The Evidence of Discipleship

We explore the profound meaning of loving your neighbor, as commanded in Leviticus 19:18. This isn't a new concept, but a timeless directive from God since the Exodus, guiding our interactions and relationships.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The question has been asked thatif you were arrested and brought
before a judge on charges of being a Christian, would there
be enough evidence to convict you?
Today on Church Talk, we're going to talk about the evidence
of discipleship. All right, welcome back, folks.

(00:32):
We are here for another episode of Church Talk.
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No, I hadn't. You hadn't heard about it at
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(00:54):
Yeah, there was this guy I heardabout.
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(01:18):
But I heard about this guy that went to a Pentecostal church
this weekend and said the pastorcame up to him, noticed he was
in a wheelchair. He said you will walk this
weekend. Amen.
And he's like, I'm crippled, he said, he said.

(01:46):
But the the pastor was insistent.
He said you will walk this weekend.
He got to his parking spot and his truck was stolen.
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(04:38):
Keep the comments coming like share, subscribe.
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All righty. Well, we will.
I want to jump into the topic for today.
We're going to be talking about discipleship and we're going to

(05:00):
be going to the Book of John, chapter 13.
John 1334 and 35 says a new commandment.
I give unto you that you love one another, as I have loved you
that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

(05:23):
All right, so the initial evidence of discipleship is love
one for another. So what do you think this means?
Well, it has to mean that once you're a disciple, you will
never have conflict. You'll just walk around in love

(05:44):
and perfect harmony. No disagreement.
None, none. No one will ever cross me.
No, not a disciple. No one will ever disagree with
me. If that's what this means.
We're all in big trouble indeed.No, I think it is extremely

(06:05):
important to understand that if if I am going to love, well then
there will be times that I must disagree and I must be disagreed
with, right? The Bible talks about telling

(06:28):
the truth in love. The Bible puts a huge premium on
truth. And.
So truth is more important than feelings.
Truth is more important than ourbeliefs about things.

(06:53):
Truth is more important than anything else.
And Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says this is 14 and 15.
He says, Be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind and doctrine by the sleight of men,

(07:13):
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth, it does say, speaking the truth and
love. But for the sake of this segment
of the conversation, we must. We are commanded to speak the
truth, and the truth hurts sometimes.

(07:37):
There's one particular podcasterout there that made the phrase
famous. Facts don't care about your
feelings. Facts don't care about your
feelings. But we should.
Yes, that's good. The ministry should God does.

(07:58):
He does care. The Bible says that he cares
about the feelings of our infirmities.
It's not just, you know, a emotionless God, but he is a God
that cares about how we feel about things, how he cares about
how we feel about what we're going through.

(08:21):
And I believe that is in all three dimensions of the human
experience, body, soul, and spirit.
God cares about what you're doing with emotionally,
spiritually, and physically. He cares about how you feel
about it. And I believe as the people of
God, and especially as the ministry, we should have

(08:42):
compassion and empathy and care and love.
One for another. One for another, but also
understanding that sometimes in order to in order to get someone
well, it takes difficult conversations.

(09:08):
Yes. In order to get someone out of a
mindset that is damaging them, you have to be willing to have a
conversation that is going to hurt in the interim, but it's

(09:28):
going to be healing in the long term.
But we are, we, we do live in a society that is very, very
adverse to any kind of, you know, you know, we have our safe
spaces on college campuses and, you know, remember the trend

(09:49):
back several years ago where they were in the safety pins.
Yeah. This is a safe space, you know.
Well, The thing is, is, you know, my heart may be that I
don't want to say anything to hurt you or do anything to hurt
you. But the reality is, is that if

(10:11):
we don't build into our lives the ability to handle emotional
stress and distress, even physical pain, we're going to
get run over by life. We will, and that's a lot of I

(10:35):
mean, you watch the an onset of this deal with Charlie Kirk.
His videos are everywhere and you watch people who are like
just falling apart at the fact that somebody has disagreed with
them and is just saying something that they just don't
like. Yeah, You know, it got to the
place where someone is, is got to the place in their mind that

