Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Cool.
[00:00:11] So, as Anton said, we're from Cape Town, so I've. I've married to Desiree, and I've got two kids.
[00:00:21] This. The worship this morning was lovely. I don't. I'm trying to find a nice way to transition into what I'm trying to share.
[00:00:30] And I think a great place to start would be to acknowledge that there might be some people here, that this is not their reality in that they're here at church today probably because someone made them come or they're curious.
[00:00:48] But there might be people here that are.
[00:00:53] That would consider themselves not Christians.
[00:00:56] So if that is you, would you be brave enough and pray? Which is basically just speak to God and say, will you come and show yourself to me today?
[00:01:08] Because the one thing that has been a reality for me my whole life is that I was born into a family that was radically saved.
[00:01:17] So I've always known that God was real.
[00:01:19] That has never been a doubt in my mind. But the way that my life played out was not one that really resembled Jesus very well. So if you speak to people that knew me growing up and growing up meaning 30s, then it would be very surprising to them that I am here today in Zimbabwe, where we sold our stuff, we said, God, send us somewhere, and we ended up in Zimbabwe. Well, so I never wanted to come to Zimbabwe.
[00:02:00] So being married to Des, that was one of our big fights. I was like, I'm not going to Zimbabwe. That place is not safe.
[00:02:07] I'd rather stay in South Africa. Rather send me to Joburg than to send me to Zimbabwe. Anyway, so God has done a massive miracle in me. And so when I asked Anton what I should share about, what I asked him is if I could say how a guy like me ends up in a place like this. Because that hasn't been my.
[00:02:28] That hasn't been my desire for my own life.
[00:02:32] So my desire was I wanted to make a lot of money early, retire early, so that I can do whatever I like. That was my mission. And then I did not achieve that by any stretch of the imagination.
[00:02:47] And so God took that guy, and he completely and radically changed my life.
[00:02:55] And so I suppose let's just take one step back.
[00:03:03] How easy is this for you to add a new verse? Can you add Psalm 139, 23, and 24?
[00:03:14] So for those of us that are saved, let's pray this prayer together.
[00:03:19] So I'm going to pray it over us, but you pray it in your heart. So search me, O God, and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
[00:03:44] Yeah, Lord, let that be our reality today. Will you come and put your finger on our hearts right on the spot that you want to deal with? We believe that you are here. We believe that you are real, that you are wanting to change our hearts.
[00:03:57] Will you come as I speak? Will you come and reveal to each individual person what the thing is that you are putting there, what thing you are putting your finger on in their heart. Amen.
[00:04:08] So Matthew 28:18.
[00:04:16] Great.
[00:04:17] Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[00:04:22] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
[00:04:39] So there's so much to unpack in that passage. Would you mind keeping it up? First, the section that I want to focus on today.
[00:04:49] So the first part is all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So that's obviously Jesus speaking.
[00:04:57] And to put that in context for us. So coming to Zim, one of the most exciting times here was seeing a presidential parade come past.
[00:05:07] So you're driving in your car and the presidential parade comes and you submit. So you drive to the side of the road and. And you give way to the president. So in this context, you give way to the king.
[00:05:24] And so what Jesus is saying here is that he is the king of kings.
[00:05:28] So imagine a country where all the presidents of the world are driving around in their parades, right?
[00:05:36] So trump Ramaphosa, and the king of kings comes down the road, and all kings submit to this king, right?
[00:05:50] So that is the picture that he's got. He's saying, this is the authority that I, that Jesus has when he speaks to you, when he says, go and make disciples.
[00:06:00] And those disciples, I want you to teach them to obey the King of Kings, right?
[00:06:07] So that's what we're talking about today.
[00:06:10] Now, I thought I'd make up a cool story, so let's see how that goes.
[00:06:18] My story is about a set of twins. So two boys that they grew up and, you know, you get the kind of twins that the dad always gets teased and says that the dad can't tell the twins apart, right? But the mom can tell them apart. So imagine a set of twins that's so identical that the mom is struggling to tell them apart. So it's those kinds of twins.
[00:06:44] And so now they're grown up and they need to go to their granny's house because she needs to move a fridge from the parking lot into the building.
[00:06:55] So now the two twins, they're young men at this time, so they're busy carrying this, trying to carry this fridge up the stairs.
[00:07:05] And as they're doing that, they see a guy walking down the road.
[00:07:09] And this guy, the one brother, sees him and the guy walking is like, buff. So he's proper muscular, looks like a man's man.
[00:07:18] And so they call this guy up for. To help. And so this strong man arrives and he grabs the bottom of the fridge and the two twins are at the top as they, as he helps them carry the fridge up. So they get her talking and within five minutes, I don't know if any of you guys have any CrossFit friends. Do you have any CrossFit friends?
[00:07:41] So how do you know a guy does CrossFit?
[00:07:45] Because he tells you.
[00:07:49] So within five minutes of carrying this fridge up, he'd already told them, listen, guys, I go to CrossFit, I'm there five days a week.
