Unlocking the Power of Discipleship for Personal Transformation! ​Ephesians 5:1-17 (Podcast)

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Transcript – Unlocking the Power of Discipleship for Personal Transformation!

we’re continuing to walk through the book of Ephesians and and this is actually we’re we’re just starting chapter five and and this is week 13.

and we said in the beginning that that we have no pre-plan when the cloud moves

we move when the cloud stops we stop and and the Lord has been so good to walk us through this book of Ephesians and we’re

moving up to the exciting like everybody loves the summer blockbuster movie season the Big Bang movies you know and

everybody’s like let’s get to chapter six let’s get some Spiritual armor let’s do Warfare hey that’s cool that’s cool

but there’s a process I don’t care if it’s a Blockbuster movie it had to get made

we’re gonna don’t Adorn our spiritual warfare our Spiritual armor there’s a

process that we’re going through this is boot camp this is Special Operations training for the kingdom

this is so when you when you get your Spiritual armor and you’re faced with the foe that you’ve got the training the

preparation the process to carry that armor you don’t ever want God’s armor to be a

burden like when had David wore Saul’s armor to face the Giant

that was a burden you know why that wasn’t his armor so what I want to talk to you today

we’re going to continue in it was in chapter five and and we’re talking about uh discipleship is the way that we come

to grow our character and discipleship moves us towards Perfection with the direction of

Correction now how the Lord gives me three words that rhyme and make sense in one sentence is simply the wisdom I pray I

pray the prayer God give me your wisdom what I want to tell you about discipleship when our 13 year old when

he was about five I was teaching him how to ride a bike and we lived on the street and had a cul-de-sac and really no cars and I’m

like get on the bike and just paddle all you got to do is pedal and like well there’s a curve so when you get to the

curb just jump off keep going all right so five-year-old natural he’s on a bike

and he takes off I’m like look at this and boy he’s getting that I’m waiting for him to get into the cul-de-sac and

make circles and like his body just comes off of the bike and the bike keeps going and he lands on his tailbone and

I’m like hey good let’s do it again look just go straight pedal when you get to the curb

jump off and keep going so he takes off again boom his by his body raises off

the bike the bike keeps going on his tailbone he turns around with tears and

I’m like what are you doing well he told me when I got to the curve

to jump off you see I thought I was discipling him

well I gave him information what was lacking was the the practical application maybe the demonstration

right now that’s a kid who follows orders that’s a good kid

I’m not going to say he’s our favorite but he’s a good kid so the one thing that the Lord put on my heart for this

week and it is discipleship is the only way to go to Perfection through

correction you’re not going to get to this state of perfection to this teleos

state of completion Perfection by by uh websites or Facebook or or just figuring

it out you’ve got to be in discipleship and why is that important well you see

there’s a lot of religious distractions Everybody’s Got A Plan everybody’s got an opinion but what matters is the

process of sanctification so that we come to reflect Jesus the reason we do what we do

it’s not just to be decent people it’s to go through a process of sanctification

so we don’t look like better versions of ourselves but we look like perfect versions of Christ that’s the process of

sanctification so if we can the only thing that’s going to bring us through that process of sanctification to grow

the character of God so we become the image bearers of God it’s the word of the Lord so if we can stand together for

our anchor scripture today and it comes from chapter 5 in Ephesians and let’s read together in reverence and fear of

the Lord from Ephesians 5 and we’ll read together as the body and we’ll begin for once you were full of Darkness but now

you have light from the Lord so live as people of light for this Light Within

You produces only what is good and right and true thank you Jesus

look there’s a lot of distractions in this world only the word of the Lord produces light

only that light is going to produce what is good and right and true and coming into that state of sanctification comes

through discipleship you know I remember when I was when I first started in Men’s Ministry and and I want to literally

have about a hundred men that came into my life either in person or or online or

really it was just nuts and I’m like I could do this I can do this I couldn’t

do it so I go to my spiritual father Larry Titus and I say Dad like is there a program like a website to disciple men

maybe a book he’s like yeah the Bible I said no no like I said like seriously like is there

a book and he goes there’s books there’s programs there’s websites to disciple men in mass and he said but when they

finished checking off your boxes do you want them to look like you or do you want to look like God

and see a lot of times when we’re discipling folks we forget that the process is sanctification it’s to look

