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Fully Yielded
May 11, 2026 · 56 min
Explore what it means to fully yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives and actions.
Series Unstoppable May 11, 2026 · 56 min · Unstoppable
Explore what it means to fully yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives and actions. ...more Show the full description Show less Explore what it means to fully yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives and actions.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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In this video 0:00 Strengthen Others Relentlessly5:00 Serve Faithfully with Humility17:00 Obey Courageously Without Compromise33:00 Give Generously and Pray Fervently51:00 Fully Yielded Call
Strengthen Others Relentlessly 0:02 Well, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that are here today. Also, just would you do me a favor this morning? Would you help me welcome all our campuses who are worshiping with us today?0:15 Ladies, I know yesterday was a special day at the women's brunch. I heard all about it and, I know it was fantastic. And again, happy Mother's Day to all of you for all of the wonderful things that you do. Every single 10:27 of us in here has been touched in some way by our moms or a special woman who has stepped into our lives and helped us. So thank you for all that you do. Amen? Thank you. Amen. With that,0:38 let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Would you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we do give you all glory, honor, and praise0:48 today. And Lord, we seek your face because you and you alone have the answers to life. Lord, what a privilege it is to gather with your saints to sing praises to you, to seek your face, and, Lord, to1:00 get ready to hear your living and active word. And, Lord, we're always encouraged to hear your word because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are1:10 speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you,
1:21 and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. All of you are here today because at
1:33 some point in your life, there was a faithful believer fully yielded to the spirit that's had an impact on you. Even if you're here and you say, I don't know that that's ever been me.
1:45 There's been somebody somewhere that's been a faithful believer you may not know that's been praying for you. Some of you are here as a result of prayers of your mom or dad or grandma or somebody that's gone on to be
1:57 with the Lord. But every single 1 of you, while it may not be somebody that anybody knows, you know the person or people who have made an impact in your life. And when you think about them, there are there are people
2:08 that have been fully yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ. People that have let Jesus be paramount in their life. That when you spend time with them, you know this person spent time with Jesus. They're just different. They
2:20 don't just talk religion. They don't just talk about things. They actually have an impact. They spend time listening to the Lord. They spend time in his word. They know how to operate. Their lives are
2:32 constantly changing. And when you get around people like that, there's a hunger to wanna spend more time with them. I remember even being at seminary with some of the men that taught my classes that had, you know,
2:43 studied the word for 50 plus years. And you would think, well, they know the Bible. They know everything about the Bible. But it was always incredible for me to see somebody who was in their eighties or nineties, who had
2:53 been studying the Bible for 60 or 70 years, get tears in their eyes because they saw something new about the Lord they hadn't seen before. And And that's when you knew it wasn't just an academic exercise for them. It was
3:05 truly something that they wanted to have on the inside of them, which is what we all desire. And oftentimes, we're looking for that person in our life. Oftentimes, what we say is, where's the person that's gonna disciple
3:16 me? I've never really been discipled. I mean, majority of Christians today would say, if somebody would have just come alongside me, or if right now, somebody would just come alongside me and they'd teach me how to be a
3:26 single, they'd teach me how to do my marriage, they'd teach me how to do parenting, they'd teach me how to study the word. I have everything I need. And the reality is you have the Holy Spirit inside of you and guess
3:35 what? He not only wants to help you with those things, but he wants you to become that for somebody else. And we make excuses all the time say, I'm not ready yet. I I can't do that yet. When God says, if you have me
3:47 in you, you're ready. And so today we wanna talk about what does it look like to be fully yielded to the Holy Spirit? What what does it look like? What are evidences that when we're yielded to the Holy Spirit that our
3:58 life reflects and looks like? And today, we're gonna be in Acts chapter 20 to answer that question. And in Acts chapter 20, I'm gonna give you 5 truths about what it looks like to be fully yielded to the spirit of
4:10 God. Like, what evidences that you're gonna see when you're yielded to Christ that come through. And it's important for us to know what those things are because if you know what God is trying to do, then you can align
