Speaker 1: Welcome Just hand Away Tagalog Sermon podcast. Your daily does
Speaker 1: of inspiring, heartfelt tagalog sermons from different factors and speakers
Speaker 1: all over the Philippines. We hope that this podcast finds
Speaker 1: you in good shape. And now here's your message. Are
Speaker 1: starting our sers entitled on a Journey because we know
Speaker 1: that life is a journey. It's not something that we
Speaker 1: do on compartments. It's not something that we switch on
Speaker 1: and off. It's something that we encounter in a journey.
Speaker 1: It's a road trip. And when we talk about a journey,
Speaker 1: we know this that our Christianity is also a journey.
Speaker 1: And that's why I like this quote. I couldn't find
Speaker 1: the author of the quote, but it says here, my
Speaker 1: life is a journey with God. It may be hard sometimes,
Speaker 1: but I'm assured it will all be worth it. How
Speaker 1: many of you agree with the statement that our life
Speaker 1: with God is all worth it? Amen? And when we
Speaker 1: talk about our life with God, we know it's not perfect.
Speaker 1: You know it will be full of trials and challenges,
Speaker 1: but we know that we are in the blessed best
Speaker 1: place when we are with the Lord. And so for
Speaker 1: the next three weeks, we will be talking about our
Speaker 1: journey as people of God. When we say people of God,
Speaker 1: most of us encounter God in a very personal way.
Speaker 1: Someone who would actually share their testimony about meeting Jesus
Speaker 1: is always very personal. It's unique from everyone, right. It's
Speaker 1: how I remember. No, when I was twenty years old,
Speaker 1: I was attending Victory Galleria for the first time, and
Speaker 1: I was just there curious. Somebody brought me there. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, the preacher was preaching a word as
Speaker 1: if nobody was sitting except me, as if everything that
Speaker 1: the preacher was saying was all about my situation. Naphila
Speaker 1: bayonagan it zeros in on you, and Matai sabimo ubig
Speaker 1: and Cobananak invites a quastor at etima casalan and go.
Speaker 1: It's something that is personal and something that when we
Speaker 1: encounter we know that it is between us and God,
Speaker 1: and so it starts with an encounter with him. At
Speaker 1: the same time, what happens after the encounter with God?
Speaker 1: All of us have that there is an invitation from God.
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter four, verse nineteen and twenty says, and this
Speaker 1: is when Jesus was actually walking by the Sea of Galilee,
Speaker 1: he sees two brothers, Simon who is known also as
Speaker 1: Peter and his brother Andrew. And when he sees them Nasalazilla,
Speaker 1: he says this, what is his invitation? In verse nineteen,
Speaker 1: follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Speaker 1: What did they say? Immediately? The response was immediate. They
Speaker 1: left everything to follow Jesus. They followed him. You know,
Speaker 1: in this day and age, when we say follow, what
Speaker 1: does it mean? Think about it? What do you mean
Speaker 1: when you say I follow someone? You know? Recently? Matthew?
Speaker 1: You know Matthew the oil Ambario. Do you guys know Matthew?
Speaker 1: Who's Matthew? Matthew is one of the friends. Anyways, you'll
Speaker 1: get that later. Anyway, Matthew Perry actually started an Instagram account.
Speaker 1: Do you know this? For those who know this, he
Speaker 1: actually started an Instagram account and news came up. You
Speaker 1: know why because in twenty four hours he actually had
Speaker 1: four million followers. Grab grabno, okay or thank you for today?
Speaker 1: I know it's hard, no, but yes, you're here to
Speaker 1: worship God. And so he starts his Instagram account and
Speaker 1: for only twenty four hours he gets twenty four million followers.
Speaker 1: Some of us are followers of Matthew Perry the guy
Speaker 1: from Friends Ossi Cherish is also a follower and Jay
Speaker 1: name and so how many of you have Instagram accounts?
Speaker 1: Can you raise your hands? Okay? Facebook friends their none
Speaker 1: no friends. You know, when we follow someone now, it
Speaker 1: may seem that you just watch from afar right. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you know them personally, doesn't mean you believe
Speaker 1: in what they say. It doesn't mean you're friends with them.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that you're close with them. And to
Speaker 1: follow nowadays seems to be detached. It's something that is
Speaker 1: far from you. It's something that is not very personal.