like God the Father you see what we don’t talk about a lot and especially in the western churches

is is about sanctification because it requires being holy living a holy

righteous life we don’t like the standard of holy we’ve actually taken the word holy out of matrimony

it’s just marriage we’re going to get married and Mary’s good Covenant marriage is great

but we but what we’ve done we’ve taken the word holy out of it because we think it’s an unattainable standard

like that’s for y’all religious people you know we’re just going to do our thing

like don’t drop the word of holy holy is just being set apart you become a vessel

where the Holy Spirit can pour the anointing into so you can pour out to other people and the vehicle that gets

you to that point of sanctification is discipleship you know the first step in discipleship

is you have to follow you have to follow someone and look we all follow somebody

we do I don’t care what you think or like everybody follows somebody

Choose Wisely who you follow my suggestion my personal favorite is

following God you can’t go wrong with God you see what we do is we wind up wanna we wanna

follow our our you know maybe we want to be like a Swifty we won’t be like Taytay Taylor Swift or we want to be like like

King James LeBron or we want to be like this person or this pastor and all

you’re ever going to be is just a second-rate version of somebody else

when all you got to do is come back to the Creator who made you in His image

and then you get to be a first-rate version of who God made you to be how do we know this we know this because God’s

word tells us this in Genesis 1. and it reads it says and then God said let us the Trinity make man an hour the Trinity

the father Son and the Holy Spirit according to our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over

the birds of the air over the cattle over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth

so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created male and

female he created them male and female that’s the key I don’t care what Google

says there’s two genders there’s male and female hey look and I want to share with you

it’s like okay so he gives me dominion over everything but like I don’t got dominion over everything well then

you’re not walking as an image bearer of Jesus you can’t be living your life over here in darkness and wondering why well

how come it’s it’s a it’s a reaction right the less you look and Live Like Jesus the less dominion and Authority

that you have to exercise the closer you come to the king the more your dominion and Authority Rises if you want to

really start exercising dominion over everything over everything

over everything you’ve got to come like the king you are a co-heir of Jesus King Jesus

Ephesians tells us your salvation the holy spirit that indwells you when you come to Christ it don’t leak

I don’t care what you’ve done since this morning when you woke up to the second right now

you were saved and you were sealed and you were and you were forgiven and you were loved and you were cherished as a

child of the king but you gotta look like the king you got to walk like the king matter of fact

part of this disciple process 5-1 Ephesians tells us Walk In Love therefore be imitators of God as dear

children you know why you know why God wants you to imitate him so we reproduce godliness

reproduce godliness see God did the work of creation and

then he took a break but what he did was he provided for the seeds of reproduction

and part of that reproduction comes when we look like God we live like God we set

ourselves apart to to live a life like God according to God’s word we start to

reproduce godliness so how do we imitate God like that’s got to be some kind of

subscription service right I’ll be serious you know how we do it as children

yes that’s children children you know who who imitated their folks

when they were little kids I’m sure we all did the little habits the little innuendos the little little

quirks you know some of them still we still have some of those things embedded in us that’s imitation

that’s the process psychologically the only reason that toddlers are the reason toddlers imitate their parents is to

bond with the parent so the dad sticks his tongue out and the child giggles and the child sticks his

tongue out and the dad really giggles and the kid learns if I do something then there’s a

reaction that comes from that so the kids start the baby the toddler they start sticking their tongue out and they

laugh and they get Giggles from the mom and the dad and the relatives and everybody at Walmart unless you’re in

the self-checkout line then nobody’s laughing there but but what it also does is the more you learn to imitate the

parent then you learn Independence you learn oh I can get a reaction I can get

a response by doing this action I learn from imitating you see now the choice

you get to me is what reaction do you want to do what response are you looking to get okay and let me tell you without

the Holy Spirit then the response is never going to be Godlike matter of fact when we imitate I think

it’s I thought it was interesting is that in the Greek the word for for actor is the same word for hypocrite

because actors they wear masks they can be anybody you want them to be you give

them a script they’ll say anything you pay them to say they’re Hypocrites you see if we’re not

working through the genuine nature of the Holy Spirit and we’re just pretending we’re Hypocrites we’re

wearing a mask we will do and say and behave any way that somebody will pay us

to do it or that we expect that we can get somebody from something and that’s not God we’ve got to we’ve

got to act like God we’ve got to mirror God so you say well that’s not even possible I mean come on get real I’m

only human and like y’all know that that drives me crazy when I hear people say I’m only human because let me tell you

when you receive Jesus Christ your lord and savior you receive the Holy Spirit you were no longer only human like

one-third of you has the 100 righteousness of God one third of you has God through the Holy

