, whoever wants to follow me? Because those days it's like,
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you want to follow me, let me background check. You check your
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bank accounts and your family background. No, sorry, you can't make it.
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Only the really really really really I doesn't want to get to follow rabbi
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around. So when Jesus give me si, you know what, forget all
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that anyone wants to follow me come. He's like Elon my singer. He
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tweets and say, whoever wants a scholarship all the way to phg just send
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me email and you will get it. Anyone. So when Jesus said,
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whoever wants to follow me, follow me, Everyone's like huh. Really,
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of course someone said who are you. Jesus was not the only rabbi with
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apprentice and disciples walking around those days. He was one of the many,
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because it's the only part of culture. But jesus invitation was radical. He
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said, anyone follow me. They already understood what following ray means. Earlier.
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It's he go bathroom, I go bathroom. He said, a prayer
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before being I pray the same prayer too, pepp or whatever whatever the pray
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is. I followed, Oh it is he praying before eating his right hand.
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Oh okay, what does it do? Is thinking of it? If
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they follow and here comes Jesus say, hey, I am from heaven,
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I am God, I am the I am the Creator of everything, follow
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me. And when someone says yes Jesus, they will leave their homes,
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their business, sometimes their own family. They so Peter left their nets,
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follow Jesus. Why because they're no longer. It's about that life. Remember
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last week we talked about Jesus is inviting you to a new way of life.
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Not religion, not change I see or change name, is live an
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entirely different life. So when someone says yes, Jesus will follow you,
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you're saying I'll change the way I think about money, I'll change the way
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I think about marriage, or change the way I think about everything because I
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want to follow you, Jesus. That's the type of sheep amen you already.
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So when Jesus said follow me, he's saying this, I don't know
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what used to be your center. Maybe your center was I want to be
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a successful fisherman. Maybe your whole life is centered around I want to be
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a good son or have a good career, all good things. But when
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Jesus said follow me, he's saying, now, make me the center.
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Make me the ani mating center. Any means will become life. Make me
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the life giving center of your life. That means, uh, wherever you
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go, I'm about to go into university. I come back to my center.
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I say, Jesus, is the path of you're mean to take?
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You're about to get married to somebody, or you've you've met someone on Tinder
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or something coffee meters, baker or whatever it is you are, and you're
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you're like, okay, it's Tinder, But Jesus, is she all right?
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Would you swipe? Is it leftl right? Okay? Whatever? Ah,
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Dad, Jesus the center. I'm about to invest here. Jesus,
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you come back to the center. Everything revolves around Jesus. That's discipleship.
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Amen. When you said follow me, he's saying, make me the center.
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I don't know what used to be your center. I don't know what
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you used to set to your life around. I'm not sure. But when
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you say yes to me, this is it. So how do we do
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this next like this next life? We do it by being intentional with the
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process. Discipleship has to be intentional. It has to be intentional. You
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have to choose every single day to be discipled by Jesus and not something someone
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else. When you're driving on the road and someone cuts your lane, that
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moment right there, you have to choose to be like Jesus and not the
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last grap driver could use some hopkin bad word or something dude. Intentional with
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this process, what process? Intentionally be with Jesus, Intentionally become like Jesus,
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intentionally behave like Jesus. And like I said, this is a process.
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Every day you are practiced saying. It's not about perfection, it's persistence
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and consistency. Amen. Yes, you will get it wrong sometimes, but
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get back on the path and the direction aim your affection and your attention towards
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Jesus. This is something you have to self evaluate, self feedback, whatever,
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self reflect You can take any snapshot of any week of your life and
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you look at how much attention and time and focus you're given to what.
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Anyone can look at that and can tell you without being a prophet, who
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or what you're becoming like. And trust my heart, I'm not even saying
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those things are bad things, good things, but not all good things is
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what Jesus wants for you. Amen. So how how do we do this?
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We need we we be intentional? Amen. We first first goal is
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to be with Jesus. Second goal is to become like Jesus and goes to
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behave by Jesus. Over the next few weeks we'll process these three things,
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but today will as we end, we will summarized very quickly briefly touch on
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them. Okay, next life, please, we're all following something or someone.
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You know that you get this really right? Say, hey, we're
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all following something or someone. We're all investing right now. You're investing time,
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energy, focus, You're all investing. That's why they call it spend
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time. Time is being spent. You just spent the last three seconds hearing
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me say, we're spending time, and you have to be intentional. What's
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the last few things seconds worthwhile? Cause if it is not worth allie,
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don't spend it there. Right, But we're spending time, I say,
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anytime spent on Jesus is worth everything. So you're following something and someone already
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we are investing the hope of the healing of our soul, the hope of
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us becoming the kind of people we all wanting to become, and living this
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life you want to live, and discovering happiness and peace. So all these
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things, we're investing our hope and time for all these wonderful things we want.
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But The question is this, what way or path do you follow?
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For example, I want happiness? Is happines is a bad thing? No,
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it's not, it's good. In fact, the beattitude blessed is he
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who due? The word blessed can be translated to happy. Happy is he
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who's poor in spirit? Same word. So let's say I want happiness?
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What way? What path am I following to get happiness? Do you know?
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Some of us can get happiness through drugs. Some drugs makes us happy.
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I think the drug. I'm happy. Some games make you happy.
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Some very liberal relationships makes people happy. There are many paths too happy.
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It's just that as disciples, we want the path too happy. Be Jesus,
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amen. Really this is a question of next, like who do you
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trust? Some of us don't want to admit it, but we don't trust
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the Bible and Jesus as much as in your own branks. I trust that
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investor a bit more. I seen him make money. I think he knows
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how to handle my money more than the Bible, which is written a few
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thousand years ago. But as you know, it's really this question of who
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you're following is a question of who do you actually really trust? Because uh,
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you are banking your entire future purpose fulfillment on this person or this method.
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You know what I'm saying. It's a question of who do you actually
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trust? Because whoever or whatever your rabbi is, it could be an ideology,
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a celebrity, a historical figure, a religious figure. It could be
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Jesus too, But whoever or whatever your rabbi is, would be the person
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you trust to be your source of wisdom and insight into the life that you
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desire to have. So again, I want happiness. Now who do I
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trust to get wisdom inside? To get happiness? To ask my mother,
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father, dog, goldfish, pastor friend, tinder coffee is bigger? Or
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do I ask Jesus how to get happiness? When Jesus tells me how to
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get happiness his way, when I follow? Because no need to lie one.
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If you don't trust, you just fall back on. Hello, friend,
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I asked Jesus last week. I don't think his way works. Can
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you tell me how to get happiness? We just fall back? Question is
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who do you trust? Discipleship is intentionally putting your trust in this age all
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ancient book called the Bible, and Jesus calls himself the word words have meaning.
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Jesus is the word follow me. Thank you for joining us. We
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trust you have been blessed by the word of God. If you like what
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Do taggers at generations my. For more information, check us out on
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