Table of Discipleship - Pastor Paddy Patterson

[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. [00:00:06] Ah, good morning, all. How are we? I want to move this out the way, because I will kick it. There we go. This for you, little man, is a drum kit. We got kids over here that like to come out and play so they can bang on that. We're very quiet today. Where is everybody? Anybody would think it's half term. Half term. Everybody's gone away, apart from you lucky lot. You get to be here today. This is good. Yes, excellent. Happy with that. I want to get cracking today, and we're going to be talking about a table of discipleship. So pay attention as I try and weave my thoughts into this. But I just want to say from the very beginning that we're not talking today about our emotions. This isn't an emotional message that I'm going to bring. This is really just listening into what God is convicting you with. When we jump into our emotions, we jump into something that is just there and then gone. It's a fleeting moment in time. And we get people that can come through the door, and they can come to big events, big evangelistic outreaches. They can come to small church services. They can be on their knees crying at the altar, and by the time they reach that door, forgotten. They're not changed by the Word because the emotion has taken over. And when the emotion takes over, we're more in the flesh than what we are, the spirit. So today, it's just challenging that we talk about what's going to transform your heart, not what's going to transform how you feel today. Okay? God convicts. This is his conviction on your life. So whatever I talk about today, if it lands with you, then he's talking to you. There's a conviction there. There's something that you need to work on. And if it lands with you and you hear it, but it doesn't need to stay there, then that's okay as well. That's not an issue. We're still going to talk, and we're still going to preach and bring the message of God, but it goes deeper. Conviction goes deeper. When we get a conviction from the word of God, what that should do is bring about a transformation. God convicts. We still have to be transformed by the word. Romans 12:2 says, to renew your mind every day, but we still need to be transformed, and we need to let the word of God do that. And if we're in our emotions all the time, then we don't get to do that. Because we're not convicted enough. Because emotions get in the way. My Claire explains this very well, that when sometimes she'll be in worship and she's down on her knees and the tears are coming, and then five minutes later she's up and she's fine. She doesn't need people coming over and surrounded her in covering her in prayer. Because there's been a transformation within that moment in time between her and God. And that's what we should have. Transformation through the conviction of what the word of God says. Discipleship is not a temporary rush, but it's a lifelong response. It's not a momentary emotion, but it's a daily decision, kind of just pre framing that before we get stuck into this. So let us pray, Father God, today we just ask, Father, that we know the Holy Spirit is here. And I change my language from ask to command. I command change to happen today, Father. Within the walls of this building, within the sound of my voice, be it here, be it on podcast, Father, There is a command that people will be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That they will be transformed and commanded to move in your word, in your way, Father. That they get to hear you and see you in ways they have never experienced before. That there is a transformation that comes about, Father, that encourages somebody to delve deeper into you, to know you more, to love you more, to come closer to you, Father. And I thank you for this, Father, as I step out of my way, Holy Spirit, step in. We give this all over to you in your precious name, Jesus. Amen. So we're going to take a look at. We're going to start with Psalm 23. Everybody know Psalm 23? Yeah. For those old and bold ones, we're straight down there. We're reciting it. That's okay. For those that don't know the word too well. Psalm 23. I'm going to read it. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in, in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. It's A powerful scripture. But what we're going to focus on today is we're going to focus on verse five, Just verse five of that. If we can have that up on the screen, please. Verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. David has just walked through the valley of the shadow of death and all of a sudden he's there and he is realizing and understanding. He declares, God, you've set a table before me in the midst of all circumstance. Around me there is a table. The table's not hidden away. The table's not behind closed doors. The table's not out of the way so nobody else sees it. The table is there in the midst of my enemies. You prepare a table, it is there. I get to sit in front of my enemies at the table that you have provided, which is good, which overflows with everything that comes with it. This is where he's at and this is where he's talking from, right there in front of the enemy. But here's the hard truth. Some of us have been invited to that table, but we've decided to stand on the corner. We have decided to hide away. We have decided to look at that table and go, wow, that table's good. There's some good food on that table. There's some great people at that table. Wow, I would love to be surrounded by that. But I'm going to hide away over here for whatever