Speaker 1: But the Bible talks about a different kind of word follow,
Speaker 1: and today this is what we want to talk about.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1: The Greek word follow is a colotheo, which means to
Speaker 1: be a disciple. To follow means to be a disciple.
Speaker 1: And we know this because this is who we are.
Speaker 1: What do we say here in victory we honor God
Speaker 1: and make disciples? Why? Because we are disciples? We are
Speaker 1: followers of God. I assume that we are all here
Speaker 1: because we are all followers of God. And so the
Speaker 1: question is if it is defined differently today compared to
Speaker 1: the Bible. A good question to ask each and every
Speaker 1: one of us today is are we truly a follower
Speaker 1: of Jesus? Ab I considered a true follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's a good time to actually think about it. Do
Speaker 1: I consider myself a follower? I attend church, I give
Speaker 1: my dith, I read the Bible. I am considered a
Speaker 1: follower of Jesus. You know, it's scary when it comes
Speaker 1: to whenever I read the Book of Matthew, because there's
Speaker 1: always this part that says Jesus said, Lord Lord. Not
Speaker 1: everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of Heaven. And so I don't want to live my
Speaker 1: life as if I think I'm following Jesus, but I'm not.
Speaker 1: Why because when I call him Jesus, what does it
Speaker 1: really mean to follow Jesus? And our word for today
Speaker 1: is found in John. If you have your Bibles with you,
Speaker 1: please open it to John chapter eight. We're only going
Speaker 1: through one verse today, John chapter eight, verse thirty one,
Speaker 1: And so I want you all of us to read
Speaker 1: it all together if you're ready. Verse thirty one. So
Speaker 1: Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him.
Speaker 1: You you are truly my disciples. Can we read that
Speaker 1: statement from the encircled part. If in my word you
Speaker 1: are truly my disciples. It's a very simple statement. It
Speaker 1: says here, how do you be a follower of Jesus?
Speaker 1: And he says it straight. All you have to do
Speaker 1: is abide in his teaching, abide in his word, and
Speaker 1: now you are truly a disciple. First is we need
Speaker 1: to believe, says here. We believe in who he is
Speaker 1: and what he does. It's hard to believe someone and
Speaker 1: hard to follow him if we do not believe him.
Speaker 1: How many of you here believe in who Jesus is?
Speaker 1: In Senatata, Nina, Manihan and Kama Cinema. All of us
Speaker 1: I believe believe in who Jesus is. What do we
Speaker 1: need to do? We need to abide in the world.
Speaker 1: You know, the word abide means so much more, and
Speaker 1: I want to concentrate on that word today and for
Speaker 1: the next few minutes. What is it to abide? And
Speaker 1: so today to follow Jesus is to abide in him.
Speaker 1: This is the formula, this is the text. If I
Speaker 1: am a follower of Jesus, I need to abide in Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so the question is what is abide? If you
Speaker 1: are here and you do your devotion on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: I'm curious what Bible do you use? ESV, NIV, NLT. Okay,
Speaker 1: and so I use ESV usually and NLT. But whenever
Speaker 1: I study the word, especially when I need to preach
Speaker 1: and understand the word carefully, I have I want to
Speaker 1: share you a tip so that you can also learn more. Okay,
Speaker 1: on and so later not now, please keep your phones
Speaker 1: moon nap. All you have to remember is this website
Speaker 1: called Bible Gateway. I always go to Bible Gateway, why
Speaker 1: because I can actually look at a verse side by
Speaker 1: side with different versions, and this is how it looks like.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is look for that icon
Speaker 1: so that you can put multiple verses and see it
Speaker 1: in one sitting. You will see the difference on how
Speaker 1: it is in the NIV, with the difference words in ESV.
Speaker 1: And So today I was studying the word abide for
Speaker 1: a few days already, and I've been saying, Lord, what
Speaker 1: do you really mean by abide? Because for me, the
Speaker 1: first concept of abide is just to follow law abiding citizen.
