Lesson 26 - Babies, children and fathers - give a beef to a baby it will die - The Pioneer School

Welcome to this lesson 26
in the "Pioneer School".

I am really excited about this lesson

where I am going to continue
a little where I was last time,

but we are going to talk about
the different levels.

Some people are not born again

and what they need is different

from what born again believers need.

And again, young men in the faith.

They need something different
than born again believers.

And fathers, they need something
totally different again.

And we need to understand that
and if I look at the church today

we are giving many places beef
to babies.

If you serve a beef to a baby, you can
be sure that that baby is going to die.

Or we give milk to young man.

Then you can be sure that
that young man is not going to grow

and become a father by just
drinking milk.

And after a short time -
he will be maybe end up dying

because he needs more than milk.

He needs solid food to grow
and to survive.

And it's so important when we talk
about making churches

or building churches,
or building people,

growing people up,
making disciples,

that we know that there
are different levels.

We know where people are,
so we can be effective

in discipling them, being effective
in growing them up.

And I think you'll love this teaching
where I am going to talk about this.

God bless you!

Hello everyone out there and
welcome to this 26 lesson

on the "Pioneer School".

I am really excited about what
God is doing.

God is revealing a lot of things
right now when it comes to church.

We have seen a lot of people
getting kickstarted all over the world.

We have seen a lot of people
meeting God.

We have seen people repenting,
getting baptized.

People are learning to heal the sick,
cast out demons.

And we have seen God do amazing things.

And it just keeps growing and growing
and growing.

But there is more.

There is more to learn.
There is more to do.

Especially when it comes to church,

when it comes to see what God's idea was

when it comes to New Testament churches.

And last time I've started to do
a teaching about churches

and I am going to continue this time

and I am really excited about it because

I've experienced a lot of revelations
in this.

There are things I have never seen
so clear before

and we are learning a lot of things.

So, I am excited to share this with you.

Last time we spoke a little about
church as a family.

Church should be a family,

not an orphanage.

And last time I spoke about the difference
between an orphanage and a family

where in orphanage we have a few leaders
and a lot of kids.

Leaders who do the job and go home
to their own kids afterwards.

That is like the institutional church
today

where we have priest coming
and doing the job

with a lot of people sitting
and listening.

Then we have the family

where we have parents,

where parents are there
to grow the kids.

Parents are there to get kids
and let kids grow up

and move from home.

And I talked about that last time
where I also spoke about that -

- to become part of a family,
you need to be born into that family.

To become part of the church
you really need to be born again.

You need to have the same spirit,
but also the same DNA,

the same vision, the same idea.

Otherwise, you cannot experience
the unity

in a family that God wants us
to experience.

But I spoke about that last time.

I spoke about that there are
different families.

There are families without children,

there are families with children,
with babies,

there are families with bigger children

and there are grandparents.

That is different. You cannot use
the same method for everyone.

You cannot use the same programme
because every family is different.

It depends on if there are babies
or no babies,

or small babies, or big kids, and so on.

But all of that I spoke about last time.

And if you have not seen the teaching
from the last time,

I encourage you to go in and see it.

But church is about growing people.

Is about growing people,
getting people born again

and then grow them up
from being babies to children,

to fathers, or parents.

Church is not about just having members.

Church is not about gathering people.

I've met many churches where they
gather people,

but the sad truth is that those people
they gather

after 10, 15 years in that church,

they are still babies,

spiritual babies.

After 10, 15 years they still need

other people to come and feed them.

And that is wrong!

This is not what God called us to do.

God called us to grow people

where they become mature.

And we need to understand that.

We need to understand the different
levels people are on, also.

Because if you take a big beef

and give a big beef to a baby,

that baby will die.

If you give milk to a grown-up,

maybe that grown-up person can survive
on milk for a short time,

but after some time that grown-up
will also die,

and that grown-up will not grow.

Babies need milk.

Grown-up people need beef.

They need solid food.

And if we don't understand that,

if we don't understand what level
are fellowships on,

if we don't understand what level
people are on,

then we will not be effective
in growing people.

We will not be effective
in doing churches, fellowships

the way God wants us to do.

