 Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome to a new session. Let's just begin this time with the word of prayer Divya, can you please lead us in prayer? How about Japhina? Can you please lead us? Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day and for the new things that we are about, like the Lagrangian that we are about to have. Can I pray for everyone who is right here? I pray that you open our hearts and open our minds and minds as we listen to every verse that are past this day. Let that enter in our heart. Let us believe on that and let us apply it in our life and shine bright as much as we can so that people who look at us can look into Jesus and they can get saved. I pray that you be with us, guide us through this whole section. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you Japhina. Okay, so last week we did something important. We studied about sowing, watering and reaping. We looked at these three aspects that are very important. We looked at how sowing, watering and reaping, all three of them are equally important when we look at it in the body of Christ. So Paul also says that to the Corinthians. He says, I sowed Apollo s water but God made it grow. He also mentions that to the Corinthians stating that because of this, that one person sowed another person watered, we should avoid divisions among ourselves. So we looked at the whole aspect of sowing, watering and reaping. We also looked at something else after that. Once we have reaped the benefits or once we are seeing the outcome of the ministry or whatever we are doing in our lives, it is very important to consolidate. To consolidate simply means to strengthen what we have and we looked at a few examples on how last week, the Azusa Street revival, how this wonderful revivalist, William J. Seymour started with about 10, 12 people. God sent a revival. Thousands of people, 10,000, 15,000 every day would attend church services. Everything was going good but he missed out on one thing. He did not consolidate, which means he did not strengthen what he had. He could have built teams, bigger teams, taught them, trained them, empowered them but we see the downfall of the Azusa Street revival that at the end of the whole revival there were only about 10 or 12 people left in the church. So just as how sowing, watering and reaping is important, to consolidate, to strengthen what we have is very important and then we put that whole thing into context for our own lives. We may be sowing and watering ourselves or even in our church community as leaders, we may be serving in different areas. Very important, consolidate, strengthen. If you have teams, go ahead and strengthen them, lead them, train them. If you don't have teams, if you're on the leadership team, find people, find people who will be willing to serve, identify leaders and make teams so that you're strengthening what you have. So this week we will look at chapter 12, which is nurturing a new believer. Right? Now we looked at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 that says, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation, all things have passed away, all things become new. But now maybe there are some new folks or people, new believers who have come into the church or small groups or you have personally led them to the Lord. Now it's very important to disciple them and many of us may have heard the word disciple. The Lord Jesus had 12 disciples. Right? So we will look today at nurturing or discipling these new believers. We cannot be at a place where we say, okay, I've shared the gospel with them. He's accepted Christ, so I'm done. I've done my job or my responsibility is done. No. God is calling us to raise disciples. Remember what Jesus said in the commission, go and make disciples. Right? Not go and make believers, go and make disciples who will, you know, build the kingdom of God. So let's look at a few aspects. Now, you've got a new believer. The first thing that we have to do is teach the truth of God's word. Now, remember, we looked at this from the beginning itself, the power of God's word. Right? When we are nurturing new young believers, teach them the word of God. Yes, we can show them sermons and give them songs and worship songs. All of that is part of it. But our foundation in building and nurturing in discipleship is the word of God. Right? Teaching the word of God cannot be put aside when we are nurturing a new believer. Now, for example, we've got a new believer in the church. We need to use wisdom. Right? We cannot say, okay, it's a new believer. I'm going to teach him the word of God. We can't take out, you know, the book of revelations and say, come on, we're going to learn eschatology, the end times. This young man or woman would, you know, be totally confused. You won't know what's happening. Paul writes to his church in the Corinth and he says, feed first, give them the milk of the word of God. As infants, you give them the milk. So what do you do? You teach them the foundational truths. Teach them about the Holy Spirit. You teach them about God, the love of God, praise and worship, you know, simple topics. You pick up on that. Then you slowly move from there to teaching them about what a baptism or the Holy Spirit baptism. Teach them about the Lord's table. What is the communion? Why do we celebrate it? What does it signify? And so you're building this believer from step to step, precept on precept, line upon line. Right? So you're not, we're not, you know, confusing them with all of these, you know, great theologies, but you're starting off small. Right? You're starting off with the basics. Now, one of the things that we have in