4:21 with him. Because all of these things are things that God is trying to do inside the heart of every single believer. For those of you that have been journeying with us, you'll know that we left off in Acts chapter 19
4:32 last week when there was a huge riot in Ephesus, because the tradesmen were afraid that when Paul came in with his evangelist, they were gonna share the gospel and everybody start worshiping Jesus instead of
4:44 Artemis and they'd be out of business. Because they made Artemis shrines as a trade. And so an uproar occurred and Paul wanted to go into the assembly and they wouldn't let him go in. Like you're not going in there. It's
4:55 gonna be crazy. And so they kept him out and finally it calmed down and they said, hey, if you have problems, the the pro councils and courts are open but let's not cause a riot today. And this is where the story
Serve Faithfully with Humility
5:07 picks up in Acts chapter 20. He says after the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples. And when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to
5:19 Macedonia. When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece and there spent 3 months. And when a plot was formed against him by the
5:31 Jews, he was about to set sail for Syria. He decided to return through Now, when you talk about someone who is fully yielded, a fully yielded Christian, first and
5:43 foremost, strengthens others, relentlessly. Others relentlessly. If you're filled with the spirit, you will strengthen others relentlessly. There'll be something inside of you that can't
5:55 help but encourage people in Christ. Now, here's Paul. There's been a massive riot. Everybody's been up in arms. The whole city is in chaos. And when it calms a little
6:06 bit after the uproar, what does Paul do immediately? I need to get the disciples together. We need we need to exhort them. It it pictures somebody saying, let's go like, let's
6:18 get moving. Let's quit letting grass grow under our feet. So what does he do as soon as the uprising is over? He doesn't take it as an opportunity to say, wow. What a tough day. It was
6:30 so busy. I just need to go put my feet up and watch the support center. Right? I mean, that's not what he does. As soon as he's got an opportunity, what's he do? Let's gather the disciples together and let's encourage
6:41 them to keep doing what we're doing. You see the results we're having? We're turning cities upside down for Jesus. Let's keep going. And when he gone through all these different districts, it said he had given them
6:53 much exhortation. I mean, everywhere he's going, he's not just talking to his disciples. Everywhere he's going, he's encouraging all the disciples. Everything that's on the forefront of his mind is to strengthen
7:04 disciples. When the Holy Spirit takes resident in your life, you're gonna love other Christians. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life, you're gonna wanna encourage other Christians. You're gonna wanna
7:16 serve other Christians. You're gonna wanna build other Christians up. You can't help but want to help others. It's inside of you. And the reason that's in you is the Holy Spirit's in you and says, now that you belong to
7:27 Christ, I wanna show the world what Christ's love looks like through you. And so there's a compelling nature. Paul says, for Christ's love compels us. The reason we do what we do is I
7:39 I have to serve others. I I have to strengthen others. I wanna help them grow. And he continued to do that. And notice when he goes to a place, sometimes he spends a year and a half, sometimes he spent 2 years like he
7:51 did in Ephesus. At this point in time in verse 3, when he comes to Greece, he spends 3 months plot was formed against him. We don't know what that plot was. Chances are it
8:03 was to drag him off into prison or have him killed. I mean, there was a plot against him because everywhere he went, he was so about making disciples of Jesus that they wanted to stop it. But what you see is fully
8:14 yielded believers pour into others instead of living for themselves. You don't see Paul first and foremost living for himself. Jesus did not live first and foremost for himself. For even the son
8:26 of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Amen? And notice this, I mean, you you see who he's strengthening and there's a lot of history in these first 16 verses which
8:38 we're gonna go through fairly quickly. But look at verse 4. And he was accompanied by Sopatter of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Aristarchus and Segundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of
8:50 Derbe, and Timothy and Tychaeus and Trophimus of Asia. And here there's 7 men listed there and we're like, okay, let's move on to the next point and we can and I won't spend too much time but this
9:03 could be the same as that's listed in Romans 16 21 that Paul refers to as my kinsmen. Fellow worker in Philemon 24 and his fellow
9:14 prisoner in Colossians 4 10. So they're they're gonna serve time in prison together. So Gundus is only mentioned here. Gaius is a very popular name. Probably not the same Gaius that went into the arena in x
9:26 19. This Gaius is from Derby and not Macedonia. Timothy, we see everywhere in scripture. Paul says, I have no 1 like him. Like, he's my guy.
