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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
A Disciple Vs. A Follower | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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Turn with me, if you would, to John chapter six. And while you're doing that, let's pray for our nation. Father, we thank you for this nation. We thank you, Father, for the assignment that you have for it. Father, we thank you for the revival that your prophets have seen and spoken of. We believe what they have seen and Father, and we say for our generation, we are the ones that will walk in it. In Jesus name we lift up our president, our vice president, all the members of Congress, the members of the judicial system, Father, we lift up our state and local governments, Father, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. And we thank you Father, that you are raising up men and women who will follow after your plan. And we remove with our authority, we remove those who will not go with your plan and your will. In Jesus name, devil, we say you take your hands off of the judicial system, off of our economics, off of our political system. You take your hands off of the media, the educational system, our finances of this nation. And you must loose and let go in Jesus name. We thank you Father, for the angels at work. Father, you have promised that a righteous nation will have peace. And we thank you Father, for the righteous ones in this nation rising up and taking their place, the church taking its place. Father, we lift up your servants everywhere and we say that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth your hand to heal that signs and wonders being done in the name of thy holy child Jesus. And we thank you for it. In Jesus name, amen. Did you turn to John chapter six? I have a very specific word that the Holy Ghost had been dealing with me to preach this morning. John chapter six and verse 53. And we're going to read for a moment. And Jesus said to them, I assure you most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Unless you appropriate his life and the saving merit of his blood. He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood possesses now eternal life and will raise him up from the dead on the last day. For my flesh is true and genuine food and my blood is true and genuine drink. He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood dwells continually in me. And I in like manner dwell continually in him. What a wonderful promise. You can never say you're alone when you get born again. When you receive Jesus as your Savior, you are never again alone. Don't believe the lie from the enemy. You don't have anybody. Nobody loves me. Nobody cares. Nobody knows, nobody understands. He said, I will dwell continually. You have a great high priest who understands every bit of the opposition that you face. Anything you go through in life, your Savior I understands and is walking with you. It's just our job to live conscientious of that, live aware of that. That's oftentimes where we fail and we come up short is we forget to live aware of that presence. Look here. Let's keep reading. Verse 56. He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood dwells continually in me. And I, in like manner, dwell continually in him. Just as the living Father sent me. And I live by through because of the Father. Even so, whoever continues to feed on me, whoever takes me for his food and is nourished by me shall in his turn live through and because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the manna which our forefathers ate and yet died. Who takes this bread for his food shall live forever. He said these things in a synagogue while he was teaching at Capernaum. When his disciples heard this, many of them said, this is a hard and difficult and strange saying. An offensive and unbearable message. Who can stand to hear it? Who can be expected to listen to such teaching? These are disciples, Scripture says disciples. But Jesus knowing within himself that his disciples were complaining and protesting and grumbling. So we know they weren't saying it out loud to him. They were saying it to one another. It really lets us know that when Jesus stood before Lazarus Tomb and said, I thank you that you hear me and you hear me always. Well, we love it when we pray in faith. But what about when there's something less than prayer coming from our lips, you know, talking to one another, talking against the word of God? He said they were complaining, protesting, grumbling about it. Said to them, is this a stumbling block and an offense to you? Does this upset and displease and shock and scandalize you? I would have loved to have heard the tone that Jesus said that in verse 62. What then will be your reaction if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. He is the life giver. The flesh conveys no benefit whatever. There is no profit in it. I want you to underline that. If you don't have that, underline verse 63. It is the Spirit who gives life. He is a life giver. The flesh conveys no benefit whatever. There is no profit in it. The words, truths that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life. But still, still some of you fail to believe and trust and have faith. For Jesus knew from the first who did not believe and had no faith in who would betray him and be false to him. And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him, unless