SERMON: 3 Marks of a Disciple (Pastor Vlad)

I'm gonna read John chapter 8 verse 31 it says then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed if you taking notes write the first point down a disciple feeds on the Holy Scriptures the first characteristic and a profile of a disciple is he abides Jesus didn't say if you read my word you will be my disciples so reading and feeding are slightly different you know I watch certain people right now who are possessed with a political spirit everything they post is political everything is political and you talk to them for a little bit and you find out where they've been abiding on whatever you abide you become filled with now they still read the Bible the Bible never comes out of their mouth why because where they abide is Fox News or where they abide is CNN where they abide is Facebook and so Jesus is saying not what you read because see the Jewish people read Torah he says what you are by in meaning you remain in that you think on it it comes out you squeeze and orange and orange comes out you squeeze the Christian and for some people Republican comes out why because they're more abiding in their political things instead of the scriptural things please understand God's Word has a lot to say about what's happening in our culture but at the end of the day my friends I'm gonna bring us back as the preacher my allegiance and loyalty is to the Word of God and the Bible says in here abide in my word it's gonna change your life not not when you read the word but when you feed on the word meaning you abide in that word a lot of times I had to pull myself back and completely turn off the media turn after even the scrolling of this was for me because I'm like this stuff is intoxicating if the Bible would have been written today it would says do not you know how it says do not stay in the path of sinners does that set on the seat of the scornful it would say do not sit on Instagram do not stay on Facebook and do not go on Pinterest because for some of us those are the areas today they can get you so polluted you get worked up you get about people you don't even know things you don't even know about is what I'm saying is a script nothing wrong with social media god bless you we are church that believes in in all of that nothing wrong for to post your opinion everybody has them there's room for that on social media for you as well but as a believer you can read the word and disciple you feed on the word meaning it becomes your source and how do we know whether you feed on the word it's very simple it's what comes out of you it what comes out of your post what comes out of your repost and what comes out of your language what what is your attitude because whatever you put in it comes out if you feed on junk junk comes out if you feed on God's Word God's Word will come out we don't read the Bible to learn the Bible we read the Bible to learn obedience the Bible says in Hebrews the author of Hebrews says though he was the son yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered I find it challenging as I'm reading these scriptures and also Matthew 28 verse 19 where Jesus says go into all the world make disciples baptize them and then he says teach them and you know my Western thinking is going this route teach them so that they know now we know that you know the truth and the truth will set you free there is the power in knowing my people perish for lack of knowledge but the Bible says teach them to observe the things that I taught you so discipleship is not to learn the Bible so that you know the Bible discipleship is so that we learn obedience a believer learns the word disciple learns obedience by staying in the word yes the Word of God is our food the Word of God is our sword the Word of God is the seed the Word of God is honey the Word of God is our mirror the Word of God is their hammer the Word of God is all of that but at the end of the day God's Word is not given to increase your information box it's given to transform your life college can give you a degree but the Bible makes you a disciple College can teach you a skill in the particular area of society while all other areas of our life can be dysfunctional but when you go to God's Word God's word affects everything about you because you don't learn a topic you learn a person because God's Word is Jesus when I go to college when I take a course I learn a topic but when I go to the Bible I learned a person his name is Jesus and I'm gets transformed to his image and to his likeness and my whole life is changing after that you know my wife has a dog I didn't say we have a dog I said my wife has a dog he shares our last name he just reached a thousand followers an Instagram famous dog I cannot tell you how many people actually I start conversations within the park through the dog this is such a great evangelism tool because we go everybody asks can I pet him and I say oh I follow him I said you follow me no but I follow him I was like he's gonna lead you in the paths of ungodliness besides the point almost every week I get this commandment from my wife in two words feed jackal my wife is about to go somewhere it's 6:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. sharp feed jackal I got it so let's say she comes back and she asked me did you feed jackal and I said well I memorized what she said field jackal I recited it repeated it in fact I put it on my