9:40 Beloved brother in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 4. You see Trophimus who we're gonna see next in in, Acts 21 who the Jews falsely assume Paul brought into the temple. Paul leaves him sick in Miletus.
9:52 But here's what I want you to see. Each other. They've spent time together. If you want to do a fun study sometime, go
10:04 read Romans chapter 6. Greet this person and greet this person and I'd already just greet you in the name of the Lord. All they're doing is greedy. Why? Because they love each
10:17 other. They want to spend time together. The body of Christ, if nothing else, is relationship with 1 another. Everybody Paul traveled with, it wasn't their title. They weren't wearing pastor badges,
10:29 apostle badges. They were friends who were serving the Lord Jesus Christ together. They were going to prison together. They were causing cities to be an uproar together. And when you live out
10:41 that mission together, friendships form like no other. Amen? And that's what was going on here. And he's strengthening them relentlessly. It's not that Paul ever does his
10:53 ministry alone. We have this idea that if we're good at what we do, we'll just do our ministry and leave it on the side. If you do your ministry well, you're also bringing other people with you who can do what you do.
11:03 Right? You're also building other people up. You're also encouraging them and their gifts to do what they do well. And if you're truly discipling people, some of the people you disciple will be do able to do certain
11:13 things in the body of Christ much better than you're able to do. And when you're discipling people, it's not just getting them to be like you. You want them to follow you as you're following Christ. But they have
11:23 different gifts, different abilities, different temperaments, different personalities. So turn all of that loose so they can be the fullness of what Jesus wants them to be. Amen? But strengthen others relentlessly.
11:35 This is what you see here. Let's continue. But as these but these had gone ahead and we're waiting for us at Troas. Chances are Luke's writing this saying they're waiting for Polinai. And he's telling what they
11:47 did. We sailed from Philippi after the days of the unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within 5 days and there we stayed 7 days. And there we stayed 7 days. So he's telling the history of where they were. And I
11:51 noticed a and 7 days. So he's telling the history of where they were. And I noticed this in verse 7, on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, which is what their custom was, which was
12:03 to celebrate the Lord's supper and then have a love feast, they called it, a meal together where the body of Christ ate and served and did all these things so they could really get to know 1 another. Paul began talking
12:15 to them, intending to leave the next day. So Paul starts exhorting them, talking to them, preaching to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
12:27 That's my favorite verse in the entire New Testament. I mean, he's just talking to him. He's spending time with him and he keeps rolling and he keeps rambling and he keeps going. It's midnight.
12:39 It's not as if these people didn't have anything else to do, but they didn't have they couldn't go online and catch all of his latest sermons. They couldn't go watch other pastors preach. There's like Paul's here.
