Becoming a True DISCIPLE of Jesus - Part 1

Join us as Bro. Ernie does a two-part series on TRUE DISCIPLESHIP.  What if following Jesus felt less like joining a club and more like apprenticing under a master craftsman? We take a clear-eyed look at the Great Commission across Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and trace the common threads that shape a whole-life response: teach, preach, baptize, and go. Not into a monastery, but into real streets, real workplaces, and real relationships where the name of Jesus carries power and responsibility.

We unpack repentance as the first faithful step—not a hand raise, but a change of direction—and explore how Jesus’ baptism, wilderness testing, and call to “follow me” form a pattern for our own path. The promise “I will make you fishers of men” becomes the heartbeat of the episode. Formation is slow and deliberate, like an apprenticeship: watch the Master, work with the Master, then carry the work forward. We talk about putting Jesus at the hub of life rather than on a spoke, creating daily habits of Scripture and prayer that make space for real transformation.

Personal stories bring the theology down to earth. We share moments of disability, detours, and unexpected doors opening for mission—evidence that God weaves purpose through hardship without romanticizing the pain. Abraham’s call to go and be made becomes a lens for understanding biblical faith as trust that moves feet. Along the way we correct common shortcuts that treat belief as mere agreement and invite listeners to sit with Jesus long enough to be shaped, then step out boldly as those sent in his name.

If this conversation stirs you to take a next step—repent, re-center, or re-engage your call—stick with us for part two soon. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s ready to move from fan to apprentice, and leave a review with one practice you’ll change this week. Your story may nudge someone else to follow.  (*Recorded on 9.29.2025)

Ways to Give at www.m3mi.org...Thank you for your seed!  :)

Transcript

A Pivot To Discipleship

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Welcome to Simple Sciploship and Phil Tim Sister. We're gonna do a little something different and deviate just a little bit from our study on the simple presentation of the book of Acts. Um Brother Ernie has come up with a study on discipleship, and I think it's just so imperative. We're talking about becoming the Acts Church. And uh, Brother Ernie, why do you feel like it's necessary um that we do this?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Well, Jesus set forth a pattern of discipleship that was to be followed and walked out in the book of Acts. And so it just seemed to me to be appropriate to go back and look at the pattern that he established, and then as we're reading through the book of Acts, see how closely it follows that pattern.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think it's so imperative. I think it when you mentioned that can I deviate from this, I thought, I think it's a perfect time to do that because we're talking about the experiences that they had on the day of Pentecost. And this is a new, this is a brand new chapter in in the whole church going forward. And so I think it's important that we stress discipleship simply simply because we are simple discipleship.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

That's what we aspire to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

So we just that's the goal, right? And so I I think it's amazing that you're gonna uh kind of go into this. So um uh without further ado, I'll let you just continue with the video, and uh this will be a podcast as well. So go right ahead.

Common Threads: Teach, Preach, Baptize, Go

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Okay. So um we're gonna start off. We're gonna read uh four groups of scriptures first. We're gonna read from Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. Then we're gonna read from Mark 16, verses 15 through 18, from Luke 24, verses 44 through 49, and the Gospel of St. John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. We're gonna talk about the commonalities of these scriptures afterwards. So all of these are last words of Jesus Christ, not all the last words, but groups of his final commands to the disciples, and we're gonna see how each gospel remembers them. Okay? So we'll start with Matthew chapter 28, and I'll read verses 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. All right, so then we're gonna jump into chapter sixteen of the gospel of Saint Mark, last chapter, and we're gonna start with verse fifteen, and we're just gonna read through eighteen. And he, this is Jesus, said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name, they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. And the last two verses just tell us that's exactly what happened after Jesus ascended, okay? Now Luke chapter 24. And then we're going to read verses 44 through 49. And he, that is Jesus, said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the prophets and I'm sorry, in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in Jerusalem, in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Finally, John chapter twenty verses nineteen through twenty three. Here we go. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had said so he showed them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. So the questions that I pose after we have read these scriptures is what are the commonalities in these groups of scriptures? Teach. Did they do that in Matthew 28? Go ye therefore teach all nations? Yes. Baptizing them. Preach. Did they do that in Mark? Yes. And is that said in Luke?

unknown 7:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Go ye into all the world? Okay. And then notice to baptize.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

That's in all three.

Sent As Jesus Was Sent

SPEAKER_00 7:10

That's actually going to be in all four, but how you see it is paying attention to it.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Yes.

