1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,280 Hey, Go Church Family! Welcome back to week two of our podcast for our September series 2 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:22,840 called Follow Me. My name is Gilbert and I'm here with Pastor Matt Haddabow. Good afternoon, 3 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:26,240 morning, evening. I don't know what time it is when you're listening to this, but 4 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:32,520 greetings. And we're also here with Joseph. Hello, Go Church Family. Welcome, Joseph. 5 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:37,880 Welcome, Joseph. We're getting used to having him around. I think we want to keep him. Yes. 6 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:45,320 Yeah, I'm excited. Joseph, thank you so much for being with us and thank you so much for really 7 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:51,080 leading us through the series for this month. You know, this is something that we've been saying 8 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:56,360 for a couple of weeks, but this is a subject that's in your heart and we're excited for it to come 9 00:00:56,360 --> 00:01:01,760 out and bless the whole of Go Church. This is something necessary. In your heart and demonstrated 10 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:08,080 in your life. Yeah, thank you. It's my pleasure. I've been enjoying this a lot. It's fun, right? 11 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:14,720 Being on the podcast so much. I encourage people to do it. Praise God. If you'd like to be on the 12 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:20,680 podcast, visit the Next Steps banner on our next big Sunday. You don't even have to wait till then. 13 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:29,400 You can reach out to us on social media, on social platforms. You can reach out to us through your 14 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:36,520 Grow Group leaders. And the reason for that is because this is Go Church Beirut and Go Church is 15 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:46,440 your place to love, to grow and to go. And we're excited for everyone to experience God's unconditional 16 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:53,520 love and grow in His love and then go with His love to the rest of the world. And Joseph is going 17 00:01:53,520 --> 00:02:01,520 with his love on the podcast. So we love it. Well, enough of follow Go Church on social media. 18 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,920 Let's talk about follow me. Yes. Yeah, right. This is the series for the month. This is the title 19 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:13,680 of the series for the month. It's a series about discipleship, about walking with the Lord and 20 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:21,800 coming closer to Him. So what our purpose is for this month is that I go church Beirut. We want to 21 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:27,240 ensure that everyone understands that following Jesus is not just gaining biblical knowledge or 22 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:35,840 being part of a teaching, but it's a lifetime journey of discipleship through every shared 23 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:42,560 experience. And how Joseph had described it, and we mentioned this, is discipleship is a 24 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:49,000 transformative journey. And it's a journey that each and every single believer is on. Once they 25 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:59,280 say yes to Jesus, I will follow you. This week, we're focusing on the second part. So our key 26 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:07,320 scripture involves what Jesus said to Simon and Andrew when he called them and he invited them to 27 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:16,080 be disciples. He said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And really, we're looking at 28 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:23,320 what Jesus said there. And there's a lot of a lot of light and a lot of a lot of truth that we can 29 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:30,320 see and pick out from. And this is what we did. So in week one, we talked about follow me. We talked 30 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:36,240 about what it looks like to say yes to the call of follow me. We talked about what it really means 31 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:44,440 to be a disciple. And we saw that in the example of who Jesus called in Mark chapter three, verse 32 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:52,600 14, we saw that in the illustration in loop chapter 10, where there's the interaction and the 33 00:03:52,600 --> 00:04:01,360 exchange between Mary and Martha and Jesus. And we even discussed this in our grow groups from the 34 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:09,400 illustration of the dynamics between Elijah and Elisha. We really emphasize the call to a relationship 35 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:16,960 and the call to be in a relationship. And this week, I'm very much looking forward to this because 36 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:24,560 I just find it like such a great topic to talk about and to emphasize in ourselves. And that is 37 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:34,520 the part where Jesus says, I will make you. And I really like the way that is worded in the passion 38 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:43,040 translation actually, because he says this, he says, come and follow me, and I will transform you into 39 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:50,080 men who catch people for God. I like that word transform. Because it's it really helps you see 40 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:58,360 it in a different light or in a different angle. He says, I will transform you. So I will take who 41 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:06,240 you are now. And I'm going to help that change and that mold and that, you know, look completely 42 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:12,840 different to what it looked like before, so that you can look like me. So yeah, that word change is 43 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:20,520 so key when we talk about discipleship. And you know, you you had made a comment last week in the 44 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:27,040 podcast about how different if you take a snapshot of your life three years ago versus today, how 45 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:34,880 