12:51 This is all we're gonna get. We need everything we have and what were they They were hungry for truth. So, Pausch, it's preaching on. He's preaching on. And there's a lot of people that are
13:03 hungry there, but not everybody's as hungry. Notice this. It says in verse 8, there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered. Now, you may say, well, that why why include that in the scripture? You're
13:12 gonna see here in a moment. Perhaps it got really stuffy up in there. Perhaps there's many lamps in this upper room. It's you know, Paul's been going till midnight. Notice what happened. And there was a young man named
13:23 Eutychus sitting on the windowsill sinking into a deep sleep. So even Paul put people to sleep when he preached. You understand that? So that's what he's
13:35 doing because it's midnight now and there's some kid there named Eutychus that's saying, man, I've had enough of this. I mean he's being taught scripture by the Apostle Paul and he can't even stay awake. Jesus had 12
13:46 disciples. They couldn't stay awake to pray with Jesus. I mean hearing the word of God and praying are hard disciplines. Because the disciples couldn't do it with Jesus and the first century Christians couldn't do it
13:55 with Paul. Praying are very difficult disciplines. And so he was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul kept on talking. He was overcome by sleep and fell down from
14:07 the third floor and was picked up. Now, you talk about an abbreviation and a service. Someone, when you fall out up at the upper deck and fall down here dead, it changes the service a
14:18 bit. I mean, Paul's talking and talking and talking. Uticus is in the windowsill. His parents have probably told him, Hey, sit still. Just it won't be much longer. And he's dozing off and he falls out of the
14:30 window and he falls down and they pick him up and he's dead. Now make sure you know he's dead. I mean, the tech said that he's dead. But notice what Paul did. Really laid his body
14:42 over him, much like some of the Old Testament prophets would do. And after embracing him, he said, do not be troubled for his life is in
15:00 dead. So you would think, like, if that happened in a church service, what would you do? Praise the Lord. Let's just talk about that. Let's go out and tell everybody that. That's not a
15:18 happens? This kid falls out of the window and dies. Paul goes and lays his body over him. He's like, he's not dead, he's alive. Don't worry. Let's go get something to eat. So they go break bread and Paul's like, now,
15:30 I was in the middle of my message and was disturbed so let me keep on talking. And Paul keeps going till daybreak. I don't know if that was 5, 6, or 7 in the morning but until the sun comes up, Paul's still gonna talk to
15:41 them. And guess what? They still wanna hear. They still wanna hear. So what do you see? You do see the miraculous power of Jesus. You do see all that. But what you see in the story is that in spite of
15:53 the miraculous power of Jesus, what the saints in the first century were most impressed with was the word of God being spoken to them. Amen? I mean and and that's what you see. And so Paul spends the night with them,
16:04 teaches them, and then gets up and he's gonna leave in the morning. And then it says, they took the boy alive and they were greatly comforted. Amen? I mean, talk about a crazy story
16:16 that happens, right? And so notice what happens next in verses 13 through 16. You're gonna see some of the history and what's going on and you're gonna see Paul's intentionality to get to Jerusalem as quick as he
16:28 can. It says, but as we were going ahead to the ship, we set sail for ass offs intending from there to take Paul on board, for he had arranged it, intending himself to go buy land.
16:40 We don't know why Paul went by land and not the ship. I mean, we can make some assumptions, but that's all they are. The biblical text doesn't tell us. Perhaps because of all that he did and all the ministry that he had
16:50 just done, just needed some time alone to walk and pray. Perhaps he had some intentionality on the ministry to meet certain people. We don't know. The text doesn't say, but they're gonna go by ship. He's gonna go by
Obey Courageously Without Compromise
17:00 land. They're gonna meet up later. In verse 14, it says, and when he met us at at Assos, we took him on board and came to Midylene. Sailing from there, we arrived the following day
17:12 opposite kiosk and the next day we crossed over to Samos and the day following we came to Melitus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so he would not have to
17:24 spend time in Asia for he was hurrying to Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. So my leaders is about 36 miles south of Ephesus and Paul's trying to get to Jerusalem and Paul
17:36 knows if he goes to Ephesus where he spent 2 years, everybody knows he's coming. He's gonna get delayed. He's not gonna make it to Jerusalem when he needs to make it to Jerusalem. So he goes to these different places but
17:45 he sails all the way around Ephesus and they come down to Melitus because he wants to make sure that he makes it to Jerusalem on time. But here's what you see. I I want you to see this.