he is able to do so by the Father. After this, many of his disciples drew back, returned to their old associations, and no longer accompanied him. Jesus said to the 12, will you also go away and do you too desire to leave me? Simon Peter answered, lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words, the message of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. If you do not have verse 68 underlined, go ahead and make note of that. Whoops. He said, you have the words, the message of eternal life. Notice this. He didn't say, you have the miracles, oh, Jesus, but you have the power, Jesus. I can't go. Listen, Jesus, if something happened to my kid, I can't leave you because I need that power. Jesus, I'm sticking real close to you because I've seen you heal Peter's mother and what mother in law? What if that happened to my mother in law? I got to have. I got to get me some of that power because I know if that comes into my household, oh, Jesus, I cannot leave you because you have fed us. You turned, you know, the water into wine. You've taken what we couldn't drink and make it usable. You have taken. They didn't rehearse. Peter did not rehearse all the miraculous things, all the wonderful things that Jesus had done for them. He said, no, it's your words. He said, where else can we get words at our life? This is a huge key. Many want what God can do for them, but they don't want what he's got to say to them. And they find it too hard. It's too hard. They want a quick fix, they want a quick answer, they want a quick deliverance. But they don't want to take the time to renew their mind and to lay hold of the eternal life that's in the word of God. So now go over with me to Romans, because we're just laying a foundation here for where I want to go. There's so much I. Again, I don't know if it's going to turn Into a little miniseries. I'm not sure yet. But I want you to see that Peter brought out, you have the words, the message of eternal life. And there were people who were disciples. He didn't just say followers, he called them disciples. And he said he knew who would leave. He wasn't just talking about Judas. He was talking about he knew who was going to stick around. Times had already been tough. But when the words got tougher, when they didn't like what they had to hear, when the message got too challenging, the crowds got smaller. That's why you can never look at the health of the church by the size of it. Healthy believers stick around when the words get tough. Amen. Romans, chapter 12. Romans, chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Now listen, don't be saying I've heard this verse. I want you to hear it with fresh ears. This morning we're reading and we're listening with fresh spiritual ears, okay? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. The amplified reads, I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, and beg of you, in view of all the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your body, presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice, holy, devoted, consecrated, and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable, rational, intelligent service and spiritual worship. Spiritual worship. One of the things I remember, Pastor Nancy teaching is it means it's going to take the help of the Spirit, your spiritual worship. Anything that you do that talks about having the Spirit involved is going to take the help you need to learn how to. And we won't go there this morning, but you're going to have to learn how to be full of the Spirit. Okay? So again, we'll just say that, make that blanket statement. But I don't want to go that direction. I appeal to you, he says, I beseech you, the difference, and I want us to look at this morning what it means, as we saw in John. What is the difference between a disciple and a follower? And which one are you? Which one am I? The difference between a disciple and a follower. Many. I don't. I want to be very sober about myself. And the word makes it very clear in John there who the disciples truly were and who the followers, those who were just followers. Because followers, you can follow somebody, right? How many of us? If you're on social media, you follow, you know, maybe sports teams or you follow people you like, you Know, I don't know, celebrities or clothing or something that has an interest. Art. I love those travel Instagrams. Boy, I'm going to go see the world on my phone, you know, and you mark down the places you would love to go and visit. You know, it's so beautiful, all what God has made and what God has done. And you follow them. You're a follower, but you're not a disciple. They're not teaching me anything. At least I would hope for your sake and your mental health. Right. I mean, a sound, somewhat sound mind, understanding, understands. This person didn't save me. So everything that they say is not gospel. Right? Right. They didn't purchase my redemption. So I'm just following you. But you're not telling me what to do with my life. Right? Right. You know, young people, if. If social media is dictating what you do, where you go, you. You better reevaluate who you're a disciple for. Okay? In every arena, every way. So, you know, if those. If what you read consumes you. Listen, I'm not against reading books. I think, you know, especially if you're in a profession and you need to educate yourself. You need to continually be growing in knowledge. But I