different those pictures look. And you might be listening to this and say, Well, I would love for 46 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:47,280 that to happen to me. The way to get there is to do something today that is following Jesus, one of 47 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:53,160 the best ways to do that is to get involved in our reading plan. You know, we've shared in our 48 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:58,160 WhatsApp groups, and also in the grow groups about the reading plan. If you haven't done that yet, 49 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:05,800 it's not too late. You can you can get that and that's something that you can do today. And if you 50 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:12,280 do that again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day, and make a commitment to yourself and to 51 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:20,720 God, I'm going to do that for five days. Now, you won't see massive changes in five days, but you'll 52 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:31,080 notice a change. And if the thing is, if you do consistently spiritual things, you'll become a 53 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:39,320 spiritual strong person. If you follow Jesus today in your decisions, and then do it again tomorrow, 54 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:44,120 and then do it again tomorrow, he will lead you into the place that he has called you to be. 55 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:52,680 I love Pastor Matt, how you're making this practical into like simple steps. And those simple 56 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:59,640 steps, they lead into that place of growth, they lead into that place where I'm positioning myself 57 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:06,800 intentionally to change, you know, to be that disciple. So these are important things that I 58 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:13,760 can do in my life, daily, you know, this maybe it's so simple for me that I'm reading a scripture, 59 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:19,760 or a verse, or even I'm hearing someone from the Goat Church family sharing a reflection that might 60 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:28,360 change like a great thing in my life, I'll have a new perspective or a revelation that will impact 61 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:35,040 my life. So that's, that's amazing. This gets me thinking about something I did in the month of July. 62 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:44,800 So a friend and I, we decided we're going to do a push up challenge, you know, and we said no matter 63 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:49,680 what, every single day, we're going to do 50 push ups, and we're going to add a couple of things 64 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:54,920 like some bicep curls and some whatever whatever is and just different stuff. But we said, you know, 65 00:07:54,920 --> 00:08:01,000 every single day, the whole month we're gonna do 50 push ups. I know that for many people, it doesn't 66 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:05,600 sound like much. But if you're not doing them consistently, you're not, I think it sounds like 67 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:13,080 much. But if you're if you're not doing that, you know, consistently, and, and then you start doing a 68 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:20,760 little bit consistently, you realize that at the end of the 30 days, that's 1500 push ups more than 69 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:27,240 what I would have done, you know, on an average month. So, so these things build up like if you if 70 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:32,440 you realize that, you know, your little habits and your little decisions that you stick to, I mean, 71 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:37,480 I remember that there were some nights I'd be in bed at like midnight, like, I didn't do my push ups 72 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,800 today, I'd get out of bed and like, Seattle, my wife is already asleep. And I'm like, quietly 73 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:52,040 doing push ups in the room. If I could if I could apply that kind of discipline to, you know, to 74 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:57,880 what I know that the Lord would want me to do or want me to change or want me to move forward in 75 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:04,600 my life, where would I be spiritually? And I think that's very, very important. And which is really 76 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:11,640 what we want. And kind of the aim of growing together in grow groups is the accountability part. 77 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:18,760 So you do a challenge with someone like that. Then you have someone to hold you accountable. And in 78 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:25,320 grow groups, we can do these things together. We don't have to do them by ourselves and we can grow 79 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:31,720 together. Yeah. So I want to ask you, Joseph, a question, you know, when Jesus said, I will make 80 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:41,160 you, what is he trying to make me into? What is he trying to change? Well, basically, he wants to 81 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:49,960 shape me into that person that he sees me. And I always love to see it that way that I am being 82 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:58,440 changed and transformed to the same image that he is, because he is the great example that I can look 83 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:07,560 to and be like. That's really good. I mean, you made some notes about the fact that he wants to shape 84 00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:13,480 us in so many areas of our lives, right? And sometimes it seems like, what does this matter 85 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:19,160 if you're trying to get me to do this other thing over here, right? But you notice that 86 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:26,360 all of these things matter to God, because if you want to change something on the outside, 87 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:32,760 you got to start with something on the inside. If I want to do the 50 pushups on the outside, 88 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:38,200 the most difficult part of those 50 pushups a day was the mental