Apprentice Not Fan: A Working Model

Foundations: Baptism And Temptation

Repentance As The First Response

SPEAKER_00 7:16

And then that there is power in the name of Jesus, and that they are sent out into the world. So they were told, you're going to teach, you're going to preach in the name of Jesus, you're going to baptize in the name, you're going to lay hands on in the name. People are going to be healed in the name. There's power in the name of Jesus. And Luke talks about baptism, but we don't notice it. You have to connect it to his writing in the book of Acts to see that he is referencing water baptism. You have to put the two together. Then they are sent out into the world. So the disciples were not to go and establish monasteries. The command was not, go ye out and build monasteries and separate yourself from the world and have nothing to do with them. We are in the world, but not of the world. How do we carry the gospel to the world if we don't have unsaved friends, relatives, co-workers to interact with? Okay, it means that we don't embrace their sin. We don't partake of their sin. But we have to go into the world so that they can hear the gospel message. Now, let's look at John chapter 20 for a moment, verses 19 through 23. We're going to go back there, and I want you to notice how this coincides with the other three Gospels, even though it's not one of the synoptic gospels. All right. When you get to verse 21, Jesus said to the disciples, Peace be unto you. Then he says, As my Father has sent me, so send I you. You now have the commission that I received. I have passed on the commission that was mine to bring the good news to you. We're supposed to be the replication of Jesus because this is what a disciple is. Look, in our culture, it might have been better to translate the word apprentice. Recently, I've been reading a book that makes that point. And it's so obvious to me. Uh one of the reasons is at one point I became an apprenticed machinist. I became the disciple of a machinist that was supposedly a journeyman. For the first few days, I spent the day with him. That's all I did. I spent the day with him. The next few days, I watched him closely as he worked. And then after a while, I began working with him. Until he had to go and I had to take his place. This is what Jesus was doing with the disciples. You'll spend time with me, and I will show you what you're going to be. Some scriptures that are not uh in the notes that you might want to go back and study. Matthew chapter 10, Luke chapter 9, and Luke chapter 10. Remember, the disciples were sent with the same purpose that Jesus was sent. So at this point, then, if they're to be going out with the ministry of Jesus, we need to know what was the foundation of the ministry of Jesus. All things begin with what? We can say faith, that's a given. We're going to talk about what people were supposed to do with their faith if they were his disciples. So what was the foundation stone of the ministry of Jesus? Let's look at his history. First, we'll look at Matthew, excuse me, chapter 3, verses 13 through 16. This is where Jesus was baptized, right? All right, so then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee. And comest thou to me? And Jesus, answering unto him, said, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us, not just me. Us, all those who are in league with Jesus, to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus said, This is what we're supposed to do to fulfill righteousness. Then he suffered him, or he allowed it. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, so they didn't throw some water up on him because he came straightway out of the water, and he had gone to Jordan to be baptized. And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Okay. So Jesus is baptized and says he's doing it for the purpose of us, not just for himself. Now go to Matthew chapter 4. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit, this is right after he was baptized, into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the son of God, command these stones be made bread. But he answered him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into a holy city and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And again the devil taketh him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. So after Jesus committed himself to his ministry, immediately Satan attacked him. We are his disciples. He said, As the Father hath sent me, so send I you. Guess what? We also sometimes come under attack. It is not to be thought of as strange, the apostle Peter said. Think it not strange the fiery trials which are come upon you to try your faith. When you decide to follow Jesus, he says, As the Father has sent me, so send I you. So there were people who loved him, there were people who hated him, there were people who listened to him, there were people who persecuted him, there were people who didn't care, there were people who wanted to kill him. This is the life we've chosen. This is not the life of high steeple few people. This is not it. This is not the life of self-aggrandizement. Look at Matthew 4, 1 through 11. I'm sorry, we just did that. We're looking at Matthew 4, 18 through 22. Now, 17 says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, if you believe the teaching of Jesus, the proper response, the right response to grace is repentance. If you have enough faith to believe that the grace of God has come to you, the natural response then is repentance. It's the response Jesus is looking for. Because after he came forth and began to preach, he said to the hearers, Repent. Turn from your wicked ways. This is important. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. So if we say we're following Jesus and we're not repenting, we're not living a lifestyle of repentance, recognizing I'm not what I need to be, but I'm gonna keep following Jesus. Why? He gave us the responsibility. You follow me. Then he took a responsibility upon himself, and I will make you. Jesus can't make us into anything until we submit to his leadership and his command, because he will not violate our free will. Where in here did he say, Raise up your hand and say, I believe?

unknown 17:58

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

But we need to believe. That's a given.

unknown 18:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

So he doesn't command anybody, raise up your hand and believe. He says, repent. Why? Because if you believe, you follow him. You follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. So I have a question.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

So we know that their salvation was a process for them, right? But how were they? Where does it say that they repented and how were they saved?