(11:02):
they believe that I should be able to kill somebody because of
what they say. And it's a very, very dangerous
place to get to be. And it's a it's a example of
someone who is extremely weak emotionally, right, Very
emotionally fragile. Man, I grew up in South

(11:27):
Mississippi and we weren't allowed to be emotionally
fragile. We were, you know, when we, you
know, our, our parents built into our life experience that,
you know, life is hard and you cannot fall apart over every

(11:48):
little thing that is said to youor done to you.
You just suck it up and move on.And and so you know that is that
is true in in one sense, but also there I think to everything
there is a balance. And so we don't just speak the

(12:10):
truth with an air of sarcasm or.Sure, sure.
Anger or frustration because youknow, well, it's the truth
anyway. Well, it is the truth.
But I am commanded in that same breath that says for me to
preach the truth, I have to preach it in love, right?

(12:32):
And I love and shout out to Kingdom speak.
But I I love how brother Daniel Mckillop put this.
I heard him years ago say that his father, who has preached in
this church before, in fact, Brother Mckillop's preached in
this church before. In fact, he's going to be here

(12:54):
preaching for the Ocala Youth Conference, spring break, March
19th and 20th. Another plug.
Put it on your calendar. Come be with us.
Brother Bishop Copeland and Brother Daniel Mckillop will be
with us. But he talked about how his
father made this statement yearsago.

(13:15):
The Word of God is A2 edged sword and it doesn't need a
third edge from me. That's good.
Like, yeah, sometimes we can getpretty edgy with the way we
present, yeah. Put an edge of scorn into that

(13:36):
and feeling like what we have ishas to be beat over somebody's
head just because it's truth. Well, you know, the word of God
is supposed to be sharp enough to cut.
It's supposed to be so sharp like a surgical scalpel that it

(13:59):
doesn't do so much damage. It doesn't do so much damage
that you that the healing process is takes too long,
right. You know, that's sometimes
surgery has to happen, but I I need a doctor that's going to

(14:20):
use the sharpest tool in his at his disposal to do the cutting,
remove what is foreign and then sew me up so I have my best
chance of a quick healing process.
So, so when we are, you know, dealing with people or teaching,

(14:43):
preaching, teaching Bible studies, soul winning, dealing
with people within the church, our we may have to have strong
and direct conversations. Those are necessary,
unavoidable. I mean you you think about when

(15:04):
Jesus said in the book of John that if your brother has aught
against you, you go to them and you deal with it.
You confront the situation. But the way you confront the
situation is important. He said you go to them and and
fix the issue in a spirit of meekness.

(15:27):
Also, you know, the Bible does not tell us to overlook people
that are taken in a fault. If you see your brother
overtaken in a fault, confrontation needs to happen.
Truth needs to be told. But the way it's done is another
evidence for discipleship. But I'm going to somebody and

(15:50):
I'm just, I can't believe what you did, He said.
You go to them in a spirit of meekness.
Why? Lest you be overtaken in a
fault. Yeah, one because.
However you deal with others is how you're going to be dealt
with once it's your turn. Because what's the old song?

(16:12):
We fall down. Yes, we get up.
Thank you, brother. Donnie, Yeah.
A St. is just a Sinner who has fell down, but it's got back up
again. Yeah.
And I like the way that that is talked about it, it being in a
spirit of meekness because it's bringing the fruit of the spirit
into the matter. And I think it's significant

(16:36):
that the fact that the list of the fruit of the spirit start at
the bookends are love and self-control.
It is everything that we're doing and in between.
You can't have meekness without love and and without a little
bit of self-control implied. And all of the fruit of the
Spirit work in the parameters oflove and self-control, about
controlling ourselves, loving people enough to control

(16:59):
ourselves, having some temperament.
And through love, meekness can happen.
Yeah. That's very good, very good.
You know it's it's real easy when you're passionate about