game of like, I'm going to do them 89 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:42,440 no matter what I feel like, you know, and so something on the inside needs to click before, 90 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:48,760 you know, something on the outside really starts taking shape or taking form. And you mentioned that, 91 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:56,040 you know, he wants to change our mentality, our character, you know, he wants to change things 92 00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:02,520 about our faith walk as well. And the gifts and talents that he put in us, he wants to mold them 93 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:09,320 and develop them. And even our purpose or our vision, or our understanding of our purpose, 94 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:16,040 he wants to change that. Yeah, I love the way that you mentioned the pushups and the way that you 95 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:24,920 are going towards that. So right now, if I ask Gilbert, could you lift like 500 pounds or 1000 96 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:32,600 pounds or whatever that is more than your capacity and capability? What would you say? No, he would 97 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:38,680 probably say he doesn't know what pounds are because those are freedom. Yeah, so lifting 98 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:47,880 high weight. How many liters is that 200 kilos. Yeah, so let's say 200 kilos. If I want to weight 99 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:56,440 200 kilos, and my body doesn't allow me to do so, what I need to do is that I want to build that body 100 00:11:56,440 --> 00:12:05,000 that I can achieve that in the future. My aim is to lift 200 kilos. But my body doesn't lift it yet. 101 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:12,840 So what I need to do is that I need to work on my body so I am able to do so. So this is like maybe 102 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:19,240 a simple illustration of how Jesus works in our lives. Jesus sees our future and he knows what 103 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:26,520 he wants us to do. But for us to go there and do whatever we need to do, there's a process 104 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:34,920 of shaping, you know, shape our minds, how we think, shape our characters, how we conceive things, 105 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:40,840 how we look to things. You know, I could be a person that I am grumpy all the time, or I'm 106 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:47,880 tiki, I get angry so quick, or I'm emotional, or I laugh all the time, you know, it's not 107 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:53,320 all the negative things. Is that not driven by temperature? So like in summer I tend to, you 108 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:59,880 know, heat up a little bit. But really, this is a good illustration because the important 109 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:05,800 point here is if you're going to follow Jesus and he's going to make us into something, that 110 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:14,120 starts where we are, not where we want to be. And Joseph, we could talk a little bit about your 111 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:21,480 story about how you had a very early on, you had a vision for God using you in ministry, 112 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:30,360 but that's not where you started. Yeah. So when I first started following Jesus, getting 113 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:36,920 to be introduced to Jesus, I had that calling inside of me that I want to serve him, that 114 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:45,320 feeling that I want to serve him, do whatever he called me to do, you know, go talk about him, 115 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:52,760 preach the gospel, reaching out to the nations. And then I started having in me that one day I'm 116 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:59,800 going to do that, one day I'm going to be in full-time ministry, and the Lord has brought that in 117 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:06,280 words. He confirmed that I saw dreams and all of that. For me seeing that I got so excited and I 118 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:13,000 want to do it right now. For me like it was, I want to do it right now. And I started taking 119 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,000 actions towards that which I failed. And then I wondered why I felt like, am I doing something 120 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:25,480 wrong? But then I realized that there is a time of preparation. There is a time where I need 121 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:32,440 to put myself in a place where certain things need to change in me, you know, to grow, to gain 122 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:40,360 knowledge, to gain experience, to gain growth. And that happened with me through life experiences, 123 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:47,480 which I succeeded a lot of times, which I failed a lot of times. I learned from my failures and I 124 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:54,920 learned from the things that I was successful in. So after I can say maybe 12 years and 13 years 125 00:14:54,920 --> 00:15:01,480 right now, I'm kind of stepping into what God called me to serve Him in full-time. 126 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:02,520 And you're just getting started? 127 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:10,760 Yeah, and not just that, I can say that I'm also learning and I'm also being trained and 128 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:19,160 discipled in a place where I can do that. You know, I am positioned into a position of discipleship. 129 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:24,600 And I remember these words that I'm not gonna forget all of my life when 130 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:31,640 Pastor Matt Beamer told me, we were sitting together, he told me, like, looking into the future, 131 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:35,960 what would you do? I said, man, I would go into the nations and preach the gospel. 