hand I wrote it down inscribed it on the palm on my hand I actually learned it in Russian Pokhara me jackal in Spanish Ali Matar Jack oh I I got a small group going where we talked about how to feed jackal and its really beautiful words that you gave me they're precious like they make me feel really good and when I say them I feel even better and my wife would look at me and say so did you feed jackal oh no I didn't feed him but I memorized what you said see God didn't give us his words for us to memorize but for us to live them out see a believer loves the Bible disciple loves the Lord the Bible is not given to us so we fall in love with the Bible and don't get me wrong I know their verses in Psalm where it says I love your word that is good but the first commandment of the Bible is not thou shalt love thy Bible especially the King James Version the second commandment is thou shall love you version Bible the Bible says it's not about the Bible it's about Jesus and the Bible is trying to distract us and put us back to the Lord Jesus Christ I'm a friend I best a believer we have to abide in the word but that word teaches us to fall in love with God it's just sad because many believers love the Bible at the expense of loving the Lord you may say how's that possible who killed Jesus it was the people who love the Bible in fact they memorized the Bible and when the author showed up they nailed him it's possible to fall in love with the book and totally ignore the heart and the person of the author believers love worship disciples love God because a lot of us what we do is even Mariana asked and I'm not gonna correct it because I've said it many times how many of us loved worship Hino wasn't about us you know we didn't choose the songs based on what you like because we were worshipping him so the question would be did he like it that's why when you come to church and you say not my favorite song newsflash we will not seem to you this is not your birthday it's his church you are not the main guest yes you are my friend but when we sing this we were to sing we were singing to him and that's why same thing is with this book it's not about us and the disciple falls in love with the Lord not with the word there's a disciple like the word of course he does he meditates on it day and night his delight is in the law of the Lord but Jesus draws our attention and he says it's about being in the word so that the word Jesus reveals us Jesus the word reveals us the Savior it reveals us him I'm one of those people who can get so chained up by my reading plans invite my translations that I couldn't miss God one of the things when we were married before we got married I'm not a I am more texting guy now but I wasn't very texting guy before when I met my wife I bought her an iPhone because she had a phone that the text messages were not coming in and blue but in green and I got her a new phone I wanted to see the bubbles when she's texting I wanted to anticipate something is coming my way and when you have green there's no anticipation it just just shows up right there and and so I got her the iPhone the month before I got her an iPhone I was texting about 700 text messages a month receiving and sending that next month when I met my wife when I got her the phone I got a bill and there was nine thousand three hundred something text messages in a month a huge jump now let me tell you why I sent and received nine thousand text messages the next month it was not because I discovered texting it wasn't because I fell in love with SMS the reason why there was so much texting my fingers were just not could not keep up it's because I fell in love with the person who happened to live 3 and a half hours from what I lived and this person would send me texts every single day I would send her text every single day and one time the Lord convicted my heart and he says vlad i still text i live there you live here in God says 36,000 text messages I have him and I even add bubbles to it it's called my Holy Spirit he inspires it and so every day when you wake up he says I want you to see my word as a letter from me I want you to see as a love letter but I want you to notice it's not about the text it's about the person that's texting it's about loving the person it's not just about loving the text come on somebody and it's about obeying God's Word but you know those of you who are in love or somebody says something really really really nice about you and they send you a text message how many of you read it more than once how many of you saved it screenshot it so it could be a point of reference in case you get discouraged you go back to like man there's people still love me I'm not worthless your life has a purpose I have people who send a nice text message I'm not gonna lie to you I ain't deleting them keeping that a few times I would go back just to realize it's like an oil cleansing that happens when you read their like praise God and that's one of the reasons why God gives us his word it's not only so we can obey it so we can refresh it every single day say who he loves me man this is good I didn't hear his voice but I got a text message he loves me and so God's Word for a disciple is a source of information it's a source of inspiration and it's also a source of instruction amen the second thing about a disciple not only disciple feeds instead of just reads the word but disciple follows the Holy