So, I hope you are ready for this lesson

where I am going to talk about
the different levels people are on,

when it comes to not born again,
when it comes to babies,

when it comes to young ones
and when it comes to fathers.

And then I will talk about this today and
then later we will put it all together.

And remember, when I talk about
churches and fellowships,

as I've talked about in one of
the other lessons,

it's very simple.

Church is about loving God, loving your
neighbors and making disciples.

Fellowships, churches -
it's not about buildings,

is not about staff, is not about
programme, is not about budget.

You can have staff, programme,
buildings, budget,

without having what is
the New Testament church.

You can have all of that without
really loving God,

loving your neighbors
and making disciples.

So, I hope you are ready for that.

But I will pray.

God, we thank You for what You are doing.

We thank You for Your Holy Spirit

and thank You for this truth we are
reading in Your Word.

Pray that You will help me
to share this word

and pray for everyone who is listening
to this teaching

that it will be a revelation for them,

that You will open their eyes,

You will help them to see the truth

and this truth is going to set them free

and make them effective
in growing people,

make them effective in making disciples.

Come with Your Holy Spirit
and help us to understand this

in the name of Jesus. Amen.

So, I hope you are ready.
So, it was a little introduction.

I will start to say that to become
part of the Kingdom of God,

first, of course, a person needs
to be born again.

And I will start reading a verse here
from John 1:12-13.

So, all who believe Him, believe in Jesus,
believe in His name,

He gave the right to become
children of God.

Everyone is the creation of God,
but to become part of God's family,

to become children of God,
you need to be born again.

When do the discipleship start?

Real discipleship, somehow,
starts when people are born again.

Of course, discipleship starts
even before people are born again.

But to really come in
and live this life

and really work with people

and get them to grow up,

they need to be born again.

You could somehow sit down
with people and share the gospel

and do a kind of discipleship,

but you have to understand that
when people are not born again,

they are still blind.

There are spiritual things
they don't understand.

They cannot understand it
with the carnal mind.

They are blind spiritually.

And 1 Corinthians...

And Jesus Himself said that you
cannot see the Kingdom of God

if you are not born again.

So, the message of the cross,
the spiritual things

are foolishness for those who are
not born again.

And we need to understand that.

I still remember when
before I was born again,

I remember I came to my friend,
I have a friend, his name was Tommy

and he had his Bible laying on the bed.

And he have told me how he have
just experienced God.

And I told him that he had become
brainwashed,

that he was part of a cult and people
out there were just after his money,

and he should keep away of all of that,

it was Jehovah's witnesses he was in

and I told a lot of things to him
because I was critical,

because I have grown up being critical.

And I did not see it.

And I fully believed that Tommy
was brainwashed.

I fully believed at one time
that he was in a cult,

like Jehovah's witnesses and that
he should keep away from all of that.

Then I experienced the new birth.

Then my eyes really got open.

And I came home to my father
and I said: "Father, I met God!"

And my father said: "Torben,
you are brainwashed.

It's a cult.
It's like Jehovah's witnesses.

They are only after your money.
You have to keep away from all of that."

And my father told me that.
And I said to my father:

"But I also said that to Tommy,
but... but it's right, I see it now.

This is the truth."

And he did not understand that
it was like that.

He didn't see that as the truth

because his eyes were still
spiritually closed.

But a few years later,
his eyes got open.

He got born again and he also
understood it

because now he was born again.

And when you are born again,

when I got born again,

I, from the beginning on,
had a hunger for the milk.

I had a hunger for the truth,
had a hunger for the Word of God.

It's like in the natural,
when a baby is born,

the baby has a hunger for milk.

If the baby don't get milk,
the baby will start crying out.

So, I had the hunger for the Word of God

and I could not go on sinning
the way I did before.

Why?
Because I was born again.

And John...

And I want to start with this
because we need to understand

what it is to be born again.

We need to understand who are
fully born again and who are not,

if we want to be effective in
making disciples.

The Bible here make it clear that no one
who is born of God

makes a practice of sinning.
He cannot keep on sinning.

