The True Disciple - Pastor Jason Ong - 28 Nov 2020

[Music] hello friends my name is pastor jason it is indeed a joy and a privilege to be here today first i would like to thank pastor christie for connecting us to good gifts city church and also pastor derek for the opportunity to share the word of god shall we pray father we just want to come before you we just thank you lord for your presence here today as we humble our hearts to learn your word let your holy spirit fill us lead us and guide us to understand your word continue lord to show us the truth in your word as we continue to wait upon you today in jesus name amen okay before i begin i just want to share with you a little bit more about my testimony you know when after you saw the video earlier on after the second surgery in 2 0 1 3 that is where i experienced the healing of the lord after the second surgery now what happened after that was this jesus gave me a mandate and he said to me to preach holiness not preach success not preach about wealth or healing but to preach holiness so as i continue to teach on the topic of holiness it is not that i have already perfected the holiness it is not that i am more spiritual or more holy than anybody but the simple truth is that when i begin to teach about holiness i become more aware of my own sinful nature and that is the time where i also learned to allow the holy spirit to speak into my life to bring healing and also to bring repentance so as we embark on today's topic of the true disciple um i'm not going to be talking about uh sin so much but more on how we can be the real disciples of jesus christ now many of us may wonder is there such a thing as a true disciple or even a false disciple well if we look into the old testament those prophets that were appointed by god are called god's prophets right but those prophets that were self-appointed they are called false prophets now when we come into new testament jesus also teach us about the good tree the best good fruit and also there is a battery that bears bad fruit when we look into the 12 apostles these 12 are appointed by jesus himself but among the 12 there is one that is counterfeit and as we all know that is judas so why is it that there are the true disciples of god and why is it that one of them judas is a counterfeit it is because he is always doing things for his own desire he has his own ambition he has his own agenda he's serving himself more than he's serving jesus so today when we look at what is the discipleship and the requirement of the discipleship according to jesus if you have your bibles can i invite you to turn to john chapter 10 verse 14. and this is what jesus said i am the good shepherd and i know without any doubt those who are my own and my own knows me and have a deep personal relationship with me based on this very simple and straightforward verse what do you think jesus is saying to us from here we can see that jesus is not so keen about how big is our ministry so for those of us who does not have a mega church is okay it is not about the size of a congregation it is also not about the quantity of the people it is about the quality of the ship that we are ministering to and also when we look at this portion of scripture we understand that it is not about how successful our ministry is and we also have no need to compare our titles or credentials why because it says very clearly here jesus said i am the good shepherd and i know without any doubt those who are my own so we don't have to prove our worth and our success to jesus jesus already knows so coming to the second portion of the scripture it says people that i know they also know me and how do they know me they have a very deep and personal relationship with me now what does a deep and personal relationship means here it means that we have to abide and adhere to the precepts and the laws of god those who obey his word have a deep and meaningful relationship with him how do we know this is for sure we look at the next verse in 1st corinthians chapter 8 verse 3. this is how we can confirm the above scripture if but if one loves god truly with affectionate reverence prompt obedience and grateful recognition of his blessing he is known by god recognized as worthy of his intimacy and love and he is owned by him so my friends again this is another confirmation in the scripture that god is telling us for all of us that says we know god we must have reverence for him we must be prompt with our obedience that means whatever the word teaches us whatever jesus said we must obey and we have to know how to be grateful for the salvation that is given to us when jesus died on the cross for our sins and then only then when we are walking according to this portion of scripture we will be known by god and recognized as worthy of his intimacy and his love and we will be owned by him now what does that mean owned by him we need to know that if god says he knows us and we are owned by him this is the thing he is saying he will never reject us meaning to say those that he knows he will never ever reject them so let us move on to the next verse in 2nd timothy chapter 2 we read verse 15 and verse 19. study and be eager and do not and do your utmost to present yourself to god approved and tested by trial a workman who has no cause to be ashamed correctly analyzing and accurately dividing rightfully handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth from this verse we can see very clearly it is not that after we receive our salvation we sit there and say oh everything is done at the cross no my friends it doesn't work that way the bible clearly tells us that we must do our utmost to present ourselves approved and tested by trials we need to be a disciple that is tested and approved so when we look at verse 