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The Call of Jesus
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Welcome to lesson 23:
We All Need Family.
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We have been looking at many things,
when it comes to finding the person of peace,
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and going out, and preaching the gospel,
and healing the sick,
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and casting out demons,
and all of this is so, so important.
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But there is more, because what do we do
when we have done that?
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What do we do when we have found
that person of peace
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and led them to God?
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In Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus says this:
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"All authority in heaven and earth
has been given to Me.
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Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations,
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baptizing them in the name of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
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and teaching them to obey everything
I have commanded you.
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And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age."
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So, what we do regarding our mission call,
all of us,
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is to go out and make disciples,
baptizing them.
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So, baptizing them in water
and baptizing with the Holy Spirit,
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and helping them to receive
a new life is the beginning.
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But then, after we have done this,
Jesus said: And teach them...
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to obey everything He has commanded.
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So, when a person comes to Christ,
first they are, as the Bible says,
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like a newborn baby.
They are now new in Christ.
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But then we have been given
a command to teach them,
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or to feed them, to help them,
to disciple them
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to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
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We are here to help people to grow up
and become strong in Christ.
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And what you'll see when you start
to live this life,
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lead people to Christ, and do what we
have look at here in "The Call of Jesus",
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you'll see that those people you meet
and lead to Christ are very, very different.
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Some people are already in church,
already somehow love Jesus, in many ways,
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have grown up with the Bible,
but they need the baptism or the Holy Spirit,
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freedom, and when you give them that,
they are already very, very strong,
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because they have grown up
with the Word of God.
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They already know Christ.
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They just needed help to move on.
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Other people are very religious,
like, very, very religious.
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You need to pull down that religious mindset
and teach them something completely new -
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who Christ really is
and what the gospel is.
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They've heard of Jesus,
they know the Bible,
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but they have got it wrong.
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Other people are very, very new,
like me.
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When I gave my life to Christ
I've never opened the Bible before.
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I knew nothing.
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I didn't need to pull down a lot of ideas
and strongholds, or religion
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in the beginning.
I just needed milk.
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I needed a foundation.
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We are all different.
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But one thing is certain for all of us.
That is - we need people around us.
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We all need family.
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Not just to come in a church.
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There is a difference between
coming in a church and having family.
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You can be in a church, you can be a member
in a church, you can sit in a church,
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and there can be a pastor who's your pastor,
or your leader,
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but it's not parents, it's not family.
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It's not people who really lay down
their lives to help you to grow up.
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The sad thing is, I have been in church
for years, without really having parents.
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And there is a big difference between
being a leader, having leaders,
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and then having parents and family
who really cares.
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Let me read something from my book
"The Call of Jesus".
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"Every person we meet is different.
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Every person is in a different place
in their life and has different needs,
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but everyone needs fellowship.
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None of us are called
to walk this life alone.
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We often say that we are the body
of Christ here on earth, and that is correct.
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But 'we' is not me alone
or you alone.
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'We' are all of us together.
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'We' alone is not the body of Christ.
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'We' alone is only a member of the body.
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So 'we' are one of many stones in the church
that Jesus is building together.
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You cannot live as a disciple alone,
without like-minded people around you."
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I want to say this again.
It is so important.
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We are the body of Christ,
but we, or I, it's not me alone.
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I'm the body of Christ, yes,
but not alone.
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I'm the body of Christ together
with other members.
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We together become the body of Christ
and we need each other.
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We are never called to live this alone.
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Especially when a person is born again.
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The Bible says that those persons
who are born again are babies in Christ.
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They are babies.
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And they need help.
They need help as babies:
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milk, other things, people around them
to nurse them, to take care of them,
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to help them, so they can grow up
and become stronger.
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And Bible talks about young ones in faith.
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And then they will grow up and now they
become adults, mature,
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and become parents in faith.
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Spiritual parents.
And then they get their own spiritual kids.
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Exactly as we see in the natural.
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If we look at the natural world
today,
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we have babies, we have young ones,
teenagers, and we have parents.
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We don't put the same burden
on everyone.
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We expect more from teenagers
then we do from babies.
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And we expect more from adults.
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And we don't want people to be 45 years
old and still live home with mom and dad.
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No. We want them to grow up
and be independent from us, mature,
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leave mom and dad
and get their own children.
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Like it is in the natural,
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it should be in the spiritual.
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You don't serve a big, big, juicy steak
to a baby.
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That baby would die if you just leave
that baby with a steak.
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In the same way, if you give milk
to a teenager,
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they would survive on that milk a little,
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but they would not really grow up
on that milk and become strong.
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Why? Because a teenager needs
more than milk.