That is not the same that he doesn't fall
and he has to learn

because you have to learn, and you fall,
and you make mistakes

as a born again believer, but you cannot
have a practice of sinning,

you cannot continue in sin.

And by this we see who are
children of God and who are not.

And also, by this
who love their brothers,

who love fellowship.

And I would say, when I got born again,
I could not go on sinning,

I loved the Word of God

and I just needed to be
with other believers.

I loved my brothers.
I needed fellowship.

Nobody needed to come and
teach me that.

Nobody needed to come and
bring that up in me.

Because it came from the Spirit.

The Spirit inside of me did that
I could not go on sinning.

The Spirit of God did that I loved
the Word of God.

I sought the truth and the Spirit
inside of me did that I loved fellowship.

I wanted to have fellowship
with other believers.

But today, I see that those things
are often missing

when we disciple people.

We are trying to disciple people

who don't have a longing
for the Word of God,

we are trying to disciple people
who love their sins

and don't have problem with
living a life in sin.

We try to disciple people who,
actually, don't love the fellowships

and are seeking fellowship
with other believers.

We maybe call them
the lukewarm Christians,

but let's just call it as it is -
they are not born again.

They are not fully born again
if they don't have those things,

because we can know a tree
by its fruit.

And if that fruits are not there -

then it's not a good tree,
it's not a tree of God.

And instead of going in and
trying to change the fruit,

we need to go into the foundation,
we need to go into the root.

If those things are missing
in a person's life -

we need to go back to the gospel.

We need to help them
to get born again,

because when they are then born again,

when they truly experience the new birth,

those people will automatically
bring this up in them.

From the Spirit of God -
they cannot keep on sinning.

From the Spirit of God -
they have a longing for the truth.

From the Spirit of God - they long
for fellowship with other believers.

When those three things are there

then we can start to work with them,
we can start to disciple them

and it's much easier and they will grow.

But if those three things are not there

we can spend a lot of time on people

who actually don't want it.

But, I am going to continue this.

There are people who are
not yet born again.

They are not spiritual and they are
maybe in the church.

And they have no hunger for God
and His Word.

They have no hunger for righteousness
and they keep living in sin

and they have no hunger for the Body.
They don't love their brothers.

When we meet them, we need to
understand where they are -

to be effective, to help them.

And what do those people need?

Those people need more than
somebody coming and picking them up

and say: Come on! You have to come
to the fellowship.

They need more to say:
Come on! We need to give you teaching.

And try to cover those aspects
that are missing.

No, those people who are there
need the gospel.

They need somebody who can see
that something is missing.

Instead of keep discipling them like
they are already believers,

we need to see what is missing.
They need the gospel

and they need to be born again.

And when they are fully born again,

those things will be part of their life.

And I've seen that.
I've seen people in churches

who did not understand spiritual things.
They wanted.

They think they are believers.
Other people think they are believers.

They think they are born again.
Other people think they are born again.

But we think of them like
lukewarm Christians

or born again Christians with bad fruit.

But, when we then took the time
to sit down with them

to explain the gospel to them
and they for the first time

really understand it and really
get born again... kaboom!

Those fruits came natural.

Suddenly, after many years in church,

suddenly, they have a longing
for the Word of God.

They were hungry.

We didn't need to try to make them hungry.

It came by the Spirit.

Suddenly, they could not go on sinning
anymore.

We didn't need to be over them
all the time and say:

Don't do this and don't do this
and this is wrong.

It came natural by the Spirit.

Suddenly they wanted fellowship.
They wanted to be with others.

We don't need to go and
pick them up in the car

every time there is a meeting and say:
you need to come to the meeting and so on,

because this is exhausting.

If you keep trying to disciple people
who don't want it, you are dying.

You will not bear fruit
and it's very exhausting.

But when they get born again -

it comes natural.

And it can take time

to sit down and explain the gospel
to them.

It take time.

But don't go further and focus
on lots of other things -

go back to the gospel.

Help them with that foundation.

So, that is something about
being born again

and I'll put it all together later,

so it will be even more clear
in next lessons.

Then we have people...

I want to say about this again...
I can come with an example.