(17:21):
something to forget the love aspect.
Yeah, yes, passion can. I think we've talked about this
before in conversation, and I think you preached on it about
misplaced the zeal, being so zealous or something that it

(17:42):
kind of pulls you, pulls the wrong stuff out of you.
You forget that you're dealing with people that have feelings.
Yeah, you're dealing with eternal souls.
You know, the old saying, sticksand stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me. Everybody knows that is such a

(18:02):
lie, you know? And so they're, we're, we're,
we're trying to. And God knows that I do not have
this down, but I'm working on it.
We're trying to, you know, ride this seesaw of truth and.
Yeah. Truth and love.

(18:24):
And you know, Paul talks about in his letter to Timothy that
the man of God was not supposed to be a striker.
A striker comes from the Greek word, I think it's pronounced

(18:47):
plectis. Plectis, but it is basically.
It basically means pugnacious orquarrelsome, someone who was
eager to eager to argue. Known a few pugnacious folks.

(19:08):
I thought that was a dog. Turns out, Yeah.
And you know, I think in Greek tradition, it it was much that
way in the time that Paul would have been writing there.
There they had the idea where wejust pound our ideas into your

(19:34):
head until you changed our way of thinking.
And that is that is not the way Paul said that Christ ministry
should behave. They should.
They should present present the gospel in a way that makes
people thirsty for it. You.

(19:54):
Know it's it's like the difference between trying to
force a horse to drink water andtaking a horse to a stream
that's irresistible you know it's like trying to make a horse

(20:14):
drink from a muddy pond versus taking him to a.
A beautiful stream that's got running fresh cold water that
and even if you even if you justtook a drink that looks
appetizing. And so I think, I think we
should try through love to present the word of God, not in

(20:36):
trying to pound our way of thinking into people's heads,
but presenting it in a way that is enticing.
Yeah, speaking the truth in love.
Speaking the truth in love. It's like, you know, you can
wrestle that dog into the floor trying to shove that peel down

(20:58):
its throat, or you can wrap it and bake it and they'll take it
willingly. You know it Same.
You know, the the medicine. They they're getting the
medicine either way. Yeah, right.
You know, but you know, the medicine after the medicine, the
dog either hates you or loves you, you know, by the way you,

(21:22):
you packaged it. And you know, I think that the
word of God should be presented very directly and honestly, but
also the people that you are presenting to, whether this is a

(21:43):
congregation or a home Bible study, or you're whether you're
in a full time ministry setting or a home Bible study, soul
winter type of setting. Your success rate is going to be
whether you are striking or you're packaging what you're

(22:04):
trying to teach in a way that isappetizing.
Yeah. And it also can't be something
that you have to manipulate people and the thinking as if
the truth can't stand on its own, but you have to be sly
about putting it in. It can be presented very plain
and very bluntly and very. It can be appealing as well and

(22:29):
stand on its own. Well, I think, I think what
we're really getting at is that we know.
We know we are a disciple of Jesus.
The evidence is in our motives. Rights and motives are hard to
discern, but we have to. We have to check our our heart

(22:55):
constantly to make sure that ourmotives hadn't gotten off.
Why? Why am I doing what I'm doing?
Why am I saying what I'm saying?Am I preaching the gospel out of
love or contention? Sure, yeah.

(23:16):
Am I using my separation from the world as a basis to judge
others, or am I using my lifestyle as a way to glorify
him and to love him? I, you know, I believe that, you
know, our, our separation shouldbe done not in a way if it's

(23:39):
done in judgment, it's, it's themotive is off.
It's done in a way that, you know, it's a superiority thing,
then it's done with the wrong motive separation.
Everything that we do for God has to be due because we want to
please Him, not because we're trying to seem like we're better

(24:04):
than anybody else. So I talking about motives I
thought it came to my mind on I was reading in John 13 where we
have Peter. They're sitting around at the
table at the Last Supper. And Peter asked Jesus, hey, who
is the who's the one that's going to betray?
And they want to know. And everybody is I want to know.