[00:07:56] And they quick as a Jeff, they carry this fridge up. And the two, the twins are like, I want to be like this guy.
[00:08:05] The one says, I want to look like him, and the other one says, I want to be what he is.
[00:08:13] And so they make friends with him. And the next morning he's there with his car. At 5 o' clock in the morning, he picks up the twins and off to gym, Lego.
[00:08:23] And in that session of exercise, the CrossFit bug bites one of the twins and it doesn't bite the other twin. So they're there and they've just bought the little CrossFit outfits. They've got the T shirt that says CrossFit on the front, they've got their shoes on and they both go home. And then the next morning when the guy arrives, only one of the brothers gets in the car to go to CrossFit.
[00:08:51] They end up building a friendship with this guy and now they're busy exercising. And the coach corrects him. He goes, when you exercise, you must be careful when you do this particular exercise because if you do it wrong, you're going to hurt yourself.
[00:09:09] And then they do a different exercise. And he says, you must be careful with this exercise because if you do this one wrong, you're going to hurt somebody else.
[00:09:18] And we've had many people come and be hurt by people exercising in a way that that is hurtful to the people around them. They leave weights around, whatever.
[00:09:29] And so time goes by, and without this guy realizing, he starts looking more and more like his coach week after week after week.
[00:09:41] And people start seeing him and they go like, hey, what's different about you?
[00:09:45] That. That what? Why do you look different? And he goes, hey, I know a guy. Let me introduce you.
[00:09:53] And so he started to tell people about his experience and how it's changed his life.
[00:09:59] And then one day, him and his brother go to the shop again. So now they both have their little CrossFit outfits on.
[00:10:05] And yet one guy looks like he does CrossFit and the other one doesn't.
[00:10:13] And so in a very real sense, that has been my experience of Christianity where, where I was little, I got the T shirt.
[00:10:25] But the practical living out of my life did not lead to a life that looked more and more like Jesus as time went by. So, yes, I had the T shirt on, but if you rolled up my sleeves, there wasn't very.
[00:10:40] The arms weren't there.
[00:10:55] So then the question becomes, if Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey, what does that mean in a practical reality? So let's just do a couple of verses just to set the stage. So let's go to Luke 6:46.
[00:11:15] So this is Jesus saying, why do you call me Lord, Lord and you don't do what I say.
[00:11:25] Let's do John 14:15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
[00:11:35] And then 23 to 24, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
[00:11:41] My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
[00:11:49] Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
[00:11:52] And those words you hear are not my own, but they belong to the Father who sent me.
[00:11:57] So when the King of Kings gives us an instruction, it says we need to make disciples of people, including ourselves. And the kind of disciples that we need to make are those that obey the King.
[00:12:11] So for me growing up, it wasn't enough for me to wear my I'm saved T shirt. I actually needed to give myself to the King to be discipled, to become more and more like him.
[00:12:25] And so the next point that the story illustrates for me is that transformation becomes self evident.
[00:12:33] So you can't wear the T shirt and pretend like you go to the gym if everyone everything about you says everything about you, so that we can see.
[00:12:44] People could see in my life how much I look like Christ by the way that I treat my wife by the way That I treat my kids, by the way, that I treat hurt, whether it is family hurt or. Or a church that's hurt me or a brother that's hurt me. It's like, do you treat this in the same way?
[00:13:03] Do you handle the situation in the same way that Jesus would have handled it?
[00:13:07] And for me, specifically, the answer to that was no. Like, quite obviously, no.
[00:13:21] What I also find interesting in the. In the idea of the story is that when you get excited about something, when it starts to impact your life, when it radically changes you, you actually can't help but tell people about it. So in the context of the church, we've got this idea of evangelism, of, like, there's a guy that arrives and you can see, oh, that guy is an evangelist. Why? Because he tells everyone about Jesus.
[00:13:47] My challenge would be, like, how excited are you about being saved out of this? And is that flowing out to the people that you meet in a way that they are obvious? They can obviously see that, because, again, that wasn't my reality.
[00:14:02] And so then the question for me was, how. What was the transition moment for me?
[00:14:09] And so if we go to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1.
[00:14:25] There we go.
[00:14:26] So this was always obvious to me. So as I grew up, you got Paul writing Bible, and Paul writes, I want you to imitate me in the way that I imitate Christ. So I was happy with that because I'm reading my Bible, I'm praying, and I am trying my best to imitate Christ the way that Paul does.
[00:14:47] Okay, so then he goes a little bit further, and then he says, so Philippians 4, verse 8 to 9. Is that right? Yes. Philippians 4, verse 8 to nine.
[00:15:00] Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and admirable, if anything is excellent, or praise, whether they think of these things. And then the next section, whatever you have learned or received from me, that's Paul speaking again, or heard from me, or see in me. Put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.
[00:15:22] So again, he's saying, imitate me as I've imitated Christ.
[00:15:28] So again, I was pretty okay with that theologically.
[00:15:32] Philippians 3:12.