I was in Canada some time ago
and I was in a church

where I actually met a guy who
was in the church.

He have been in church for three months.

And I asked him...
I looked at him and said:

What about you?
So you have experienced God?

And he said: No, not yet.

Not yet? Okay.
Are you baptized in water?

No.

Okay. Do you speak in tongues?
Have you received the Holy Spirit?

No.

And I asked him: Why not?

And he said: I don't know.

So I went to the leaders in the church
and I said:

I have a question here.
We have somebody here

who have been with you for three months.

He is not baptized in water.
He is not baptized with the Holy Spirit.

He haven't experienced God yet.

He's not born again. Why not?

And the people there in the church,
the leadership, said:

We don't know.

I said: What?!

They had an idea if people just come
to our fellowships,

then it will happen automatically,

then God will get them born again.

This is our job.

It's our job to take care of those
people we are in contact with.

We cannot expect them to do it
by themselves.

So if we see people who want it
or are seeking God,

we need to take them, sit down with them

and be better in explaining
the gospel to them.

And I've explained about the gospel
in lesson 8,

how you share the gospel.

And what I did that day, at that meeting,
I said to everyone:

Listen here.
Now I am going to take this guy,

I am going to sit down with him.
I am going to share the gospel

in front of everyone of you.

And what I'll do with him today,

you should have done three months ago.

And that day I sat down with him.

I shared the gospel with him.

He repented after heard the gospel.

How can you repent if nobody's telling
you what sin is?

He got baptized in water.

How can you do that if we don't do it?

And I laid my hands on him and
he received the Holy Spirit.

That day he got born again.

And he got the fire like never before.

His life got changed.

The sad truth is - if I have not been
there and done that that day,

maybe after two, three months
more in church,

he would have thought:
Okay, God doesn't want me,

nothing happened.
Those people are on fire.

Those people have a zeal for God.
Those people long for God.

I don't have it.
Maybe something's wrong with me.

And then he would have drift out again.

And I have seen that.
I have seen people come to church,

be in church, and after some tome
in church -

they just drift out again

because nobody took the time
to really get them born again.

And it's so important to understand this.

But if people don't want to listen,
if people don't want the message,

if people don't want to sit down
and hear the gospel,

then there is a place
where we don't run after them.

Take the dust off your hands and feet

and move on, move on.

Because you cannot disciple people
who don't want it.

And I have seen people in church
who used years

on trying to disciple people who
actually don't want it.

Jesus is radical. Jesus said something
like this in Matthew 7.

He said this.

This is Jesus saying.

What does He mean by that?

What does He mean by not giving dogs
what is holy

and do not throw pearls before pigs?

Because they will trample on it
and attack you.

What He means is that -
do not offer what is holy

to people who don't appreciate it.

Do not offer what is holy
to people who don't appreciate it.

Because then they will turn
against you and attack you.

The dogs and swine here is
the picture of a worldly man or woman

who doesn't value what you give to them.

A dog doesn't care if the food
you give to them

come from the chef
in a big restaurant

or come from the garbage.

And swine, if you give them pearls,
they don't appreciate the value of that.

The same way, we need to be better
to not use our time,

our energy, our money,
on people who don't want it.

And there is the freedom in this.

If you want to make disciples
and be effective,

those people who want it -
help them, go far,

go the whole way,
lay down your life for them,

give your money for them,
give them everything they need,

those people who want it,
help them, help them, help them.

But those people who don't
appreciate it and don't want it -

take your dust off your feet
and move on.

Otherwise you will end up
spending a lot of time

on people who don't bear any fruit.

So, this is just important,
but we want to continue.

So, there's people who are
not born again

and you can know the tree
by the fruit.

If they don't have that zeal,

if they don't have that longing
for the Word of God and all of that,

longing for fellowship and righteousness,
then give them the gospel, help them.

If they don't want to receive the gospel,
move on.

But when they get born again -
they are now born again.

But they are like infants.
They are like small children.

And some of those who are
born again have a religious background

so they know more than others

and some people are
totally from outside the church.

And we have people also in church
who... many who are not born again,

and of course... They are born again
but they are still infants.