132 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:42,600 And he started talking about a process and then I started joining in into this 133 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:50,040 things that we are doing. And I was like, wow, I didn't know that. I'm learning this and that. 134 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:59,000 How do I develop in that? I'm failing in this. But you know, success and discipleship is, 135 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:07,400 I can say this, discipleship is successful with you. And you are growing whenever you are looking 136 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:14,680 to people has done something and succeeded and you start being like them, imitate, imitate them 137 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:21,160 in what they are doing. You know, this is how I grow is that I look to Gilbert and I see Jesus 138 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:27,240 inside of him. I look to Pastor Matt and I see Jesus inside of him. And right now this is my first 139 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:32,840 podcast. And right now I'm doing it, you know, first of many, yeah, first of many, for sure. 140 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:38,920 Next time I'm going to do better. Next time I'm going to learn more. But you know, the point 141 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:50,040 here, and we can see this in 1 Timothy. Okay. With when Jesus saw Peter, he says, come, follow me, 142 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:56,840 there's purpose in that. Right. But the things that Peter did initially, some of the things he 143 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:03,480 did were actually wrong. So some of the things that he did were very natural. And it wasn't, 144 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:12,920 it didn't look like the things that Peter would eventually do. Yeah. But they prepared him for 145 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:19,800 it. And that was that process of making in and Gilbert, you know, you made some notes here, 146 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:27,240 1 Timothy chapter three, and 2 Timothy chapter two, talks about shaping. If you read these, 147 00:17:28,120 --> 00:17:33,640 you can kind of get the, you can kind of get what you said about, well, I can't lift 200 kilos today. 148 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:42,840 Paul tells Timothy, here's some qualifications for being used by God in his service. And none of them 149 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:50,200 are be a charismatic speaker. Yeah, they're all like, live right, have a good character. It's 150 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:56,600 all character, right? How you order your daily life. And you can read that and get the idea of 151 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:02,440 kind of like the same thing, I can't lift 200 kilos. Well, start with 20. Yeah, exactly. And 152 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:08,680 you know, start where you are and start making changes. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to, I want to 153 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:15,400 read this verse in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse 10. So actually, throughout 1 Timothy, 154 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:21,800 chapter three, versus one through to 13, it's really, you know, Paul is really talking about 155 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:27,720 the character requirements to be in a position of service, you know, obviously the position of 156 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:33,960 service requires, you know, there are certain functions that are required, there are certain 157 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:38,760 things that need to happen, you know, there are natural things, spiritual things, all sorts of 158 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:43,800 things. He's talking to elders and he's also talking to deacons, you know, deacons are effectively 159 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:49,720 servers, people who help in natural things a lot of the time. And verse 10, he says, 160 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:54,600 each of them must be found trustworthy according to these standards of character, 161 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:59,240 before they are given the responsibility to minister as servant leaders without blame. 162 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,640 And, you know, it just gets me thinking, you know, if we think of another illustration, 163 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:09,240 no one wants to be in a car driving, you know, around, let's say a Formula One track at like 164 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:15,640 300 kilometers per hour on bad tires with no brakes. Like you want to make sure that every 165 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:24,120 component is ready to go, it can withstand the elements, right? withstand that level of temperature, 166 00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:31,080 withstand that level of performance required, that level of braking capacity required, 167 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:36,280 you don't want to hit a wall. What a great illustration. And you know, what got it ready 168 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:42,680 was not time on the track, what got it ready was time on the lift with people that knew what they 169 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:51,320 were doing. Yeah, that's right. That's awesome. You know, I kind of want to hit on something here, 170 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,680 because, you know, we're talking about follow Jesus, follow Jesus. I heard one, I heard this person 171 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:05,640 say once, they said, I follow Jesus, I don't follow, I don't follow people. That sounds really good. 172 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:16,360 Right? I mean, I think that that sounds amazing. In fact, people are flawed. People can maybe say 173 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:22,440 maybe say the wrong things mean the wrong things. It sounds good, except it's not scriptural. 174 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:30,760 Yeah. First Corinthians, first Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul told the church in Corinth, 175 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:43,240 he said, be followers of me, even as I also follow Christ. So Paul sets a measure there. 176 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:50,840 He says, you measure, measure me up against Christ. I'm not the measure. Christ is the measure. 