John Perks - Becoming Disciples of Christ - Class 5 - Teaching Them To Observe

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day five of the 2026 Idlewild Bible School. Our second period teacher is Brother John Perks. His general subject is Becoming Disciples of Christ. Today's topic is Teaching Them to Observe. Brother John.

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   Good morning, everyone. So I want to begin by saying, first of all, I do have a daughter. Her name is Grace. She was here a number of years ago, but I haven't mentioned her. I've mentioned the boys because they're here, but she came a few years ago, and when we asked her, how did you like Idlewild, she went, eh.

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   But that's because we're her parents. She said to others she loved the Bible School. So you've left an impression there, and hopefully we'll get her back here in the future. But I want to thank you for inviting Rachel and I down here. It was an opportunity to get to know many of you, and I love meeting members of our family that I haven't met before and realizing how rich of a community we have.

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   This is a fantastic Bible School. And I hope that I've served you well in some way, that you can take something from these classes, and that they've helped you or will encourage you. You have definitely pampered Rachel and myself. We've been treated very well, and we thank you for that. And we pray that this Bible School will continue to be a blessing for the Christadelphian community going forward until Christ returns.

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   So thank you. So as review to what we've been discussing this week, we've been called to be Jesus' disciples, to be learners, to apprentice under him, to watch him and learn from him. And I've been asking the question, and I'm hoping that you will ask the question, are we taking discipleship seriously? And if not, what can we do about it?

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   And from our discussions informally, I've been hearing a lot of people saying, you know what, this has been a good opportunity to realign and think about some things. And there's some things I need to do. And that's exactly what I've done in my life and continue to do, and I hope that you'll be able to as well.

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   And we talked about the number one step is taking on the mind of Christ, to bringing him into us, to letting him abide in us, to making ourselves of no reputation other than a son or daughter of God, a disciple of Christ, seeking first the kingdom of God.

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   That he humbled himself, and we need to humble ourselves, to put away pride, and to become obedient to what he's asked us to do. We've talked about disciplines that can create time and space, and how the world we live in, these days are evil. And we need to be relentless in taking back control of our lives, and we need to redeem that time, fill those spaces that we've created with things that edify and build up.

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   And the whole purpose is hopefully that the things of this world will gradually grow dim as we look at our Heavenly Father and at His Son and are just overwhelmed with their brilliance.

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    So, what's going to happen within three days of leaving this place? Now, some of you might have other Bible schools you're going to, or other summer adventures. But what's going to happen when you go back to the regular routines of your life? Those habits that you've formed. Old habits die hard. I'll tell you what happens to me when I leave a Bible school.

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    And it's usually at the end of the summer when all the activities are done, and I get back into my work routine. I feel melancholy. I feel depressed. I feel a bit empty. And it's in that danger zone when I will very easily turn to my iPad,

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    to watching something, to escaping that sadness, that feeling of emptiness. And as I mentioned, that's a danger zone for me. So, some of the things we do is we go for lots of walks. We try not to just go back into those things again. But think about that before you go back. What are we going to do to avoid that?

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    If you could turn to James chapter 1. Because I think verses 21 to 25, in fact, all of James is very practical application of discipleship. But verses 21 to 25 really speak to what we've been speaking about this week. So, it starts off in verse 21. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness.

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    That's the creating time and space. We're laying those things aside. In Colossians, it says, put to death. Lay those things aside. And receive the meekness, with meekness, the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. That's the redeeming the time, filling those times and spaces. Letting it into our hearts. Verse 22.

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    But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

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    Hopefully this week we've looked into the mirror. And maybe we've seen some things that aren't great. But the danger is, when we go back home, we'll forget what we were looking at. The routines will just pile on, and the tide will come in, and the tide will go out, and we'll forget. And so I have one last appeal.

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    This class is a final appeal for yourself and myself to build some resolve, to make some of those changes that you've been thinking about this week.

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    So I want you to think of it as an opportunity that you might find in the olden days in a newspaper. There's a podcaster I listen to, and he speaks specifically to young men.

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    And they asked him in this interview, what would your message to young men be? Young men who are falling into the trap of video games and social media and sitting in their basement, and when you talk to them, they say, we're not hurting anyone. We're just doing our thing. And his message is, we need you.