Speaker 1: And so I narrowed it down and chose three things
Speaker 1: that I want to share with you today on what
Speaker 1: it is to abide. And this is the first one
Speaker 1: and the complete Jewish Bible, it says so Yeshua, this
Speaker 1: is Jesus. So Yeshua said to the Judeans who had
Speaker 1: trusted him, what does that mean? To believe is also
Speaker 1: to trust? And so he said this, if you what
Speaker 1: is the word obey? If you obey what I say,
Speaker 1: then you are truly my disciples. So what does the
Speaker 1: abide mean? Now? Abide means to obey. When talk about obedience,
Speaker 1: we know it's not easy, Tamaba. You know I as
Speaker 1: a preacher, I've heard this feedback, even from people I
Speaker 1: know that are close. I mean, Alamo, bro. There are
Speaker 1: people who say I Parana preaching, Nayanan preaching paul it
Speaker 1: ul it. And whenever I hear responses like that, I
Speaker 1: actually feel sad, not because I sometimes preach the same message,
Speaker 1: but because how the person receives the preaching. You want
Speaker 1: don't know why, because number one, we are people who
Speaker 1: easily forget. Number two, there are things that we really
Speaker 1: need to hear and hear. And so the question that
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask the person who said this feedback
Speaker 1: is did you obey the first time? The second question
Speaker 1: I want to ask is in the preachings that here,
Speaker 1: once in a while, it may be repeating, are you
Speaker 1: still obeying the word of God? You know, we're not
Speaker 1: here to all just learn. It's good to learn, but
Speaker 1: if we do not obey the word, there's a problem.
Speaker 1: Obedience is the key to know who God is and
Speaker 1: to follow him. Yeh, I'm my hea up than you?
Speaker 1: How do I say it? My hea up you? Whenever
Speaker 1: we think why? Because I believe the Word of God
Speaker 1: is living in active, I can actually preach the same
Speaker 1: text here over and over every week, but it might
Speaker 1: be different for us. Amen, because the Word of God
Speaker 1: is not only meant for us to learn. The Word
Speaker 1: of God is here for us to be obedient to it.
Speaker 1: Can I be just very honest with all of you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm just waiting for the rest. Brong issue
Speaker 1: with Edza love and hate non yellow lane. And so
Speaker 1: I realized that whenever I'm in the right lane, which
Speaker 1: is the left side, that was when you see the
Speaker 1: yellow lane empty naha yellow lane, Yes, the bae why
Speaker 1: because we are Christians? Yellow is safe and so especially
Speaker 1: in the area near our house in bonis Erano under
Speaker 1: pass Malua Glagi don't and so every time I passed
Speaker 1: their parent don't don't don't No, okay, Kanti lam half
Speaker 1: long so feeling on new videos now young in the
Speaker 1: alum lef. You know I could actually debate with everyone.
Speaker 1: My wife would hate me for this. No, every time
Speaker 1: I'm in this part of m MD chairman, you get
Speaker 1: on and I realized this. When it comes to our spirituality,
Speaker 1: we can actually debate all we want. But the question
Speaker 1: is are we still willing to obey the word? You know,
Speaker 1: God is not looking for debaters. He's not He's not
Speaker 1: inviting us to debate with him. He's not there to
Speaker 1: actually say a question in your what God is. What
Speaker 1: God is inviting us to do is to be followers,
Speaker 1: followers of the world. To be a follower of Jesus
Speaker 1: is to follow his word. I'm not saying we should
Speaker 1: not question. We may have a lot of questions. It's
Speaker 1: good to ask God, but the question is are you
Speaker 1: willing to trust him and obey? The Bible says we
Speaker 1: live by faith and not by side. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: We don't need proof first to do it. We just
Speaker 1: do it anyway, why because we can trust him. We
Speaker 1: do it because we trust him and we follow God.
Speaker 1: Another thing about obedience is this, obedience is better than sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Can you say that with me? Obedience is better than sacrifice?
Speaker 1: Do you know what that means? In First Samuel Chapter five,
Speaker 1: chapter fifteen, rather Samuel was talking about this that a
Speaker 1: lot of people were actually bringing stuff to God. They
Speaker 1: would say, Lord, I would do this for you, Lord,
Speaker 1: I would actually donate, I would serve you, I would
Speaker 1: be an usher for all. But you know, God is
Speaker 1: more pleased with our obedience rather than our sacrifice. He's
Speaker 1: not looking for the things that we can give him.