APC is they have a book called foundations where what we do is if somebody is new to Christ, we encourage them to read the book. And if they also have questions or they want somebody to teach them, they're free to call one of the pastoral teams. And then we go through the entire book with them. Just probably half an hour whenever they are free. And we sit and we teach them. Why is this important? Because we are teaching them the foundations of the word of God. Now we must understand that they don't know about, you know, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Trinity. They may not understand it. Right? They may not understand the love of God. They may not understand, you know, how Jesus walked, like, you know, He walked on the Serb, the miracles. It may take time for them. Right? Another book that we also, this was from 2011, 2012. We used to start teaching these books to new believers who would come to our church. And that is laying the ax to the root. And I think even when you joined, we started off with laying the ax to the root. Right? And so these are foundational truths, but they are powerful truths. Right? So very important. Teach from the word of God. Right? Now, what happens is sometimes we think, okay, we've got this person to believe in Jesus. And we may forget about how to, you know, we may always give examples and talk about our lives or talk about other people's life, other minister's life, testimonies, which is all good. But we should not forget what is the most important thing. Right? The truth of the word of God. I remember this one time I was encouraging this young man in church. He's just come from a different background, but he, you know, he still has a lot of questions and I was telling him about, you know, the book foundations. Why don't you read? And he said, I don't like to read. I'm not a good reader. And so I told him, okay, I will sit with you. I will teach you when are you free. So he would come at 9 30 in the morning on Sundays. 10 o'clock was our service started. So he would come 9 30 and we would sit in one corner and I would just go through the foundations book with him for half an hour. And so in nurturing a new believer, there will be times we will have to step out of our comfort zone, especially those of you who are in the leadership team or pastors, you know, that, you know, we have to step out. And so this is very important. Teach God's word. Paul is writing to Timothy. He says, preach the word in season out of season, whether people like it or whether people don't like it. Preach the word. Right? I'm reminded of so many verses. Paul again says, I've not come to baptize, but to preach the word. Right? So it is the word when we minister to new believers, we give them the word of God. Remember, the word of God is powerful. It is able to impact what you and I are doing is we are laying a strong foundation for their lives. Right? So they're building on the foundation of God's word. That's a powerful thing to do. Secondly, as you are teaching them the word of God, encourage them and train them in spiritual disciplines. Now, what are spiritual disciplines? Personal time and prayer. Right? Now, as a believer, now, we all spend time in prayer. We all spend our personal time reading the word, praying. I'm sure most of us do that in the mornings when we wake up. Now, it's also important to train the new believers to do that. Right? The importance of having the personal time because what happens, the danger could be, okay, pastor's not available or this person is not available to teach me. And so they may feel that, okay, I, you know, I don't have to, I have to wait. There'll be complete dependency on the pastors, on the leaders. Now, that should not be so. So what we should do is, we need to train them. We should tell them, hey, you know, we can go back to God. We need to read the word of God. The word of God, you ask the Holy Spirit to, you know, to bring meaning to the word of God, to teach, to guide. And so you encourage them to read the word. Right? One of the things we do is if somebody is new to our church or even if they're new to the faith, we give them a Bible, especially a New Testament and tell them, begin to start reading, begin to spend time in prayer. Maybe they don't, you know, they don't know how to pray. But then, and the first point, you're teaching them on the word of God, you're teaching them, hey, when you are praying, you're just speaking to God, you're pouring out your heart to God. And so training them in personal time of prayer is very important. Teach them. Then personal reading of the word of God. Go back and you encourage them and tell them, hey, you know, they would have read the word of God. You tell them, you know, why don't you, you know, read the book of John and you can ask me whatever question you have. You can probably email or message me, ask me, and then we can discuss. Right? Another thing, one of the things that I've noticed is that a lot of young believers, those who just come to the Lord, they're very excited. They want to do so much, which is good. But that excitement or that zeal should not make us, you know, take wrong decisions. So the reason I say this was because even when I became a believer, I started off reading the Old Testament and I was wondering what is happening here. And I didn't realize what was happening. It was all going above my head. And then I realized, hey, I got to learn from something that is, you know, more easily understandable and then looked into the New Testament. So when you are nurturing a new believer, you show them, you know, guide them. Hey, why don't you read this? You know, they may say, I want to do