Spirit living in you you’re no longer just human you’re super human you’re

super natural because you got the Holy Spirit living inside of you so when

Matthew 5 tells us therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in Heaven is perfect Jesus says be perfect

Therefore your heavenly father is perfect like that’s not just a suggestion

that’s a reality that comes through the process of sanctification

but you got to have the Holy Spirit first Peter tells us but now you must be holy in everything you do just as God

who chose you as holy for the scripture says You must be holy because what because I am Holy

God wants you to be the image Bearer of who he created you to be and how he

created you based on what him let us make him in our image

not the image of this actor or actress or number one on the billboard charts

after us that’s perfection step two in the discipleship process is

listen and learn listen and learn Ephesians 2 tells us and walk in love as Christ has also

loved us and given himself for us and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma

I’m gonna walk in love the love to walk in is God’s love which

is agape love which is unconditional sacrificial no terms or conditions

attached love see that’s the problem with Allah I say keep saying the western church Western

religion Byron and I laugh about we’re like you can’t take American gospel outside of America

you go to anywhere else in this world and they slap it down it’s weak it’s watered down because they don’t stick to

the word of the Lord when we’re talking about the love of God we’re talking about agape love we’re

talking about unconditional sacrificial love so many times when we’re sharing with people talking about unforgiveness

why is it so important to forgive people and you know what the first thing most people say well you don’t know what they

did to me you don’t know what they did to me you know what I don’t know what they did to you but I do know what God

the Father tells you that you got to do and you got to forgive them and forgive them doesn’t say I agree with what you

did to me it releases you from what they did to you forgiveness is the greatest gift that you can give yourself if

you’re a little bit of selfish sometimes Lee and I we go buy a birthday cake when it’s nobody’s birthday you know why because we like birthday

cake that’s being a little bit of selfish listen be a little bit of selfish forgive forgive forgive it’s the

greatest gift that you can give yourself it’s even greater than an HEB double chocolate cake with Oreo cookies I’m not

gonna lie to y’all forgive now along with what to do discipleship that’s important it’s also

important to know what not to do a big part of that is what not to say like like this was week 13 and if you

think back like almost every week like the words are by like about your tongue sins of the tongue like gossip and lying

and rumors and this and that it’s like like man this is tough but you know what

it is tough this is why Paul keeps talking and talking and talking and talking like before you can carry the

armor before you can come into spiritual maturity you got to tame the one thing

that the Bible says you can’t tame you can with the Holy Spirit but listen sins of the tongue you see everything

God created Satan counterfeits see God created man

and woman Satan says there’s 72 different genders now there’s two

God creates Covenant marriage you know what Satan says no y’all just hang out

it’s cool right God says be holy God says uh Romans 12 2 right

um do not conform to the patterns of this world but transform your mind daily by the reading of the word you know what

Satan says no no no no use that good brain of yours to watch some more Tick Tock it’s amazing how many reels you can

consume over eight hours you know what’s even better is how much word of the Lord that you can you can

consume everything God created Satan counterfeits and you know the big thing God created your tongue your mouth to

praise him the Satan Satan has stolen your tongue to curse God

you’ve got to tame the tongue James tells us and these are harsh words but these are

true words and this is from James 3 6 10 and among all parts of the body

the tongue is a flame of fire it is a whole world of wickedness

corrupting your entire body it could set your whole life on fire for it is set on

fire by hell itself people can tame all kinds of animals

birds reptiles and fish but no one contain the tongue it is restless and

evil full of deadly poison sometimes it Praises Lord and father and

sometimes it curses those were made in the image of God and so blessing and cursing come pouring

out of the same mouth surely my brothers and sisters that’s not right

that’s not right only way to tame your tongue is through the Holy Spirit

the only way to tame your tongue is to come through righteousness through the process of sanctification

like we’re talking about we want to wear that helmet and that breastplate and the