19 it says but the firm foundation of god stands sure and unshaken bearing this seal and inscription the lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names himself by the name of the lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it again it is confirmation upon confirmation as we read the word of god it is not about just saying that oh we are safe and do nothing and say oh jesus will make us holy and we don't have to do anything that is not true my friends when we read that the word of god in scripture it tells us very clearly that there's a lot of things that we must do and one of this is to make sure the way we live our life we have to live it in a way where we give up all iniquity and stand alone from it so in shock what does that mean very simple if you say you are a true disciple of jesus christ then there must be an evidence of that the evidence would be every disciple of god will completely reject and renounce sin let me give you an example in short we can actually say this if you say you are a christian and you say if you are disciple of jesus christ then there is no such thing as a christian drug dealer are you getting what i'm trying to say right here next is if you say that you are a disciple of jesus christ then you cannot be a mistress or even a prostitute so there are a lot of things that we need to take into consideration when we say that we are a child of god or we are a disciple of jesus christ we must know that it is a very conscious effort to reject sin and we cannot continue to be a practicing lgbt and say oh i'm saved i'm a new creation in christ and i'm a disciple of jesus christ my friends it doesn't work that way i don't set the rules i don't make the rules here the rules are set by god himself and these commands and laws are not negotiable so if we say truly that we are a child of god and we are true disciple of jesus christ we must obey this scripture we must completely reject and renounce everything that is sinful in the sight of god when you look at what god is asking from us some people may think oh that's not fair i thought god is love because god loved me i can do anything i want and god must still love me my friends that is also not true we know that yes god is love but i want you to think about this how can a holy god partake in your sins and your abomination how can he look at you when you are a practicing lgbt and says well done the good and faithful servant no way because the bible clearly states it is an abomination and a holy god can never partake in abomination amen okay now let's move on to the next slide now this is looking at matthew 16 24 then jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to be my disciples let him deny himself take up the cross and follow me so what is jesus saying to us right here when i look at matthew 16 24 i call this the definition the biblical definition of a true disciple of jesus christ this is actually what is required of everyone that is called the disciple of jesus christ we must first learn to deny ourself and take up the cross and follow him so you may be wondering what is deny myself as the bible clearly says to deny yourself you have to disregard yourself you have to lose sight of yourself and forget about your own interest what does that mean let me put it to you in a very simple manner a slave has got no personal ambitions of his own a slave exists only for his master's bidding so how should we deny ourselves because many people say to me pastor you're asking the impossible how can i deny my own feelings how can i deny what i want well my friends we have a choice you can either obey or you can reject it and say no i will not but no matter what we know this is a command and this is a law and whether we like it or not this is the requirement if we want to be the true disciples of jesus christ okay many will be thinking how do i actually deny myself imagine this every day when you serve in the ministry or when you're out there at your workplace or even when you're driving when somebody cuts into your lane you're not happy you horn and you even start you know getting angry and try to cut back you know sunday we go to church with hallelujah right but from monday to saturday what do we do out there how is it that we are not dead to our flesh so i want you to imagine this imagine that you are attending a funeral okay and at the funeral there's a coffin and in that coffin is the dead man lying there motionless so you took or rather you take a needle and you walk up to the coffin and you say let's see if this man is dead and then you stick the needle into his tie and what happens the man will say ow and he'll wake up no right if you do that everyone will run out of the funeral parlor but when you step the needle into his leg there will be no reaction and you can step another time and another time there will be no reaction why is that because he is dead so if we say we want to be the disciples of jesus christ this is the requirement this is the verse that we must comply the first thing we must do is not to take up the cross the first thing the very important thing we must do is to deny ourselves it is to die to our flesh and that is when we are going out there into the marketplace into in our families when people look at us do they see christ this is the question we need to ask ourselves now what about in ministry people can be ministry proud right we can do a ministry and we can feel that the ownership and the attachment is so strong that we become ministry proud so let me give you an example it is like when the donkey is carrying jesus on his back and walking into jerusalem and when he is walking in with jesus everybody is throwing the palm leaf and shouting hosanna hosanna and the donkey is like you know carrying jesus and he's thinking