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And it's so important that we know
those different levels,
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not only in the natural,
but in the spiritual.
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Let me read something from 1 John,
where he talks about the different levels.
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In 1 John 2:12-14 he's saying this:
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"I am writing to you, dear children,
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because your sins have been forgiven
on account of His name.
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I am writing to you, fathers, because
you know Him who is from the beginning.
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I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
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I'm writing to you, dear children,
because you know the Father.
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I'm writing to you, fathers, because
you know Him who is from the beginning.
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I'm writing to you, young men,
because you are strong,
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and the Word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one."
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Here John writes to three different
groups of people.
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He writes to the children,
in another words - babies;
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he writes to the young ones,
and he writes to the parents, to the fathers.
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He says different things
to the different people.
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Why? Because people are in different
places in their life.
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When people come to faith,
they are like babies.
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They need milk.
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To those people who need milk he said:
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I'm writing to you that your sins
have been forgiven. Why?
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Because when people are new in their faith,
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there are attacks, there are doubts.
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Oh... Is this right? What about this?
And they hear something and...
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Oh no... Somebody says something.
Oh, maybe it's a call.
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God doesn't says this.
Maybe God doesn't says this.
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And then they fall in sin.
Oh, Satan comes and condemns them:
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"You are not saved anymore."
Oh no, I'm not saved anymore.
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And there is just a lot of, lot of attacks
when you are new in faith.
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And I remember, I experienced
all of those attacks.
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I experienced the doubt, I fell
and Satan came and condemned me.
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I was fighting a lot in the beginning.
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But I needed somebody,
like John here said,
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Come on!
You are forgiven because of His name.
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Rise up again! Be strong!
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So, I needed somebody...
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and you need somebody...
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or you need to be there for somebody.
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Those who are new they often
need to learn to walk.
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They fall, make mistakes,
need to rise up again.
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They need milk. They need help.
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They need other people
to teach them the truth.
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Not just give them the Bible and say:
Goodbye, read it. No.
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They need somebody to eat the Word and
help them explain them the Word for them.
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That is what babies - new believers need.
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But then, there are young ones.
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John says: You are strong,
you have overcome the evil one.
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When you come to faith in the beginning,
there's a period where there is a lot of attacks.
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Satan really wants to get you down.
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And many fall away in that period,
because there is no one to help them.
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But then there is a time where you have
overcome that first beginning period.
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You have overcome the evil one,
as John says.
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You are strong.
And the Word of God abides in you.
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So now you don't need milk anymore,
or only milk.
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You don't need people to teach you,
and teach you, and teach you.
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You can teach yourself.
You can eat by yourself.
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You can get the Bible
and start to read it.
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You got the Bible in the beginning, but now
you start to eat by yourself even more.
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And those who are young ones,
they don't need milk like that.
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They need to be challenged.
They need to take steps.
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They need to go on mission trips.
They need to be out there...
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and try. Try more and more by themselves
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to obey Christ and live this life.
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Exactly as it is in the natural.
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When you grow up and become teenager,
there is a time where you need
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to break up a little and try to get your own
experience in life.
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Then we have the fathers, the parents.
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John is saying: You know Him
who is from the beginning.
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That means: You have been with God
for many years now.
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You see the big picture.
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You don't get distracted so easy.
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You know God.
You have experience with God.
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You can be there
and help other people.
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Like it is in the natural,
it is in the spirit.
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It's the same, somehow.
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And we all need it.
We all need family.
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Sadly, there are also people who have been
Christians for many, many years,
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but are still very, very immature.
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We read that many places in the Bible.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 we read this:
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"Brothers and sisters, I could not address
you as people who live by the Spirit
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but as people who are still worldly -
mere infants in Christ.
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I gave you milk, not solid food,
for you were not yet ready for it.
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Indeed, you are still not ready.
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You are still worldly.
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But since there is jealousies and
quarrels amongst you, are you not worldly?
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Are you not acting like mere humans?"
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So, Paul here wrote to Corinthians
and rebuked them.
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Come on! You are like infants!
You are like babies in Christ.
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You should have grown up by now.
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And there is still that in churches today,
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that people should be more mature.
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You can be in church for 30 years
without being born again,
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but you can also be in church
long time and still be spiritual infant.
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And we don't want that.
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We want people to grow up.
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But for us to help people to grow up,
we need to understand
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where they are in their life
and help them from there.
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We need to understand it.
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And we read that clearly in Hebrews 5,
because in Hebrews 5:11-14 we read this:
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"We have so much more to say about this,
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but it is hard to make it clear to you
because you no longer try to understand.