reason there is, be it shame, be it embarrassment, be it pride, be it whatever, but we've chosen not to sit at the table. The table has been provided for you. That table has been given for you. That seat has been bled for you. That seat is covered with the blood of Christ. That is your seat. That is for you to sit at, to have everything that God gives you, to have everything that has been declared over you. But we choose not to sit there. Why is that? Why do we get so many Christians that come around and choose not to do that, that choose not to take their place, who choose not to walk in the authority that they've been given? Why do they choose to stand still in the flesh, in the world, coyering and hiding, ashamed and embarrassed? I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm a 6 foot 2, 18 and a half stone bald headed Irishman. I love Jesus. Who's going to argue with me? Not many. But that doesn't matter because I can be a 5 foot 4, 10 stone wet through Welshman. I'm not going to insult any of you Islanders and stuff over here. But I can still love Jesus. It's the boldness and the authority that we walk in that declares who we are, that declares that we have a right to sit at that table, that declares that we have the right to accept everything that Jesus gave us on that cross. So why do so many step away? Why do we hide? Who is Jesus to you in that moment? Do you know who Jesus is? Do you realize that Jesus has died for you on a cross? Do you realize that Jesus loves you? Are you able to turn around and say, I tell you what, I love you too? Because in a life that I've lived, and I'm sure there's other people here, I didn't know what love was until I met Jesus. I didn't know what love was until I realized what he'd done for me. I didn't realize what love was until I understood that he gave his life for me to have that connection back with him. John 14:9 says, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Discipleship. And we talk about discipleship today. Discipleship isn't head knowledge. Discipleship's not the theory that we understand. Because within the theory of understanding, where's the relationship that you have? I remember years ago, stood back in a church after many years running away from it, and the pastor was talking about God. And I'm like, I get God, the universe, Gaia, all the rest of that stuff that I was looking at back in the days, I understood that. And then he threw Jesus in the mix. And I'm like, I'm done. Why do I want to go there? To get there? It didn't make sense in my head because I was trying to theorize what it was. I was trying to make sense of the world the way that I understood the world, which was not a good way to understand the world. So while I'm having a conversation with the pastor, he turns around and he said to me, he said, you've got to go and find out who Jesus is. Fall in love with Jesus, then you will see the Father. I went, and it took months. It wasn't overnight. I knew Jesus. I knew the stories. I knew the parables. I grew up in church. I understood all up here, but I had no revelation. I didn't have a heart transformation. I didn't have a heart knowledge. I went to the courses. When they said something was on, I went to it because I needed depth, I needed growth, I needed maturity. That pastor challenged me, find out who Jesus is. All right. Oh, wow. And then Jesus Met me there and he saved my life. He transformed my life because I went searching deeper. There are atheists out there who know Jesus because they've read a book. They've not had a heart transformation. They haven't got heart knowledge, they've only got head knowledge. To know Jesus is to know the Father. Discipleship is falling in love with Jesus. But how can you love him if you don't know Him? And how can you know him without time? How can you know him without discipline? And how can you know him without pursuit? He's chased you down. He chased you down. He died on the cross for you. I want to pursue him. No, I want to pursue him more. I want to understand him more. I want to love him deeper. Which means I need to surround myself with people who will challenge me, who will lift me up. I need to surround myself with people who will speak life over me. That will bring me closer to God, not further away. That will bring me to the Word, not to the world. To chase him down, to search for Him. But you will only go as deep in your walk with Jesus as you are willing to be discipled. There is an argument for the word disciplined. Are you disciplined enough to be able to get up in the morning and reach for the Word? Are you disciplined enough that when you're tired, you're going to go anyway? We've just run a 10 week Freedom in Christ course. And I tell you what, for the best part of your drum's over here, mate. No, little bit too high for you, but we're okay for at least six of those weeks. Four o' clock came, I did not want to go. And we left at about quarter past four. Half past four, so we could get here for quarter past five to set up the weeks that were spent beforehand. Prepping the teaching, getting ready for it. Didn't want to do it. We got here because we were disciplined. Because we knew that by the end of that evening, I was filled. I knew by the end of that evening I was overflowing because I was overflowing because of the love of Jesus, because of what he had done. So every time that I came, Claire included, she's not getting away with this. It's all her fault, by the way. She wanted to run the course. Yeah, but it was one of those in the flesh. Not interested. I don't want to do this. I'm tired. I don't want to speak to people. I don't want to sit down and have a conversation with people. I don't want to pray with people. I don't want people to see me like this, but that's me. When we step beyond that with discipline, then it changes. Because when I got here, I realized I needed those people. They didn't need me. I needed them. Because people were coming hungry, and because they were coming hungry, that was encouraging me to delve deeper. That was encouraging me to love more. That's where we've got to get to. When we are discipled, we become disciplined. When we are ill disciplined, we are lazy. When we are lazy, we are not productive. If we are not productive, how are you doing what God wants? How are you listening to Him? How are you obeying Him? But what is a disciple? 