17:57 No matter where Paul goes, he is always strengthening others relentlessly. You don't see him get a day off. Now what I mean by that is I think it's good to take
18:09 times to rest. I do. I think it's good to refresh in the Lord. I think it's good. It's okay to take vacations. But notice this about Paul. Everywhere he goes, he's still on mission. He's not taking time away
18:21 from Jesus. He may take time away to refresh, but he's not taking time away from Jesus. He's always about others.
18:33 About others. I mean, you wouldn't see a great coach at halftime go into the locker room and talk to his team about all the things going on in your life. I know you had to tell first half. But let me tell you about my
18:44 life. I mean, before I left today, I had this argument with my wife, and my kids are doing this, and here's what's going on. And financially, I just don't know that I'm gonna make it. That's not what a halftime talk
18:54 looks like. Because a good coach is focused on others. Ground, and yeah, there's time to advance. But even in
19:05 the military, there's what are called medics, and their responsibility while everybody's advancing is to look for those that are hurting and come serviced.
19:18 Your role is in the Lord, what do you want to do? You want to find others to serve them relentlessly. Amen? I mean, think about it. I mean, today is
19:30 relentless work that mothers do. Cleaning, praying, packing lunches, encouraging. Everyone sometimes gets to sleep except mom. All the different things that go on.
19:47 You know,
19:47 it's like, hey, it's 1 in the morning and I'm here changing a diaper and it's really late. That's not what they do because it's not about them, it's about what they're doing. And even though they're doing it anonymously
19:56 and nobody sees it and nobody's giving them thanks. That's what it looks like to be a believer in the body of Christ. To serve anonymously, to serve relentlessly, to help other people grow even when nobody else but
20:07 the Lord sees it. And the Lord who sees it rewards it. Amen? Amen. So if you're gonna be fully yielded to the Lord, 1 of the things that the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life is to get you to
20:19 strengthen others relentlessly. Amen? Second thing is this, when the Holy Spirit is in your life and you're fully yielded to the Holy Spirit, you will desire to serve faithfully
20:31 with humility. Fully yielded disciples serve faithfully with humility. Notice this in verse 17. Ephesus, 36 miles
20:43 south, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him when they come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first
20:54 day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time. So when Paul gets there, he's like, I don't have time to see everybody in Ephesus, but I definitely wanna talk to the leaders of the church. I definitely
21:06 wanna talk to those men who are faithfully serving Christ's body. I need to see them before I go to Jerusalem because I'm never gonna see them again, and I need to give them some final exhortation. So it would have taken
21:17 some time to go the 36 miles up and call for them and come 36 miles back. So So Paul's gonna be in my lead us for a little while. And while he's there, he's waiting for them to come. And when they come, he begins to give
21:29 his testimony. And his testimony is not, I'm awesome and don't you wish you could be like me. His testimony is think about the way that I served. Yourselves know from the first day I
21:41 set foot in age, how I was with you the whole That means we spend our lives together. You knew this is where I call was called. You knew this is what I
21:53 wanted to do. And what does he say? Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plot of the Jews. Here's what he
22:05 was saying. He's like, you know that it wasn't just lollipops and skipping through the roses when I was there. You know it was difficult when I was there. You know that I not only labored with
22:16 you, we wept and we tried together. I mean, this was hard. We went through trials together. You know that. I mean, my whole life has been a testimony that the reason I'm with you
22:28 is because of a
22:41 profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house, Solemnly testifying both to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and
22:53 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's saying I served the Lord faithfully and I did it with humility. And here's the truth. The spirit works through believers
23:05 whose life matches their message. Right? Don't don't just do as I say, not as I do. Not as a fully yielded disciple. Do as I say and
23:17 as I do. That's what Paul would say. And where we fall short as Christians sometimes is we want to tell people this. We want to lead with, well, don't follow me because I don't have a right. You know, don't look at my
23:27 life. It's not very good. But follow Jesus. That's not what the Bible would say. The Bible would say, you want to live in such a way where you can tell people, just do what I'm doing. Just seek the Lord the way I'm