They are still spiritually immature

and therefore we often see problems
also in churches.

Paul actually addressed that in
1 Corinthians.

So, Paul understood that when he
address people in churches,

there were people who were mature,

there were people who are like fathers,

but there was also people who
were like infants, like small children.

And what he addressed,
what he could give the infants

was not the same as he could give
the more mature people.

I'll just continue.
Hebrews 5...

So, here we see, in this text,
that there are babies in Christ,

there are children,
there are people who are more mature,

there are people who,
in the time that have gone

ought to be teaching others,
but those people instead need

other people to teach them.

Those people who ought to be mature
are still babies.

They need milk.
They are unskilled in righteousness.

They can still not discern
good and evil.

And this is our job.

Our job is to grow people up.

A healthy fellowship

is not a healthy fellowship with
a lot of immature babies

who have been immature
for many, many years.

A healthy fellowship is a fellowship
where those babies grow up

and they become mature.
They grow up in Christ

and they are not babies anymore.
They are not unskilled anymore,

when it comes to righteousness.
They are now ready to teach other people.

And this is what the whole vision
and idea is,

not only with the five-fold ministry,
I am going to read about now,

but the whole idea with church,
the whole idea with coming together

- is to grow people.

Not just grow in numbers,
but grow in quality.

That people who are not born again
- they get born again.

But they don't continue as babies.
They grow up and become young men

and then they grow up
and become fathers.

And then they get babies themself.

And those babies grow and become
young men

and they grow up and become fathers
and they get babies again.

Like in the natural.

So, lets read here Ephesians 4:11-16.

And I want to explain it.

So, why are we together? We are together
for the equipping of the saints.

So we, as the Body of Christ,
we grow up,

so we are mature in Christ,
no longer children.

What is it with children?

Children are thrown from
each side to another,

every time there is a new teaching.

They cannot discern good and evil.
They are getting confused.

So, we need to grow the Body up.

And this is what it is.

If you look at babies.
Babies are born again.

They are infants.
They are small children.

They are still unskilled
in righteousness.

They are born again,
but they are not mature yet.

They are born again and
they have a hunger for the Word of God.

They are born again and they are hungry
for righteousness.

They are still unskilled in it.

They are born again. They are hungry
for fellowship with other believers,

but they are still not yet mature.

And those who are like babies -

they need to learn from where
they are.

You don't give them a big beef
and say:

Take this. Eat this. See you next week.

When people are like babies,
they need milk, not solid food.

They need still other people
to teach them,

other people to feed them.

Then, as we read before,
we have something called

young men or more mature people,
children or young men.

There are young men.
They can eat independently

and they are now learning to know
and to trust God.

So, those young men, they can
feed themselves,

they can handle solid food
and they, somehow,

can discern good and evil.
They are now growing up.

What they need -
they need training.

They don't need milk like before.
They need training.

They need help to become
fathers in the faith.

And I want to take another scripture where
you read about those different levels

so you can understand it
and then I'll put it together.

From 1 John 2...

These are the things where John
is going in and talking about, like:

I've been writing this to you,
young children.

I've been writing this to you,
young men.

I've been writing this to you,
fathers.

And one of the things he said
about fathers here is that -

You fathers, you know Him,
who have been from the beginning.

Or said with other words -
you know God

and have known Him for a long time.

You have a relationship with God.

You really know God.

You have been here a long time now
so you see things

the children don't see.

You understand things that
babies don't understand.

You are now fathers.
You are now, as I wrote here,

you are now mature in the faith.

And other people are now
looking up to you

and, as fathers, you have
your own children.

So, what do fathers need?
They don't need milk.

They need to be encouraged
to be there for the next generation.

Fathers need to help to raise up others
to be like them in the faith.

You who are seeing this video are
one of those four.

Maybe you see this video and
you are not yet born again.

How do you know if you are born again?

Do you have the fruit of somebody
who is born again?

If not, you need to be born again.

It's more than just:
Oh, I now I need to pull myself together

and I need to get a longing for the
Word of God

and I need to pull myself together,
I need to have love for the fellowship,

I really need to pull myself together,

and... and... and... and get a
longing for righteousness.