177 00:20:52,680 --> 00:21:01,160 But you follow me as I'm following him. This idea that, well, I'm going to separate myself 178 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:07,800 from people, and I'm just going to follow Jesus directly. Like I said, it sounds good. 179 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:16,280 But it is not biblical because Jesus, when he ascended, Ephesians says that he set gifts in the 180 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:25,480 church, and those gifts are set in the church for a purpose. The purpose is the, like the Formula 181 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:32,520 1 car that's up on the lift. The purpose is to, you know, pull this hub assembly off your car, guy 182 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:40,920 Joseph, to dig around in there and change, make changes and components to increase performance. 183 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:49,320 There are gifts that have been set by Jesus in the church, and those gifts or those offices 184 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:58,760 are occupied by people. And to, to follow Jesus, we need to follow and respect the authority that 185 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:08,200 he has set in the church. This isn't about, like, being subservient to someone or, you know, being 186 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:15,160 some, you know, kissing rings or wearing funny hats. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about 187 00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:25,320 respecting that God has put gifts and he has empowered gifts by the Holy Spirit in the church 188 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:34,600 to mature us, to bring us up into the place that he's called us. That making happens in the church. 189 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:42,040 This making into a disciple. It doesn't happen just, you know, off on a mountaintop, off by yourself. 190 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:48,440 It happens in the community of the local church, and that's the purpose of the church. 191 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:54,440 Yeah, that's really good. You know, that's actually what Joseph put down in these notes. You know, 192 00:22:54,440 --> 00:23:01,720 if we ask, how does God make us, you know, I'm going back to the key scripture point, but like, 193 00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:07,640 how does he transform us? How does he change us? You know, what, what Joseph said and correctly, 194 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,280 and this is something we'll talk about in our girl groups, but, you know, he changes us through his 195 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:17,400 word and he changes us through the church that he put us in. It's so important. I do, I do, I do 196 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:23,400 want to say one other thing because we refer to 2 Timothy. And I think that's an important point of 197 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:28,840 discussion to note, especially during girl groups is that, so, so let me, let me read this out, 198 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:35,880 actually, let me read the scripture. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 20 and 21 says this. So this is, 199 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:41,720 again, Paul speaking to Timothy as a leader in the church, in a wealthy home, some utensils are made 200 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:47,720 of gold and silver and some are made of wooden clay. The expensive utensils are used for special 201 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:53,720 occasions and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a 202 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:59,000 special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean and you will be ready for the master to 203 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:05,080 use you for every good work. So what I, what I am trying to say in this point of discussion, 204 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:11,640 or, you know, I'm trying to tilt the discussion a little bit is to say that we have a saying 205 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:19,480 in Jesus making us something. We have a say in the change and it is our own responsibility to 206 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,960 keep ourselves pure. This is, this is where the illustration of the formula one car breaks down 207 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:29,880 because we're not just sitting on a lift. We are actively involved in the change. We're actively 208 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:36,040 involved in the transformation and we have to allow God to do that in us and for us so that we can 209 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:44,440 go further. Yeah, there was a pastor made a comment to me once. He said, he said, God can do the greatest 210 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:51,800 things in people that put themselves in a position where their pastor can touch their life deeply. 211 00:24:53,480 --> 00:25:00,920 And that's such a rich statement. Can you repeat that, please? God can do such great things 212 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:08,840 in people who put themselves in a position where their pastor can touch their life deeply. 213 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:18,600 And we, the context of that conversation was I had met someone from their church and I just, 214 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:25,800 I made a comment back to their pastor. I said, this, you know, this person has grown up in your 215 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:34,680 church. They are an amazing representative of Jesus. And so I was, I was complimenting the 216 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:42,920 pastor and he made that comment. I'll never forget it. You know, we are talking about church and I 217 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:49,720 remember this comment also came from a preacher. It's he was saying, you are so perfect and you 218 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:57,160 are so great when you are alone in your room. But the thing is that if I need to change, I need to 219 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:03,240 be around people. A lot of times I'm seeing positive in people and I want to imitate that. I want to 220 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:09,000 be that. And that is so biblical. Thank you for sharing that. That I want to be that successful 221 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:15,320 person that I am seeing in front