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Hey, welcome to the City Point 
Church podcast. 

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Thanks for joining us. 
Every day is an opportunity to 

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take hold of so we hope this 
message inspires you and build 

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your faith that it helps you 
have more of the God perspective

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for your day. 
Enjoy SO. 

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Today I just want to continue on
the theme that we have had of 

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discipleship. 
So Mel and I have obviously for 

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this year, we've got in our 
hearts to direct this church 

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into full alignment down the 
lines of discipleship in order 

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for us to grow into our future. 
And so the title of my message 

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today is belonging before 
believing, belonging before 

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believing. 
And So what I'm going to do this

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morning is take us on a 
different angle when we are 

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looking at the concept of 
discipleship in the life of this

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church. 
So Matthew 2819 says, go 

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therefore, and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them 

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in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

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So I have a question for us this
morning. 

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Where and when does discipleship
biblically begin? 

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Where and when does the Bible 
teach us that discipleship 

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actually begins? 
So the apostle Paul wrote in the

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Bible. 
In Romans 10, verse 14, he says,

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How then shall they call on him 
in whom they have not believed? 

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And how shall they believe in 
Him on whom they have not heard?

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And how shall they hear without 
a preacher? 

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And how shall they preach, 
unless they are sent as it is 

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written? 
How beautiful are the feet of 

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those who preach the gospel of 
peace, who bring glad tidings of

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good things, but they have not 
all obeyed the gospel. 

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For Rosiah says, Lord, who has 
believed our report. 

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So then faith comes by hearing 
and hearing by the word of God. 

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You can have faith that Jesus is
the Son of God, but until you 

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exercise evangelism you do not 
see the power or the evidence of

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your God flowing through your 
life. 

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See, the reality is is God does 
many things for us, but there is

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a level that God calls His 
church up to and too many people

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don't go up to that next level. 
And I'm talking this morning 

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about a level where our 
discipleship is not just for our

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fellow Christian, but we move 
into a an evangelistic idea 

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where we are disciple in the 
world that God has given around 

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us. 
In other words, discipleship is 

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before people even become 
Christians. 

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Before people have a 
relationship with Jesus, they 

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may must hear all about him. 
See what it's like for someone 

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who has Jesus in their life. 
They don't see that unless you 

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and I example that. 
Let me tell you, being a 

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Christian isn't a fad. 
It's not something that we go, 

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you know what? 
I've given my life to God, but 

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I'm just going to live the way I
want to live or I'm going to 

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come to church because that's 
what Christians do. 

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But I'm going to hang around in 
my voluntary time environments 

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that aren't showing Christ in me
or doing things that don't show 

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Christ in me. 
You know, I'm never hung up 

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about things like drugs or 
smoking or alcohol and things 

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like that. 
But the reality is, is as we 

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mature in our salvation, in our 
relationship with God, we begin 

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to live a life that examples the
Christ transformation that is 

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inside of us. 
And so every person, no matter 

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how big or how small your 
struggle might be, we all have 

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to come to a, a maturing in our 
faith or our relationship with 

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God where we say that thing is 
no longer acceptable by me in my

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life because it does not 
evidence to the world around me 

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that God is bringing, bringing, 
bringing transformation into who

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I am. 
Does that make sense? 

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And so there is an onus on all 
Christians to allow God to 

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challenge us, as Pastor Dan so 
greatly did today, that to allow

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God to challenge us and then 
transform us and grow us into a,

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a, a greater reality of what it 
is to live like Christ, to 

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behave like Christ, to talk like
Christ. 

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Does this make sense? 
So you and I in the church, we 

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are the carriers of the Holy 
Spirit. 

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But that's not a simple 
byproduct. 

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You have to be in your word and 
and in prayer to understand what

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you're carrying. 
Does this make sense? 

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We, we are living in an era 
where words alone don't carry 

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enough. 
Words alone don't carry enough. 

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Saying I love Jesus, people want
the proof saying that Jesus is 

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he loves me in spite. 
People need the evidence. 

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Does this make sense? 
And so this is what discipleship

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is about. 
Even before people are in the 

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church, in your lunch room, at 
work, in your university rooms, 

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in class. 
You know the Bible says to do 

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all things as as though unto the
Lord. 

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So you might be in class and you
might hate your class but fake 

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it. 
This is awesome. 

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You know God's transforming. 
I'm learning from my lecturer 

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right now. 
You might hate it, but God is 

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growing you through it. 
Does this make sense? 

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So you might hate the thing, but
you love the transformation 

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God's bringing into your life. 
And so we have to evidence if we

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gossip and stay at the same 
level at lunchtime that of the 

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conversations that are around 
us, what's the difference? 

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Why would they want to come to 
church then alone give their 

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whole lives to Jesus Christ? 
So we have to live as people 

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that are being transformed. 
If God's transforming your life,

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which I know He is, He's 
transforming all of our lives in

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this great church. 
If it's transforming our lives, 

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we need to let that out so it's 
seen by other people. 

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We need to evidence what God is 
doing on the inside by wearing 

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it on the outside. 
So belonging before believing 

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it's it's discipleship before 
salvation. 

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Now discipleship has many layers
to it and all layers begin to 

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disciple someone when there is 
intention behind it. 

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So you might go, well, how is 
that discipleship like in the 

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church? 
You I've been talking about 

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discipleship groups or life 
groups that are discipleship 

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focused. 
We do discipleship in our YA 

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youth Friday nights. 
They break up into the 

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discipleship. 
This is more influenced than 

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what It's discipleship. 
No, if you, if you just allow it

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to stay in the word influence, 
there's this connotation that we

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do something and then we just 
walk away from it. 