find it somewhat, and I've seen it in the lives of believers, that there's a lot of excess reading of a lot of mumbo jumbo. You know, this philosopher and this person and that person. That's wonderful. They had great minds. But don't let their great mind become your poor mind in Christ. You'll spend more time trying to become educated and sound sophisticated than you are having. The words of life, the words of power. What happened? Those that were just showing themselves as followers were too educated for eat my flesh and drink my blood? Yeah, I'm too advanced for that. This is too hard. We'll go back to tickling the mind and sounding intelligent. Seen a lot of intelligent people that couldn't get their healing because they didn't understand that Jesus took it on his body. They spent more time reading up on all the medical stuff and all this wonderful, you know, educating themselves in the natural arena. Instead of taking the word feeding. We're talking about being followers or disciples. I want to be a disciple. I want to stick it out. You know, maybe that's just my personality, my motivation, that competitive side, you know, with myself. But you've got to have to stir up. You're going to have to stir up some motivation, some holy fervor to you to stick with the things of God when the Rest of the world is becoming more and more godless. We must have a determination to be more and more full of him and his Word and his presence every day. And it's again, it's going to take an effort. Why these men, the 12 that stayed, it was an effort and a recognition. I love it on Peter's part, you were the only one with words of life. He was more interested in Jesus words than the miracles, the signs and the wonders. If you're sticking around for a show. And not the word of God, not the life giving words that are in this Bible. If you come to church to see what can be done for you instead of what can I do for him. How am I taking the Word and standing my ground as a good soldier in the body of Christ. Amen. You'll be disappointed one day when we stand before our Savior and look here. It says in the amplified, it says all your members faculties as a living sacrifice. I looked up the definition of sacrifice because we all have an idea, a concept, but it says an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure. The act, an act of giving. I like this. An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. So when the scripture says present your bodies, a living son sacrifice, let's read that together. Present your bodies as an act of giving it up for something more valued and for the sake of something else regarded as more important and more worthy. What is more valuable and more worthy than your body? The body of Christ. One of the examples was, if you know sports and understand baseball, that they'll make a sacrifice. They'll sacrifice. The batter will come up, bunt the ball, get out just so he can. He's a sacrifice so that that runner can advance to another base, first to second, second or third. And that's the sacrifice the team is willing to make. That player is willing to sacrifice for the greater good, you know, for the advancement. You know what I'm saying? There's an advancement. There is, there's a common goal. This is the mindset that we must carry with our bodies. I am sacrificing my body for the sake of a greater, more important good. An act of slaughtering says an animal surrendering a possession as an offering. Well, doesn't it call it. It's your reasonable service, your sacrifice unto God, what you do with your body. And don't think that God's not interested in that, that he's only interested in what you do on Sunday mornings. He's only interested in, you know, that you talk nice to one another. He's only interested in the things that people can see. He's much more interested in what people can't see that goes on between you and him. That's where the real sacrifice is made. It's no sacrifice, really and truly. It's a smaller sacrifice to come to church where people are holding you accountable and you will be seen for your act of service to come together. But what you do when others don't see you, when it's just you and God, the lack of discipline. What is the difference between a disciple and a follower is discipline. Discipline. That's what we're going to talk about this morning. It's discipline. The difference between a disciple and a follower is discipline. And nobody can discipline you but you. Nobody can discipline your body but you. Nobody can discipline your time but you. Nobody can discipline your thought life but you. Certain denominations have tried to force sacrifice and some of you maybe were in those denominations, you know, through. Well, really, they try to force sacrifice of the body and discipline of the body through the don'ts. Don't do this, don't do that. Can't go here. Don't do this. Don't. You know, I don't want to call, you know, any denominations out because they've, you know, I believe many have brought wonderful things to the body, but we're, we're wanting to go even a step further than man's, you know, I'm saying man's effort, that was man's natural effort to try to implement rules, to keep a sacrifice, make you, you know, you're going to sacrifice your body. You've got to do this, that or the other. Don't do this, don't do that, don't go here, don't go there. Don't, don't, don't. Don't. You know, as my pastor said, growing up in denomination, they said we always