No, you need the gospel.
You need to be born again.

Because, then the Spirit is doing
all of this inside of you.

But you who are born again,
when you are spiritual baby,

and that has nothing to do
how old you are in your age.

That has to do with how old
you are spiritually,

you need something that is
different from fathers need

and young men need.

Young men, if you now have understood
the foundation, you have grown up,

as young man you also need
something different than babies.

And again, and again, with fathers.

And what is important with life
here is that we need to understand

where people are.

We need to understand where
they are in their life.

Paul was clear to whom he was
speaking to.

And we cannot demand the same
from a baby

as we demand from a young man.

I have just got a grandson, David.

If he just sits and poo in his diaper,
we are excited:

Hey, he poo in his diaper!
He is a boy. He is not one year old yet.

We don't demand a lot of things from him.

We take care of him.
We give him a lot of things.

We don't give him beef.
He doesn't barbecue with us.

He's there, but we give him
something else.

But what he's eating,
if we feed that to our teenage daughter

who is sixteen years old, soon seventeen,
she will hunger.

She will not grow by it.

There will come a time when she will
stop growing by it

if she only eat that again and again.

And some churches do the same thing
all over again

and they have really good focus on
getting people into church

and they are maybe good at
getting people born again,

but those people need more than
just the same thing all over again.

What now when they are born again?

They need something else.

And this is what I believe that...

Instead of seeing the church as
a institution

with a lot of different kids,
the church should be like a family

where we have fathers,
we have babies and we have children.

And people understand that.
And it's part of where we are

and then we help people
from where they are.

We help people from where they are,

because it's different what they need.

Lets take babies.
What do we do when we have babies?

When people are born again.

What they need - they need...
I wrote something down here,

they need the time to grow.
It takes time to grow.

We don't demand to much of them.

They have still no skills, they need milk
and they experience a lot of attacks.

They have not yet overcome Satan.

I will come to 'overcome Satan' later.

Babies need time to grow.

They make mistakes.

They are still unskilled
when it comes to righteousness.

It's so important us who are
more mature in the faith

that we remember
how it was in the beginning,

that we don't forget
where we came from.

I have a high standard over myself,
over my life now.

I have a high standard with some
of the young people we are working with,

who are strong in the faith,

but young people make mistakes,
babies.

They are under attack.

We need to help them.
We need a lot of patience.

And they are going to sin again.
They are going to fall in sin.

They are going to fight.
They are going to do crazy things.

But they are babies.
What more can we expect from them?

And we need to except that.
We need to give people time to grow.

We need to don't demand to much of them.

So, need them...
Like Paul, when he wrote to babies,

children, small children, he said...
you... Not Paul. John, sorry.

In John, we read about before,
he said:

Your sins are forgiven.

We need to help people to
understand their sins are forgiven.

We need to help them to understand
who they are in Christ.

And when they then sin and do
something wrong,

then there is forgiveness again
and just come up again,

rise up again.
We need to understand that.

Because they are going to fall
in sin. They are going to fight.

They are under attack.

Then we need to give them
the Word of God.

But they need milk. We cannot just
give them the Bible and say:

Here's the Bible.
Go home and read it.

Somebody said to me when I got born again:

Torben, go and read the Bible.

I went home to read the Bible.
I've never opened the Bible.

So I started in Judges. I opened up
the Judges in the Old Testament

because I wanted to read about
the Judgement Day

and I thought I'll read
about that there.

I did not know that was the New
and the Old Testament.

I did not know that the Gospels
were still somehow before the cross,

and therefore you didn't see
the full life there,

but this is about Jesus and how
He was teaching how to follow Him.

I did not know about the Holy Spirit
and New Covenant on the cross

and the Book of Acts, what the
Book of Acts was about.

I did not know Romans and how Romans
was in the letters, and all of that.

I did not know it. People don't know it
if we don't help them.

So, I would say, if we have somebody
who is new in the faith as a baby,

introduce the Bible to them.

Read the Bible with them.

Explain where's the Old Covenant,
the New Covenant starts.

Explain them about Jesus' Word,
what He is saying.