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    It's not enough that you're not doing bad things, that you're not hurting anyone. We need you in our family to be an active participant. We need you in our ecclesia, to be involved in CYC and take some leadership, and in Sunday schools, to be an example for the young people. And it's not just young men, it's young women as well.

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    And we need adults to set the example. And sadly, what we're seeing with our elder generation as well is they're falling into that trap of just being online all the time. And that's something young people have noticed. Their grandpas and grandmas are being trapped by it as well. We need all sections of our society, of our community, to be present, to be active.

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    And so the first thing we need you to do is to be teachers of these things. So we've been commanded to teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Well, what does that look like? Individually. Well, first of all, you have to learn to take on that mind of Christ.

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    You have to set that example of letting go and humbling yourselves. You need to engage in the disciplines and be an example of creating time and space as an individual in your own life so that you can redeem the time and begin to fill that time and space with reading, and study, and meditation, and memorization, so that you know the commands of Jesus, that you've memorized them, and you begin to practice them.

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    And then on a day -to -day basis, actually practicing the things that Jesus has taught. And we talked with the teens, how would you go about that? So I gave them an example. Love is patient. How would you, on a day -to -day basis, make that a practice, so that something that might not be so possible in your life now, will be possible, and more natural as you grow and develop?

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    And they came up with things like, you know, when you're driving, to be more patient. Just that little time, every day, when you drive, to demonstrate patience, instead of aggression, and striving, you know, and cursing those around you, and to forgive. To actually say a prayer, perhaps, for the people driving around you.

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    In the grocery store, and I won't mention one in particular. To demonstrate patience, and to bless those who are around you, and show forgiveness. Those little things, just making that a regular habit. To demonstrate how you don't worry about things. So turning those things into regular practices, so you can be an example.

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    And I want to, I just want to mention something that happened yesterday that was a perfect example of this. Because people will notice, people will notice, when the rest of the world follows those natural ways of behaving and reacting. Like when somebody curses you, you curse back. When somebody insults you, you insult back.

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    And that's just what we expect. But when somebody does something that's what we don't expect. We notice. And yesterday, a brother got up and apologized in front of all of us for something they had done. You do not see that in the world. You will see people double down on their mistake. But here we had somebody whose master is Jesus Christ, who has called us to a different life, a different way of behaving and living.

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    And he showed us, the young people, all of us, the right way to behave. That's what we need as individuals. We also need to see it in our families.

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    You know, making discipleship a family project. Taking our tiny little chunks of the day that you have together, and now that we're empty nesters, we look back and think about all the wonderful times we had, but how fast it went. And making sure you're being intentional about this precious life you have with family to do something intentional with it, and not let it just get wasted away.

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    So discussing around the dinner table, failures, successes, different situations, asking your kids, what's going well, what's not going well? How did you deal with that situation? How could you deal with it better? Praying for those kids who are difficult in your class. Blessing those who curse you. Teaching them that right from the beginning, this is how we behave.

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    And then making time and space as a family. Maybe practicing fasting, even with your kids, for a little while, just showing them. And when they say, can I have a snack? Well, we're going to wait a little bit, but talking about what you can learn from that. Putting away devices for a period of time.

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    Practicing solitude. Our school, we go out in these woods once a week. There's a conservation area. And we get all our students to sit. We call it a sit spot. And they have to sit in nature with no devices, no distractions. You can't be near a friend. You just have to sit in quiet and listen to nature.

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    And at the beginning, they can only do it for about 30 seconds. By the end of the year, we're at five minutes. And they're disappointed when we're done. Just sitting in nature and listening and being okay with your thoughts and teaching our kids that. You know, filling our lives with purpose -driven discipleship.

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    And explaining why we're doing the readings. Being intentional with our prayers. Memorization. Selecting readings with a purpose. And just a side note, this is an AI developed image. I gave it some instructions.

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    Just look at the kids and the family. I then asked AI to create the next image. Unrelated. But it took the same family. And they apparently just came from dinner because the kids covered in spaghetti.

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    But that's real life, right? We got to get the Bible class. But in our ecclesias, making sure we're having classes, Sunday school lessons, CYC, once in a while discussing how we are observing the commands of Jesus. Pick one. Okay, how are we practicing it? What does it look like? What do we do when we fail?

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    How do we repent from that? And ask for forgiveness. And then get back to continuing that practice. You know, encouraging the spiritual disciplines in our ecclesias. Not legalizing them. As we talked about, these are spiritual blessings. But making it a part of our ecclesial practice. And in our community, we love study days.