Spirit then jesus said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men mark chapter 1 verse 17 in John chapter 14 verse 16 it says I will pray the father and he will give you another comforter or a helper that he may abide with you forever a Greek language has two words for another the first one is aloes which means another of the same kind and another one is Hara toes and if you're Greek UNAM is pronouncing it I'm sorry in my third language heritage means another kind another kind meaning like you're trying to fix a car and this wretched wretched wrench this wrench doesn't fit and you shouting to somebody in a garage say hey could you give me another meaning could you give me another wrench because this one doesn't fit a Lowe's means one of the same kind you're eating in the restaurant a sandwich and you really liked it and you want a second one and you saying can I get another one meaning exactly the same when it says he will give you another it has word aloes meaning the same kind what does that mean to us today Holy Spirit wants to be to you what Jesus was the twelve disciples the Holy Spirit wants to be to you what Jesus was to twelve disciples he is there another the Holy Spirit is not a different wrench he's the same sandwich you can have the same relationship with the Holy Spirit disciples had with Jesus you can walk with him you can wake up and say good morning to him you don't have to be perfect to have him help you in your life you don't have to pray to the Holy Spirit Bible doesn't tell us we do that the same way we don't see disciples praying to Jesus rarely we see them talking to Jesus but you don't see disciples coming every day and say now is the creator of the universe they called him teacher they called him friend why because they lived and they walked with him and Jesus says as I am leaving I'm sending you another just like me except because there's so many disciples around the world he's gonna be available to every disciple in every nation in every tongue in every dimension in every season in every century in every 120 130 years in 2000 in 2020 he will be another so that tells me as the disciples of Jesus two thousand years ago not only they were to abide in his words but Jesus said follow me please understand the following Jesus was different at that time than follow somebody on Twitter or Instagram when you follow somebody on Twitter you follow and you see their tweets if you follow somebody on Instagram you see their post that is not what following Jesus looks like what following Jesus looks like is more like have you ever follow somebody on the highway who was your friend in the area you were not familiar with and they told you like I can give you directions but you're gonna get lost because Google Maps and Apple maps and and MapQuest the rest of their just they just don't operate in this area because this is like really really different area but I know it so follow me now you know one thing to follow them is not clicking a button and keeping up with their posts it's keeping up with them when you follow somebody on Twitter you live your life when you follow somebody on the highway your life your speed your turns everything changes your eyes are on that person and you're trying to keep up with them you slow down when they slow down you speed up when they speed up they turn left you turn left and God forbid Mazda gets between you and them a Hyundai gets between you and them and you will say get behind me Hyundai you are standing between me and that person I cannot See they're turning right or left so you hook you will come closer you will make that Hyundai know you got in between and the person I'm following get out hello see that's exactly what it looks like to follow the Holy Spirit means your eyes are on the Holy Spirit you keeping in tune what is he saying today what does he want me to do and God forbid offense gets with you between you and the Holy Ghost and you no longer see the Holy Spirit because you defend it at your husband or offended at your wife and you have to tell that offense get out why because I need to stay close to the Holy Ghost because it's blocking my way it's blocking the flow so that is how we follow it's not like following the Lord on Twitter will you keep up with this pose you keep up with just his and you you're reading and you're like well that's what he said that's what he did following the Holy Spirit is you keep up with him he's always moving the Holy Spirit is not stagnant that's why the Bible says a man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds it didn't say preceded it meaning God is constantly turning his word eternal word never changes but God's directions to your life and what he will guide you and lead you will constantly go like this and the sons of men they are not led by the book they're led by the Spirit of God so they are anchored in the book in the world so they can obey the book but that they follow they're constantly fluid they follow the Holy Spirit when it comes to who to hire who to fire when it comes to who to marry when it comes to where to go when it comes to different things we rely on the Holy Spirit God gave us a map he also gave us a guide can somebody say Amen a disciple is not somebody who sees the Holy Spirit it's somebody who follows him because we can get out of your garage and I see your car but when I don't follow your car I will stop seeing it I still know