1 John 2, 5, 6 says, but if anybody, anyone obeys His Word, love for God is truly made complete in Him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 1 Corinthians 11. 1 says, Follow my example. As I follow the example of Christ. I follow people who set an example of Christ. I don't follow the person because I follow Jesus. I surround myself with people who follow Jesus. I don't surround myself with people that I follow. Do you understand? Does that make sense to everybody? Yeah. So if I follow somebody who has not taken me to Jesus, is that a good example for my life? Of course it's not. So why would I follow them? Paul's saying in here, follow me as I follow the example. But what is a disciple in the Greek? Greek word is methetes. If I say it properly, it means a learner, it means a student, it means a follower. But here's a punchline. A disciple doesn't just learn. A disciple obeys until their life looks like the Master's. Understand that? Until their life looks like the masters. So when Paul says, follow me as I follow his example, follow me until you get the revelation of who the Master is in your life. Jesus in nlp. Claire and I are both trained in this from many years ago. I used to use it for the interrogation world when I was in the military. It was a great way to break people down. You use words and you use their words against them. Claire used to use this to train people, to help people. And one of the things that we found. I shaved my head this morning, so this keeps on slipping. All right? So note to self. Don't shave your head first thing in the morning when you put on the Madonna mic. I need some tape. Yeah. Not just for my ears. They hold them back. Yeah. No, we're okay. Will survive. But in the world of nlp, it's got this thing called matrix re imprinting. Okay? Now people come along and people do these NLP courses and they pay thousands, thousands, tens of thousands of dollars, pounds, whatever currency you want just to come along to these things. Tony Robbins and all the rest of these people to see how they can better themselves. It's all self help. Yeah. So we understand that. It's all self help. I, I, I, I, I. What can I do to make my life better? Because I'm in charge, the universe owes me and I get to claim I, it's all I. It doesn't do anything. But this matrix re imprints. And what they basically turn around and say is that if you want to be like somebody, you're going to learn about that person, you're going to follow their habits. What time do they get up in the morning? What do they have for breakfast? What podcasts do they listen to? What are they writing down? What are they doing? What are they reading? What time do they go to bed at night? Your imprints in everything about that person so that you can become more like that person. And this is all about the success. Yeah, success breeds success. Follow successful people, you'll become successful. Hang around with rich people, you'll be a rich person. Hang around with poor people, you'll be a poor person. All the basic stuff that we can't even understand, but this was the matrix re imprinting era of what was going on. But I looked at it, I understood it from there. And then when I got saved, I looked at the word of God and I'm like, why aren't we imprinting who Jesus is? All the tens of thousands of pounds that have been spent on all this stuff just to educate ourselves on how to copy somebody else. And we have got Jesus there. The perfect example of who we should be. Like the Son of God. Yeah, but we go about things the wrong way. We go about thinking, I want to be like this person. Paul says, follow my example as I follow Christ. Follow the example until you know Christ. Be with people who lift you up to the word of God, not drag you away from the word of God. Discipleship needs to be taught as an invitation into transformation. Discipleship is not a stick that is used to beat somebody into submission. So what is discipleship for? That's the challenge. That's what we look at today. What is discipleship for you? Is it something to bring you closer to God or further away from God? Too many Christians want salvation, but they don't want discipleship. I want to walk into Church. I don't want to say, yep, I want to give my life to God. That's it, we're done, we're dusted and I'm off ticking the box. Hold on a second. But I want to take you deeper into that journey with Jesus. I want you to see the blessings that come with knowing Jesus. Not interested in that. I'm going back to the world. I'm saved, heaven bound whenever I die. But I'm going to stay over here away from that table because I'm uneducated, because I don't know enough. I'm ill disciplined. To be able to realize and understand that to sit at the seat at a table that he has set before me in front of my enemies is to sit with Jesus himself who will teach me and guide