that that's that's very nice you know wow so much attention and as he's walking again everybody shouting rosanna hosanna and he's getting excited wow i'm getting all this attention today and finally as he's nearing the gate people are still shouting hosanna hosanna and the crowd is going wild and suddenly the donkey decided okay now it's my chance now it's my time and he stands up and he says thank you thank you thank you thank you and what happens when the donkey stands up jesus falls off the back so you see my friends it is okay to take ownership in ministry but we should never be ministry proud so when jesus said we need to deny ourselves we need to deny ourselves across the board in our own life in our own work with him whether it be in the workplace whether it be in ministry it is to die to our flesh no matter what and the next portion is take up your cross and follow me now what does that mean years ago i have a person that came up to me and says pastor you know i always take up my cross i say hi is it very good yeah you don't know yeah my cross is my mother-in-law you know so every day i have to take up my cross you see my friends according to scripture if you take it in the proper context taking up your cross is not your mother-in-law okay now what do i mean by taking up your cross the bible clearly states here that we need to cleave state fastly to jesus and conform wholly to his example in living and if need be in dying also so you see it is very clear the bible tells us that when we want to become his true disciples we need to deny ourself that means disregard ourselves give up our rights even our rights to be angry because who are we we are nobody we are nothing we are only a donkey that's carrying jesus and then after that we need to conform wholly and completely to his character what does that mean it means in all that you say in all that you do you have to reflect christ when people look at you when your children look at you when your colleagues look at you when your husband look at you or when your wife look at you do they see jesus from what you say from what you do do you reflect christ so my friends you really need to consider this if you say you are a true disciple of jesus christ do you deny yourself take up the cross and follow him a lot of times when i present this verse many people are saying no pasta i think you're making a mistake this is uh out of context you know pastor cannot be like that god this is impossible to do maybe i think i don't do love because this is just too difficult so i say ken you have a choice jesus never force you i never force you but then again i would recommend you take a look at the next verse in luke chapter 14 we look at verse 27 and 33. now in verse 27 it says whoever does not persevere and carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciples my friends which part about cannot be my disciples you don't understand you see again jesus never say you have a choice this is a command it's a preset a precept is a law and this law again is not negotiable you see that when you do contracts in the office in your workplace you understand what it means by not negotiable meaning to say you cannot haggle you cannot bargain there are no loopholes it's either you obey or you reject christ is that simple now looking at the next one in verse 33 he says so then any of you who does not forsake renounce surrender claim to give up and say goodbye to all that he has this means deny yourself if you don't deny yourself you cannot be my disciples again you see jesus is a big chunk here you know i mean a bit low so he said two times you know why does he say twice you cannot be my disciples if you don't take up the cross if you don't deny yourself and you don't follow me you cannot be my disciples any amen shall we move to the next verse when we look at the scripture text in colossians chapter 2 verse 6. again this is what jesus says therefore as you have received christ jesus the lord walk in union and conformity with him reflecting his character in the things you do and say and living lives that lead others away from sin so again in colossians this is what jesus is saying the same thing if you say you want to be my disciples if you say that you have received jesus as your lord and god you must walk in union with him that means cleave steadfastly to him you must walk in conformity with him that means you must abide and you must obey and then after that you need to reflect his character in all that you do in all that you say even the thoughts that you're thinking and the emotions of feeling my friends this is not a request that means we do not have a choice how do we know that for sure let us look at matthew chapter 13 reading from verse 41 to 42 this is the confirmation the son of man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of offence persons by whom others are drawn into error or sin and all who do iniquity and act wickedly and will cast them into the furnace of fire that will be weeping and wailing and the grinding or the gnashing of teeth so you see my friends dear brothers and sisters we must be holy because our god is holy we serve a god that is holy and holiness is also part of the new testament law it is a precept and it is a law that is not negotiable it is a requirement if you want to be called his disciple so those who obey the law those who obey this command and this precepts you will enter into heaven and those who do not obey will still insist that no no no i don't have to do all these things then this is what jesus said at the end of the day you will be thrown into the furnace of fire and there will be weeping wailing and the grinding of teeth especially for those who lead others into error with false teaching amen okay so now let's move to the next portion of