this. You say, okay, there'll come a time. These are the basic truths. You learn this, then you go from step to step. Right? So personal reading of God's word. Now, here's another important thing. As we are ministering to others, we ourselves must be prepared in the Word of God, which means what? You know, the Word of God is wisdom. Right? A lot of times people may ask us questions. The new believers, the people who are discipling may ask us questions. And we need to give them the right answers. We need the wisdom of God. Right? And so we ourselves need to be strong in the Word of God. Right? We need to at least know how the basics of the Word of God, the fundamental truths of God's Word, and we need to spend time in our personal time and prayer. So again, our ministry is an outflow of our personal work with God. Right? Then we talk to them about godly living, Monday to Friday, Monday to Saturday, if they are living a life that is sinful. But on Sunday, they're there in church. Now, you will find plenty of those, these kinds of people, right, who Monday to Saturday, they do everything wrong. But on Sunday, they're at church. Now, very important, do not mock them, do not ridicule them. Maybe they're still searching, maybe they're still looking, they're still not, you know, they're still looking for God. And so, do not mock them or ridicule them. Give them opportunities, speak into their life, speak the Word of God into their life, give them time. But you stress on the importance of Godly living. What you can do, you can just pick up a few verses. You can talk about how God has called us and he says, we are the temple of God, and we need to keep this temple holy. And we can also pick up on how God is saying, be holy for I am holy. And what is holiness? What is righteousness? What is justification? How does repentance work? How we can overcome temptations, overcome sin? So these aspects teach them. You know, a lot of young people in our church, I know that they are still into bad habits. But I keep talking to them, I keep encouraging, I keep telling them, hey, you can overcome, you're trying it by yourself, look to the Holy Spirit. But what I do appreciate in them is they are there for a 10 o'clock service, they are there at 9.30, they clean the church, they do everything, they set up the chairs, everything, and they're there. I really appreciate that. They have a heart for God, but they're just finding it difficult in certain areas in their life. And so even as we disciple people, there will be times they will fall, they will fail, they may come and share it with you, hey, you know what, I did this wrong. Don't say, oh man, I've been teaching you for the past one year, how can you fail in such a small thing? Now, remember that we also are not perfect, right? God is changing us. We also are working, are a work in progress. So be patient with them, you know, encourage them. It's not easy, but encourage them, tell them, hey, I've also failed in those certain areas. And this is how God helped me. This is how, you know, when I was praying in my personal time, I read the word, these are the verses that minister to me. These are the songs that minister to me. These are the sermons that I heard and these ministered to me. So the wrong thing to do would be to, you know, to get upset and say, hey, I've been wasting my time one year and I don't see any fruit in this person. No, that's why we say when we are leading people, ministering to people, they are not projects, they are people, right? And people make mistakes. So be patient with them. Let me give you this example. This young man is in our church, he's probably about 21 years old, 21, 22 years old. He's doing his medical, he's in medical college now and he was near to church and he came and a couple of Sundays later I got to speak to him and he told me this whole story. He had joined a seminary and he loves the Lord and he wanted to be like a pastor. So he joined this Bible college and this Bible college was kind of a very strict Bible college, right? They were very strict. They wouldn't allow phones, they wouldn't allow going out too much and they wouldn't allow outside too much of the worldly interference, at least for those three years course. And then after that they send them out as pastors and ministers and evangelists and all of that. So he was saying that usually in these Bible colleges, they have mentors. So you got one mentor and that mentor will have two or three people under him or maybe even one. So what happened was, it was his brother's birthday. This young man, he had bought a phone which was fully, the phone was fully packed and sealed and he had bought the phone thinking that the following week he will be visiting his home. So he would want to gift his brother this phone. And so he bought the phone, he kept it in his drawer and the day went on. Somehow his mentors or the people around got to know that there was a phone and so they came, they barged into his room, opened his drawers, they took the phone, they said, you're living a worldly life, you are using phones, you're not interested in God's word, you're not interested in the ministry, but you've just come here to waste time. And he was saying that if the phone is sealed, I've not used it, I'm going to give it to, as a gift to another, to my brother. And they got very upset with him, no, you've been using it, how long will it take to seal it and all these things. And eventually, a very sad story, they asked him to leave the seminary. They said that you will never be in the ministry and all of that. And so for about a year or so, he was completely dejected. And then after a year, he, you know, he joined the