you in fact I got your number but I don't see you no more because we're so far apart why because I'm following the directions on my own understanding relying on my own wisdom and I'm not following you when you ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit you forfeit your discipleship you don't lose your salvation your illusive a disciple stays close to the Holy Spirit to the prompting and to the leading of the Holy Spirit as somebody who's not a disciple can hear the Holy Spirit can know about the Holy Spirit they just don't keep up and then follow him when I was a younger believer I was so preoccupied to hear the voice of God I remember pacing here back and forth during Wednesday fasting opening different verses and saying Lord I want to hear you like Samuel I want to hear you like this person because in my imagination my idea of hearing God was related to being a prophet meaning to be able to get up in public and read the last four digits of your social security or to be able to tell you the last sin that you've committed to prophesied their pain off the wall and there are people who have the gift of prophecy and the Bible says we all can prophesy but what I'm talking about right now leading of the Holy Spirit I'm not talking about prophecy what I'm talking about is to be able to hear as a believer and heed as a disciple hear as a believer heed as a disciple for many of us we hear the Lord here and it gets stuck in here never comes out through heeding meaning following through and the Lord took me one time to Samuel and he says the first time I spoke to Samuel he did not want to hear what I told him he says you know what I told him to go tell Eli that Eli's family is going down that's not what Samuel wanted to hear and I started to recognize that God's leading in my life will not always be in line with what I want to hear and I switched my prayer instead of praying god I want to hear your voice I said lord give me strength to heed when I hear God will speak but he will not speak in a way that you think sometimes as a disciple you cannot be a disciple and not follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit amen and I share different examples from my life and how that it works in my life I'm gonna share with you a recent one it happened this morning some of you know because of Covid I've started stop to travel actually enjoyed being back home and most likely this is gonna continue even after the Covid is lifted because I really felt that God wants me to stay home and focus more on discipleship and to produce the content more that will touch the world without me going to those countries and to those churches and to those states but to be more present here so I launched my website and I started to offer a lot of different things material my books audio sermon series short PDFs small group study guides for a short little price offered it feel free first for a few days and then start selling it so that some money can come in to pay for the websites pay for other projects that I'm involved in and commitments that I made to our church when it comes to giving above my tithe and offering and so it was going good this morning I wake up before I wake up I don't remember it was a dream or something I just know one thing my first thought when I wake up is this out of nowhere it just hits me it's it's right here I now know when it's the Lord when it's just me now for everything on your website for free and of course it like a normal good Christian i rebuked the devil and I said you know in the name of Jesus I didn't get enough sleep everything's gonna be okay after you drink your first cup of coffee but when it's here you know you can run from it but you just know that you know you can't explain it you just know I go upstairs to pray and my Bible was left from yesterday's devotions upstairs and it was open to Ezekiel chapter 34 and the title it says irresponsible shepherds now this is what the Lord spoke to me I'm not saying this applies to every pastor never preacher or applies to you I'm just sharing my story and then I started to read about the part how God is rebuking the Shepherd's who are becoming fat off of the sheep but they're not feeding the Sheep it's pretty much in line of what hit me in the bed kind of like hey build people don't worry about your profits help others I really felt the Holy Spirit said he says your Moses to Israel in Egypt if you go to them I'll send Aaron to you he says I'll send you supporters I'll send you partners but he says give the stuff for free because the people who need it can't afford it and people in the West who don't necessarily need it so much they can afford it but a lot of them already are overfed anytime you eat more than you exercise you become obese other parts of the world are dying for lack of food America is not dying for lack of food we are dying because of too much of food same thing is spiritually we have a spiritual obesity in the Western countries we have more books more seminars and more and more colleges and most of us here today are educated beyond obedience and I really felt the Holy Spirit say he says the people who need it they can't pay for it and the people who can pay for it are already obese spiritually this is offered for free so quickly ran I usually do after I feel from the Holy Spirit I look for the word in the Bible if there is a word in the Bible and that word found me I wasn't