scripture we look at matthew chapter 7 reading from verse 21 to 23 this is what jesus says not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven again we see from this verse it is very very clear not everyone who says to me lord lord clearly jesus is referring to christian because non-christians will not call him lord lord twice okay it is people who are religious people who are leaders people who are christians or even pastors like myself that will call him oh lord lord you see these are the people that he says not every one of you that calls me lord lord will enter into heaven only those who are obedient who obey my laws shall enter into heaven many will say to me on that day what day is that that's judgement day lord lord have we not prophesied in your name and driven out demons in your name and done many mighty works in your name who are these people obviously they are christians they are ministers yeah they are pastors like myself people who serve the lord yeah and what happened to these people obviously they have deliverance ministry they can drive out demons in jesus name obviously they have mighty works of ministry they are high profile ministers and they have done many many things in the name of jesus but who do they serve this is the biggest question we need to ask ourselves today who do we serve do we serve jesus when we call ourselves disciples or do we serve our own agenda do we serve our own beliefs that's what the scriptures say and in verse 23 it says and then i will say to them openly and publicly i never knew you depart from me you who act wickedly now what does that mean wickedly when jesus said to us you act wickedly what does that mean okay this is what jesus is saying to us you disregard my commands that means you are disobedient and you are lawless so my friends be very careful what you say if we continue to say no i'm saved i'm already saved i don't need to be holy jesus make me holy i'm under grace i don't need to obey his law because there's no law my friends you are very wrong because the entire new testament contains many of his precepts and many laws not just the old testament the new testament has got more precepts and more laws than the old testament if you go and check your bible so what is jesus saying to us very clearly if you continue to disobey and disregard my laws and keep saying that you're under grace and you're not under law then you are considered lawless is that very clear you see when you continue to command jesus okay not the other way around it's not jesus command you he's like you commanding jesus hey jesus do you not know i'm under grace i'm not under law so let me into heaven imagine this is judgment day what do you think jesus will say to you i'm sorry i can't let you into heaven because you are lawless and you disrespect and disregard my father's command and what happens you'll be thrown into the fire and there will be wailing and gnashing of thief so when we look at this condition do we still want to insist foolishly that i'm under grace i don't need to obey the law i urge you my dear brothers and sisters to seriously ponder and consider this very carefully why because your salvation depends on it now let us move to the next slide in ephesians 5 chapter 5 we read from verse 10 to 11. again this is an application verse is this an instruction from jesus how we should live our lives always endeavor to learn to determine by experience what is pleasing to the lord and letting your lifestyles be examples of what is most acceptable to him your behavior and expressing gratitude to god for your salvation again you see jesus is repeating throughout the new testament from matthew to colossians to ephesians even in the book of romans he just keeps telling us we need to live a life that is holy that is acceptable that is pleasing to god we have to understand my friends we don't have a choice if you truly say that you are a disciple of jesus christ there are no other options except to obey and to follow so when we obey all these commands this is how we do it we have to keep reminding ourselves for every preset and every law and every command that he says to us we must be convicted in our heart to know that it is not negotiable so there's no point for us to start finding any more loopholes okay we just need to be sincere come forward repent obey his word and live our life according to this bible application amen now looking from verse 11 it says do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness but instead expose them again my friends don't take this scripture out of context okay because god did not tell you to go and confront people or go and attack people he says expose them but how by exemplifying correctly demonstrating your personal integrity your moral courage and your godly character in short my friends let your life speak for itself let your life reflect christ we cannot go out there and continue to criticize other people criticizing the speck in their eye remember and ignoring the lock in our own my friends we have to stop doing that the bible is a mirror it is not for us to use as a weapon to tear people down it is a mirror for us to reflect in our own character where we are going wrong and then learn to repent learn to humble our heart accept his teaching accept his discipline really sincerely repent and get ourselves right with god that is in a life living that is holy acceptable and pleasing to him so my friends if we say that we are the disciples of jesus christ we need to clearly demonstrate the genuine christianity the evidence that we are christian throughout our lifestyle let us move for now to second corinthians chapter 7 verse 1 and having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit not just the flesh yeah the flesh and the spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of god okay i know at this point many of us are feeling quite stressed because wow the demands are so great so many the laws and precepts so many and a lot of us are like thinking my god how am i going to perfect my holiness we thank god that god is not the kind of father that tells you to do something but does not provide for you because when god tells you to do something surely he will provide for you when you look at this verse carefully he says we need to be perfecting holiness in the fear of god so that is a process that is god's method not my method not your method but god's method so how do we do this let us come back to scripture we don't want to come up with our own theories our own concepts or what we think we should do but we should come back to scripture and stick to it now many people says oh yeah i know the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom but where does that wisdom come from you're going to the second step without the first step so what is the first step what is the definition of the fear of god my friends there is a definition for this fear of god if you look at proverbs 8 verse 13 the bible clearly tells you proverbs chapter 8 verse 13 the fear of god is to hate all that is evil pride arrogance and the perverse lips god hates so when we learn to hit all that is evil that's all it takes remember in the previous verse he says you must not partake in sin you must stand aloof from it again if you apply this verse this is definitely an application verse so we cannot say that oh i don't know what to do god is already showing us very clearly by his word according to proverbs chapter 8 verse 13 how do we apply the fear of god in our lives daily that is to hate all that is evil you see in the whole bible god never teaches us to hate now he only teaches us to hate sin so all that is sinful all that is evil we must hate we need to hate what our god hates so please don't hate your brother and sister yeah don't come to church and quarrel but hate sin then you will stop quarreling then you will stop getting angry because anger is sin amen so as we continue to learn to hate sin my friends something wonderful is going to happen to you your life will start to change you'll begin to be transformed by the word and you will see proverbs chapter 8 verse 13 manifest in you so you're not just talking about scripture you are living according to scripture amen we look at the next one i hope by now you feel that this is doable yeah because god has provided the way matthew chapter 5 verse 48 he says be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect yeah at this stage i know we are all scratching our heads and wondering huh be perfect be holy wow this is like how to do god remember start by hating all that is evil and then what to do next you see when you read scripture you understand this we cannot save ourselves it is not that we come before god in our own righteousness in our own religious practices and think that that can lead us to salvation no my friends our best works on our best days are nothing but filthy wrecks to god so we cannot be saved with our own righteousness we need the righteousness that is from christ so how do we find that righteousness where is that right standing so to speak yeah with christ how do we do it how do we get it is it somewhere where we can go maybe we can go to israel to buy yes no my friends it is all in scripture here when we look at deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 25. now this is very important if you have a pen and paper or if you have your devices please screenshot deuteronomy deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 25 because this is the portion where you know it's a biblical application where we can practice this and be in right standing with god so this is what the bible says and it will be accounted as righteousness okay i read again it will be accounted as righteousness which is conformity to god's will in word thought and action for us if we are watchful to do all this commandment before the lord our god as he has commanded us so you see my friends you are not saved by works you are not saved by your own works of righteousness you are saved by grace through faith right salvation is a free gift but what we need to do is we cannot wait for jesus to zap us and then suddenly we become holy no my friends it doesn't work that way we need to put in our effort and this is how we can be found righteous and in right standing with god the bible tells us very clearly conformity to god's will in his word in your thought and in your action so that means you obey his word even in your thoughts your emotions and your actions you comply and you adhere to every command that is seen here so when we obey all these precepts all these laws and commands then we are considered by god to be in right standing with him and this is the only requirement to make it into a very simple one-word answer it is called obedience okay my friends just remember o b-e-y and you are saved obey what be holy because your father in heaven is holy we don't have a choice it is not negotiable and we cannot say we don't want because we all know what happens to the one that says he don't want jesus will say to him on the last day i never knew you get away from me you who are wicked wicked meaning you who refuse to obey my father's command amen we can be certified genuine meaning to say we can be called genuine christians genuine disciples of god when we obey all his commands and remember my friends if you don't remember any other verse in this preaching session just remember deuteronomy chapter 6 25 because this is the radical obedience that you need that will lead you to repentance and finally to your salvation okay let us look at the next line