medical college. So he came from another state, he came to Mangalore, he's doing his second year right now. And I heard that story and I said, how, how are words, how are actions can affect a person's life? He was saying that, you know, he almost wanted to, you know, just leave Christianity. But it was only because of his mother and his parents who pray, prayerful people helped him to, you know, forgive the people who went against him. But now he has no ambition to join the ministry. You know, he just said, okay, let's come and serve. So even as we disciple people, we need to teach them in the right ways. Right. We need to be patient with them. We cannot enforce ourselves, enforce our rules. We are not raising up, you know, people to look just like us. But we are raising up people to look like Jesus. Right. So I remember telling this young man, you know, not everyone are the same. We need to, good that you forgave the, you know, the leaders and all of that. But God is calling you, God's call is on your life. Don't run away from it. I still encourage him. I keep talking to him. But you see what happens when we don't give the right advice, when we don't nurture the people in the right way. Right. Godly living is important. But we also give them the time, give them the space, give them, you know, not everyone, once you become a believer, doesn't mean that everything is going to be easy. You know, they will fail. Paul is writing to the Romans and he's saying, Romans 12 too, he says, these are believers in the church. He's saying, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why is he writing that to the believers? Why is he saying, telling the believers, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed. They're inner man, their spirit is new. They are new people in their spirit. But their thinking is still of the flesh. They're conforming themselves to the world. So Paul is writing and he's saying, do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So this transforming of the renewing of the mind does not happen by the click of a button. It takes time. It takes disciplines. It takes teaching. It takes mentoring. It takes, you know, spending quality time in the Word and in God's presence. Some of the other things that we can train up in spiritual disciplines is repentance, spiritual authority. As believers, we teach them, new believers, we teach them, hey, when we sin, when we repent of our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins. I know plenty of people, plenty of stories have heard where, you know, they come to this place of guilt and now guilt is a dangerous place, right? Because we feel that nobody can change what is happening. You know, guilt is dangerous. So we need to, you know, not allow people to get into guilt. There are people who fall into this feeling of guilt and they cannot come out of it, which eventually leads them to suicide or depression and all these things. The worst that really, that's really powerful. I remember sharing with this with a young man. I told him, therefore, there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Once you become a believer, once you accept Jesus as your personal savior, we will sin. We may sin, but when we are when we ask for forgiveness and we repent of our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, right? And so remember, we can teach them these things, right? Spiritual authority, the authority that God has given us, authority over the enemy, authority over the things of the flesh. So you teach them that. Then another thing we can do is connect them with Christian fellowships. Now, this is again, very important. If you have life groups, cell groups in your church, connect them, right? Now, remember, a new believer may not know people in church, especially if you've got a bigger setting, maybe 200 or 300 people in a church and you got one or two new believers, they will feel out of place eventually, right? So they will need a smaller setting to be more comfortable. So connect them to local, you know, life groups, connect them to, you know, smaller settings, youth meetings, or, you know, church camps, smaller settings, right? Where they can, you know, express themselves, where they will be able to, you know, ask questions. Now, the best place would be, you know, Bible study groups or cell groups, life groups, because there is a place where they can, you know, really ask questions, clarify doubts, you know, be free in, you know, asking questions and all of this. So connect them to a cell group, right? Connect them to Christian fellowships. Another thing that you can do is provide them Bible study tools, provide them, you know, give them probably links to some good Bible studies. Now we have a lot of podcasts that are up or up in online, so podcasts or you can send them YouTube links and sermons and so many things. So connect them, have them get connected to the body of Christ within the community itself, right? And then once they are connected, you equip them to serve, right? So first you teach God's Word, you train them to have their personal time, you know, and Godly living, connect them to groups within the church, and then equip them to serve, right? So it's not only doing all these three, but we equip them to serve, that they may go out and find people and minister to people. Serving in the local church is very important. And we've got many, many teams here on EPC where a lot of young people serve and, you know, many places, there's weekend schools, there's workshops, mission teams, many places, and so in your setting, in your local church, maybe it's a smaller church, a smaller setting, you train them. Hey, why don't you, even