knew what you couldn't do, but we didn't know what you could do. You knew what the don'ts were, but you had no idea what the do's. You know, God is. He's not a master to put you into slavery. He's expecting me to bring my body under subjection and make my body the slave to my life, you know, to his will. You understand that you have every right to make your body a slave to the will and the purpose of God. It should serve his purpose, serve his word, serve the truths of God's word instead of you serving it. Transformed. Well, let's keep going. Uh, let's look at where true sacrifice really starts. And that is verse two. God helps us out. How do we get there? How do we become successful at presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice? Verse number two. Do not be conformed to this world, this age, fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and new attitudes. That word renewal, obviously to us, we understand our spirit man became brand new, but our mind is still old as sin as long as sin has been on this earth, which was from Adam. That's how your mind is, how much it's been made new in your body. Renewing your mind is a continual. That's why it doesn't say to make new your mind. It says to renew your mind. So that's a process. And if you're not willing to go through the process, which is what those. Only the 12, we could really say this. Only the 11 one stuck around for financial purposes. Only the 11 said, you know what if it's hard to everybody else, there's something in their mind that was new and awakened to the plan and the purpose of God. And they decided, where will we go? What will we do? So renewing of the mind, transforming. And one of the things I want to point out to be transformed is not just to change your mind, right? How many of you parents, you say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And they just come and they wear you down. And what do you do? You change your mind. Did you really agree, Mommy, can I have that cupcake? Mommy, can I have that cupcake? Joy's like, can I have that cupcake? Can I have the cupcake? No, not before dinner. Can I have that cupcake? Can I have that cupcake? And you're trying to get some things done around the house, and what do you do? You change your mind? Fine, just take it and go outside, right? Yeah. Why? Because you want peace for your mind. Their little flesh wore down your thoughts. You didn't necessarily agree with it. You just changed. We can't take this approach to the word of God. I'll just change. You know that you're coming here so I can just change your mind. If you approach Sunday service in the word of God trying to be convinced to be changed, that you have to come and the preacher has to wear you down before you finally relent, say, well, you know, that's not being renewed, that's not being transformed. Bible school students you don't come to Bible school for us to wear you down with the word of God just so you'll change your mind. You're coming to be transformed. Transformed. You're changing into something else. You know, I'm still the mom, and I still didn't want them to have the cupcake before supper because it's going to kill their appetite. But I changed my mind anyway. You know what I'm saying? That doesn't happen very often, just so y' all know. But you see how the difference between changing and transforming, transformation. It's making a thorough or dramatic change in form, appearance or character. Form, appearance, or character. So if your character is not being changed or transferred, if your character is not being transformed, then the word of God. You're not renewing your mind is that you know you're not renewing your mind. If you still think the same way, act the same way, talk the same way, do the same things I'm talking about when nobody's looking, when nobody's around, then all you've done is come to church, change your mind for a couple hours, and then you walk right back out the door. Changing and transforming, two different things. I'm not here to change you. I'm here to preach so that the words, as Peter says, the eternal life. The words of eternal life will transform you. And when you're really hungry, you're not satisfied with just hearing those transforming words in a service. Because you recognize I have been continuing to live unrenewed for so long. It's going to take a lot greater effort. You know what I mean? Look at here. It says, when it says, I want to read this. Presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice. We're talking about that sacrifice. It means to surrender or offer. The same Greek word is used when they actually. When they presented Jesus. Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to the priests when they brought him to the synagogue when he was a baby. That's the exact same word. They brought him and presented him. His earthly father, you know, earthly mother brought him and presented him to the priests. It's the same presentation that we bring unto God. That's the importance that God sees how you present your body. It's on the same level. It's as. At the same importance as Jesus Christ himself being presented as a baby by his parents to the priests in the synagogue. Do we live with that same reverence that when you wake up in the morning, God is asking me to present my body with the same fervency, the same commitment that Mary and Joseph presented my Savior to the will of God, to the plan of God. And then people wonder why their life looks a mess and they're not, they're not fulfilling God's perfect will for their life. And nothing seems to work right. God can only work for us to the degree that we're willing to be obedient to his word. It's a spiritual law and we can't violate that. Adam is still the God of this world. We have been given. If you're born again, yes, your authority. You are here to exercise your authority over every demon, power over everything that tries to exalt itself above the name of Jesus. When you speak his name, when you declare the Word, you are asserting your authority over that, over that power that has the right to be here. But if you can't assert your authority over your own flesh, then what in the world do you think the enemy thinks about you and where he's going to take you? You know, how little do we look in his eyes when he goes, well, if they can't even renew their mind and put their. Make their body a sacrifice, what's he going to do about my little demons running around? You know, it starts your victories, your battles to be won. They start what you do when you get up every day with your body. We're to present it's that serious to God as the presentation of Jesus in the synagogue. Is that serious to him. Why do you think they'd use the same word? Because we are the body of Christ. We are his body. He can do nothing without you and I agreeing to the will of God, to the plan of God, and to the words of God. Amen. And when it says here the word beseech, he said, I beseech you, therefore, brother. And Paul is saying, I appeal. The amplified says, I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of all the mercies of God. Beseech means to passionately. Actually, the Greek is actually, you can translate that passionately. Call out, plead and beckon. He's pleading with them, he's beckoning them. And really if, if you, you use that same word, it's used in the same, same way as a soldier, maybe like a captain in the military would beseech his troops before a battle and, and you know, tell, talk to them and, and beg of them. Pay attention. This is what we're going to do. This is what you're going to face, you know, beseeching them, encouraging in a real forceful way. Well, what are we called? Soldiers. Good soldiers. He's saying, as a good soldier, I beseech you, pay attention, I urge. I am pleading with you. I am calling out this very subject. The act of receiving Jesus. Jesus, of course, is done by faith. And receiving all that he has provided is done by faith. But the act of renewing your mind and putting your flesh under, disciplining and making your body a sacrifice is done by a decision. You decide. You decided to get up and to put that body under. You decided that the greater good, the greater. My sacrifice is so insignificant, or we could say it's so small in comparison to what the body of Christ needs. I'll sacrifice this one thing so that the team, the army makes advances. Amen. So that the army of God can advance, the kingdom of God can advance. How significant is that? Stop diminishing. We have got to. Part of renewing our mind is we've got to stop diminishing how much our lives affect what God can do. That's the greatest trick of the enemy. The greatest trick is that you couldn't possibly. You live in a little town in Southern California and nobody sees. And it couldn't possibly make any impact into the plan of what God wants to do. The moment you take that lie, the moment you entertain that thought and run away with that, he will isolate you. He will drive you out. You understand that you are significant. What you do with your body is significant. We are fitly joining. It goes on. And we won't go. Go there. But he goes on to talk about after these passages, the significance of everyone's body in the body of Christ. Romans, when we read here, is now addressing, you understand Jesus. We receive him by faith. God gave his son. Romans is now addressing what we must give. Okay, that's why Peter. I love it. Peter's faith, it wasn't to him. It wasn't about what Jesus could do for them. He said, I need your words of eternal life to live by. I believe because he understood and we saw it demonstrated even in his failures, his zeal and his. His excitement and the thrill. He had to be connected to Jesus to walk with him, you know. And he said, wait a second. I need your words. I don't just need what you can do for me. I need what you have to say to me so that I can change and become more like you. It's words, you know, the reason my children are. You see, similarities between my children and us is because of what we say. How we direct their lives with our words, the direction that we give, their habits are dictated by the Direction that I give their flesh is dictated by the direction that I give when they eat, when they sleep, when they do their schoolwork. I mean, any good parent understands the discipline that you need to enforce in your child's life. Amen. That doesn't change when you become an adult. It's just somebody's not standing over you doing it for you. And now Paul is addressing, jesus gave everything. Here's what he's given. Paul had great understanding, great revelation in this area. You know who we are in the body of Christ, who we are in Christ. But Paul is saying, wait a second, I beseech you, I beg of you as a good soldier in the army, as a leader would address his troops, please, you must do something and present your bodies as a living sacrifice because this is what you have