looking for it it was right there my third checkpoint is usually my wife if my wife says no then I give it on the pause I came to my wife and she said honestly she says you're right she's like let's do it so while drinking my coffee because I'm one of those people I obey and then I think I changed everything on the website to zero zero zero zero except the physical books because we have to buy them and everything and so for those of you who always wanted the book couldn't afford it free of charge you can go download anything you want and copy and there's no copyright because copyright is your right to copy and so just you can repost it and share it with others why I felt it wasn't because I was generous I believe I'm generous but it's not because of that I felt the Holy Spirit take a turn and I had to take a sharp turn I want to challenge you in which area of your life Holy Spirit is turning could it be in the area forgiving someone it could be in the area of something where there is no name of that person in the Bible of what you should do the Holy Spirit will just not leave you drop you that in your heart and you can explain it away you can find it in a scripture to shut it down but I give you a warning when you stop following the Holy Spirit you will not be a disciple following the Holy Spirit means keeping up with him following the Holy Spirit means taking turns when teachers I am NOT saying doing bizarre crazy stuff what I'm saying is things that are in line with the word you just have strong conviction out of nowhere it's the Holy Spirit leading and guiding you I'm not saying you're a prophet and I saying you have a word of knowledge but you have the Holy Spirit and he will guide you and he will speak to you Jesus says in John he says if you obey my Commandments you are my disciples indeed last year when I was in London and had a couldn't sleep at night because of the jetlag so I opened the Bible started to kind of scroll scroll through my Bible and this verse came up to my mind and I felt the Holy Spirit put on my heart and he said the price for intimacy is not fellowship with the Holy Spirit it's obedience to the Holy Spirit obedience to the Holy Spirit is the key to the next level in the Holy Spirit see Jesus defines friendship different than you and I define friendship each one of us our friends are the people we spend the most time with it's the people we don't command come on if you command you're not friends no more it's a dysfunctional friendship and somebody needs to see that some of you need to see it one of you need to see a therapist because if you come or both of you because if you come to your friend and you say the reason why you're my BFF why because you do everything I tell you how many people like yeah of course we're friend for life now you look at them excuse me are you okay no you you will like you will come against but Jesus's definition of friendship is different than yours he says this because you do what I say we're friends friendship with the Holy Spirit is not based on talking to the Holy Spirit yes how many of you have those people who talk talk talk talk and they never do my wife went shopping to Costco and she came back and she said babe can you help me to get the water out of the trunk and I said yeah yeah yeah I got it I forgot later in the evening is that was going out about something else there's that water she took it from the trunk and put it at the edge of the garage is still standing there the amazing part is to the time that I could got the water back into the house I still talk to her we continue to fellowship and many of us we think that the next level with the Holy Spirit the term is determined by how much more time we add time to spending time with the Holy Spirit my friend Holy Spirit's define friendship different than you do it's not the amount of fellowship it's the amount of obedience and that's why you can look at some people who you like men but they don't talk to Holy Spirit hours upon a day but what if Holy Spirit told them to do something else God will bless you not based on your prayer but based on your obedience and sometimes when we don't obey we want to pray to cover lack of our obedience God told Saul I want you to go wipe out Amalekites guess what guess what Saul did he brought sacrifices to compensate for lack of obedience and some of us we will sacrifice to cover the fact we're not obedient we will add prayer we will add fasting just so that we don't have to do what he's asking us to do I remember when three years ago the Lord start putting on my heart to write a book and I said no way I'm gonna be writing a book I'm not an author English is my third fourth language I'm referring to tongues I only have a high school diploma who's gonna read my stuff and I remember but I felt this strong prompting you have to do that you have to talk about that stuff we need to communicate that in the form of the book and so for a month I didn't do it and I felt like the presence of the Lord lifted from my prayer life so guess what I did what every Pentecostal person did I added one more hour to my prayer instead of praying two I started to pray three hours things got worse so I started to fast a little bit more I was like man I'm gonna get a breakthrough and after I was done with all of my craziness I thought the Holy Spirit says why can't you just do what I told you he said why what is all of this so this I said I'll