(24:26):
And Peter turns to John. He's like, hey, who, who's he
going to betray? Who's going to betray him?
Can you tell us? And John leans over to Jesus
that who is it Lord? And Jesus privately tells John,
it's the one who dips in the bread with me.
He said, hey, watching, watching, you'll see, you'll
know It's Judas John, you're going to know.

(24:47):
And I feel like, you know, John and Peter had some beef.
And there's, you see it through through the book of John.
There's this competition betweenthem.
And not to say that Peter's motives are wrong, but we see
John's motives were right when he finds out who the betrayer
was. And he says nothing about it.
He says if Jesus won't tell, I won't tell.

(25:09):
If Jesus isn't going to shame him, I'm not going to shame him.
Jesus will love him. I'm going to love him.
And and I'm going to, I'm going to keep my motives pure and
right because I could say something and I could react out
of anger and not love. But if Jesus loves them enough
to keep it right, I do too. Yeah, that is that is something
about that is something about disciples of Jesus that is

(25:33):
really not present in any other group on earth.
We see this and you, you referenced Charlie Kirk earlier,
but a lot of people had something to say about, you know
what Donald Trump said in his memorial service?
He said Charlie loved his enemies, right?

(25:57):
He said I don't, I hate my enemies.
And Trump, Trump just has a way of saying things that you know
nobody else is willing to say. But that is a that is a hallmark
of the Christian faith. It's really not president
present anywhere else. And that is Jesus told us, if

(26:23):
you want people to know that you're mine, love your enemies.
Yes. Pray for them that despitefully
use you and persecute you. Right.
No other group does that. Well, that's the test of
motives. You can be nice to an enemy and
have their own motives, but the right motives will pray for

(26:45):
them. Yeah, so I mean, you can only,
you can only do that if you loveGod.
Yeah, that's right. I want to just tell you
something, man. You can.
You can dress modestly, you can dress separate from the world,
you can look different from the world and all that kind of stuff
and not love God, right. But you can't pray for your your

(27:08):
enemies and not love God. You can't pray for those that
persecute you and not love God. That is the real test of
discipleship is that when somebody is taking me to task
and despitefully using me and persecuting me, can I pray for

(27:32):
them? And I, you know, I'm asking
myself that question right now. You know, I'm a red blooded
American man. It's a it's a challenge, but I
want to believe that I can. I want to believe that, you

(27:53):
know, when it came to it, when it comes to it, that I could do
that and not, you know, I feel like I've had in my short 34
years of living, I feel like I've had instances where I've
had to, you know, I want the wayI respond and the way I want

(28:19):
want to respond are two different things.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that's where Jesus
does his job of making it prettyclear in Scripture.
He gives us the first commandment and he says this is
a command. Here we are.
The Lord of God is 1 Lord and hegives us another command and
that is love your you love your neighbors as yourself.

(28:41):
He didn't leave it up to anything.
He said this is a command. Yes, that you want to know this
is what you must do. Yeah.
And you know what's amazing about that?
That is a that is something thatis, you know, I feel like that
much of the modern Christian world or much of people that

(29:02):
look at Christianity Today wouldsay that that is a New Testament
commandment and it's not. And that's what makes Bible
believing people set apart from anyone else.
Is that from from all the way from the book of Leviticus?

(29:24):
God's people have been commandedto love their neighbor, neighbor
as themselves. Leviticus 19 and 18.
Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children
of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
I am the Lord, so this is not a sloppy agape New Testament idea.

(29:49):
Yeah, right. This is something that God has
commanded and demanded out of his people since the beginning,
since he brought them out of outof Egyptian bondage and gave
them the law, He said. This is on these hang all the
law and prophets. You know, there's one God and

(30:17):
you got to love people. And so, you know, I really, I
really feel like we need to be making a greater effort as the
body of Christ and especially inthis local church for every
member of the Ocala Church that listens to this podcast.

