Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Faith and Obedience
my name is julio my i've been married for 28 years my wife beautiful eyes over here lift your hand because it's four girls in there so just one okay i only have one so has four kids three daughters and one son he's right there too so anyway so um you know i'm gonna share what i shared this morning and it's from my heart and it's not something that uh is to get you guys uh mad or upset or whatever i say it's actually from my heart praying uh to god for you guys okay so whatever i say i want you to listen to the scriptures that i'm going to share and i want you to focus on that if anything else doesn't stick in your mind okay so we are church we're here can go anywhere uh if you're gonna if you need to go to the restaurant go right now okay i'm serious sometimes like you get distracted but you know i understand don't get me wrong okay you need to go because you don't have a diaper so it's even worse so just go but if you if you can keep yourself do it because i'm serious this is this is this is the word of god okay so amen service is done i'm trying to start give me a break my mind doesn't think in english my mind thinks in spanish so i'm trying to you know trying to do my best here uh what i was i was uh wanted to share with you guys i'm gonna read two passages right now here in a minute but before i do that i just want to say these things to you today and i want you to take it to her but um over the years in my life since i you know god save me i don't understood much about the bible oh god none of that but one thing i didn't know i one thing that i know i knew that was happening to me is this i became to know god slowly and over the years you know being in church after three years been a christian god called me to be a pastor or teaching the bible i remember very clearly when he called me to be a preacher over in the prisons i went to the prisons for over a year to do services over there but i used to get really frustrated uh with people with pastors also leaders in the church or just in general the churches sometime because just for me this book in christianity is a reality of my life every single moment every day it's in the moment i wake up to the moment i go to bed it's amazing because some i ask people sometime you know people that go to church you call themselves christians and i asked them i said do you do you talk to god do you have a communication with god like all the time and i respond that i get sometimes like not always sometimes and it's a shocking to me because for me every moment since i wake up god is in my mind every second every minute every hour and here's my witness i'm not lying to you so i used to get frustrated and i said with people you know when i see people acting the way they act and god pretty much showed me what was the problem and the problem is people do not know god they don't know god and if you're one of them today then you came the right moment because i'm going to give you an opportunity and lesson an opportunity to get that part right because it's not it's not about coming to services i don't know if you know that but it's not it's not it's not about that it's not about the this right here it's not about the buildings it's not about the music all that stuff is good because if we meet outside you know it's very cold so this is a blessing right but it's not about this either you know with this whole thing this whole culvert thing i'm not gonna talk much about i have my opinions but they're my opinions but i wouldn't stop gathering with the church i don't care if it isn't buildings or they oh it's outside i don't care i really don't i don't care to die i really don't care and god knows it's gained the bible says if you would if we die as a christian but going back to what i want to share today i haven't started yet no i'm just joking i already did i'm halfway done so it's a shorter service today but it's not like a teaching it's more like an exhaustion to us to you to me and i really want you to hear god's heart okay so i used to get frustrated and god told me god show me it's because they don't know me because they don't they don't know me that's because they behave the way they behave it's not about religion i know religion and i know i don't know if you can say this but hey i really don't care but i used to be mormon in east week i grew up catholic it's not about religion people can do religion that's really easy you don't need god to have a church i heard people saying let's have a hey you want to make money let's have a church and they do it you know that do you know that they do it being a pastor give me a little bit of a what was the word glenn no yeah to us to what goes on in the background and it's disgusting it's very disgusting to have religion is really easy just put together rules and regulations and some people with authority over people that's it but that's not what god wants it's not about religion it's not about traditions we love traditions look at christmas it's coming a lot of people like the romanticism at christmas all the songs all the colors but they don't like the why we celebrate christmas right it's true though am i just speaking out of my head it's true we like the room the romantic of it that's the music the colors the family the food but we don't like the point of christmas we like traditions but church is not about that god is not about that only that they're bad no but it's not about traditions either a lot of people are it's not about culture you know tradition is what let me give you one i was just thinking right now before i came up to give an example this is tradition right here having the stage another word but everything else in here it's a tradition think and change and do it differently culture the same thing culture is always the ways been done culture i said this early in the first