to give back to God. Discipline is the deciding factor between a follower and a disciple. Do you have the discipline to do something with this body that God has given you? Pastor Nancy says it in her, in her book causes the body. Your body is the greatest asset, not your money. You have all the time in the world. But if you don't do the right thing with your body, God can't use you. It's your body is your greatest asset to use for the kingdom. Or else God would not have called us the body of Christ if a body was not so significant to him. You have given God nothing. If all he has is your heart, You've given him nothing. You get born again. You gave him your heart. You don't re. Give him your heart. Young people, I didn't give my husband anything when I said I do at the altar. It's what I do in the days to come is what I've given him. You understand that what you do, you know, you have a great understanding. When you get in covenant with somebody, you can have a better understanding of what sacrifice really means. Bless his holy name. My goodness. You know, I sacrifice my late nights, my staying up. My natural habit is to stay up late. You know, when my husband puts Everybody away at 8:30 at night, It's compromise, it's sacrifice. You make sacrifices for one another, right? You know, good parents teach their children to make sacrifices for each other, preferring one another. But see the day I said I do before God and man and the government, I gave him right, gave him my heart. On paper he should. But it's not about just that one day. And I do. That's how marriages are destroyed, is when they left all their words and their, when they left all their actions at the altar and didn't take any good ones with them when they left. That's why I said, you've given God nothing if all you've given him is your heart. That's what Paul's saying here. That's exactly what he's saying. The renewing of your mind is of primary importance. That's why Peter recognized he was onto something. Wait a second. The words of eternal life, I need those. I can't go anywhere. It may be hard for me. Jesus, I don't understand it. That grosses me out. But you know what? I still need your words of eternal life. I'm sticking around. They've got me this far and I cannot go any further if I do not have those words being fed to me. Of eternal life, the renewing of the mind is a primary importance so that for the sake of the body and the advancement of the kingdom, you enter into battle with your flesh. The more the mind is transformed. Remember, to subdue and sacrifice the body, we must do verse two, renewing of the mind. So the more the mind is transformed, the swifter the victory over the flesh. The swifter the victory. If you're struggling with your flesh, don't start there, Go to your mind. Start with the mind. The more the mind is transformed, the swift, swifter the victory over the flesh. My dad. And we'll close with these two things. My dad, when I was younger, played a lot of sports, and there was a time I did track and field, all kinds, you know, ran the 400, 800, shot put, you name it. So we would do these at the university. We would have, you know, track meets with. This was before I was in high school because I quit once I got to high school. I was, like, way behind. I won't go into that, but you can look at me and put those two things together. But I got to love running track and field. My cousins and I did it together. They were pole vaulters and long distance, cross country. So we had a track meet. And because I was in one event, we were supposed to go and, you know, check in for another event that was coming shortly after. So I had a race and then. But while I was getting ready and running that race, you were to be checking in for the next one of the events I was supposed to do. Well, they told me, because I didn't come and check in, that I couldn't do it. And my dad, some of you have met my dad. He is a very quiet man. He's very typically, very laid back, you know, just. Just real Sweet man. Just a sweet, sweet man. And my dad was not having any of that. And I think this was the first and the last time I actually didn't see it. I only heard heard about it. But my dad marched himself. I mean, totally not my dad. You know, if the food's wrong, you eat it, if you know what I'm talking about. Like, you don't make waves, you don't push, you don't like non confrontational whatsoever. You know, we just, we're too nervous to do things like that. You know, my mom is the more assertive one. And so my dad didn't have to because he had my mom. And so my dad was not having any of that. And all I saw was him walking. We're at the university floor. I see him walking himself up the stairs to the announcer booth and where they kept, you know, they did the announcing and then they kept all, you know, the times and all the records. And I don't know what he said. I don't know totally. You know, he never really told me, so I can only guess because he wouldn't tell me what he said. But he gave them an earful about letting me run the race, right? Because according to them, I didn't show up, you know, when I was supposed to. And he said, wait a second, she, it's not her fault that your timing, you know, is off. And you could have seen you had a runner. And so he probably wasn't that gracious and didn't explain it that way. And he probably just demanded, as he never does, he put his foot down and they let me run the race, they let me go on. And