Speaker 1: He's actually looking at the things that we need to
Speaker 1: obey him. Sometimes we think that we can be better
Speaker 1: with God if we just do this for him, if
Speaker 1: we just do that. But the reality is, is God
Speaker 1: really asking you to do that? Is God really asking
Speaker 1: you to sacrifice this? It means an ahinihingilani, Lord is
Speaker 1: stop doing that because that's wrong. You know, we cannot
Speaker 1: have that favor of the Lord by doing good things
Speaker 1: and yet doing sinful things continuously. What he is after
Speaker 1: is our heart. Amen. It's not the sacrifice says that
Speaker 1: we do, okay. So abiding is obeying. To abide in
Speaker 1: the Lord is to obey. And what else? In the
Speaker 1: white Cliffe version why Cliffe Bible version, it says, therefore
Speaker 1: Jesus said to the Jews that believed in him, if
Speaker 1: you what's the word dwell? If you dwell in my
Speaker 1: word verily, ye shall be my disciples. He imaha texts
Speaker 1: that are very deep. No merumpangye do you still have
Speaker 1: a bible? That may ye? King James, I practice that.
Speaker 1: And when I'm home and yee I need water, ye
Speaker 1: I'm a aru usage go in there, okay. And so
Speaker 1: to abide in the Lord says to dwell. When you
Speaker 1: say dwell, what comes to your mind? What does dwell
Speaker 1: mean for you? Dwell means a place where you live,
Speaker 1: to resign, a place where you are uh staying permanently,
Speaker 1: a place that you are settled in. And think about
Speaker 1: it today. The most comfortable place that you have is
Speaker 1: still your home. Tamaba. How I've been invited to sleep
Speaker 1: in other places, even in an hotel namama hi barrio bah.
Speaker 1: Why because you feel more comfortable in your home to
Speaker 1: dwell in your own house in your own place means
Speaker 1: you're comfortable, you're you have peace, you're rested. This past
Speaker 1: week now I've been having colds, so colds, and now
Speaker 1: I'm better, and so I decided to take the week
Speaker 1: slow and rest. Where did I rest in my room?
Speaker 1: You know, our place is a place where we can
Speaker 1: actually not only experience peace, we can rest, we can
Speaker 1: be comfortable, we can be ourselves, we can actually just
Speaker 1: wear whatever we want. That Sando, that's buttas in nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: We are comfortable in our place. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: God says, or Jesus says. If you follow me, what
Speaker 1: you will do is dwell in me, dwell in my word.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a confession to make. Most of
Speaker 1: you know this that we live in a small condo,
Speaker 1: in a twelve bedroom condo. But we don't joke planm
Speaker 1: talagaon and so today I want to be very honest
Speaker 1: with you, Para. I can show you how my house
Speaker 1: looks like. We only live My wife and I only
Speaker 1: live in a one bedroom cando live, but it's a
Speaker 1: place where we are very comfortable. You want to see
Speaker 1: where we live, see, so to put you on house
Speaker 1: lamn No, huh, may picture coming Jenny tapasung Eliaga Bay.
Speaker 1: We see ourselves No soa beach simply wife so te
Speaker 1: here ye here. You know, to dwell is to actually
Speaker 1: reside in God. Question when you are not rested, and
Speaker 1: it's not physical ray on. The reality is you can
Speaker 1: actually sleep twelve hours a day. But when you have
Speaker 1: a problem and when you're going through stress, when you
Speaker 1: wake up, is it still there? Yes? Right, And so
Speaker 1: you're not rested. Your spirit is not in peace regardless
Speaker 1: of how much sleep you have. But God says, if
Speaker 1: you want to follow me, dwell in me, rest in me,
Speaker 1: have peace in me. This is the offer of God
Speaker 1: that when we follow him, his word is something that
Speaker 1: we will dwell in. What does that mean? We are
Speaker 1: comfortable here, we get peace here, we get encouraged here,
Speaker 1: we get to feel love here. Amen. To dwell in
Speaker 1: the word of God is to actually find rest in
Speaker 1: Him When we have a problem, who do we go to?