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    And we love prophecy days. And they're very encouraging. And they build up. And we don't want to go away from those. That's not what I'm saying here. But why not working in a practicing the way of Jesus day? And I wonder what would a lecture, what kind of a response would you get if your title was something like, how to bless those who curse you?

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    I wonder how the world would respond to a seminar or a lecture on a topic like that. I don't know. It's just something to think about.

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    And in our community, you know, we have great magazines. And I've noticed particularly the tidings doing an excellent job of making discipleship a priority. So here are just some titles that that I noticed, like life after baptism, understanding anxiety, encouraging one another, you know, building that character. And we heard a couple nights ago about the CBMA and the CBMC and how one of their jobs is to develop character in those ecclesias that are developing in these distant places.

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    And so our community has this responsibility as well of teaching them to observe all things I have commanded them. So that's my number one call to you. We need you to be doing these things.

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    We need you to be a non -anxious presence in this world. Now I'm fully aware that anxiety exists on a spectrum. And there is anxiety that is

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    debilitating, that it requires professional intervention. I don't want to, you know, deny that in any way. And I hope that although it's not a cure, but maybe it's a part of a variety of measures to help people, that perhaps creating time and space and infusing these spiritual practices of reading and memorization and solitude are something that can help in some way.

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    But also that maybe being around people who are non -anxious might also be a help. But what I'm talking about in this section is about those anxieties that are manageable. Okay? So I just want to be clear about that, that I do understand. I have family members, I have students who do have debilitating anxiety.

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    And that's not where I'm going with this section. But if you could turn to Matthew chapter 6. And here we have the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, all these wonderful teachings of Jesus. And then he takes time from verse 25 to 34 to talk about worry. Why does he take so much space?

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    I never calculated how much percentage of his words this is. But it's a large section where he talks about do not worry. So in verse 25, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

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    Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Verse 27, Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? Verse 28, So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

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    Verse 31, Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? And then verse 34, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Why is he emphasizing the fact that we need to be people who don't worry about these things?

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    Well, let's begin thinking about this by asking this question. What happens when you walk into a room? We all know what happens when other people walk into the room. Maybe at work.

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    Maybe in your ecclesia. I know at work there are some people who walk into the room and your stress level goes up. Or you have to walk on eggshells because you're afraid of, you have to be careful of everything you say and what you might do. Or they walk into the room and you feel like you disappear because you're just not important.

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    But I also know people in our ecclesia and at work, when they walk into the room, there's a sense of peace. There's a sense of joy. Or you feel noticed. You feel important when they walk into the room. What happens when you walk into the room? Now we may not think about that and you may have to ask somebody else.

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    Or just be aware of it. But I think one of the reasons Jesus is asking us to not be anxious, do not worry, is so that when we walk into a room, people will feel that sense of peace. That we will be an example. If you could turn earlier into Matthew chapter 5.

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    I think this could be an application of what we read from verse 13 to 16. It says, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world.

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    A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

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    We need to be that non -anxious presence. If we're as anxious as everyone else, if we're running towards the cliff like everybody else, how can we be a help to anyone?

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    You know, the person running away from the cliff, there's some saying that says the person running away from the crowd, away from the cliff, looks like they're insane. But it's the sane ones. We need to be the ones who are sane, who have a hope. We have a picture of what's coming, something that solves all the world's problems.

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    And we have to exhibit that. So in the time of Jesus, there was lots of reasons to be anxious. I know that the writing's a bit small here. Let me read through it. I'm sure, well, there were daily needs, food, just getting food for the day, clothing. There was disease. There was injury.

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    There was a lack of medical care. There was brutal taxation, Roman rulers, religious demands. There was factions, the zealots, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians. There was pressures to conform to the Greek culture, all the gods, and the Greek lifestyle.

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    There's lots of reasons to be anxious. And the next time you go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and you're observing your teacher, your master, watch how he handled all the anxieties of that society. We live in a very anxious world. I was going through a bookstore and I saw this book. It said, The Uninhabitable Earth, Life After Warming.

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    You may not be able to see it. I'll read the titles of the chapters. Elements of Chaos, Heat Death, Hunger, Drowning, Wildfire, Disasters, No Longer Natural, Fresh Water Drain, Dying Oceans, Unbreathable Air, Plagues of Warming, Economic Collapse, Climate Conflict, A nice nighttime read. The first line in the book is, it's much, much worse than you think.