service and i'm going to repeat this to you guys too but culture that's not different than other movements or other churches that don't belong to god i'm listen i'm gonna be very honest with you guys and i don't really care who gets mad i'm not apologizing for anyone i mean to anyone but like i grew up in mexico by the ocean okay but the tradition in mexico is to go to church on sundays that's culture all traditions same thing sometimes that's what's happening in the u.s we know when the server starts we know when the service in the metal we know when the service is going to end what's different from other people it's like we don't give room to god to work to really do what he wants to do through us and in us you know why because we practice culture you know why we practice cultures you know why we practice religion and why we practice traditions because we don't know him because we don't know him we don't know god and a lot of you here do not know god that's you just doing this every sunday you come in every sunday do the same thing let me read this to you okay i want you to you have your bible and i'm going to say this because i don't want to forget if you turn on your phone do not answer the i learned that word last sunday i mean last service notifications okay do not answer them notifications i'm gonna say straight up is their respectful it is so first one i want you to go with me to john 14. this is the gospel of john 14. this is my wife's bible in the first service i had these little things in there and i think i'll take them all out now i can find them because she has a it's the same bible but it's a different way of flowing so let me see if i can find john 14. okay john 14 oh right here so i'm gonna read from verse six all the way to nine okay amen i know he's in a baptist church but you just repeat after me okay made me feel a little bit comfortable let's say let's read let's read it says jesus said jesus said to him i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me if you had known me you should have known my father also and from now on you know him and has seen him philip said to him lord show us the father and it is sufficient for us jesus said to him have i been with you so long and yeah you have not known me philip he who has seen me has seen the father so how can you say show us the father so first real quick just introduce what i'm going with this is this you can be very religious or practice a lot of the stuff that is the norm for let's say under the banner the banner of christianity right like this guy phillips you know seeing how god was moving how jesus was speaking all that stuff and yeah not know him and this is a problem this is a big problem nowadays you ever heard the scriptures in intimidating when it says that in the last days the love for god will is gonna grow cold in people it's happening but do not let that happen to you god says he has a redmond all the time all the way through and to the end of days are you part of that redman or jesus going through the emotions this is critical one day just you know my first day my frost you know what i'm saying right listen i had nothing to lose i'm talking in life i'm not talking about i don't no one can fire me from here i just want to know god and i was praying one time and god was showing me how the problem the problem that is happening nowadays in the u.s even pastors are giving themselves to other things but what they call to do what they call to be and one of those things that god showed me is the churches because every time you know for me the weekend you know i work monday through friday you know like anyone else you know nine hours nine and a half hour or ten hours a day and when the weekend comes uh it's an excitement to me i mean even though during the week i'm getting busy with the you know the things that i do as a pastor also and i have a family and a wife but in the week is for me it's very exciting because i don't i know that the whole weekend is going to be just dedicated to the work of god in some way and i get up really early all the time especially on saturdays and i like to just pray and meditate and i was looking over the city we used to go pray now it's too cold we used to go pray over and out you know where the cross is and the man over there i always like to go places like that and then uh looking over the city one day so the guy would show me say look at that look at the valley now look at the churches they pack with people but it seems like they don't know me hardly no one is doing my work everybody looks the same everybody is doing the same thing everybody follow after the same stuff this is not me and so when i was praying for this service i asked guys what did you want to say and no one up here but if you're going to use me what do you want from us and i thought and at first it was something else and two days after he said no i was i was trying to i was thinking about teaching on different things i can't teach really in english i can teach in spanish i could ignore you and in english it's easy for me to pronounce but i thought you know maybe marriage no maybe temptations maybe this may be that and god said no i want you to exhort him about to know me if they know me then everything else will fall into where it's supposed to be right it is very true so philip was one of those guys that obviously didn't know really who jesus was in the moment and jesus told them you're with me we're doing things we moving around we you know all that stuff and you don't know me philip yeah but there's a lot of reality like that for a lot of you guys but i'm going to give you this other passage that one is very scary that's for me it's the most scary passage in the bible and it kicks keeps me in line with god okay because besides doing everything i got to do in this world i don't need god listen very carefully i don't need god to have a family