Speaker 1: You know, in the deepest, darkest times, I hope that
Speaker 1: you dwell in the world of God because he is
Speaker 1: the only one who can give you rest. I remember
Speaker 1: the story and when my wife and I were in
Speaker 1: Still we're still in Sibu there was someone who knocked
Speaker 1: at our door and it was the stuff in the
Speaker 1: managed them in a store who actually because of uh
Speaker 1: staffa And so when he knocked in on our door,
Speaker 1: what emotion do you think I experienced? I actually got
Speaker 1: really scared people, as in I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I was in panic negal garden lobby. I was so scared.
Speaker 1: Why because previous to this I got texts magadad treats
Speaker 1: someone experience and I hope you don't experience that. Somebody
Speaker 1: texted me nah at the interpretation okay, m hm, relation
Speaker 1: of victory week in anyway. Then somebody texted me maging
Speaker 1: at Kayo well boss magee at Kayo mage at kay us.
Speaker 1: A few days after that doing kumat and I felt, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go home to this house anymore.
Speaker 1: We actually stayed in my friends place. Why Because our house,
Speaker 1: our dwelling place, is our refuge. It's the safest place
Speaker 1: we have. It's our safest place. You know, in your house,
Speaker 1: it's only you who knows where the luck is, where
Speaker 1: the most expensive stuff are. Why because this is your fortress,
Speaker 1: right and once it's attacked, you don't want to stay
Speaker 1: there anymore. And this, I believe is an encouragement for
Speaker 1: us that when we abide in the Lord, when we
Speaker 1: go through trials like what I went through, when we
Speaker 1: go through a problem where our safety is, he reminds
Speaker 1: us of this word. The Bible says, God is our
Speaker 1: refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.
Speaker 1: Jesus offers us to follow him. Why because when we
Speaker 1: need him, He's there to protect us as we dwell
Speaker 1: in the world in the Lord, as we dwell in
Speaker 1: his word. What we're saying is, Lord, I will remain here.
Speaker 1: This is the safest place that I will run to.
Speaker 1: I will find the answers here to the questions that
Speaker 1: seems like are impossible to get. I will get freedom here.
Speaker 1: I will get peace in the Word of God and
Speaker 1: my relationship with him. To abide is to dwell in
Speaker 1: the Word of God. The first one is to abide
Speaker 1: is too obey. Now abide this two d well, And
Speaker 1: the third one is this. To abide is to remain faithful.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, if
Speaker 1: you are truly my disciples, you remain faithful to my teachings.
Speaker 1: It's not for a season. It's not just six months
Speaker 1: that we believe in God. We follow him and then
Speaker 1: we go out and do it our own way. We
Speaker 1: remain faithful regardless of the things that are happening in
Speaker 1: our lives. We remain faithful. Why am I saying this?
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people actually find church boring.
Speaker 1: They find it boring and they feel like there's nothing
Speaker 1: new whenever they're here. It's just about okay, clocking in
Speaker 1: my Christianity bandy clock time card and saying I will
Speaker 1: attend and I will go home. Nothing's happening. But they've
Speaker 1: encountered the Lord in their lives once twice powerfully. But
Speaker 1: at the same time they find it boring. You know.
Speaker 1: The problem is when we focus too much on the
Speaker 1: highlights of our Christianity, there will come a time that
Speaker 1: it can be dry. There are times that God might
Speaker 1: be quiet. There are times that God might be silent
Speaker 1: in your life. As if nothing is happening, you pray,
Speaker 1: your faith is there, you hold onto the world, But
Speaker 1: there are times that God is silent. You know. The
Speaker 1: problem is we only focus too much on the highlights,
Speaker 1: on that experience, on that high on that worship that
Speaker 1: changed my day on that word that made me alive
Speaker 1: once again. But the reality is our walk with God,
Speaker 1: our journey with the Lord, is not always exciting. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's steady, sometimes it's regular. You know, we live in
Speaker 1: a world now where it's all about the highlights. You
Speaker 1: can actually watch an NBA game in how many minutes
Speaker 1: you highlights? Five? Six minutes you watch the entire thing.
Speaker 1: I watched the slam Down competition in two minutes. All
Speaker 1: that the two guys who battled for the finals date.