Leaving Nets: Cost And Call

SPEAKER_00 18:27

So this is where it comes that you must read your gospels. I know. You must read the book of Acts. I'm not going to tell you everything because there's some things that needs to be between you and Jesus. I will tell you this. They left everything. They left their nets and followed him. That's repentance. They left their livelihood. They turned from what they were doing and followed Jesus Christ. So if you want an example of what repentance really looked like in the Gospels, you see it there. You see it when he says to the rich young ruler, All you lack is to sell everything you have and come and follow me. And the man went away sorrowful. Yeah, because he had a lot of stuff. Yeah. And truly, we don't know if Jesus would have said to him, Show me the receipts. It might have been parabolic speech for you forsake everything else and you belong to me.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

See, nothing in this life can mean more to us than Jesus. We weren't married very long, and I was in that honeymoon stage, you know, where my head is up high and my shoulders are back, and I know I got this woman wrapped around my finger, you know. And so one day she looks at me. I don't know, I guess probably a Saturday because we were at home. And she turned, we're standing in the living room. She turns and looks at me and says, You know, if it ever comes to a choice between you and Jesus, you know it's Jesus, right? I thought to myself, Well, yeah, but you ain't got to say it like that. We're newlyweds, you know. Why do we got to say it that way? But it was in her integrity that she spoke in the integrity of her faith.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

When you come to Christ, he becomes the center of your life. Too many people, as though our life was a wagon wheel or a bicycle tire, a motorcycle tire with a hub and spokes. Too many people put Jesus out here on one of the spokes at the end of the spokes. And then they wonder why their life isn't balanced.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Well, there's a difference between Jesus being the center of your life or Jesus being a part of your life.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

That that's that's my whole point. And you see here, Jesus said to them, You follow me, I will make you fishers of men. The next verse, 19 or 20, he says, and they straightway left their nets and followed him, and we don't read about them fishing again until he comes. Yes. So somebody else had to run the family business while they were gone, or else it was lost.

unknown 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

And going from thence he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them. So did he say something different to them? Were they called to be disciples also? So it would have been then the same words. You follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, if not the same words, the same concept, the same idea. Verse 22, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. So we see Jesus. First point I want to make he is baptized and he says, It's for all of us to fulfill this righteous. Who is us? It can only be his followers, his disciples. Jesus defeats Satan. Right away, he goes into a battle with Satan. It is foolishness for Christians to whine because they're having attacks from Satan. Because life becomes uncomfortable sometimes. That's when we need to have the faith that Jesus is going to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death and be with us, and his rod and his staff will comfort us.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

And we will walk through it, whatever it is. There's a difference in Jesus said, and I will make you. He didn't say I made you.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Now that's important. And making is a process. It is. It takes time to make you. So what is the command to the disciples?

unknown 23:09

Follow me.

Jesus At The Center, Not A Spoke

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Follow me. Say it loud. Follow me. What is the promise of Jesus? I will make you. So therefore, I have to sit still in his presence and allow him to shape me. Now, where have we seen God operate like this before? Genesis chapter 12. Abraham is the father of the faithful. Are we saved by faith? Huh? The grace of God comes to us by faith. So then, if we don't believe, trust in, rely upon, act upon the promise of God, that's not faith until we do. We use the word belief as mental assent. The Bible uses it as rely upon, trust in, and behave accordingly. Not say, I believe Jesus rose from the dead. That's not enough. If you say it, but you're not living it. Isaiah said, This people draws close to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Jesus looked at the crowd one day and said, Y'all remind me of what Isaiah said. You talk that talk, but you don't walk that walk. Now, let's look at Genesis for just a moment, chapter 12. I'll read the first three verses. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed, and we know that seed is Jesus. So Abraham's call is a prophetic picture of the call that Jesus would give the disciples. You follow me and I will make you. God said to Abraham, You go where I tell you to go. You separate from your past. I will make your name great. I will make you a blessing. You follow me and I will make you. Faith is not saying in my mind, I believe this is a fact. Faith is embracing the fact and living by it. So biblical belief does not mean mental assent. Does not mean I just simply give the verbal speech and it's enough. If my heart is not in what I say, if my life does not back up what I say, I have said nothing. If you say you believe, the disciples say, Lord, I believe, but we're not leaving our fishing boats. What is it that they have believed?