if it's a meager task, train them. You know, this is just a couple of weeks back, a couple of students came, new students, but they were, you know, good believers, they've been believers for a long time. They came to church the first Sunday, they came, then they came the next Sunday, then I said, okay, I need to get them involved in church. So I just told them, hey, why don't you come and help us in the PPT. So I just, you know, just train them half an hour, you know, this is how the lyrics come up, and then you put the songs in, and then once the, you know, these are the announcements, these are the, the sermon PPT. So accordingly, you just have to just click the button. And so now, I just got two extra people who can help in the serving team. Now they are so happy, wow, we're getting to serve in the church. There's another team who comes early in the morning, and they open the church, they, you know, clean the place up, set the chairs, they put the air fresheners, keep it ready. Then there's another two people who come, and they, you know, put all the speakers are all set, but they, you know, they make sure that the guitar is plugged and the keyboard is plugged and everything. So you've got people to serve. So encourage them. Don't feel that, okay, this is, you know, this has nothing to do with the Bible. It's all right. If you have books, and there's a book table, you ask them to serve. Let them start small. Let them learn the value of starting small. It's nothing wrong in starting small. It's good when God takes you through stages in life. I'll just say one thing that happened to me, and I always remember this, and I always thank God for this. I think it was 2010. I was, you know, I used to attend church once in a while, and I would look at this worship team. I used to sit on the, you know, the balcony, and I used to, we had a, we had a church in the main church. It had, you know, it was in a school auditorium. So I used to look at the, I used to sit in the balcony, and I used to look at the worship team. It's something. Yeah, so look at the worship team. I used to wonder, you know, Nicholson is here, he's part of the worship team for many years. I used to wonder how these guys are playing so well, you know. It's all so synchronized, and, you know, I was just in awe of, I wasn't really, like, worshiping God, you know, but I was just so in awe of these musicians, and I was thinking to myself, how are they doing this? How is it that they are sounding so good? Now remember, one day, as I was in the church, God very clearly telling me, you will lead worship one day in this place. I thought to myself, how is that possible? And I just had, I knew maybe about five or six chords and not a good guitarist, never sang on stage, very shy. But, you know, just as time passed on, you know, I joined, I was looking for a Bible college and, you know, got into APC Bible college, and then graduated and all of it. It was, I think the year 2017, right? Where, you know, there was a need, and the, I think the youth had gone for a youth camp, and so nobody was there on a Sunday. And so our worship pastor asked me, can you lead in this church? I was very nervous. I said, oh no, I can't lead. You know, it's the big church, and they're all so good. But I remember the Holy Spirit reminding me and saying, this is your moment. Take it. This is your moment. So 2010, God spoke to me, 2017, January. I remember that January, I think January 15. It was the first Sunday that I led in this big church, and I stood there on the stage and I looked up on that balcony and I talked to myself, God is so faithful. Seven years later, I get the opportunity to, you know, of course, there was the whole thing of practice and, you know, I used to watch videos, learn from them, ask the guitarists, how do you, you know, how do you play this chord, or how do you do this, and learn from others, watch others, learn others. What I'm trying to get at is, that seven years, I was willing to do the smallest thing within the church, right? Whatever it was. There was a time I used to carry the water cans, and then there was book table, I stood there, and then the FTV, first time visitors, every smallest thing. So what I'm trying to say is usually, you know, when people are new believers, sometimes they are very talented and they want immediately to be put on stage. It happens. Give them the smallest responsibility. Let them be faithful in the small things, then God will open doors for the bigger things, right? So take them through stage, equip them. During the process, equip them, tell them, right? These are the opportunities, but for now you do this, right? You serve here, it's okay, right? It's a small thing, it's okay. Nobody's going to pat you on the back and say, well done, you cleaned the chairs, well, nobody's going to do that. There will come a time, as you equip them, as you teach them to serve in the smallest of areas, when you get to the pulpit, you will say it's not because of our abilities, but it's because God has given that opportunity, right? Same thing happened to me when preaching, you know, many years back, I was listening to Pastor Sermon and saying, Pastor, God just said, one day you will preach the Holy Spirit's minister to me. I thought, how will I preach? And, you know, these are all wonderful people, like, you know, they're all so well equipped and how will I preach the word of God? And it happened, 2018 March was the first sermon that I preached in church, in ABC. It was not in the main church, but one of the other locations. So what I'm trying to get at is when you're nurturing, equipping people, give them the small things. Don't feel in your