of me. I want to imitate the good things. But a lot of times also 222 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:21,320 there's the challenges that come that changes me, you know, that rock hitting the rock on each other 223 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:27,800 and it's going to have the same surface. Like, how am I going to know that I have a temper if I'm 224 00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:34,120 sitting in a room alone? And how am I going to know I need to work on my temper if nothing is like 225 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:39,320 scrubbing on me? Like when proverb says that iron sharpens iron, right? So I'm walking next to 226 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:45,320 Gilbert and we hit shoulders together like I have this thing inside of me like, oh my god. Is it 227 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:52,600 before after my 50 push up challenge? No, before after. I'm going to say I'm sorry. No, it's so 228 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:59,720 good. And I actually you said that you heard a minister say that I was here in Lebanon. It was in 229 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:10,360 2015. No, sorry. It was in 2016. And I was visiting a church, a Lebanese church, there was a gathering 230 00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:18,760 of youth. Maybe there were eight people there. One of the one of the guys that was there was 16 years 231 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:26,920 old. He had given his life to Jesus in the pastor's home three or four days ago. Three or four days 232 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:33,320 before this. So we're all sitting and they had asked me to share a Bible lesson. And so I finished 233 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:39,320 teaching and I'm done. We're all finished. Everyone's sitting around having coffee, eating, 234 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:49,160 you know, the meeting's over. This kid 16 year old kid, he said, you know, I think I understand 235 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:57,080 what church is for. I said, Yeah, what's that? He said, if I'm by myself, I don't see anything wrong 236 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:03,640 with me. He said, but when I'm around other people that are following Jesus, I see things I need to 237 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:14,520 change. I'm like, wow. That's amazing. Please, please, you know, write that down for me. It was, it 238 00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:24,040 was, it was so good. It was such pure wisdom. And it was an honest assessment where you realize 239 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:30,920 what you just said, you're sitting in a room by yourself. Everything's fine. But when you get out 240 00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:36,440 and you get in elements and you get rubbed up against other people, that's where you realize, 241 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:44,360 there are things about me that need to change. And if you still think that there are things 242 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:50,040 about other people that need to change, rewind what I just said, because I'm talking to you. 243 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:56,040 So let me, let me recap this. And this is, I'm going back to the points that Joseph really put 244 00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:05,960 down. The way that God transforms us or changes us in this case is through his word, you know, 245 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:13,000 the scripture talks about the washing of the word, how that makes us pure. And also through his church, 246 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:19,000 because once we come into that position, we see our place, we see what we're meant to be, 247 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,560 and we see what we're supposed to look like. And then we see the deficiency, right? So going back 248 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:30,280 to the body, you know, when, you know, if a bicep is not on an arm, sorry, I'm using a lot of these 249 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:35,160 illustrations for some reason today, but if it's not on an arm, it looks fine. But if it's on a body 250 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:40,520 builder's arm, and it's like my bicep, it's like, this looks way too small. It needs to grow now. 251 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:45,720 You know what I mean? And with the growth comes the strength. But I do want to, for the sake of 252 00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,960 time, I do want to move on and introduce the Bible illustration that we want to talk about 253 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:56,120 this month in our grow groups. And I want to go back to that, what we were talking about last week 254 00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:03,080 about Peter and the change in Peter. And I think it's a great discussion point, because we see that, 255 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:08,120 we see him in our key scripture, right? We see that Jesus called him and he said, 256 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:12,600 specifically to Peter and his brother Andrew, follow me, I will make you fishers of men. 257 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:17,880 And we see that at that point in time, they're called disciples, you know, when Jesus, you know, 258 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:23,800 they follow Jesus, they're with Jesus the whole time through, they see him go up and ascend to heaven. 