Mr. Kondo made somebody change their mind. I wish I could have been there. I wish I could have seen it. Because we never saw that side of my dad. He didn't let us see that. And with that same, I mean, I just remember seeing him walking so fast up those steps. My dad never moves that fast with that same fervency. You have to get in front of your flesh and say, you will not stand in the way of me running my race. You may have tripped me up last week, you may have tripped me up last month, but you're not holding me back. You have to get mean and ugly. And I'm going to tell you something. The Holy Ghost and the word of God will back you up. Instead of just trying to use your authority on getting money and doing this and doing that, why don't you use your authority and deal with yourself, Deal with the man in the Mirror, before you go trying to deal with devils, you know, this is a very good lesson, young people. Very good lesson. And some of you young people need to realize, your parents, myself included, if we're in an army, we're in the army of God. You understand? The helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation. What is that? To protect the mind? It's salvation. Just because I got saved, the salvation is first. But to exercise my salvation, the number one thing that's going to get in the way is you. It's you. Not the devil. That's you. That will keep you from living and looking like you're saved. Okay? So put on that helmet of salvation. But. But some of you need to understand your parents as good soldiers. They. I was thinking back to, you know, World War II when they stormed the beaches on D Day, right? That was epic. In the turn for that war, much planning, much strategy, much preparation coming together, you know, different countries coming together and uniting and forming a plan to take ground and start moving onto the continent. Europe. Europe. To take back what the greatest enemy had taken. And some of your parents, young people, you need to recognize, they stormed the beaches on D Day. They were the ones that had to overcome things that you've never had to face. Drugs, alcohol, perversion. Things that you have chosen. You've chosen. They set you up. They put you, we could say they put you on the land. And all God is ask for you is to keep making advancements. They're the ones who stormed the beaches. They're the ones who had nobody in their family supporting them. And they saw the truth in the word of God and they wanted their life changed. And you're just okay to be on social media and look at anything you want to look at, do whatever you want to do, go whoever, wherever you want to go. That's like the soldiers who showed up after D Day, sitting in the sand and playing tiddlywinks, doing nothing. My parents came through too much. My pastors came through too much for me to sit on the beach and as my dad says, fart around, Is messing around, playing games. This is not a game. And you saw those who thought they were disciples, they left when the game got too hard, when the words got too hard, when they thought they could compromise. Said they just went back to where they came from. Young people, don't you go back to where your parents came out of. We are on the threshold of one of the greatest moves of God. If you don't believe it, that's fine. That's your lack of faith. You ain't putting that on me. We are on the threshold of one of the greatest. You can see it in the nation. This is not the time to be playing games and just acting and doing anything you want to do and let your flesh rule your life. When the scripture says, we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the only thing that stands between you and your light shining is your flesh. And why does your flesh get its way? Because your mind is not renewed. Amen. Well, praise God. I've been preaching for almost an hour. We're going to wrap that up. I'm telling. I'm preaching myself. I will not be sitting on the beach doing nothing when my Savior comes back. I want to take ground. I don't care if it's things that you're having to take ground in your life. You're taking ground. No ground is too small when taken for the body of Christ. What you do with your body, it matters. And it affects me. It affects the person sitting next to you. Amen. Just because you. That's where you start. Then you start with renewing your mind to your significance in the body of Christ. If you don't know where to start, you say, my flesh has been out of control. Finish the rest of this chapter. So. And you ask the Holy Ghost, show me. Help me to see my importance in Christ. Not that I am important as in, but in Christ, my importance and the plan and your purpose and your will for this very hour. Amen. It's going to take all of us, but you start here so this does not get in the way. I tell you, God is looking for you to shine so bright and to make such an impact in this community. And if these words sounded harsh, don't worry. Jesus did, too. But are we going to be disciplers or followers? Disciples. Disciplers. Disciples or followers. I'm not content with being a follower because at any hard row, any hard place, the temptation to leave could be too much. The temptation to quit could be too much. Disciples, they're not tempted. We see the 11. They weren't tempted in any way. Amen. They stuck with it and they ran the race. Amen. Amen. Well, we'll go ahead and we'll close with that.
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