sword and about but but before we can get to that point

like God’s gonna give you the the the the the truth and he expects you to speak the truth out of the same mouth

that’s telling lies come on it doesn’t work that way you know what I

find is there there’s a coincidence that not a coincidence it’s very purposeful by Design like money and mouth

show exactly where your heart for God is and I’ll tell you and and for your mouth

in Matthew 15 it says but those things which proceedeth out of the mouth come

forth from the heart and they defile the man look if you’re cursing and you’re telling bad jokes even if you’re

listening to it and you’re kind of chuckling because you don’t want to see him on the outside listen any of that talk

man I got dumb man that’s this listen that stuff’s coming out of your heart

it’s not just a funny joke that you saw on social media

that stuff does not honor God it does not honor you money Matthew 6 24 tells us no one can

serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other you will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot

serve God and be enslaved to money money has no emotion money doesn’t love

you money doesn’t care about you money will get out of your wallet at night and

go somewhere else and they will be happy in somebody else’s wallet

but you know what we do we attach our emotions and our love to money and when

the church although Paul tells us in First Corinthians 16 like hey y’all go ahead and get your your weekly giving

together don’t make me go looking for it bring it but see everybody like oh May

the church go talking about money well if your first thought is your bank account more than investment in the Kingdom of Heaven that’s where your

heart’s attached to you see so what I want to do I want to I want to do a a challenge this summer and I always enjoy

challenges um so this one for for the whole summer I do I challenge you the first thing get

control of your tongue get control of your tongue you’re like what’s the big deal the big deal is it’s

a big deal when the Bible says it over and over again it’s a kind of big deal so I’m

challenging you get control of your time stop cursing stop gossiping stop involving in meaningless chatter

stop saying empty words and vulgar joking look I’m going to tell you uh Leo

Leah got off social media and what I realized was a lot of what me and Leah used to talk about with social media

and when Leah got off you know what our conversation was Leah you ought to see what so-and-so

posted on social media she goes I got off of social media to get away from social media I don’t need you to give me

the summary so then you know what I found out we had nothing to talk about

we we didn’t so we committed we committed we’re going

to stop that meaningless chatter we’re going to start talking about the Lord we’re going to talk about our relationship we’re going to talk about

our love for other people it changes everything so I challenge you this summer get control of your tongue

the second part of the challenge is give your tithe to God if you’re not giving weekly then I

encourage you I challenge you for the duration of the summer to give weekly to give regularly

see what your heart’s attachment is is it to God or is it to your wallet

and I’ll tell you and if you’ve never given then the Bible gives a recommendation he says a tie the tithe

means a tenth of your first fruit give you first fruit and then for I want to add a bonus to

this challenge for men married men I challenge you to start praying with your

spouses if you don’t lead your wife in prayer you want to tame your tongue men you start praying with your wife to God

the father and it’s going to change the way you speak it’s going to change it it’s changed mine so of course in this

world we’re always like what’s the ROI like if I invest in this challenge for the rest of the summer like like what

I’m gonna get well let me tell you this is what God says you’re going to get and it comes from Malachi 3.

but bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there’s there will be enough food in my temple if you do says

the Lord of Heaven’s Army I will open the windows of Heaven for you I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t

have enough room to take it in try it put me to the test your crops will be abundant for I will

guard them from insects and disease your grapes will not fall from the vine before they’re ripe says the Lord of

Heaven’s armies all the nations will call you blessed for all for your land will be such such a delight says the

Lord of Heaven’s Army nowhere in the word of the Lord does God tempt you test you like test me

test me this is God’s word you bring your

tithing to the storehouse the storehouse is where you get fed where you get fed

is the local church you come here Bible study ignite First

Fridays third Saturdays every Sunday this is where you’re getting fed this is

your storehouse you be obedient you listen to the Lord you have trust in God you tame your

tongue you give your tithe you start praying with your spouse men leading them as a spiritual head of your family

and God is going to crack open the windows of heaven and bless you now that’s a pretty good Roi we don’t get

that in Bitcoin or anything else going on that’s the promise that’s Eternal the

third part of discipleship is apply it walk in light walk in light Ephesians 5 8 says for you

were once Darkness but now you’re light in the Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is in all

goodness righteousness and Truth finding out what is acceptable to the Lord I want to tell you that the Greek word for

darkness is scotos and see when we talk about Darkness and Light a lot of times we just think of like like flip the

switch off like oh I can’t see nothing or oh oh the Lights Went Out in my house because of the storm oh the the moon’s

not out in the stars that ain’t the darkness that God’s talking about he’s talking about gloom and Punishment and

misery he’s talking about spiritual uh depravity like don’t mistake when we say you’re in

darkness to think like well it’s cool I mean you know I just flipped the switch you you