to have kids to have a job to buy things to go places all that kind of stuff i don't need god a lot of people do that right but if i want to live my life as a christian i need to know him christianity came from him so this is for me i hope is for you too and i hope you to really analyze your life and see what are you what are you all about why are you alive what are you doing with your life you just waiting just working making money saving it buying things going places and waiting for the moment to drop dead that's what you want and then lose everything i'm serious i'm very serious i don't care if i die but a lot of you guys do i always say this because it's true i want to go to heaven but no one wants to die you need to die to go to heaven right you can't go to heaven alive right so pay attention to what we're going to read next okay this is a really powerful passage and i want you to write this in your heart and i'm being very serious okay matthew 7. maybe you guys already know but maybe you knew only in your head and your mind i want you to really get it and take it too hard okay it's matthew chapter seven let me see where am i no i'm not in matthew hold on matthew 7 verse 21 you ready you ready do you guys understand what i'm saying okay cool because i'm not i don't know how my family does because they're used to my accent or whatever you call it right i didn't go to school so that's what you get so god is good you know it's been good to me so let's read let's read okay pay attention let's see what it says not everyone who says to me lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me in that day what day judgment day when you're already dead okay lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demon in your name and done many wonders in your name listen and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness wow you hear that i can say a man right now and that should change your life forever you know that i can do that and it should but i still had time so 13 minutes so i'm gonna say a couple things but i want you to really pay attention to what we just read and this is why many people do not get it everything that we do as a as a christian is all about the person the person of jesus christ everything knows outside of that is a secondary thing everything why we gather today we gather today to worship who a person we gather today to hear the words of a person and we fellowship each other with the followers of a person is all about a person the person of jesus christ amen now this is what i noticed over the years and maybe you are there that they make cries oh god to something that he is now people listen people has come to god because they need something and that's not bad at least it got you closest to him but don't make a mistake about thinking that god or christ has some type of debt to you to give you something you don't come to christ or to god because he can give you something it can be money it can be healing it can be i don't know anything but christ was never presenting himself as a chef or as a psychologist or as a banker or none of us none of that stuff even though he does that stuff he presents himself as a person the person of christ the son of the living god and many people do not still have na yaga message and i want you guys to really pay attention because this is what all your life will be either towards him or away from him now i'm trying to go through my nose but i don't even i don't really read him so it makes me feel good so just hold on a second okay let me feel good because i don't even know where i am anyway so i'm just gonna keep going so this is uh this is you know this is what i want you guys to get today if you don't get anything else do you know god do you know him you know that you can know a lot about the bible look at the pharisees the pharisees knew the bible by might in their hearts and ya didn't know god why you can read the gospel jesus arrived what did they do to him he's god because they didn't know god they didn't they were not expecting him to show up but it's the same way today people go through life through every you know whatever you do people come to church and start doing things for the kingdom but they really do not know god you know one of the things that i that i notice why when people go through such a hard time or afflictions or struggles the first person that people blame usually is who is god you know why because they don't know him that's very simple you like it or not it's very true you think i haven't gone through pain and i'm gonna i'm gonna ask you to say a very powerful prayer after the service that will change your life but i just want to warn you it can you can lose things you can lose people you can anything can happen you can lose your life if you do that but that's who god is that's who he is if he doesn't give you anything after this he has not he has all the rights to do so he has no rights to give you anything right now he don't he doesn't owe you anything but yeah we walk around like he does it's because we don't know him that's very simple message so if you really want to know him i'm going to challenge you in a little bit to do that because this is your day this is our day you know um it's really sad to see when we walk around our own life like daily life it's sad to see when people listen i'm talking about people that goes to church who call themselves christians okay so don't when i say this i'm thinking ah he's talking about people out there in the world or whatever no you okay and i noticed so many behaviors that what you actually doing is declaring the jesus or god it doesn't really exist like this book preaches but it's very true i said i mentioned these things in the first service but i need to mention these things to you guys too it's your behavior because i want your understanding i want you to look at your heart and see if you really