[00:15:40] So this I put up just as a little caveat, because when I first shared this with some people, there was a little bit of an offense that came up for people where they were like, are you putting some. Like, Paul was not perfect. Paul is not Jesus. Why are you asking me to imitate Paul if he's not perfect. So that's what this is the caveat to the rest of the, of the preach.
[00:16:08] And so Paul is saying, not that I have already attained all of this, that is perfection. He's saying he's not perfect or I've already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. And even in acknowledging that he is not perfect, he is saying, still follow me like I am following Christ.
[00:16:45] Okay, so what?
[00:16:47] So just show the Philippians 3 verse.
[00:16:51] I think it's 17 now.
[00:16:58] Let me get my, my verse out. I've got, I give, I gave you the wrong scripture. Sorry about that.
[00:17:04] Huh?
[00:17:09] Ah, there we go. That's the right one. Join together in following my examples, brothers and sisters, and just keep on as you have a model in us. Keep your eyes on those who live as we do. So now he's taken that concept of imitate me as I imitate Christ, and he extends that and he says, I want you to keep your eyes open with the people that you surround yourself with.
[00:17:33] And in a very literal sense, imitate each other as you are all imitating Christ.
[00:17:41] So that is so when we talk about practical discipleship, it's that we are close enough together in a relationship with each other that we can practically imitate each other in our pursuit of imitating Christ in the same way that in the biblical times we, that is what discipleship was. So when we think, talk about discipleship is imitating each other in the way that we are imitating Christ.
[00:18:12] And so this was exactly what changed my life. This was the missing piece for me, the difference between that me that I am today and the me that I was 10 years ago. So I was praying and asking God, I was trying my best to do this Christian thing and to overcome my sin and to overcome temptation and to get free of the things that bind me. And I wasn't making progress.
[00:18:38] And so in my prayer to God saying, help me, he introduced me, put me at a table with six other men, and I just sat there and listened. And as I was looking in these guys eyes, I saw Jesus in their eyes and a way that I had never experienced Jesus in my own eyes. And I looked from man to man, how they were talking about their wife, how they were talking about their family, how they were talking about past hurt that they experienced and how God has healed them of that. And at the end of that conversation that it was a birthday party, I was cut to the heart of how sinful I had allowed myself to become, even though I was saved.
[00:19:26] It was heartbreaking.
[00:19:30] And then I grabbed one of the guys and I said, you are going to be my friend.
[00:19:35] And I joined the church that he was going to, and I met the people that he was. That he belonged to. And I said, will you teach me? Will you show me how you do church? How do you do discipleship? How do you think about everything?
[00:19:52] And that was the point in my life where there was a radical shift in how much I personally was able to look like Jesus.
[00:20:02] And so I suppose the closing question is like, I want to point my finger and I want to say, you're sitting here with your Jesus T shirt on, and I want to ask you the prayer that we prayed in the beginning where it says, seek me, and is there anything in me that doesn't? So if you lift up your sleeves and you look at what's underneath your Jesus T shirt, what is that?
[00:20:32] How much do you resemble Jesus?
[00:20:40] So can we take a moment? Would you mind just closing your eyes?
[00:20:47] Lord, we trust that you are here.
[00:20:50] We trust that you've already spoken to those among us that haven't met you yet.
[00:21:00] If there's anyone that's in that camp that prayed the prayer at the beginning saying, God, show yourself to me. If you are real, if anyone prayed that prayer while the eyes are closed, would you mind putting up your hand?
[00:21:12] Not necessarily whether he spoke to you or not, just that you prayed that prayer.
[00:21:26] Lord, I pray that your spirit will encounter this person in this week, that you will.
[00:21:41] That you will make the reality of you and your kingdom known in their hearts.
[00:21:46] I pray that you will walk the road with them, that it will become an undeniable fact for them as it is that you are the living God, that you came to save us. I pray for radical transformation, that you will encounter them in the quiet of their house.
[00:22:06] That.
[00:22:08] Yeah.
[00:22:09] As only you can, Lord.
[00:22:17] And then I want to ask the prayer that we prayed, prayed for.
[00:22:21] To seek us is to show if there's anything in us that's not of God.
[00:22:26] Is there anyone that was. That felt like they were convicted about something that they feel like they need to bring to the Lord. Now, we won't embarrass you and make you do anything strange.
[00:22:36] Would you mind raising your hand as an act of surrender? That's saying, God spoke to me. I see that hand.
[00:22:43] Yeah.
[00:22:47] Yeah.
[00:22:50] So for those hands that are raised and those that don't want to raise their hands, but they know they should, would you mind answering this question as honestly as you can, what is your excuse?
[00:23:09] I had many excuses.
[00:23:11] I had excuses. I'm. I'm just a human. I'm like, what.
[00:23:17] What is your honest excuse of why you are allowing this thing in your life that you know is not from God?
[00:23:31] And so, Lord, will you show each and every one of these people that have, that have encountered you in that way this morning?
[00:23:40] They are struggling to let this thing go.
[00:23:43] Will you bring your truth in the situation? Will you counter the lie that they. That is plaguing their heart at the moment, their excuse? Will you come counter that, excuse me, with your truth?