259 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:31,560 And, and then, you know, they get told, what are you doing staring at the clouds? Go, go, go, 260 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:37,080 do what he told you to do. And you think, oh, that's it, they haven't made, they figured everything 261 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:44,280 out, they have what they, that's not true. Like, as they go, there is still room for change, room 262 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:50,920 for discipleship, room for growth, and room for a change of mind, the change of character, a change 263 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:56,360 of heart, you know, a change of vision, a change of purpose, understanding of your purpose. And we 264 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:02,280 see those things in Peter. So the example we want to talk about is throughout the book of 265 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:11,000 Acts, in chapter 10, we see this, this situation, because up until that point in time, you know, 266 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:19,640 the church consists of Jewish people. So like in the Old Testament, the people of God were the 267 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:26,840 Jewish people. And in the, and as we move into the New Testament, we see that they understand, 268 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:31,560 you know, the doctrine of grace, they understand righteousness, they understand that it's no longer 269 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:37,000 my works, it's no longer the law that makes me right with God, it is what Jesus did. They believe 270 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:44,760 in Jesus. So they, they walk into this new covenant through Jesus. But the nations, you know, the rest 271 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:50,520 of the people groups, that wasn't open to them at that point in time. That wasn't something that was 272 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:55,960 seen as acceptable to the Jews at that point in time. They thought that Jesus was for them. 273 00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:03,640 For the Jews alone. And, you know, this is something that we see from in Galatians in chapter 2 274 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:09,240 that Peter struggled with, because even, even Paul had to correct him at that point in time and say, 275 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:14,840 you know, when the Jews come and the Jewish leaders come, you're, you're moving away from 276 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,760 non-Jews and, you know, you're only sticking to these kind of people. And that's wrong, you know. 277 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:25,160 So we know that, you know, he had this, this point, like this sticking point or this struggle, 278 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:33,720 but at this point in time, in Acts chapter 10, you know, Peter is just on the roof of the house 279 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:41,720 waiting for a meal to be cooked. And at this point, you know, he falls into a trance and he has a 280 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:49,160 vision and God gives him a vision. And what the Lord does is he shows him, you know, all kinds of 281 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:57,960 animals that were not permitted to be eaten according to Jewish law. And he says, you know, 282 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:05,560 rise and eat, right? I mean, I'm paraphrasing here. This is not exactly the words. And 283 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:12,840 Peter responds, no, Lord, imagine God gives you a vision, you know, you're sitting there. 284 00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:19,320 You know, God's telling you something and you say, no, Lord, I've never eaten unclean animals. 285 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:23,400 Not only does it happen once, but it has to happen three times for him to understand this point. 286 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:31,720 So it took, it took a vision from God. It took God saying this to him three times, you know, 287 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:37,960 to, for him to digest the fact that something's changing and something in my mind needs to change 288 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:45,080 here so that I can get to the next step. And, you know, in that time, the Lord is orchestrating 289 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:52,120 steps to have Peter go visit the house of Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman centurion. 290 00:33:53,880 --> 00:34:00,520 And he was a believer in God, but he wasn't in covenant with God. And the Lord was trying to 291 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:05,400 get him to hear the message of salvation through Jesus so that he could bring him in. 292 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:12,040 And until that point, there were actually no non-Jews. So this is probably bad English, but 293 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:19,080 there, there were no Gentiles. There were no people outside of the Jewish community who had 294 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:26,520 believed in Jesus and who had received salvation through Jesus. And if the Lord never showed 295 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:31,160 these things to Peter, Peter could have never digested that in his mind that I need to change 296 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:36,200 because I need to give them that message and they need to receive this thing that God's trying to get 297 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:44,120 to them. So I'm just sharing this illustration and it is worth before getting to the girl group, 298 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:50,040 read through Acts chapter 10, pick these things out, see them for yourselves, understand that 299 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,920 from Peter's perspective, there were blocking points and there were things that needed to change 300 00:34:54,920 --> 00:35:02,040 for him to get to that next level. Well, and as you read it, I mean, you did a brilliant job of 301 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:09,880 explaining it and explaining the context to make this practical for us. You can apply the same 302 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:19,160 thing to any of our cultural habits. You know, it's, it's amazing to think about, but there are 303 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:26,760 still some people that are prejudiced against other groups. There are people that they think, 304 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:35,800 oh, you belong to this group of people or you're from this area or you were raised in this way. 305 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:45,880 That means, and then they apply this like blanket thing. And the Bible here, this message to Peter 306 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:57,480 is very clear. Don't call unclean what I have cleaned. That's so big. Because the Bible says 307 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:05,880 that Christ died for the ungodly. So if you think of some group of people and you think, 308 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:14,360 they're very bad, great, they qualify. They qualify for the cleansing blood of Jesus and the love of 309 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:21,640 God. And you know what I love about Peter? It is the process of maturity that he went with the Lord. 310 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:27,960 As we were speaking in the podcast that go look to the life of Peter, just study it. 311 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:37,560 If you read about the Gentiles, basically they were people, they rejected God. And for Peter, 312 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:43,080 like you can see that, oh, I'm not going to do that. I'm gonna, I'm not going to touch the unclean, 313 00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:50,760 which it was in their culture. But in a place, Peter rejected God, rejected him three times. 