Speaker 1: I didn't have to watch the rest. Why they were
Speaker 1: the highlights In our walk with God, it feels like
Speaker 1: we're just concentrated on the highlights, the big things. We're
Speaker 1: waiting for that miracle, and until it comes, we're just steady.
Speaker 1: Now this is my Instagram account, and what do you
Speaker 1: see here? It's all highlights. The great day that I had,
Speaker 1: the people that I had a great time with, the
Speaker 1: family reunion, the birthday, the good seminar. It's all about
Speaker 1: the great things. But I don't put their Me just
Speaker 1: drinking coffee at home without taking a bad me, just
Speaker 1: reading the word, me just not doing anything, Me just
Speaker 1: watching TV, the regular things, the mundane. You know, when
Speaker 1: Jesus said, to do well and obey is to abide.
Speaker 1: He was also saying, remain faithful regardless of what's going
Speaker 1: on in your life, regardless if you are that high
Speaker 1: in your worship, regardless if you're dragging yourself to your work,
Speaker 1: regardless if you're having a hard time worship God. The
Speaker 1: Bible says to follow Jesus is to remain faithful to
Speaker 1: the regular things, the not so important things. Why because
Speaker 1: God can still do his work even we do not
Speaker 1: see it. God can do things for you, even though
Speaker 1: you do not see it. Amen see Edie destructed doing
Speaker 1: sa postco. What does it mean to abide and remain
Speaker 1: faithful in the Lord? Hebrews Chapter ten, verse twenty three says,
Speaker 1: let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for
Speaker 1: he who promised is faithful. You know, we are called
Speaker 1: to be faithful and to remain faithful in our journey
Speaker 1: with the Lord. It's not about the times that we
Speaker 1: get what we want from Him, but it's also during
Speaker 1: the times that we just wait on him we remain faithful.
Speaker 1: We are called to remain faithful. So what does that
Speaker 1: mean in our lives? How do we see a picture
Speaker 1: of a life that followed Jesus. Follows Jesus. To follow
Speaker 1: Jesus is to to obey in him. What else? To
Speaker 1: dwell in his word and remain faithful to him. This
Speaker 1: is a picture of what it is to be a
Speaker 1: follower of Jesus, and I'm going to allow you to
Speaker 1: take time to read it and assess. Am I a
Speaker 1: true follower of Jesus? Am I faithful to my journey
Speaker 1: in life with him? Am I actually obeying his word?
Speaker 1: Am I dwelling in his presence? Do I dwell and
Speaker 1: enjoy my time with the Lord that whenever I do
Speaker 1: my devotion. It's not something that I do as a checklist,
Speaker 1: but it's something that I really am excited about to
Speaker 1: see that the word of God comforts me, that the
Speaker 1: word of God warns me, that the word of God
Speaker 1: encourages me, that the word of God gives me peace
Speaker 1: and hope. To follow Jesus is to obey him, to
Speaker 1: dwell and remain in him forever. I have a question,
Speaker 1: my heir, Up, Bang I follow? See Lord? Yes? Bangs
Speaker 1: got Nam No? I you know, it's really hard to
Speaker 1: follow Jesus. And it's no joke. Sometimes there there are
Speaker 1: times that when you're on your own doing it, you
Speaker 1: just don't know how to There's so many questions. There's
Speaker 1: so many times that you're asking, Lord, are you there? Lord?
Speaker 1: Is it? Are you going to answer my prayers? Am
Speaker 1: I holding on to the promise? Is this the word
Speaker 1: that you've given me? You know, it's very difficult to
Speaker 1: live a life as a follower of Jesus. That's reality.
Speaker 1: But there is good news. You want to know the
Speaker 1: good news. God designed following Jesus to be in community.
Speaker 1: It's hard to do this alone. It's hard to dwell
Speaker 1: in the world without being accountable to someone. It's hard
Speaker 1: to obey and ask God without guidance from others. I
Speaker 1: hope you know that when God was speaking to the people,
Speaker 1: it was just not one person. It was always in use.
Speaker 1: He had his disciples. That when you do life together,
Speaker 1: you can actually enjoy this picture of following in Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can actually enjoy obeying the word. You can actually
Speaker 1: enjoy dwelling in Him and remaining in Him forever. I
Speaker 1: have to go back to my story a while ago.
