Discover the Jesus pattern and how to apply it to your life part 11

Welcome to episode 140, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 140. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to start to try to pull all this Jesus pattern together, and I'm going to start in Joel. And we're— we have— I don't think we've ever talked about the minor prophet or the book of Joel, so we're going to go to Joel 2:23. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For he has given you the former rain faithfully, and he will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. Now we've already talked about Acts, how it was the beginning of the church after Jesus had ascended, and he said, wait. In chapter 1 of Acts, he said, wait until you've been endued with power. And then in Acts 2, see the coming of the Holy Spirit, and we see Peter stepping out and becoming the Apostle Peter. And if you read Acts, it kind of goes through how it goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the world. And that's exactly what Jesus said how it was going to happen. He said he— we would be witnesses to Jesus in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And if you think about it, that's kind of what you and I are called to do We are— Jerusalem would be maybe our family, the people that are just like us, maybe our close, close friends. That could be our Jerusalem, the people that know us and like us. Judea could be similar. It could be like our neighbors. It can be people in our town, maybe in our state, the people that we have something associated with. Like if you're an LSU fan, like down here everybody, just about everybody's an LSU fan, or a Texas A&M fan or a Texas— you know, we're down here, there's even Alabama fans here in Louisiana. But you know, you, you kind of get around people that are similar. That maybe be your Judea. That is the people that, you know, that you, that you like be hanging around with, you associate with, you've got a lot of things in common. That's probably Judea. Now Samaria are people— and if you remember, the Samaritans were the people that the Jews and the Samaritans, they fought against each other. These are the people you probably don't like. These are the people, if I had to point 'em out on my day-to-day drive, it would be everybody that makes me angry when I'm driving. And you know how I am with my driving. And I'm getting better, I'm getting better. But Samaria and the Samaritans are people that we don't agree with. This is based on, and it's usually probably based on, Lifestyle or tightly held beliefs, maybe the way you were brought up. Maybe you were brought up Democrat, or maybe you were brought up Republican or conservative or liberal. And the way that you see things, the prism that you see things through your life— if, say, if you're liberal and you look at everything maybe from a left slant or a liberal slant or prism, and everything, your filter, everything goes through that filter you're gonna have a harder time getting along with someone that's conservative, and everything that they look at, everything they do through life, their filter they run everything through is more from the conservative or on the right-hand side. So you're coming at two totally opposite areas or two totally opposite ways of looking at life, and that's the third that we're to witness to, and then the last person are the last people that we are to witness to are the people at the end of the earth, the people that you probably don't, can't even speak the same language. You probably have no idea their customs. You have no idea how they go about their life. There's no way, there's nothing that you could even associate with that, you know, at least if here in United States, you know what a liberal for the most part, or a conservative, you kinda sorta, even if you're not in that camp, you kinda sorta know what they stand for, or some of the things, their hangups, or some of the things, their strongholds, some of the things that they really truly believe in, where they plant their flag. The people at the end of the earth, and maybe some of the people that are listening to this podcast, you're at a different place in a totally different time zone, totally different continent, possibly totally different season. If you're on the bottom side of the equator, You're in winter right now. If you're down under in, say, Australia, there you're experiencing winter. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but see, here in America it's summer. I mean, someone's done mashed the hell button here in Louisiana. I mean, it is 95 to 100 degrees just about every day, probably from now until August, September. So we're right in the middle of summer. In fact, I think A few days ago was the last— was the first day of summer, so it was the longest day of the year, which if you're underneath, if you're down under, under on the south of the— you're south of the equator, you're experiencing the shortest period or the shortest day, and that's winter because you're further away from the sun just based on— and I don't even want to start talking about or chasing that rabbit, but the axis on how the Earth is tilted and that determines our season. So again, a wonderful God put all this together, and he's put it all together for you and I. And then he said, hey, you're going to start with the people you know, then the people you kind of sort of know, then the people that you probably don't like, and then the people that you don't have any idea about. And that is how you're going to witness— you're going to be a witness to me. And so Many of us have not witnessed to our Jerusalem, and so we can't— and if you have not witnessed to the people that know you and like you and that you're closely associated with, then how are you going to be able to witness to anybody that doesn't like you? In my mind, why would you even attempt until you got good enough, until you saw with your own eyes what worked and what doesn't work? Your family and your friends are kind of your testing grounds. And this kind of reminds me of Romans 12:2 at the end of it, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I think there's a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I think the good is just to witness to people in Jerusalem. If you have not witnessed to your friends and family, then why would God give you people on the other end of the earth? What makes you think that you're going to be a great witness to people in Japan or people in France or people in Australia? Why would you feel like you need to go to South America or to Mexico to witness to someone if you haven't witnessed to everyone in your family? And it's just a thought. I mean, that may be the good, and then the acceptable would be maybe the people in your company or in your business or in your zip code, or in your Facebook group, or whoever, wherever it is that you're around people that know you and like you and, and are closely associated with you. And then maybe then go to some of the people that you don't really get along with that well, and it says to pray for those that spitefully use you. And then you start taking it to that next level where you start seeing people through God's eyes, and that we're all children, we're all his kids, and that it doesn't really matter what they think, because we're all kind of semi-screwed up. I mean, I know I am. I know I don't have all this figured out, so I'm not claiming to have it all figured out. I do know I land on the conservative side. I land on the patriotic side. I land on the I love my flag side. And I think— and I don't understand when people don't, but you know, that's their own thing. And everybody comes into life with different experiences and different things that happen to them. And so when we can start seeing people for being people, and then seeing that there is a spirit realm and there are other forces and other entities that have shaped and made people into the people they are, and so we need to break free of all of that mess. And I don't even want to go on that tangent, but there is a former, which is the early church, and I think the latter reign, which is this end of the age time. I think this is the latter reign, and I think there's places in the world now where God is pouring out his Spirit, and I think that people are coming to Christ in record numbers, and I think that we need to get into that flow. I think we need to start getting into and helping people find Jesus, and we need to start like yesterday. So I just want to encourage you, that's the whole reason for this Jesus Pattern. I want us to start thinking about and praying about who we can witness to and who that we can help bring into God's Kingdom because I think our time is short. Again, I tell you, I think that we're one day closer today than we were yesterday of Jesus' return. And so that— we need to get a sense of urgency and maybe it's going to be 50 years from now, maybe it'll be 500 years from now, Maybe it'll be 50 days or 50 minutes. I don't know when Jesus is coming back, but I know he's coming back. And so I want to be prepared, and I want to help you be prepared. And so I just want to say that, look, there was an early church and then there's a later church, and I think— I'm quite confident we're in the later church. We are in the latter part of the rain, I believe, right before the final harvest. So we can enter into that and we can start helping do God's kingdom. We're going to— in tomorrow's episode, the final episode, we're going to talk about how we're going to conclude all this, and we're going to have our little list. I'm actually going to have a list of the 5 or 6 things that I believe in the Jesus pattern and how we can appropriate that to our lives. But right now, let's pray. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this episode. I thank you for the pattern. I thank you for the former and the latter rain. God, I thank you for the early church, and I thank you for the church right now. I pray that you would strengthen us that you would empower us and you would encourage us through your word and through your Holy Spirit to start getting into the harvest field. Lord, you say the laborers are few. I pray the Lord of the Harvest to send more laborers. God, we thank you, we love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

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