get you to God guys just do but I said God but that is hard and this is what I learned obedience is the greatest sacrifice you really want to sacrifice obey Abraham did not sacrifice his son he just obeyed God Jesus did not try to sacrifice his life the Bible says he learned obedience he just obeyed anytime you focus on obedience you will always sacrifice don't focus on sacrifice focus on obedience and whatever he leads you to do just do it if you lead you to give give if he lead you to save say if he lead you if he leads you to do that begin to follow the holy spirit and your next level in the holy spirit will be unlocked people come and say how do I go into the next level of the Holy Spirit do I increase my prayer life no increase your obedience and if that obedience if he leads you to pray more awesome wait on the Holy Spirit to lead you otherwise you'll be I'm a copycat of everybody else you'll copy everybody's acts of obedience instead of developing intimacy and follow what the Holy Spirit's leading you to do somebody say Amen hey man hey man come on let's get the lord slap offering God is good Michael reading a Mike colleano's book this finished listening to the audio version of his book and he shared about how he started to ask the Lord to speak to him and so during the night the Holy Spirit revealed to him a former member of his church that he was overseeing in California left the church and started his own ministry and fell on a very difficult Financial Times he wasn't able to pay for his bills utility bills and so Michael receives that in the dream this member and exact amount of how much money he needs and what the problem that he has so he woke up you know under very powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a dream that is so awesome and he calls this ex member of that church he calls him and nobody picks up the call later on this member calls him back and tells him that the reason why he didn't pick up the call is because he was on the phone with utility companies who turned off the electricity in his house and when Michael told him the details that God revealed him in the dream both started to cry because this was supernatural Michael did not know that and Michael was so impressed that God told him that in a dream he just rejoiced with the fact that God spoke to him therefore next three days he forgot what God told him taxes to pay this person's utility bills so God comes back two days later he says did you do what I told you he says no but I'm really happy that you spoke to me and they were so accurate he's said the reason why I spoke to you so you can go help that guy oh yeah that's right let me call him and actually help him you know and I was reminded of that because sometimes we are so in love with the voice of God that we actually ignore doing it we love the experience the goosebump that we get when God speaks my friend it's not hearing God's voice that's gonna bless you it's heeding God's voice that's gonna bless you it's also not hearing the devil's voice that's going to destroy you it's heeding that voice both Jesus and Adam heard the voice of the devil in the garden Jesus in the wilderness but Jesus didn't heed it Adam did both Jesus and Adam in the wilderness and in a garden heard the voice of the Lord one heeded that voice the other one didn't heed that voice my friend is not the voice you hear it's the voice you heed what makes you a disciple is on whose promptings are you going to follow and lead what is Holy Spirit speaking to you if you feel like God has not been speaking to me lately you know maybe why perhaps you ignored it so much each time you ignore it you lower the volume of his voice in your mind you train your spirit not to respond to that by saying it's me I don't like that and guess what happens it gets lower and lower and lower like a music on your computer it's playing but it's muted and you can scream and it hit the computer come on increase the volume but you put it on mute if you want to hear the voice of the Lord follow his promptings if he guides go through with it take risks with God your life will have resemblance of supernatural you're not just gonna speak in tongues you're gonna see the fruit of God in your life you might not be a prophet but you will live a prophetic destiny amen to bring this message to an end the third sign the last and third sign of what makes somebody a disciple is disciple forsakes that which hinders their follow disciple forsakes that which hinders their follow then jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Matthew 16:24 I'm gonna read mark chapter 1 once again then jesus said to them follow me and I will make you the fishers of men they immediately left their nets and followed him Hebrews 12 verse 1 and 2 says the following similar thing it says that we are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every sin that's so easily ensnares us and every weight and let us run the race with endurance looking unto Jesus who's the author and the finisher of our faith who despised the shame and said at the right hand of the Father what I want to draw from that is this is a third thing is the disciple forsakes that which hinders their follow I would like to correct in a fallacy that exists in our teaching a lot of times that creeps from Buddhism Let me read to you the following quotes and if you really believe one of them is from the Bible I want you to say Amen