me and he will give me so much more than I could ever give myself to realize that he is the provider. The benefits of sitting at that table at peace, forgiveness, blessings, but just alone, just sitting there with peace. How many people in this world are not at peace because they don't know who provides peace? How many Christians do we have that are about the place that don't realize and understand the power of the peace that they have within them and they're not setting a good example because there are a lot of them out there as well. A lot of Christians like to finger point. A lot of Christians like to gossip. A lot of Christians like to say bad things because they haven't got the fruit of the Spirit. They haven't got that peace within them because they haven't got a revelation of Christ within them. And how can they give that revelation to somebody else? Ill disciplined to know Jesus. But sometimes we resist that discipline it takes to sit down, to stay planted and to be shaped by Him. We come somewhere and we go somewhere and we're like, yeah, but I can afford the must next week because I was in this week and oh, it's half term. I don't have to go there this time. It's okay, let's not do that. That let's not get planted and rooted. Let's not do this. I've got time. But when we take a look at it, there's 52 weeks in a year and if you come to church for two hours on a Sunday and you do nothing else, somebody do the math. That's not many hours at all, is it? Out of 365 days, you're given 52 days over. If that. Because we've got. Sometimes we get sick, sometimes the kids don't want to come to church. We've got other things that crop up. We've got holidays. We want to go away and do stuff. It's a lot of things that we want to do. But what's God calling you to do? How do we grow deeper in his word if we're not willing to set down our stuff and pick up the cross? How do we go into all the world and make disciples if we're not willing to be discipled ourselves? But hear this. Struggling with discipleship does not mean that you are rejected and condemned. Don't sit there today and think, oh, I haven't been disciplined properly. I didn't go to that course and I didn't attend all the courses going on. I didn't go for all the weeks going on there. And I probably didn't pay attention at this time. And I forgot all about this. This isn't about condemning. This isn't about taking you apart now and going, I'll tell you what, actually, you're no good. This is about turning around and saying, I tell you what, Jesus still loves you. And at every opportunity, he has still given you an opportunity to come back. He has still given you an opportunity to sit at the table. That table is there. That seat is reserved for you. Sometimes we get up and we take a little bundle. I can imagine Jesus looking at me sometime and he's like, paddy, where are you going? Please just come back here. This is where I want you to be. This is your seat. I get in my way sometimes. But he loves you enough that he got on a cross to die for you to get on a cross to bleed, to get on a cross so that you have eternal life in heaven. And he's not going to throw that away just because you didn't come to your course. Yeah, we're all happy with that. Nobody condemned, are we? Sure we will have prayer afterwards. So I can't see really how I'm going to step on here. If you feel condemned in here, please. I did not mean to make you feel condemned. That is the work of the enemy. So I command not to leave. Yes, excellent. Happy with that. This is just that little prod, that conviction. The good news is Jesus doesn't push you away. When you fall, he invites you again to sit with him. The challenge is not to settle for just being seated, but to step into the joy and freedom of becoming more like Him. This is what it's all about. I want to be more like Jesus, which means I want you to be more like Jesus. I want to be friends in this. I want you to be more like Jesus so that you challenge me to be more like Jesus. It's all about being like Jesus. That's a lot of being like Jesus, isn't it? Who do you want to be like? I want to be like Jesus. Yeah, absolutely. The more like Jesus I become, the more people around me see Jesus in my life, the more people get saved and come to Jesus, we become more like Jesus. Oh, it's a great snowball effect, isn't it? Yeah, we like snowballs. Not the alcoholic versions either. Salvation gets you to the table. Discipleship teaches you how to eat and be nourished by the one who sits with you. Think about that one. Salvation gets us there. Yeah. Discipleship helps us understand that we're getting nourished and fed by Jesus while we've been sat there. Okay, Matthew 28, 1920. Go and make disciples of all nations. Teaching them to obey the Great Commission isn't about simply making converts or fallen churches. Jesus was calling much deeper. Make disciples. That means a life that's fully surrendered to him. Growing in maturity and helping others to do the same. That's what that is. To grow in maturity and to help others to do the same. We talked this morning about Billy Graham, and we talked about an opportunity that Billy Graham had to. And I'll just share this quickly, where he went to a revival tent back in 1934. And as he went down, him and his friend, he went in, they couldn't see his seat, couldn't find a seat, and they turned and they left. But this usher went after them and grabbed them, said, come back in. I will find you somewhere to sit. And that usher found him somewhere to sit. And because of that usher, and nobody knows his name, everybody knows Billy Graham's name. Nobody knows