314 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:57,720 And Jesus had, he rejected Jesus. And then Jesus had to tell him, do you love me? Go take care of my 315 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:05,080 sheep, feed my sheep and do that. And he was in a place where he experienced this kind of things, 316 00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:10,920 where, okay, this guy has rejected you, this guy has killed your people. And now I have to go to 317 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:18,760 him. You know, it was that process of the adjustment that he needed to do inside of him. And it was 318 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:27,160 a process of maturity that I believe that everyone needs to do. Before I'm looking to another person, 319 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:33,480 I need to look at myself and what I have been going through and what I have been forgiven of 320 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:43,080 and what I have done, that I had to be like what got me here in the first place. So that is something 321 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:49,960 that also I need to look in that I need to mature. And the things that I'm seeing in the life of others, 322 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:56,680 you know, I need to grow in those things. I am responsible for my own growth and my own 323 00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:08,280 change, change of mentality, change of like how I see things, how I see people. But people play a big part in that. So I need to be more open. 324 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:26,280 So I can give a quick example in my life about how the Lord needed me to make changes in my ways and my character. And these are small things. Like, you know, before I really understood these things, I'd be very loose with my words. Like, I will probably, you know, swear a lot more than I did now. 325 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:43,880 But, you know, there's just silly things I would say. And the fact is, you know, the requirement for change in my attitude or requirement for a change in my character came far before me sitting on a podcast speaking the word of God and the word of life. 326 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:55,160 And this is something that he needed me to change so that I could be sitting here. You know, I couldn't be very loose with my words and then handle something with the same mouth that is so precious as the word of God. 327 00:38:55,160 --> 00:39:07,960 And that is something that, you know, we can see in all of our lives if we look close enough that he had to make changes in us before we got to that point where he could use us in that area. 328 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:25,240 And you know, the good thing that, the good thing I see in this illustration with Peter and going to Cornelius' houses, that to go there, there was a purpose and it was a great purpose. And you see what Paul did. 329 00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:41,080 And you see what Jesus did with Paul. But the purpose of Peter that he had to make certain adjustments before he goes there, but he was going into a purpose. God doesn't do anything on earth without a purpose. 330 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:52,920 You know, it's just like the story was not made just to write it in the Bible, but it teaches us a great lesson. So in a very short time, Peter had to do that adjustment. 331 00:39:52,920 --> 00:40:01,720 He had to do that work inside of him, you know, of growth and the ways that he was thinking to go to serve that purpose. 332 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:09,240 Praise God. Well, we're, I wouldn't say we're out of time, but we're actually over time. But I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. 333 00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:17,720 This is such a good discussion and it's practical. You know, what we're talking about here is you want to see change in your life. This is how you do it. 334 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:27,400 That's right. And part of it is putting yourself in that position. One of the things, Joseph, I just love that you said, putting yourself in that position of a disciple. 335 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:38,040 Yeah. Not something that, oh, it happened to me in the past. I've made all these changes. No, no. I'm looking today. What are the things that I need to change today? 336 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:44,840 And there's, there are always things, right? I mean, there are things that I'm looking forward that the Lord corrects me and he keeps correcting me. 337 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:53,160 You know, and that's something that I want because I know that by doing that, I can in the future see him using me more. 338 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:59,880 Yes. And that's something to look forward to, right? So a change now means results later. 339 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:07,240 And, and do you know, it's, it's good. If you think about it, it's good. I'm becoming a better version of me and who God wants me to be. 340 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:08,040 So that's right. 341 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:15,560 Well, if no one told you, we love you and we're praying for you. God bless you. 342 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:26,200 Thank you for listening to this message. We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, 343 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:33,800 growing his love and go with his love to the rest of their world. We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups or our next gathering. 344 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:38,760 And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.