SPEAKER_02 26:11

They're still putting material things before Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

They'd be putting material things before their commitment to Christ.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

I think they said, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

One gentleman said that. So now we're going to read from Matthew chapter 4, verse 17. I'm sorry, we did that. Repent, okay? Now we're going to look at verses 23 through 25. So what goes on? They follow Jesus, right?

unknown 26:44

Right.

Sermon On The Mount As Training

SPEAKER_00 26:44

And he heals a lot of people and he's teaching. Verse 23 says he's healing, he's teaching, he's preaching. Verse 24, and his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were had had a lunatic, and those that had palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and the Decapolis, which means an area where there was ten small cities, so it was a big metro, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from Jordan. So there are multitudes following him. And the disciples that he's called. We don't know how many other called in between there, Matthew doesn't say, but we know the first four were there, and possibly, I think, more because of the content of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. We're just going to read the first seven verses. And seeing the multitudes. See, the translators put the chapter there with Matthew, it was one continuing story. So they were from beyond Jordan, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, not the multitudes. His disciples came unto him. That doesn't mean there weren't some stragglers from the multitude. But the purpose was so that his disciples could come and be taught. So was this including the 500 that saw him raised? Maybe. Was it included the 70 that he would later send out by two? Maybe. It was concerning at least the immediate disciples. The 12, maybe a few more. We don't know, except it wasn't the multitudes. It was those who were his disciples, or should we say, his apprentices. Because he took them out and began to show them what he was doing. They weren't doing the healing, they weren't doing the preaching, they weren't doing the teaching. He was. And they were with him while he did it. And they were watching him. Then he pulls them aside. Verse 2, and he opened his mouth and taught them the disciples, not the multitudes. If you are his disciple, there's got to be time for him to pull you aside and teach you. You need a revelation of the presence of Jesus Christ. Only he can give you that, but you can't have it if you don't set yourself apart to spend the time with him. I guarantee you I like I I I know my wife like nobody else does. Why? Because I spend the time with her. Spending the time with Jesus. What does this happen? Every Sunday morning for an hour and a half, maybe two hours. Wednesday night for 45 minutes to an hour, an hour and a half. And that's following him. The disciples left everything they had and followed him. What does it mean to follow him? It means to read something else besides your favorite novels. It means to spend your evenings doing more than visiting with your friends and playing canasta. Don't look at me like that, mama. There's a line. There's a line. You know, you just and and board games, you know, and and and watching TV and all those things are fun. But if they take up so much time that you do not have time to meditate on the word of God.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

And they told us that they had just within the last year sold their homes, sold everything they had, and they were just following Jesus. I mean, in this one setting, there was what four different people that said God had just directed them to just helping from another state. I mean, they and they didn't have anywhere to go. They're like, Who do we know?

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Who do we know that did that? You know, one of the the hard things for me when I became a Christian was that God cut the tie between me and my unsaved friends.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

And some of my family didn't understand it.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

And weren't happy about it. And I had to learn to love them regardless of what they thought and not give up my faith.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

So sometimes leaving all doesn't look like leaving a career and leaving a house. But sometimes evidently it does, huh? It does.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

But that's because the disciples left everything. But if you look around the table, if you look at just our circumstances around the table, whether we wanted to go through what we went through, you know, I mean, yeah, we're having to do disability or whatever. But look at the time that it that it gives us to be with the Lord. Look at the time that, you know, we get to get to do. I don't want to go through it ever again. You know, I would not say that I want to be ejected and died and do all that, but I'm saying sometimes the Lord will always turn it around for his good.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Always. And you know, I I look at my own situation disability. That's my point. I would have never gone to Myanmar and preached there. I would have never gone to Bulgaria and preached there.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

I would have never gone to India and preached there.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

No, because you wouldn't have been allowed to because of your job and your time constraints that you had.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

And I I I wanted a specific miracle from my heart. My wife and I prayed for it. We didn't get that miracle, but we got a different miracle.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Yeah, that was me too.