the ones you don't think are from the Bible don't say Amen but if you feel like one of them is from the Bible I want you to say Amen to conquer yourself is greater victory than to conquer thousands in battle he who is able he is able to things he is able the wise are disciplined in body speech and mind they are well controlled indeed a disciplined mind brings happiness no one saves us but ourselves no one and no one may we ourselves must walk the path the person who masters himself through self-control and discipline is truly undefeatable to enjoy good health to bring true happiness to one's family to bring peace to all one must first discipline and control his own mind you know who said these words Buddha you know how many times things like this now are there scriptures that talk about he who controls his spirit is better than he could controls the city yeah but I want you to notice that Christianity is not about discipline it's about devotion that decides our discipline Christianity is not about the cross it's about Christ who leads us to the cross Christianity is not about forsaking it's about following and then following so good that the following decides things we need to forsake we are in not in love with discipline we are in love with the Lord we are not in love with self-control we are in love with the Lord you don't see Jesus coming to the disciples and says hey forsake your boats leave your nets no jesus says follow me and the Bible says and they forsook their boats what was the deal as they follow Jesus their eyes were in Jesus they realize I can't carry this net with me I can't drag this boat with me so I'm gonna have to leave this behind and this behind why not because Jesus says so it's because my following him demands so my follow decides my forsake my devotion determines my discipline for those of you who struggle with discipline please hear this word may I just deliver you right now as a Christian you're not supposed to be disciplined as a Christian you first have to be a follower don't focus on discipline please understand you're not a Buddhist your enlightenment doesn't depend on the level of your discipline it depends on being attached drawn and in love with the Lord and as you follow him certain things will feel uncomfortable certain things will begin to beg and say you know what I think I need to read more of the word wide because the love for the Lord compels me it's not you trying to discipline yourself it's you following the Lord and certain things will be dropped there certain relationships will be dropped here and certain habits will be dropped there and certain things will be dropped there why not because you're disciplined but because you are a disciple my god the Bible says that we forsake things and sin and we run after God looking to Jesus that means we're not looking at things we're forsaking we're not looking at things we're including our focus our aim is the face of Jesus and what saddens me is a lot of us myself included we fell in love with discipline we have committed an affair on the Lord by cheating on him with our self-discipline we made an idol out of discipline especially those of you who grew up with fathers who were in military especially those of you who grew up with mothers who ruled the house and everything was sharp and everything was about rules what happens is that you can miss God falling in love with forsaking that you never follow there are people that wake up early in the morning who don't know God your discipline doesn't make you a disciple what makes your disciple is a heart that's burning for the Lord and out of the heart that's burning for the Lord that heart begins to dictate certain things you do and you cannot do not you trying to prepare yourself to be his disciple but you setting yourself up to be his disciple that begins to say I can take this with me I can take that with me why because I want to run after him and this is too heavy and that is too heavy and this is too heavy so my devotion besides my discipline otherwise my discipline becomes my idol I can wake up early in the morning I can memorize things I can stay fit all of that my friend does not make you disciple what makes you disciple is a burning passion for the Lord and you can look at other Christians say I am more discipline your buddhist sorry no discipline that's not what makes you Christian it's not because you discipline we're not trying to become Buddhists we're trying to become Christians we follow Jesus that means we're in love with Jesus please understand the reason why I'm speaking so strongly because I'm the guy who's disciplined not to be proud but it's just the way I grew up with a very strict disciplines in my life from pressed fasting to prayer from thing that I do when it comes to running I beloved that stuff and honestly I discipline It's a stumbling block many times to my walk with Christ because I'm so focused on the discipline that I don't see the Lord and as a disciple I have to renew my mind and say Vlad it's not about what you do it's about who you in love with and I love him so much that your discipline increases not decreases but it's not because you're trying to be disciplined you're just trying to be close you're just trying to be near you're trying to be close to him running looking unto Jesus if maybe you have had discipline in your life but you forgot what disciplines were about I want to reset your