Speaker 1: So yesterday a lot of us decided to go and
Speaker 1: visit Amanda at the Saint Louis at the ICU, And
Speaker 1: when I got there, I knew some of the pastors
Speaker 1: were there. I knew the relatives were there. But I
Speaker 1: was actually not amazed, but actually shocked. But when it
Speaker 1: got to the third floor, the hallway didn't look like
Speaker 1: a hallway of a hospital. I felt like it was
Speaker 1: a hallway going to a church. You would see people,
Speaker 1: some are close, some just want to support and give
Speaker 1: a prayer. You would see people going to them, encouraging them,
Speaker 1: praying for them. I heard somebody just went there and
Speaker 1: prayed for them and left. You know, it's hard to
Speaker 1: do life on our own, but we can do it
Speaker 1: in community. Amen, and hirayu lu lab. It's hard to
Speaker 1: remain in the Lord. Really, it's hard to remain faithful
Speaker 1: in the Lord. The Bible also tells us that sometimes
Speaker 1: we are unfaithful, right, But the Bible also tells us
Speaker 1: that even though we are unfaithful or faithless, remains faithful.
Speaker 1: God wants to do his work in and through us,
Speaker 1: but we have to do it with others, with the community.
Speaker 1: To follow Jesus is to do it in community. Can't
Speaker 1: up the person here right, signa I am part of
Speaker 1: your community. Help the person her left save signa made
Speaker 1: you weird? Tim Keller said this. Jesus says, I want
Speaker 1: you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly,
Speaker 1: that all other attachments in your life look weak by comparison.
Speaker 1: Rebbe to follow Jesus will consume us. It's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of us. That the things that we think we
Speaker 1: need before that, the things that would make us happy
Speaker 1: before Christ, it would mean not thing compared to what
Speaker 1: we have in Christ. And that's why when we decide
Speaker 1: to follow God, it's all worth it. Why well happened,
Speaker 1: It's complete. He's got it all. And probeom's a video.
Speaker 1: He finds ways. And this is the reality when we
Speaker 1: choose to follow Jezuz, when we choose to accept that
Speaker 1: invitation to follow him, when we say, Lord, I want
Speaker 1: to follow you. I want to abide in you. I
Speaker 1: hope you know that God will abide in you as well.
Speaker 1: John Chapter fifteen, verse forces abide in me and I
Speaker 1: in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself
Speaker 1: unless it abides in the vein in the vine, neither
Speaker 1: can you unless you bide in me. There is a
Speaker 1: promise that when we follow God. When we abide in him,
Speaker 1: what is the promise he will abide in us as well?
Speaker 1: You know, Christianity following Jesus is not just following a
Speaker 1: set of rules. It's following a person. A life with
Speaker 1: a journey with Christ is two way relationship. We're not
Speaker 1: just there to follow and check I did this, Lord,
Speaker 1: I did this Lord. It's actually a relationship. Why because
Speaker 1: when He decides to invite us into our relationship, not
Speaker 1: only do we dwell in him, he will also dwell
Speaker 1: in us. Amen. That's why we can do life better.
Speaker 1: We can do life, we can be more fruitful. Why
Speaker 1: because God abides in us. We're gonna worship again today.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask the worship team to come up.
Speaker 1: And you know, when we say we choose to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: When I was preparing for this, Pastor Dennis actually shared
Speaker 1: this to me, Savina. Bro. Remember this song? Yeah? Are
Speaker 1: you familiar with this song? The Cross before me, the
Speaker 1: world behind me. I have decided to follow Jesus, no
Speaker 1: turning back, no turning back. You know, the song reminds
Speaker 1: us of our encounter with God. It tells us that
Speaker 1: when we choose to follow Jesus, I hope. There is
Speaker 1: no turning back for you. You know what, because God
Speaker 1: has the best for you. May plan to your Lord
Speaker 1: saying he loves you so much, but he wants you
Speaker 1: to obey his word. He wants you to dwell and
Speaker 1: remain in him, and he wants you to remain faithful
Speaker 1: to him forever. Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to share and
Speaker 1: subscribe to this podcast for more. God bless you all.