Modern Costs And Quiet Obedience

SPEAKER_00 33:46

That launched us into what we do now. Yeah. And the only reason we can do this is because my heart wasn't fully healed. I know I'll carry this with me for the rest of my life. I don't know what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. He only talked about it once. I got my guesses. But I have tried to look at this situation as all things work together for good to them that love God and who are called according to his purpose. And I I I remember, now that you brought it up, when when we looked at the heart surgeon, and and uh Mama was a true soldier. He looked up and said, Mr. Perez, uh, there will be no heart surgery for you. We're scheduling you for a heart transplant as soon as possible. He was very kind, very pointed. And it just came over me like a flood, and before anything, I just said, I can't do that. He said, Why? And listen, I think it's great that medical science has come this far. You could call that a medical miracle if you want to. People's lives are extended because they get heart transplants, liver transplants, kidney transplants, etc. That that thank God for that. But it just came over me that I have to hope for someone to die in order to live. And I told him, I can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

I can't hope for someone else to die. I didn't think it was a sin. It was it was about my own ability emotionally, how to cope with this.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

Yeah. Because you mentally have to accept it or reject it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

And and I said, and besides that, if God punches my ticket, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. You know, my wife could have fallen apart at that point.

unknown 35:47

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

And she could have gone crazy and said, You're gonna have the heart transplant, you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that, you're not. But she sat there in faith. And I guess that was 2016. And here we are now, 2025.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

What was your thought, Mama? What what what did what crossed your mind when the doctor said that microphone?

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah. Well, I think I I was numb at first, but then I thought, no, God has put us in this situation at such a time as this. I don't know what it's gonna be, but there's we're gonna make it. And and and we have.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

And and and they have. Kudos to them. They take care of me still. They take care of us, but we couldn't do what we were doing if they didn't have the integrity to do what they did. But God knew the situation. And there's no sense in complaining. And if we are his disciples, you you can bet that there's gonna be some times of struggling and and growth.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Do you know when I met you many years ago, that was one of your key scriptures, both of you always say that through through anything, God, you know, what's it the one that you say about all things work together for the good. All things work together for the good. And I thought, I hate that scripture. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 37:39

We can all say there are times we hate that scripture.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

But we really need to learn to rejoice in it. But I've learned that, yeah, you know, since then. But when I met you, I mean, I'm fully I'm a I'm I'm a functioning, fully, you know, normal quote unquote person, you know. And then everything came like after, you know, after that, and I was like, I understood. Now, you know, here it's been 20 something years later. I get it, you know, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

So he uses so the promise I will make you becomes more clear in the process of being made.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

So so faith is not saying. You know, and when we read Romans chapter 10 and what is said there, sometimes we forget that Romans 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 came first. And so we read Romans chapter 10 in a context.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

And we quote it in a context that is incorrect.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

We would have skipped to that part.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Yeah. But so I'm I'm gonna have to end up finishing this in another podcast.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Okay, but so so let's shut this down for now, and and we'll discuss um how quickly we can get into the other podcast.

Suffering, Mission, And Open Doors

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yes. We'll definitely, because uh I mean it's just going into so many different, and I know that I interrupted a lot, but I just thought, man, that's where we're at, you know, because it doesn't make sense, you know. The things that we go through, when you're going through it, it doesn't make sense. But if you can see that Jesus made the promises, I'm gonna make you this if you follow. I'm gonna make you this. And no matter what you're going through, there's already a promise that we're gonna get through it, you know. We're gonna get through it one way or another, and he's gonna turn it around for his good, right? Yes, everything's gonna be turned around for his good. All right, so thank you. Thank you so much. I want to thank you, uh Ann, Sister Patty, Sister Audia, Sister Sandy, Sister Tammy back there. Um, everybody around the table today, thank you so much. We're gonna we will have a part two to this discipleship um coming. Uh so but I hope you enjoy this and and sit down and when you got a chance to listen, where you can pause it and go back and read these verses. Get these verses into your spirit. Let this become a part of who you are. Don't just glaze through another podcast. The goal is that I don't want you to just say, oh, you know, uh, I did it, I do this podcast, this podcast, this podcast. Big deal. If you don't sit down and make it a part of who you are and let it penetrate you, then then you're just listening to something. It's not changing you. You know, and how do you know that? Because you start seeing people around you, they're they're changing, their lives are changing, their faith is changing, they're growing and they're becoming more like Christ because the word will change you. It has to, right? Thank you, brother Hunter. I love you so much. Thank y'all for being here. Um, as we always say, go show some love, show some compassion, give mercy, and go be Jesus today. Hey STU family. If you have enjoyed this podcast today, would you please like, follow, and share our podcast link? And we would love to hear your feedback and your podcast topic suggestions. To do that, simply go to our website at www.m3mi.org, scroll to the more tab, and select contact us. Also, if this to you has been a blessing to you, you can also go to our website and select sew a seed. There are several ways that you can give, whether it's health, fin medication, or if there's an address to send a check from the order. All your gifts are text-deductible, and we thank you so much for sewing your seed with us. I want you to remember this. This person wants said that a person has given you their time, they've given you their most precious gift because they can never ever get it back. Thank you for sharing this day with me. We love you, we'll see you soon.