23:38 seeking the Lord. Just study the word the way I'm studying the word. Just give to the church the way I'm giving to the church. Serve in the way that you see me serving, what you see in me and hear in me. And go put that
23:48 into practice. The peace of God will be with you. That's what a disciple looks like. And for many of us, we're all about, let's go evangelize the lost. Let's get them in. About, hey, just follow me and do what I'm
23:59 doing. It's why we can put on a crusade and see hundreds of people come to Christ. But if those same hundreds of people came to Christ, and I said, now, I'm gonna give each of you 1 of those people and in the next 6
24:11 months, I wanna see them walking with Christ, studying the word, praying, giving to the church, finding a place to serve, and it's your responsibility to do that. Many of you, although you've been in the church for 30
24:21 plus years, would say, I'm not ready for that yet. I don't know how to do that. That's called being a disciple. That's like 1 0 1. And here's the place. If people can't
24:33 look at your life and follow what you're doing, that's a great place in your life to confess to the Lord, repent of, and allow him to change you. Amen? And it doesn't mean that,
24:45 hey, once you get all those things out of your life and once you're a real disciple and once there's no sin anymore, then you'll be ready to disciple somebody. You'll meet Jesus first. Because Jesus said, follow me. I'll
24:56 make you fishers of men. Paul said something different. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. In other words, follow me in the way I follow Christ. 2 different types of men. When Jesus was leading his disciples, he never
25:07 had to say these words. I'm sorry. I was wrong. Paul would have. Do you understand? You will have to. Some of the ways that other people grow in Christ is seeing
25:19 the ways in which you repent.
25:33 It's more like 93. But for where I've fallen short, there's plenty of times where they've seen me go publicly apologize to their mom for the way in which I acted. So they can see me tell her I was wrong
25:44 and they know I was wrong because they watched. Everything in your life's perfect. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying when you're yielded to the holy spirit,
25:57 he can use you to grow other people. And here's the reality. Listen, listen, listen. This is a key truth in the Christian world that nobody seems to understand. If you'll begin to serve others,
26:09 if you'll begin to pour into God will pour into you what you need to help them. So if you really want to grow and cry, it never happens by passively sitting and listening. It
26:21 happens by actively doing it. Don't wait till you're ready to make disciples or you're really pausing or stunting your
26:32 growth? Hold up your hand if you know for sure you're born again in Christ this morning. You you know you're believing. Okay. There's all the people that God's wanting to use to make disciples.
26:46 Every single person. Now I didn't ask it with every hand. Are there still some things you're struggling with? Yes. Are there still some areas you need to grow in? Of course. Are there still some things that don't reflect
26:57 the glory of Christ? We understand that. That's true of me. But if you raise your hand, then God is saying, you're my chosen instrument to pour into other people. So find 1 or 2
27:09 others that you can pour into. And if you'll take the focus off yourself and put it on them, I promise you the spirit will help you grow in what you need. Amen? I mean, first Timothy 4
27:20 16 says, pay close attention to your life and your teaching so you may persevere in them both. A
27:38 a a a a a
27:40 a a a a a a a a
27:40 a a a a a a a a a a a a a
27:40 a a a a a a
27:41 a a a a a a a a a a a a a a it's never been where I've left a concert and somebody said, man, that stage crew was awesome. Like the only time you're gonna be aware that there
27:53 was even a stage crew is if there's a problem with what they did. Like if they didn't set up the technology right, if they didn't have the screens right, if the sound goes out, then you'll know the stage crew didn't do
28:03 their job. But if the stage crew does their job, you won't even know that they existed. And you'll enjoy all the benefits of that concert, but you're not gonna thank the stage crew. But if it weren't for the stage crew,
28:14 there would have been no concert. You understand what I'm saying? In the same way, what is God looking for? He's looking for anonymous saints that don't care whether they get the credit, but just wanna serve him and be
28:24 part of his sage crew so that other people can experience the benefits and the glories of Christ. So God can say, through that church, I can pour out the full measure of my spirit so everybody's experiencing
28:36 it. And who's getting the credit? God is. And who's serving? Everybody is. And who knows who you are? Nobody. Because they don't care. They didn't come here for you. They came here for Christ.