Go back to Jesus.
Explain about the new birth

and explain them about the Book of Acts
and early Christians,

Romans, all of that.
Help them. Introduce them to the Bible.

Read the Bible with them.
Talk with them about it.

And I also wrote here that they are
under the attack.

They have not yet overcome Satan.

We have to understand...

When people are born again,
Satan hate that

and he is very fast in attacking
in the beginning.

And we see that with Moses,
we see that with Jesus.

As soon as Moses was born,
pharaoh, at that time,

he tried to kill all the babies
because...

He actually killed all the babies.
He wanted to kill Moses.

We saw the same with Jesus
because Moses is, of course,

the picture of Jesus. But Jesus
and His parents, actually,

needed to flee to Egypt,
to come away so He will not be killed.

Satan hate us. Satan hate people
when they get born again.

And therefore there is an extra attack
in the beginning.

And I was under a lot of spiritual
attack when I got born again.

And there was time, the first,
I would say, the first three, four months.

where I was close to fall away
again, and again, and again.

It was hard.

It was hard when I came home,
I came back to my old friends in school

and they wanted to go and drink
and I was like:

Yeah, it's wrong, but I did not say...
Okay, I want to go and drink with you.

Oh no, I don't want to drink, but...

It was hard. There was a battle going on.

And I made mistakes because
I was still a baby.

I was infant, I was unskilled in
righteousness.

What did I need in my life?

I needed people who could counsel me.

I needed people who could help me.

I needed people who could pray with me,

who could pray for me.

And I remember that. I remember in a
church we had some years ago.

We saw three young people
come to Christ.

And they came into our fellowship.

And after a short time in our fellowship,
after a month or two,

suddenly they all disappeared... Fiu!
They are all gone again.

And we are like: Where are they?

They just disappeared.

And me and my friend, we came together
and said: No, lets pray for them.

Satan is a liar.
He is not going to win this time.

So we took authority in the Spirit
and we prayed.

And we commanded Satan to leave
them right now in the name of Jesus.

We are praying for those young people,
we are praying that Satan

is going to leave them, that what God have
started is going to fulfill

and every attack is going to go, and we
were praying and praying and praying

for those young people.

That evening we had a house meeting
in our living room, house,

and somebody knocked the door
and I opened the door

and it was one of them.

And I was like: Hi, it's so good to see
you again.

Like, I was surprised he was here
and I said:

You know we have a meeting tonight.
And he said like:

No, I just knew I needed to come.

Okay, come in.

Five minutes later,
the knock on the door again.

I opened.
It was the other boy.

Hi! Yeah, I just felt so strong
I needed to come tonight.

Okay, come in.
Five minutes later, the third boy.

All three came. Have not talked
with each other,

did not know that it was
a meeting,

but all three at the same moment
just felt they needed to come.

And they have all three been
on the big, big, big attack.

Satan have just come with guilt,
with doubt, with fear,

and they were on the attack.

We who are strong need to carry
their burdens.

We who are strong need to help them.

We who know God we need to
pray them through.

We need to be with them.
We need to be better to take care of them.

Don't give up when they are struggling,
because they are struggling.

They are going to struggle
again and again.

So, they are still babies.
They are still young.

They need a lot of time.
They need a time to grow.

They need that we don't depend
to much on them,

but we give them time to get to know God,

they have no skill in righteousness.
They are still falling in sin,

they are doing mistakes.
They need milk.

They need us to teach them and help them
and they are under the attack.

So they need us to pray for them.

Remember that when you work with people.

Then we have the young ones.

The young ones, what we read before -
strong and have overcome Satan.

So they have now overcome
the first attack,

that time when they have been struggling
with Satan being after them,

they have overcome that.

You are not afraid for them anymore that
they will suddenly fall away today

or tomorrow or next week. Why?
Because they have overcome that first...

lets say - level of being a baby.
They are now young one.

They have overcome that.

So, they are strong and
have overcome Satan.

They can now handle solid food.

You can go deeper with them.
You can explain more.

They can read the Bible themself
in the better way.

They can understand what they read.

So, instead of just giving them teaching
and teaching and teaching and teaching,

you can say: Hey, try to read this.
Go home and read this.