Darkness you were under Satan’s domain Satan has legal authority over the

domain of darkness when you’re living in darkness you were under Satan’s control his power of Darkness Luke 22 tells us

and this is when they came to seize Jesus in the garden it says when I was with you daily in the temple daily

in the light every day I’m in the temple every day I’m in the temple with y’all

when I was with you daily in the temple you did not try to seize me but this is your hour and the power of

Darkness why did they wait until the hour of Darkness

because they were doing the devil’s work they weren’t going to do what the devil told them in the light of day now the

word light in Greek it’s Foss it’s where phosphorescent comes from or or fluorescent and it means it’s really

cool it’s a break in the darkness a Triumph of Truth and knowledge over ignorance

like I’m telling you it’s not just don’t think in terms of it’s dark it’s dim it’s light it’s bright you got to think

in the way that that that it’s meant to be you’re either living under the power of Satan and darkness or Gloom or you’re

living in a Triumph of Victory in Jesus Christ and he’s the light there’s no

other light look you want you want to walk with good fruit it takes good root

so I’m asking you to flip the switch Ephesians 5 11 tells us have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of

darkness but rather expose them this is part of that challenge like don’t put up

with anything that’s unfruitful don’t gossip don’t spread rumor and then it

says expose them like a lot of times in the western Christianity we feel like well I’m just going to say to myself I’m

just going to stay at home on Sunday I’m gonna avoid all that stuff right but you know that’s not what we’re called to do

when you see people walking in sin and unrighteousness you are called to expose

them in love it’s the only way we learn had I let

Graham continue to jump off the back of that bike the back of that bike the back of that bike

this kid would have never learned to ride the bike he would have harmed himself eventually

you see but because I was able to correct him in Truth and Love he learned to ride a bike

we can’t just be satisfied turning a blind eye we’ve got to expose sin when we see it

and that could mean if somebody goes I want to share this I shared the Holy Spirit put on my heart this morning in the first service

all of us I’d be willing to save have been victimized by two words our whole

life they said they said think about how much hurt

you’ve suffered in your life as a kid well they said you were this and then as

a teen well you know they said you and that person and as an adult they said

think of all the hurt that’s been done to us by sentences that were proceeded

with they said and yet what do we continue to do

foreign you to do ooze you know you know what I’ve learned

in almost 60 years you know they is the devil

the devil’s the father of Lies they said is always a lie if you can’t give me the person who said

they said so I can judge The credibility based on the person who said it then that’s a lie and it’s the father of Lies

it’s the devil do yourself a favor the next time you hear somebody so well they said you who’s they well I don’t know

but I don’t want to hear it simple cut the nonsense out of your life

take the garbage out of your brain ask some simple questions and expose the

next time well he said who’s he or if they give you a name oh cool I’m

gonna call them and ask oh no no don’t do that don’t do that listen if you’re just so simple things

it makes your life so simple and you know what some people like well then nobody’s gonna talk to me then what does

I tell you you’re a magnet you’re a conduit for for bad vulgar language

you don’t want to be that if nobody’s talking to you you know what you got time to do renew your mind with the reading of the

word renew your mind with the reading of the word that’s my challenge to you and

look this is the beauty Ephesians 5 14 says therefore he says

awake you lose sleep arise from the dead and Christ

will give you light church it’s time to wake up it’s time to

rise up God wants you to walk in authority and dominion and power and health and

deliverance and healing and prosperity and joy and peace and long suffering God

wants this for you but you gotta get up man when I when I smell that bacon in

the morning you know what I got to do to get that breakfast I gotta get up I gotta get up to get the

goodness you got to get up to get the goodness of God you gotta get up

so I just want to encourage you don’t shy away from discipleship don’t

shy away from discipling or being discipled

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