the usher's name. But because of that Usher, Billy Graham got to sit under the word of God. And Billy Graham was used mightily. Millions of lives transformed and changed by one Usher who was obedient. One Usher who had the love of Christ in him that looked about and saw one person, two people. Because that other person was a person who helped Billy Graham throughout his ministry. They worked side by side. They'd done this together. He said, I'm not going to let that person go. I'm going to pick them up and I'm going to bring them in. I'm going to find a way for them to be under the word. It takes discipline to look for those that are lost. It takes discipline to look for those that are Weak. And it takes discipline to sit with those and to teach them, to bring them up, to educate them, to show them the love of God. We're called to lead unbelievers to Christ. And discipleship starts with sharing the good news. But it doesn't stop there. It means moving past surface knowledge and building the relationship. I can sit and I can go onto the street and I can evangelize and I can have a conversation with somebody and I can give them surface level stuff. Great. Some people are more gifted at that than others. I prefer to sit down and have a one on one conversation with somebody I know and say, how are you doing? How's your walk with Jesus? What's challenging you? What's good in your life? And we form a relationship around the word of God, so you don't have to be called to evangelize to do that. That's a relationship. Walking with unbelievers towards maturity. This is where the cost shows up. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, if anybody would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. To go in for him. To go all in for him means sacrifice. It means laying down comfort. It means laying down pride. It means laying down self, laying down your ego. But as we obey him daily, his spirit shapes us into maturity. Growth is never cheap, but it always leads to fruit that lasts. And then you've got to rely on others to sharpen us. And we spoke about that briefly. Hebrews 3:13 says, it reminds us, sorry to encourage one another daily. Surround yourself with strong Christians. When you're feeling weak, and we all feel weak at times, who do you turn to? Who's the person you can pick up the phone with and be honest with? Who's the person that holds you accountable? Do you have a person? It's a struggle to find sometimes. But when you find that person, hold on to them. When you find that person that lifts you up in Christ, hold on to them. If you haven't found that person yet, then keep searching. Keep searching because it's good. As iron sharpens iron. So we sharpen each other. To find a good Christian to lift you up will encourage you and will keep you disciplined in everything that you do. There is no point in being lonely, because being lonely leads to isolation, which breeds weakness. And when we breed weakness, we have no fellowship. And when we have no fellowship, we do not sharpen our faith. Faith, fellowship. To come and to lay everything down at the foot of the cross is one thing. But to have somebody literally just pick you up and to keep on walking, that's another. And that's where we got to be. Luke 14:33 says, Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Matthew 16:24 says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves. Take up the cross and follow me. It's not a hobby. Discipleship is not an add on. It can't be any of those. It's not a Sunday tick box. Jesus never called people to pray or prayer and carry on as normal. The prayer of salvation should be the change and the catalyst in your life. That recommitment, that repentance, that turn away from John 6, 66 says many of his disciples turn back and no longer follow him. When he was talking about eating the bloods or eating the flesh and drinking the blood, how short minded were they short sighted? Because we've just done that in communion today. Do you understand who Jesus is? Discipleship is not an add on to Christianity, it is Christianity. The word Christian literally means Christ follower. And if you're not following Jesus with all we are, then what are we really doing? What are people really seeing when you open your mouth? What are they really hearing? Discipleship costs everything, but it also gives us everything that truly matters. Jesus never sugarcoated anything. He demands full surrender. But the reward is not just heaven someday. It's his presence, it's his power and it is his authority and it's his life in us today. Think about that one. His presence, his power, his authority that we have today. It's in us, it's in you. That's what we have. Colossians 2:67 talks about being rooted and built up in him, strengthened in faith. Faith. We need to be rooted and we need to be grounded in the word of God. And I've seen firsthand what happens when I'm not. And especially when I first. When Claire first got saved, she got saved before me. She started going to Bible college and in going to Bible college I got saved. And she said, I want you to join me, do this together. I was like, not a chance. I don't want to go back to school, I'm not interested. And I could see the look of disappointment on her face because she wanted to do this together, but it didn't stop her. She still went. And over time I seen that change. I seen that transformation. I seen peace come on her life. I seen the forgiveness that was taken over. I seen the joy and the fruits of the spirit start to come out. And I still remember the day when God Said to me, he said, you have to catch up with her. And