know him or not i always say this because it's true it's very true you are the real you when you doing things and no one is watching that's you that's the real you so you can put any face outside of that and tell people that you really believe or that you really are christian but that's not true the reason why men and women give themselves to a lot of practice in life something very simple and listen i'm not here to put any legalism on anybody but this is very true why nowadays it seems like women don't care how they dress goddess is in the book hardly no one preaches about that anymore but it's in here he does you ever read this look at and hear me out you're probably gonna say i know i know i don't know if it's people from the office here but you're gonna get complaints about me so get ready but i need to say this but if you read the old testament showing you die is nakedness do you know that nevertheless i need to say this i'm sorry i'm apologizing okay i said that in the beginning right okay i'm gonna need to say this but people are gonna get mad at me watch you will you will but i just don't understand the women sorry women i'm going to talk about men right now in a minute well the women less than women if you like by an accident walk on them and they in their in spanish they call it jonas but it means your underwears right the woman how the woman goes hi right why i'm naked no you're not but what change when you go to the water and all of a sudden it's like what where is that where's the chinese are it's no longer there it's not is that weird it's not weird i told you're going to get married some of you probably already in their mind what who are you to tell me blah god is not like that no god is like that it's just you don't know him that's all that's uh that's a problem but god cares why they behave that way why they behave why they like to spend so much money women is the same thing they don't know him but let's talk about the guys right look at what's happening nowadays guys you are the anchor of everything god has given you responsibility of everything the city the country the family the church and yeah the man has become lazy spiritual the only thing they do and listen man it's same thing to you and be honest with you so i'm a man but i know because i people told me men told me and i used to do that i don't do that god is my witness but men focus too much on so many things sports oh you don't know okay then i told you sports work important you know why because you don't know god or you don't want to know him because when we do things when it comes to serving or doing the work of god in different ways when it's going to cause you to sacrifice something time money whatever you wouldn't do it that's why when it comes to prayer only woman shows up more than a man what's wrong with you're here what do you want what are you looking for but this is i'm not getting frustrated right now like i told you god showed me and that's what i'm telling you right now the problem is that you don't know him and you need to know him you have to start there you need to know god i'm going to be reading um some other passage in a minute but before i do that i was i was thinking of all this and especially for men and i said god what do you mean what do you already do on sunday i don't want to be norm like people already know when the service starts when the server's in the middle when the server is going to end people already know it's true you already know okay honey just time for church come on let's go i have something to do and you know what the one of the other things that really gets me not anymore it seems like it's still huh like that still gets me it's even in church or even in right now people start still watching their phones or taking phone calls man you have no idea you don't it's like you don't know god seriously it's like amazing ah listen and i have a guy that is going to come up here in a minute to share something with you guys i always pray and say god what do you want me to do and then he put in my heart i call this guy and also to share a little bit because he has the heart for me i said okay but before i do that before i do that let me show you a couple things more okay because i want you to really listen to what he's going to say and also to what i'm going to read after but question that i have for you guys are you tired to be singing to be clapping to be praying because everybody's doing it and i'm very serious on this one don't we always sing i surrender all you walk out those doors in you the same person gossip dirty ugly man oh man aren't you tired to do all those things just because everybody's doing it around you or because it's a moment to do it because we are in service listen i don't need a band to worship god okay i do not but this is a blessing this is a big blessing and when i'm here and i'm doing it i'm thanking god for all these guys and i'm in it i'm saying god i do worship you yes you're amazing you're beautiful you ah he is he's a big god how you notice he created the world in the heavens he's huge this is huge and yeah when it comes to the church the ones that we call church are so busy monday through friday and a lot of the things right yeah i'm gonna mention some of those what about the gym you know there is clubs maybe you are part of it maybe you're one of them there's actually clubs that's i said correctly like a club okay to people they go to the gym i'm like really what did they talk about how big is my muscles seriously you know i went to uh i don't know i don't look like i exercise i haven't for a long time and i'm not against the gym actually i just my wife my wife signed me up just recently lit for real but you know when i went to the gym the first time i was heavier way more heavier i lost 60 pounds and you go again about brother but i
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.