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    And this is just environmentally what people are worrying about. You think about all the other things, gun violence, wars, AI, the economy. we know that there's been books written about the anxious generation. Our world needs us to be a non -anxious presence. We have something that speaks to all these things and gives people a hope in a hopeless world.

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    People who are constantly trying to bring, either intentionally or unintentionally, trying to bring anxiety into Jesus' life. And quite often when somebody tries to bring anxiety into your life, it's calling for the works of the flesh to come out. We want you to become angry or envious or jealous. And that's what that, we want you to buy things.

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    They bring this anxiety. People were trying to bring anxiety into Jesus' life all the time. When the Samaritan village rejected Jesus, the disciples were upset. And they said, you want us to bring fire down on them. And Jesus rebuked them. Watch how he handles anxiety. You do not know of what spirit you are.

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    We did not come to destroy men, but to save them. Somebody's healing in your name. Get anxious about it. He that is not against us is with us. They're trying to rattle his cage and things, and he's just not letting it happen. People are wondering if you're going to pay taxes. Basically, he was saying, we don't have to, because we're sons of the king, our God, but we will.

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    Why are you eating with those people? He responded with, I came to save these people. Why aren't your disciples fasting? Herod wants to kill you. He always had a non -anxious response.

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    And what were they actually saying? Well, what about your pride? You know, they're not listening to you. Somebody's healing in your name. What about your popularity? He's going to take some of your people away. You're not fazed by it. People are wondering if you're going to pay taxes. Oh, what about your integrity?

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    Why are you eating with those people? What about your reputation and who you hang out with? He wasn't fazed. Why aren't your disciples fasting? You know, what about your image? You're a rabbi. What's going on here? Herod wants to kill you. What about your life? And once again, a non -anxious presence.

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    On the other hand, Jesus was doing wonderful things in society. And doing those wonderful things brought anxiety into other people's lives. And sometimes that anxiety brought out the works of the flesh. So when he healed a mute man, they made up lies about him. Oh, he's with Beelzebub.

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    When he healed a man with a withered hand, they plotted how to destroy him. When his head was anointed, people became indignant. You know, that money could have been spent other places.

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    When he taught that salvation was to the Gentiles too, that brought anxiety into the people's lives, the Jews' lives. And so it turned to wrath and violence.

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    And I think this was mentioned in the first class, which unfortunately I haven't been able to hear. But when they were in that boat, and there's this terrible storm, it would have been a very anxious situation. And there's Jesus, asleep, that non -anxious presence. And they said to him, don't you even care that we are perishing?

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    Can you imagine saying that to Jesus? Don't you care that we're going to die? Of course he cared. They had no idea how much he cared. They had no idea that he was going to go to the cross, become obedient to death because he cared about their lives so much. And it's just a warning.

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    When you are a non -anxious presence in this world, people are going to think you don't care. Because you're supposed to get angry about this issue. And you're supposed to feel hate because of this. And you're supposed to react. And if you ever get that, your message should be, you don't have any idea how much I care about these things.

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    But I'm following a master who has the solution, not to one problem, but to all the problems. And I hope you'll listen to me teach you about it. But please don't misinterpret my non -anxious presence as not caring. And I'd be amiss if I didn't say real quickly that Jesus does bring healthy anxiety into people's lives.

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    I've always thought it'd be really nice to have just 15 minutes to sit down and talk to Jesus. But the more I think of it, the more I realize he would hopefully say some good things like he did to those ecclesias and revelation. Hey, you're doing this well, John. And you're doing this okay.

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    But boy, this has to change. You need to repent. But that's the kind of anxiety that can bring about change. And so he does bring healthy anxiety. He challenges you in the right direction.

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    So we need you to be a non -anxious presence. And to close this week off, we need you to produce fruit. So I want you to think, as you leave this place and you go back into your lives, what does success look like?

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    If you don't mind turning to Matthew chapter 7, because Jesus speaks about success quite a bit. And he speaks about it as fruit, whether you produce fruit or whether you don't produce fruit. So let's look at Matthew chapter 7. And we'll start at verse 15.

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    Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

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    Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. So there's these bookends. You will know them by their fruits. By their fruits, you will know them. And he seems to be belaboring this point. He says, you don't get grapes from thorn bushes.