28:48 Amen? Right? That that's what's going on here. And did the first century do it perfectly? No. That's why we have all the letters to what they were doing wrong. There there's no generation of the church that has cornered
28:59 the market on discipleship. We've gotten really good at knowing how to use smoke machines, dim the lights, get people to feel something, move, tell a story. Any of that to share the gospel.
29:11 Just so you know. But we're not so good at doing the mission God called us to, which is making beginning, that's somebody else's
29:23 job. When somebody pours into me, then I'll be ready. Don't wait for somebody to pour into you. Let Jesus pour into you and then go pour into others and he will grow you.
29:35 Amen? And I'll tell you how I know. It was my personal experience when I was in college. I kept praying for the Lord. Lord, bring me somebody in my life that's like evangelistically bold, that knows the word, that can
29:46 teach me the bible, that can show me how to share my faith, that can teach me how to walk in all your ways, that can teach me how to do this because I don't know how to do anything. And I have this great long prayer
29:54 request and I sense the Lord in my spirit saying, just be that guy. I don't wanna do it. I just want somebody to show me how to do it. Right? Because that's really what we're saying when it comes to discipleship. Even
30:05 when we're saying, I really wanna know how to have a good marriage. What you're saying is, I want somebody to teach me what it looks like, but I don't plan on applying anything they're teaching me. Right? Like, if you
30:14 wanna have a good marriage, here's how you have a good marriage. You work at your marriage. Even if you don't have somebody telling you, here's what a great marriage looks like if you have the scriptures. I mean,
30:24 husbands I mean, scriptures replete with how to love your wife and elevate your wife and bless your wife and lay down your life for your wife. And it doesn't matter how she treats you. The Bible seems to be care less
30:34 about how she treats you. It cares about guys how you treat her. Yeah, but she's it doesn't matter. You still love her anyway. And the same for a wife, an impossible task. Submit to your husband in every day.
30:46 But he's this he's yeah, I don't care. Just do it. Right? I mean, if you really want to work on the things God wants you to work on, you're going to have ample opportunity to grow in your faith. And so what
30:58 I'm encouraging you is to serve faithfully with humility. Amen. I mean even Jesus, the night that he's betrayed, he knows within a day he's gonna go to the cross, he's gonna lay down his
31:10 life, he's God in flesh, he's gonna make a way for every human being that would repent and place their trust in him to have eternal life. I mean, he's worthy of being celebrated. I mean,
31:21 he's worthy of everybody saying they're gonna bow and fall on their face and tell them that he's awesome. If there's anybody who's ever lived that can do that, it's him. And what does he do?
31:42 A where he should be getting all the praise? He's serving all the way to the end. So you're saying, I want to be like Jesus. Here's the thing. You may not ever find a platform, but you can always find
31:54 a place to serve. There's always a place. You wanna be like Jesus? There's a place for it right now. You don't need a title. You don't need a badge. You don't need a platform. You don't need a place.
32:06 Just look for somebody. In the world, everybody you look in the eye has a need realize they're struggling. And if you'll open your eyes and take your attention off of you and put your
32:18 attention on somebody else, you will grow as a disciple by serving faithfully with humility. And that's what Paul says. He goes, I didn't shrink back from declaring anything to you. Something that
32:30 wasn't. And I wasn't afraid to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Because that's who my God is. Amen? And I solemnly testified about repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
32:42 2 sides of the same coin. 1 turning from your sin, 2 turning to Christ. They're both necessary. You can't just trust Jesus and live in your sin. You can't just turn from your sin and think everything's gonna be okay.
32:56 Together. I'm turning away from the world. I'm turning to Jesus. I'm turning away from God's wrath. I'm turning towards his love. I want his forgiveness. And he goes, I didn't stop telling you that all the time. That wasShow more
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