I was not a happy bunny. I phoned the directors for Rhema that were back in the uk, and my statement to them, don't dare try and change my mind about joining college, but this is what I'm feeling. And they laughed at me. And then I phoned somebody else that was under one of the instructors. And again, I said, don't try and change my mind. I don't want to do this. And we spoke one hour. I walked in the house, I looked at Claire, and I promise you, there was no Fruit of the Spirit here either. I looked at her and I was like, I'm joining Bible college. I wasn't happy about it, but I listened to God because he said, go, catch up, do what she's doing. And as I started, I became disciplined. As I started, then I started to change. I seen the fruits firsthand of what Claire started. That direction, that change of that path, that changed my life, that has changed my son's life, that has changed my family's life, all because of obedience of one woman. That obedience could have been me. But I decided not to sit at that table. I decided to hang out at the back in the shadows, scared, as the old poem goes. I can't remember the name off the top of my head now. Marianne Williamson. It is actually. It's not the darkness that scares us the most. It's the light of how powerful you can be, of how good you can be, of everything that is there, what you can have. And that's the word of God shining on your life. Somebody was talking about it recently where they talked about taking every thought captive. And this one particular person, they were like, well, I've got to take that thought captive. I've got to take that thought captive. Oh, that thought's coming. Take it captive. They spent all day taking the thoughts captive. This person said to me, why don't you just go on and turn on the light, shine the light of Jesus in there and realize that we're condemning ourselves all the time with our words and our actions. But that's not what he came to do. You are not condemned. Do what you do, do what you don't do. You're not condemned. Jesus loves you anyway, but he wants a relationship with you and he wants a deeper relationship with you. Even now, he wants a deeper relationship with you. It doesn't matter if you are 11 months old with some kid out there or if you're 85, 90, sat down here. He wants a deeper relationship with you, regardless of what you've done, he loves you. What we feed on will eventually overflow. And if you want Jesus to come out of your mouth, if you want Jesus to come out of your action and you want Jesus to come out of your attitude, you must feed on him daily. Every Christian is called to be a disciple and every Christian is called to make disciples. So who are you following? And is that person you're following bringing you closer to God? Who are you discipling? Have you got somebody in your life that you're actually leading closer to God, deeper to God? And then who's holding you accountable? That's a challenging one sometimes. Who's holding me accountable? Who's holding you accountable? Jesus never called us Christians. He called us disciples. Are you sitting at the table of discipleship? Are you standing on the sidelines? Where are you standing today? Where do you want to stand today? Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Do you want to know him more? Every second, every breath takes you closer to him. Will you stand up and acknowledge him over everything? Will you stand up and declare, I love Jesus? Will you hide in the corner still trying to figure it out? Because regardless, if you stood in front with your hand in the air, if you stood in the corner trying to hide, he still sees you. He still loves you. He still died for you. He's still championing you because he knows the blessings and the path that he has set before you. Today is not about the emotion. Today is a challenge. A challenge to walk closer to him if you're not already. A challenge to walk deeper with him if you're not already. A challenge to love him more if you're not already, we'll bow our heads and we'll pray. If you're challenged here by this word and you don't yet know Jesus, but there is something prodding within you that is asking you to acknowledge him as your Lord and Savior. Then just raise your hand. If you sat here now, he's prodding you and he's prompting you and he's challenging you to go deeper in Him. Then raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Holy Spirit is trying to guide you and he's trying to lead you. The Holy Spirit is your comforter. He's your friend. Listen to his voice. Get to know his voice. But Jesus, we just thank you today. We thank you, Father, that through everything that you have spoken about, Father, that you died on a cross to give us everything. You died on a cross to give us life. That you rose that you sit at the right hand that you have blessed us beyond measure Father I ask that you remind people of that you remind people of who they are. You remind people Father that they are loved that they are forgiven that there is no condemnation in you that where they fall short Father where I fall short that you are right there beside us loving us anyway that you are picking us up that you are encouraging us Father that you are championing us to more in you for more discipleship Father and for more discipline to be discipled. I just thank you for it. I thank you for everything today Father and I thank you for the blessings you pour out in Jesus precious name. Amen. [00:42:55] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more you can reach us online at worldchangers Life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.