matthew 13 44-46 the kingdom of heaven is like something precious buried in a field which a man found and hid again then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field strange right okay we read verse 45 again the kingdom of god is like a man who is a dealer in search of fine and precious spells who on finding a single pearl of great price went and sold all he had and bought it my friends please don't get me wrong i'm not telling you to give up your jobs i'm not telling you to give up your business i'm not telling you to sell your house and sell everything no don't do that okay what we need to do here is we need to ask ourselves one question because through this parable what is jesus trying to teach us jesus is trying to teach us how we place our importance how do we value jesus now if we value jesus as something precious we will comply and we will abide but if you value jesus as a genie in a bottle someone that grants you wishes someone that just is there for you to vent your anger for you to complain for you to criticize and for you to twist his arm so that he can help you to help you to get rich or to help you to solve your problem then my friends it's perspective that we need to address here so what is our perspective about jesus our savior and our god is jesus really precious to you now if jesus is truly so precious to you you will without any further consideration you will give up your rights you will deny yourself you will take up the cross and you will follow him amen and again you need to really consider this to be certified genuine as a true disciple it will really cost you everything my friends are you ready to deny all your carnal desires all that you desire your dreams your ambitions are you willing to just surrender them just surrender all these things to god now as we come to the last portion of scriptures we read from colossians chapter 1 verse 10. this is what jesus says if you truly want to be my disciples that you may walk live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the lord fully pleasing to him and desiring to please him in all things bearing fruit in every good work fruit of the spirit that is and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of god with a fuller deeper and clearer insight and acquaintance and recognition you see my friends we cannot say that everything is done at the cross i'm under grace i'm not under law i don't need to do anything i don't need to repent no my friends we need to constantly repent remember i said in the beginning when i teach holiness it is not that i've already achieved holiness no far from it that's what paul says far from it this is the process that we all must go through it is like a refiners fire you are you and i we are being processed in the fire of the holy spirit to become pure god but this purity depends not on god it depends on us how much are you willing to let go the more you hold on to your life your ambitions your dreams the more you cannot be refined but the more you let go the more you can be refined so my dear friends i just want to encourage you i just want to urge you please allow jesus to work in your life today we are his disciples it is not his desire to watch us burning in hell it pains in his heart every time he has to lose one to satan because he is our father in heaven and he wants us all to join him in heaven one day so today shall we make a commitment as we read isaiah 55 7 let us be convicted by his word by the power of the holy spirit let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the lord and he will have love pity and mercy for him and to our god for he will multiply to him his abundant pardon you see my friends we all know none of us are perfect none of us can say that i've reached perfection but it is that continued effort as what the lord has impressed upon my heart it is called the consistent pursuit of biblical holiness this is a daily effort i cannot be holy today and then tomorrow not holy and then the next day try to be holy again you get the picture my friends it is called the consistent pursuit of biblical holiness and that is the only way we can reach jesus we can become his true disciples none of us are perfect that's true but again he has shown us clearly in isaiah 55 7 that there is abundant pardon meaning to say if we so choose to repent if we so choose to humble our hearts and come before him today and say lord i have done wrong and i want to repent will you please give me a chance this is what jesus is saying to all of us yes my son yes my daughter come back to me i have abundant pardon waiting for you just come back to me just return to holiness because it is true holiness that you shall enter into the kingdom of heaven so today my friends we need to ask ourselves this question are you ready to become his true disciple are you ready to be certified genuine shall we pray father we just want to come before you we thank you lord for your word we thank you lord that you are willing to pardon us every time we sin and none of us are beyond redemption so father as we humble our hearts this day and we choose to come back to you forgive us lord cleanse us with the blood of christ and as far as the ease is from the west so far shall you remove our sins from us so we thank you lord the true repentance there is forgiveness and through the forgiveness you will empower us by your word you will empower us by your holy spirit that we might be able to come back to you to walk in a path of holiness and to be certified as your true disciples today we thank you lord in your most mighty and precious name we give you thanks jesus amen thank you my friends see you again bye

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Length: 49min 2sec (2942 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020