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    And then he says it again. You don't get figs from thistles. Okay, we get it. A good tree bears good fruit. Emphasizing it. A bad tree bears bad fruit. And then he goes on more. A good tree can't bear bad fruit. And a bad tree can't bear good fruit. Why is he over and over and over?

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    And then he says, if a tree doesn't have fruit, it's going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. There's this emphasis on fruit. And he talks about it in other places. In Mark 11, there's the fig tree that's cursed because it had no fruit. In Luke 13, verses 6 through 9, there's a tree that does not bear fruit.

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    But, hey, let's give it a year. Let's fertilize it. Let's give it an opportunity. And if it doesn't bear fruit, we'll cut it down. In Luke 6, a parallel version to what we read in Matthew, it says, it adds some detail. It says, a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good.

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    And an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

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    So he uses the word good twice. There's a good tree, and that's the Greek word agathos. And it means a good constitution or nature. And we've talked about that, that we can't just have rules. We need to change our character. We've been called to be transformed. You know, that inward transformation. And so if we do that, that good tree will bear kalos.

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    And in the concordance, it uses these words to describe what good is. It's beautiful. It's handsome. It's excellent. Eminent. Choice. Surpassing. Precious. Useful. Suitable. Commendable. Admirable. So in our lives as individuals, we need to be bearing. We need to be a good tree that bears good fruit. Our ecclesias should be defined by these words.

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    You know, useful and precious. Commendable. Surpassing. Excellent. Our families should be good families. He talks about bad trees. The bad in the tree is sapros. It means rotten or putrefied. There's something inside that's wrong. And then the fruit is poneros. Meaning, and think about this, in the context of your life or your family or an ecclesia full of labors, annoyances, hardships, pressed and harassed by labors, bringing toils, annoyances, and perils.

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    And you think about the Pharisees at that time. And how they brought hardship into people's lives. How they devoured widows' houses. We can't be like that. And so we're called to bear fruit.

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    If we continue on in Matthew chapter 7, there's people who come to Jesus and they say, it says verse 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. He who does the will of my Father in heaven.

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    And these people say, what? We've prophesied in your name. And we cast out demons in your name. And we've done many wonders in your name.

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    And he says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. But he who does the will of my Father. What is the will of our Father? Well, you can do just a simple little study where that term comes up, the will of my Father. And it's quite interesting, the things that come up.

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    I'm sorry this is so small. But it says, those who are not conformed to this world, but are transformed by the renewing of your mind, are doing the will of our Father. Those who see the Son and believe in him are doing the will of the Father. It says, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

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    Your sanctification is doing the will of my Father. In everything, giving thanks is the will of our Father. By doing good, you're doing the will of my Father. That we believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, is doing the will of the Father. Interesting that those people didn't say, but we were transforming our hearts.

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    And we were believing in you. And we were sanctifying ourselves, and we were giving thanks, and we were doing good. They didn't say that. There's nothing, I couldn't find anything, that said the will of our Father is prophesying, casting out demons, and doing many wonders. Now, I put an asterisk beside prophesying, because prophesying can mean teaching.

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    But in this context, I think they were doing something for show. And Jesus is saying, that's not what I'm looking... If you do those things, and think that's transforming yourself, and following me, I never knew you. You're just following lawlessness. You're doing your own thing. And so we have to make sure we are doing the will of our Heavenly Father.

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    And then Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount, which He then says in the end of Matthew 28, that we are to make disciples, go into all the world, and baptize them, and teach them to follow these commands. And He says,

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    And so we need you. As you leave this place and you go back into your lives, please remember we need you as individuals and as ecclesias and as a community to teach these things. Remember that we need you to be a non -anxious presence in this world so that people will look to you and see your example and want to know about it so that you can glorify our Heavenly Father.

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    So just to close, we're going to turn to John chapter 15. And I'm going to close with the words of Jesus. But just as review, we've talked about practices and disciplines, how they can help us to live the commands of Jesus, that they can lead to an easier yoke, a lighter life, a life of peace, that there's an importance of bearing much fruit to actually living these things, and that by through them, our Father is glorified.

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     So let me close with John 15. I'm going to start at verse 1 and go to verse 8. This is our Master speaking. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may be more fruitful.

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     You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.

102. 42:41

     For without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

103. 43:02

     By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. We'll see you back in the morning. That you are special. I love you,