heart, oh, this is too small a task. This person knows guitar, he's been playing for 10 years. How can I give him the book table? It's all right. Give him the book table. It's all right. Let him feel, you know, let him or her feel, you know, small. It's all right, but you encourage them. You tell them, hey, you're serving, whatever you're serving, you're serving God. Like, whether it's on the stage or whether it's off the stage, you're serving God. So that way, you're equipping the person to serve, then equipping them to, you know, be only on the stage, a heart to serve. Now, is that okay? Everyone okay? You're following along, you're tracking along. Right? Okay. Let's look at being a disciple maker. How did Jesus disciple his people? Right? How did Jesus disciple? Let's read Mark chapter 3, 13 to 15. Mark chapter 3, 13 to 15. Can I read? Yes, please go ahead. Okay. Mark chapter 3 was 13 to 15. Jesus went upon a mountainside and called to him those he wanted and they came to him. He appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Divya. So here we see Jesus has just started, he's launched out on his ministry and he appoints 12 people. He selects 12 of them. Right? So one important process in disciple making is identifying people who are willing to serve. Jesus, what does he do? He appoints 12 of them and he calls them to himself and he says to them and he went of, was 14 and he ordained the 12 that they should be with him. Right? And that he and that he might send them forth to preach. Now, first thing, he calls them. He selects 12 people. Right? So in the process of disciple making, recognize, identify and recognize good leaders. Right? Now, you may be a leader already in the church or you may be a pastor, we're just serving in the church. What you can do is identify people. Now, if you're already in a team, you're serving in a team in the church and you know that, hey, you know what? This person is good at, you know, media and, you know, creative things. So what you can do is you can go to your team leader and say, hey, you know what this young man or this young girl, this person is really good at this. So maybe we can use him. Why don't you talk to him and see if he's willing to serve? So you are identifying people. You're raising up leaders. Right? So another example would be if you're a pastor and you see somebody in the church, just you see and, you know, God just, you see that, okay, this person is, he can serve in some places. Right? So you talk to him. You go and you say, hey, these are the areas that, you know, we need volunteers. Would you like to serve? They say, yes, go ahead and give them opportunities. Right? In the process of disciple making, the person you choose is very important because now if you choose somebody who's very casual about church, casual about, you know, ministry or the approach of ministry. Now when I say casual, let me give you an example. Church starts at 10 o'clock and this person is, you've selected, you know, as a leader and he comes every Sunday at 10, 20. Now, you know, something's wrong. You know that, hey, he knows church starts at 10. Sunday. Now one off thing, it's okay, you know, okay, there was traffic or something. All right. But every Sunday, if he's coming at 10, 20, me personally, I would not choose him as a leader. Why? Because I would, maybe he's, he knows a lot in the Word of God. Maybe he's very good in worship or he's very good in ministering to people. But I cannot choose him as a leader because people are watching. I need to ensure that my, the people that I choose, the people that I lead should have certain responsibilities, right? Certain tasks should be done the right way. You've got to be here by 955, 10 o'clock service. You're a leader. You lead by example. So, so when we choose people, be wise in the way we choose them. Now there will be times you will choose somebody and along the way they may say, I don't want to serve. That's all right. It's their free will, right? If they want to just move away. That's all right. But you've done your part in, you know, selecting and choosing, identifying people to serve in God's kingdom. Two, what did he tell them? He told them to be with him. So he heard them. He saw them. The disciples saw what Jesus was, right? Wherever Jesus went, morning to evening probably, he was there with them. The disciples were there. They saw Jesus's life. They saw that Jesus was a man who was able to work miracles. They saw, they were the ones who took the five loaves of bread and two fish, right? They were the ones who wrote about it, said, Hey, we were there. John writes and he says, we are eyewitnesses. We are not talking something that we have heard and read. No, we are eyewitnesses to what we have seen, right? So the, as a leader, Jesus didn't say, okay, all you people, you know, you're all unholy, don't come near me. You didn't do all that, right? He just behaved normal and he let people see his life. I always say this to, you know, to remind myself also, people will forget the sermons that we have preached, but they will not forget the walk that we have walked. They will not forget our life. For example, if we do something, if in a certain area we have failed or in a certain area we're really good at ministry, they may, they will remember that, but they may not remember all the sermons that they've preached, right? So when you are training up people, discipling people, let them see your life. Let them know that, hey, you know, this is how it is. Even we fall at times, but we rise up, we stand up again because of God's grace. We are not super spiritual. We are not the great leaders who nobody should touch. No, we're all the same. We're