(30:42):
If our community is going to know that we are his disciples.
Yes, we're separate from the world.
Yes, we preach the truth. Yes, we we believe the Apostolic
message doctrine of the apostlesand prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone.
We believe all of those things. At the end of the day, the real

(31:03):
evidence that we are His is thatwe have love one for another,
that we are willing to show compassion and empathy and care
and long-suffering and kindness towards one another when it
seems there is no benefit for usin return.

(31:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's The thing is people are always in it
for how is it going to benefit me?
And sometimes we get caught by the the farce of, well, I'm
doing it because, well, it won'tbenefit me now, but it will
benefit me later because this isgoing to turn and they're going
to favour me and they're going to be friends with me.

(31:46):
They may never like you. They may hate you forever.
You may know they're going to hate you forever, but you do it
anyways out of love. You know, they're the
commandment of love was just love.
Expect nothing in return, just love.
Even if, I mean even if it's notjust that you're not receiving
anything in return, but even if you're receiving evil in return.

(32:09):
First, John 311 John said. For this is the message that he
heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not
as Cain, who was of the wicked one and slew his brother.

(32:30):
Wherefore and wherefore slew he him because his own works were
evil and his brothers were righteous.
So the Bible says that Cain's Cain slew his brother because he
was of the wicked. 1 And when we're willing to tear our

(32:54):
brothers and sisters in Christ down, for whatever reason, we're
revealing who are who we are of So are we of the wicked one, or
are we of God? I believe that if there's ever
been an hour, we are so close tothe return of Jesus Christ that

(33:15):
we have got to get rid of the critical spirit that has tried
to get a hold of too much of ourmovement and begin to love when
it love one another regardless. Regardless, love one another
enough to believe that they lovethe truth as much as we do.

(33:36):
Yes, yes. You'll never go wrong airing on
the side of love, Yeah? And you know there are going to
be some Judas's. Oh yeah.
But man, if Jesus don't expose them.
We don't need to. Either you know, you know, it's

(34:00):
it's it's it's not my job to. And just because somebody asks
you to, Peter asked John to, andhe didn't.
Yeah, don't get caught up in that.
Yeah, yeah. So I guess we'll, we'll end this
discussion this way and then I'll have, I will have more

(34:25):
notes on this than we have time to discuss.
But just suffice it to that to say that the Bible's full of the
topic of love. But, and maybe we'll come back
to it and discuss it in more detail in the future.

(34:47):
But I want, I want my community,when they look at us, to have no
doubt that we are his disciples.Yes.
Because the evidence is there. Yes.
I don't want them to have to guess.
Yes. You know, and I, I want that to
be in every way, the, the thingsthat we stand for as the church

(35:11):
and our separation from the world and the, you know, the
fundamental things that make us Pentecostal or Apostolic
believers, doctrines of the apostles and prophets, modesty,
you know, all of those things. But also really with all of

(35:35):
that, I want what people, when people look at us, their
testimony about the church is that those people love each
other. Yes.
They don't have to know if they can just look and see.
Those people really, really careabout each other.
Yes, and so I, I was at a a meeting years ago, brother Mark

(36:03):
Morgan was preaching and he talked about, he preached from
Hebrews 12 and 29 and then Hebrews 13 one and two.
Hebrews 12 and 29 is the last verse.

(36:24):
Hebrews 12 going into chapter 13verses one and two.
These scriptures are written in sequence.
If if there's not a break in thechapter, you would read this in
in sequence and the the Scripture says for our God is a
consuming fire. Verse one of the next chapter

(36:50):
continuing continuing on says let brotherly love continue.
Verse 2 says Be not forgetful toentertain strangers, for thereby
some have entertained angels unawares, and he says between
fire and angels is brotherly. Love.
Wow, that's incredible. I really believe that the key to

(37:16):
the kind of demonstration of God's power fire of the Holy
Ghost, angelic activity in the church is brotherly love.
So in conclusion, let's love each other, and let's let the

(37:39):
evidence of discipleship speak for itself.
Musicians come.