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In fact, though by this time
you ought to be teachers,
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you need someone to teach you
the elementary truths of God's word all over again.
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You need milk, not solid food!
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Everyone who lives on milk,
being still an infant,
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is not acquainted with the teaching
about righteousness.
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But solid food is for the mature,
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who by constant use have trained themselves
to discerning good and evil."
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Here we read that the author of Hebrews
wanted to teach people something,
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but they were not there
in their life yet.
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They were not ready to receive it.
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So they needed to go back and one more time
give them the elementary teaching of Christ.
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And this is what it is today.
We need family. We need people around us.
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We need people who are babies,
you are young ones, who are parents.
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We need to see them grow up
and be there for each other.
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And again, remember,
you are not alone in this.
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You are not supposed to be
the whole family alone.
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But God will put people in your life,
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and together, you can help people
to grow up.
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And that is some of the main focus also,
when we read about the five-fold ministry,
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we have looked at before in this book,
before in this video series.
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In Ephesians 4:11-16 we read this:
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"So Christ Himself gave apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
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to equip His people for the works of service,
so that the body of Christ may be built up
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until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God
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to become mature, attaining the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ.
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Then we are no longer infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves,
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and blown here and there by every wind
of teaching
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and by the cunning and craftiness of people
in their deceitful schemes.
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Instead, preaching the truth in love,
we will grow up to become in every respect
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the mature body in Him who is the Head,
that is, Christ.
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And from Him the whole body, joined and
held together by every supporting ligament,
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grows and builds itself up in love,
as each part does its work."
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I know this was a long text, but what
we see here is that God has given people
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in the church to grow up people,
so we are no longer infants,
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but we grow up to maturity.
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But God has not given that
to one person alone.
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God has given different gifts
and different people.
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Here we read about the five-fold ministry
something we have talked about before.
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We need that.
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Are you strong, for example,
in finding the person of peace?
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Are you more evangelistic and
it comes very natural to you?
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Then go out, find that person of peace.
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Do what you are strong in
and help to make other people strong.
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But you also need other people beside you,
who are maybe stronger to nurse them
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and take care of those new believers,
you have now reached.
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And if we come together like this
and help each other,
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we will see not only people born again,
but we will see people grow up to maturity
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in very, very short time.
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And it will also set you free, because
you who are very strong evangelistic,
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you don't need to go the long way
and give milk and nurse those people.
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You can be free to move on and
find other people out there.
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So, try to imagine,
if we, as the body of Christ,
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since we took the Jesus' call
and we started to live it out, together,
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came together and found other
strong gifts in it,
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and together we went out
to find a person of peace.
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But let somebody be there and lay
a foundation and be there for each other.
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I still remember so much in the beginning,
I was fighting a lot.
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But then I had my father-in-law,
he became my father-in-law,
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an old, mature man, father in the faith,
he took me in and most of the milk I got
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was on his couch, sitting there
with the Bible and asking a lot of questions.
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He helped me to grow up.
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He also let me make mistakes.
I made many, many mistakes.
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But I learned by them.
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And now I'm not a baby anymore.
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I still have things to learn,
but I have grown up.
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But I have also decided never to forget
how it was in the beginning.
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And I would say the same to you.
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Never forget how it was in the beginning,
when you came to faith.
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Why? Because in that moment
when you forget how it was in the beginning,
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you start to lose your patience
with people.
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You start to get frustrated.
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Oh, why is he struggling?
Why is he falling?
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Why does it smell like diaper inhere?
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Why do I need to help them every time?
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Hey, you needed help in the beginning.
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Don't forget that.
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Now you can walk, now you a mature,
but in the beginning you needed help.
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As you needed people around you
in the beginning,
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be there for other people.
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Don't forget where you came from,
because then you will lose your patience.
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You will give up too easy.
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No, remember how it was in the beginning.
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And then you will have more patience
and you will be better to help people,
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to challenge them, to see them grow up,
to be mature.
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I want to talk more about this
in the next lesson,
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where I will talk more about
how to grow people up.
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But remember this.
Remember that we are the body.
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We need each other.
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And people are on different levels
in their life.
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And we need to be better to recognize
where people are,
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and then from there help them to grow up.
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I have much more about that in my book
"The Call of Jesus".
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I also have some videos where I already
talk more about this spiritual levels.
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In the description of this video
I will put some links
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where you can go in and see those videos.
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The next time I will tell more personal,
from my life
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and give you more tools
how you can help people,
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when you are out there,
in their homes, to lay a foundation,
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how you can help those people
you've found,
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who are persons of peace,
to grow up.
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God bless you! See you next time!
Bye-bye!
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The Call of Jesus