all on level ground, right? Another thing, he personally taught the disciples beyond what he taught the crowds. So for example, the parable of the sower, right? He teaches this to the crowds and then the disciples ask, what does that mean? And so Jesus teaches the disciples, right? He imparts truth. He imparts knowledge to them, right? So there will be times we cannot, you know, we're nurturing people. We can preach on a Sunday or a Bible study and all that. There will be times they may not understand. So what we can do is, we can ask them, hey, did you understand Sunday's message? What spoke to you? Or did you understand the Bible study that we went to? Do you have any questions? Do you have any thoughts? And so you're spending that additional time equipping them, right? He corrected and rebuked them, which means what? He dealt with their character. The word character is fascinating. Character is who we are when nobody is watching, right? Character is who we are when nobody is watching. When people are watching, we can be all kinds of things, whatever we want to be. But our true character is who we are when nobody's watching. Now Jesus, what he said to them, remember this? Jesus is ready. He's saying, he's telling the disciples, hey, I'm going to die. I'm going to rise up again. I'm going to go to heaven. The brothers are fighting. Who's going to get your left place and the right place, right? He corrected them. He rebuked them. He said it's not about that. It's not about the position. You're fighting for the position. You need to deal with the character there. What about Peter? Peter's saying, Jesus is resurrected. He's come. He's met with the disciples. And even after that, Jesus is telling Peter, you will die. You will stretch out your hands and die. Then Peter's asking, what about John? So what am I trying to get at? Our character is very important. He rebuked. He corrected them. There will be times as leaders, you will have to bring correction. And as you grow in the Lord, as you become mature in the Lord, we, God will teach us how to correct in love. Just the last week, a young family, this young boy in our church, he apparently is going through some problem and he likes a girl from a different faith and the parents are very worried saying, see what he's doing. We raised him up as Christians, as believers. And now he likes a girl from another faith. Please talk to him. He's a very good boy, very honest, very young, and it's a very good boy, good character. But we know that we have to connect him. So I had to sit with him and tell him why this is not right and how it's going to affect your life. And so we had a long discussion. So there will be times you will, especially as leaders, you will have to correct, you will have to rebuke and it's only for their benefit. Remember what the psalmist writes, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So there are times the shepherd uses the staff where he pulls the sheep back to its fold. There are times the shepherd uses the rod where he, you know, he literally beats the sheep, where the sheep remembers, okay, I need to get back into the fold. So Jesus did that, corrected, he rebuked them. So as a leader, even Apostle Paul, he did that. He says that to the Galatians, to the Corinthians, he's telling them, hey, Galatians, what is the matter with you? We came, we shared the word, we preached the truth and now you're saying we want to get circumcised. What is, what is, what is happening? And so he rebuked them, calling them foolish Galatians. To the Corinth, to the church in Corinth, he says, you people, because Paul, because I came, because Apollos came later and then Cephas came later, and then you've got divisions within the church. You're saying one likes Paul, one likes Apostle, one likes Apollos, what is happening? And so he rebukes them, he corrects them, but he corrected them in love. The letters look strong, but it is all out of love. Then he challenged them, right? He told his disciples, hey, you know, remember the whole event where Jesus made twos and he sent all of them and then they came back saying, hey, even the demons are listening to us. Jesus tells them, he challenges them, he says, don't be happy only about this, but be happy that the kingdom of God is at hand. So challenge them, encourage your people that you're speaking to. There will be people in your, young people, young believers who maybe they know a little bit of music, encourage them. They may feel maybe like me, not a good guitarist, don't think that I'll be able to play in such a big setting. Encourage them, tell them, hey, you can, you practice, take time, don't look at the now, look at the future, two years from now maybe you'll be good enough to play, right? And so you encourage, you challenge them, build them up. Then he sent them out on assignments. He said, go and make disciples, whatever you have learned, whatever you have learned from me, whatever I have taught you, go out and teach the people, right? This is how Jesus made disciples. In the early church as well Acts 2 42 to 47 talks about how they, they did breaking of the bread, they taught the word, they ministered to people. Even the great apostle Paul did that, he trained and discipled Timothy. Timothy was a young man, probably about 17 years old. He joins Paul in his second missionary journey. And we look at it, Timothy, John's Paul and Silas in just before Ephesus. Now picture this, Paul and Silas are, you know, they are quite matured and they've gone through certain difficulties and challenges. Now this young man, Timothy is joining them and he's looking at Paul and Silas. He's looking at what is happening. The way Paul is preaching the word, the way Silas is there and the way they are, you know, working miracles, they are not afraid of people, they're going into temples, they're going into the streets, they're preaching the Word of God, demons are being manifested, sick people are being healed. Paul, Timothy is watching all of this. In one place, Timothy somehow escaped but Paul and Silas got caught. Later on, Timothy comes to meet with them and so in the end of his life, Paul is writing Second Timothy 2 and verse 2. Let's read that. You know, we've gone run out of time but just quickly. Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 2, maybe I'll just read it quickly. And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others as well. So Paul is saying, hey Timothy, you were a young boy. Now you have seen me for, it's been about seven to eight years, you've seen me in my ministry. Now whatever you've seen me preaching and teaching to the people, you go and commit yourself and commit faithful men, raise up leaders, raise up faithful men who will be willing to go and do what we were able to do. Which means what? Paul is writing his last letter. He's in jail. He knows that debt is going to come. The debt notice is going to come. Anytime. This is his last letter. Second Timothy and he's writing and he's saying, Paul, Timothy, I finished the race. I'm going to go now but for the work to continue, you need to commit to raising up many more leaders. What I have taught you among the people in the places that we have gone, go and teach it to other people, raising up leaders and building up the kingdom of God. So it's very important as believers, as ministers of God, as we are raising up other believers, your believers, these are the things we must do. And there is a lot of material online, on disciple making. You can go online, plenty of, you'll find plenty and plenty of Bible study tools and material on discipleship making. So you can go ahead and refer those for your personal study as well. All right, so let's close today. Any questions, any thoughts? Anything you'd like to share? Any questions? Okay. So let's just close in prayer. And yeah, Divya, can you please lead us, close us in prayer? Sure, Pastor. I just wanted to ask whether APC also has these discipleship? Yeah. Thank you, Divya, for the question. Yes, we do have. So when we have new believers coming into the church, the first thing we do is we take them through the book called The Foundations. So The Foundations has all the basic topics. You can download that on from the website itself. So you've got God's word, you've got praise and worship, water baptism, faith, love, and all these simple topics. So we take them through that. And then the very important thing we do is we connect them to a life group. We have something called as life groups, which meet across the city. So we connect them there. And yes, we also have something called as the, we have a lot of teams within the church where, so we probably wait for about three months, if they've been regular for three months in the church, we give them an opportunity to serve. We have a form where they can fill up and say, okay, I want to serve in this area of the church. It could be sound and set up or children's church or any other team. So yes, we do follow most of these things. Yes, we have even weekend schools where we pick up topics and teach on that, evangelism, missions. So we get them all connected. The reason we give a three month period is because sometimes, they become a new believer and they may want that three months. They may be searching, sometimes they would prefer their mother tongue church, like their preferred language. Sometimes they will be looking out for other churches as well, maybe the distance to home. And so there will be church timings. So these things are there. So they were well adjusted in three months. After three months, we give them an opportunity to serve. Now, if we are in a smaller setting, probably just a month, like for example, in Mangalore, we have just about 50 to 60 people. So just maybe about two or three Sundays, and then I just give them an opportunity to serve. Okay, Bester, thank you so much. All right. Yeah, let's close. Yeah, sure. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for this beautiful session, Father Lord, as to how to disciple, to nurture, Lord believers. We thank you, Lord, for all the opportunities, Lord, that you have given us, Lord, to learn, to use these resources available to Lord, even when we read your word, Father Lord, to help us understand how Jesus has discipled, Father, how Paul discipled, Father Lord. Yes, Lord, we pray, Father, maybe use these biblical principles, Father Lord, that we may be able to not only share the gospel, Father, but also Lord, to nurture them in this work with you, Lord. You help us, Father, give us enough burden, Father, for others. I pray, Father, help us care enough, Father Lord, that these people, Father, who have a Lord accepted you in your times, Father Lord, to put their trust, Father, and walk with you, Lord. Help us have that burden in our hearts, Lord, to lead them and guide them, Father Lord, in practical ways, Father. Thank you for, Pastor Paul, Father, bless him immensely, Father Lord. Thank you, Father, for every testimony shared, every word shared, Lord, from your scriptures, Father, you empower and continue to equip him, Father Lord. I pray for each and every student here, Father, bless him, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, in Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Divya. Thank you, everyone, for joining. Have a wonderful week ahead. God bless. Let us see you now. Bye.