understanding it's not about discipline it's not about keeping streaks on the YouVersion Bible app and it's not about finishing three day fasting seven-day or 21-day fasting it is coming back to follow it and being in love with Jesus again if in discipline you lost the burning passion for the Lord Martha Martha you are worried about many things but one thing is needed and that is the Lord Church that worked and did great things in Church of Ephesians in book of Revelation and Jesus says I know your works they're good you cannot stand these things and these things not as awesome he says I love the but I just got one thing you turn your back toward me and you're focusing and all the things that you're forsaking for me he says turn your face back to me turn your face back to me follow me have you eyes fixed on me that's what discipleship is all about it's not about this it's about that there's others of you in here today you have absolutely no discipline in your life whatsoever and I'm gonna tell you why you're not following the Lord if any men desires to follow me he will pick up a cross following will always always lead to forsaking always but forsaking doesn't always lead to following following will always lead to the cross there will be things that will die there will be relationships that you're gonna have to let go there will be habits you're gonna have to put aside there will be things you're involved in right now that you can justify per Scripture but the Holy Spirit just doesn't give you peace about it you're gonna have to lay them aside you cannot follow and not forsake but you can't forsake and never follow if any man desires to follow me he will pick up his cross why because if you follow somebody in the road you're gonna have to maneuver and you have to keep up with them if you want to follow otherwise you're gonna lose them and I'm saying is that if you live without no discipline in your life whatsoever you kind of do whatever you want you watch whichever you want you're a believer but I want to challenge you today let's grow let's become disciples let's follow and don't focus on what you have to forsake don't focus on what you have to abandon focus on following him so much that they follow will decide determine and lead you to forsake and the amazing part is this when you're forsaking is determined by your follow your follow sponsors you're forsaking your follow feels you're forsaking your follow gives you strength to forsake whereas before you said I need to quit watching TV why just watch too much TV it's so what you stop watching TV now you play video games I need to stop watching playing video games why well I'm a grown man you know I already have children and I just feel like I'm a boy and they're a boys and everything so what you quit that and now you got into something else why because anytime you forsake things that are not birthed it out of the follow you find something else to fall into but when you I'm not saying to do whatever you want I'm just saying commit passionately your heart to follow the Lord and watch as the Holy Spirit it's gonna give you direction and give you the power to overcome whatever you need to forsake somebody give God some praise right now amen let's rise to our feet hallelujah I just want to bring you back to the Lord I want to bring you back to falling in love with Jesus making Jesus the most important thing in your life never outgrow your need for the Lord never outgrow your desire for the Lord every head bowed and every eye closed if you're in this room today and maybe you have not yet given your life to Jesus maybe you're not were you supposed to be with God today perhaps the disciple in thing that's not your cup of tea right now because you're not a follower of the Lord yet you're not a believer in the Lord I would like to lead you to that relationship right now if you're saying you know I would like to get saved today I would like to repent on my sin I place my trust in Jesus I would like to be born again whatever you are whether you're in this sanctuary or you're watching us on live stream or rewatching this service I want you to bow your head and close your eyes and pray this out loud with me Church let's pray together once you say Lord Jesus please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your precious blood I surrender my whole life to you and from this day forward I commit my life to you I believe you're the Son of God who died on a cross for someone like me in Jesus name the Bible says when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with our heart God forgives us over sin if you prayed that prayer the scripture says that God is giving you a new heart he's filling you with his spirit let us know that you prayed that prayer if you did it in here come to the VIP room just in few minutes we can say hi to you give you some materials and plug you in if you pray that prayer and livestream go to hungry gen that comes last VIP so we can send you some material and stay connected to you

Channel: Vlad Savchuk

Views: 10,644

Rating: 4.980247 out of 5

Keywords: vladimir savchuk, hungry generation, vlad savchuk, good news church, pastor vlad, tri-cities wa pasco, sermons by vlad, messages by pastor vlad, deliverance, healing, supernatural, sermon on fire, messages, sermons, discipleship, who is disciple

Id: dQ-jE0hU1Ko

Length: 47min 33sec (2853 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2020