Read Romans, chapter this and this
and then, what do you read?

So, you can, instead of just teach them
to do everything,

you can give them the word and they
can eat the word themself.

They are now learning to grow spiritually

and they are more dependent on God
and less on you.

And I would say, like a baby,
a baby needs to...

It's okay to teach the baby that they
are dependent on you.

They are still babies.
They need you.

They need mature people
around them.

But now, when they grow up
and become younger,

the older they become,
the less dependent they become on you

and the more dependent
they become on God.

And this is how it is in the natural.

David, our grandson, he's totally
dependent on his mom and dad,

but mom and dad are not so
dependent on me and my wife Lene,

because they have grown up.

So, there are those different things.

Then we have fathers.

And I would say with kids,
young kids - train them,

give them action, take them out,
do something crazy with them.

I think this is... really take them
out on a mission trip.

Take them in a car,
take them out on a mission.

Take them backpacking. Go out
in the world and experience things

where they really learn and grow.

I am going to come much more into that
in the next lesson

where I am going to talk about
how we do church.

Then we have fathers.

They can use their senses.
They are really mature

when it comes to right and wrong.
They can discern good from evil.

They know God.
They know the big picture.

They have learned a lot. And now
they are getting their own children.

People look up to them.

They have the fruit of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, long suffering,

gentleness, goodness, faith.
We need that.

We need fathers.

We don't need a lot of leaders
in the sense of the way

we do church today as an institution
where the leader come

and speak and then he goes home.

We need fathers. We need people
who have overcome Satan,

who are strong in the faith,
who see the big picture,

who are filled with love, joy,
peace, long suffering,

gentleness, goodness, faith.

Because they... to have fathers around,
then the children,

young children have somebody to
look up to.

So, I hope this make sense.

I know that there was a lot of scripture
and lot of things,

but it's really important introduction
to some of the things

I'm going to share later.

So, like we said last time,
in a fellowship,

we need to understand where that
fellowship is.

We need to understand if this is a
fellowship without the spiritual children,

then they need a evangelist to come in
and help them

to get spiritual children.

But we also need to know if it is a
fellowship with lot of babies.

Then we need somebody who can come
and give them milk.

If you have babies, don't run out on the
street to find new babies

and let those babies you have already
lay and suffer.

Then take care of those babies
you have.

If there is people with children,
then we need people to push them out

and let them to be less dependent
on you, more dependent on God

and grow up, so those children can
be mature and become fathers.

Every fellowship have some of
those levels.

You are on one of those levels.

And I think, if we start to get this in
- in our understanding,

we would be better in discipleship,

because we don't give milk to young men
who will not grow.

We don't give beef to small babies
who will die of it

and we don't try to disciple people
and give up

because they don't have the fruit of it.

So, I hope it make sense.
So, just a short ending.

If we meet people and disciple people
who don't have those fruits -

help them with the gospel.
Sit down with them.

Introduce the gospel again.
Lead them to a true repentance

and true baptism and true Holy Spirit.
Lead them through that

because then they will have that fruit.

Then they will now have the hunger
for the Word of God,

the hunger for the righteousness
and love for the fellowship.

But when people then are babies,
give them milk, help them,

be patient with them, love them,
introduce them to the Word of God,

but not just say:
Go home and read that.

Read the Word of God with them.
Explain the Word of God.

Explain so that they understand it.

You have to feed them.
They cannot feed themself.

And you need to give them
the time to grow.

You don't demand the same from a baby
as from a young man.

And with young men,
they need to action.

They need help. You don't teach them
and explain them everything

like they are babies. You give them
the Word and say:

'Go and read that.' You help them
to be more dependent on God

and less on you. And you help them
to grow up where they become

fathers in the faith and get their
own children.

So, it was what I wanted
to speak about this time.

The next lesson I will try to put it
together and be more practical

and come with examples of
what you can do

when you are there, what you can do,
how you can meet,

how you can bring people together

and how you can set fellowships up
like this.

God bless you!

And if you did not see the last lesson,
25, see that,

and then we will be back soon
with 27.

God bless you!