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We've influenced or we've put a 
smell or an aroma in the room 

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with our words, but then we walk
away from that. 

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What I'm saying to us as a 
church is discipleship because 

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more than that we are standing 
with those people. 

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Sin is sin. 
So don't be shocked by that. 

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But through their sin, we can 
still be there for them. 

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We can just say, hey, here's my 
number. 

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If you ever need me, here I am. 
I'm not talking about giving 

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personal bank accounts and and 
making them your best friend. 

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But what I'm saying is we don't 
just say God loves you and walk 

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away. 
What we do is we say God loves 

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you and then we show them 
through our own lives the an 

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example of what God could do in 
their lives. 

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Does that make sense? 
But words alone don't doesn't do

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that. 
It's going to skip for the sake 

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of time. 
The system of discipleship isn't

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really all that clear in the 
Bible. 

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And this is because discipleship
is a journey that requires 

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growth, learning, maturing, and 
the application. 

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In the church. 
We have systems to help people 

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grow in knowledge, faith, 
relationship with God, connect 

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with other believers to disciple
and big disciple to outwork what

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we learn. 
We do this through life groups, 

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next steps courses, youth group 
conferences, Sunday gatherings, 

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camps, counseling, so many 
things. 

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But there's belonging before 
believing. 

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Discipleship starts as someone 
hearing from you, then someone 

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trusting you, and then someone 
following you, hearing, 

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trusting, and following. 
But the goal is that people 

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follow Jesus, learn from His 
word, the Bible, and live more 

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and more like Jesus lived when 
he was here on planet earth. 

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How do they understand that? 
It's not by telling them, it's 

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by showing them. 
So it's the next level. 

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This is a call up that our whole
lives has to if we're having a, 

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a party at our house or over a 
friend's party. 

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It's not an exception card from 
Christian walking from your 

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faith. 
Does that make sense? 

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It's an opportunity for you to 
bring Christ who's in you into 

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that environment. 
If you've been invited into 

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something, you've been, you've 
been given an opportunity. 

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If someone's invited me, that's 
because they want me to bring 

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Christ to that situation. 
That's they don't, they're not 

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after my dancing. 
I'm not a good dancer, 

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definitely not after my karaoke.
I make karaoke sound bad, like 

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they're not after that. 
They've invited me because they 

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want Christ to walk into that 
room. 

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And that's the way I view it 
anyway, right. 

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And so if you're in the shopping
centre, in a workplace 

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lunchroom, This is why. 
Now evangelism and discipleship 

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are joined at the hip. 
Christian, let me tell you 

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today, if you're in this room, 
you've been called to 

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evangelism. 
Discipleship and evangelism are 

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joined at the hip. 2 more 
minutes and we'll we'll pause. 

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The relationship between 
discipling and witnessing is 

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seamless. 
Evangelism without its partner 

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discipleship either creates 
religion or rebellion. 

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I'm going to say that again. 
Evangelism without its partner 

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discipleship either creates 
religion or rebellion. 

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Billy Hull and Bobby Harrington 
says evangelism is simply a form

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of pre conversion discipleship. 
The two evangelism and 

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discipleship are the front and 
the back of the same coin. 

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So let me tell you evangelists 
in the house, if you've got that

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definite gift on your life, I 
don't OK, but doesn't exempt me 

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from evangelizing. 
It just means it's it doesn't 

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energize me. 
It just means you're not going 

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to see me putting in to my 
calendar, walking around 

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shopping centres, OK, What I'm 
probably doing is leadership 

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training and leadership 
resourcing, OK. 

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But everywhere I go, I'm an 
evangelist. 

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And so if you're an evangelist, 
well, you are right. 

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So as evangelist, when we say 
the word evangelist, we are also

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saying the word discipleship. 
So everywhere you and I go, 

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shopping centres, work rooms, 
University, School, no matter 

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where it is, if you're retired, 
every friendship, relationship, 

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every time you're out in the 
caravan, whatever you're doing, 

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you're not leaving Christianity 
behind at the church on Sunday. 

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And we'll get back to that in 
two weeks when we're back from 

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our trip. 
Everywhere you go as a 

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Christian, you're evangelizing 
and discipling all at once. 

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You're evangelizing someone and 
telling them about the goodness 

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of God, but you're also 
imparting into them Christianity

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or the faith that God or the 
transformation of God has placed

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in your life. 
We are imparting, not just 

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telling. 
We aren't just sharing, we're 

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also showing. 
We also giving them tips of how 

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to move forward in this area of 
the We are not just telling them

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of the goodness of God and 
leaving it at that. 

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If you're going to tell them of 
the goodness of God, you also 

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need to show them that God 
heals, which means you need to 

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pray. 
Does this make sense? 

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And as they see the power and 
the wonder of God move through 

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their life more and more, and 
God sends them people like you, 

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you will find them in a church 
on a Sunday because the Father 

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draws people to the Spirit. 
Does this make sense? 

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And so you might be in this 
place this morning and you're 

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hearing and watching and the 
testimonies and even just what's

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happened with young Jay. 
And you're like, man, this is 

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like real stuff. 
This is real life. 

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This is real living. 
Let me tell you. 

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It sure is. 
It's very exciting, actually, 

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every day. 
Nothing more exciting than 

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getting her a text from from 
Pastor Rach. 

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He's going all the way. 
I are at my house. 

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My son just grew 2 centimetres. 
Yeah, it's pretty exciting 

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stuff, being a Christian.