Discipleship and the Spirit Filled Life as Christ’s Bride — Santosh Poonen

Hearing the Eternal Word of Christ

It's good to seek the Lord for everything we do. Father, I lean on you. Lord, we lean on you. Whether it's me speaking or the others listening, whatever we do, Lord, even our listening is not something we can do in our own strength.

We ask you to give us ears to hear what the Spirit has to say. We don't want to just hear the earthly words. We don't want to just hear something temporary that won't change our lives for eternity. Lord, we want an eternal work.

We want to hear an eternal word that doesn't come from any man, but the word that comes from you, Lord Jesus. Faith comes from hearing the word of Jesus, the word of Christ. Lord, I pray that we will hear that word afresh this morning.

Thank you. Thank you especially for our children, Lord, and as we seek to impress these truths, especially on their hearts, but for all of us, that you will do it, Lord. We recognize our incapability even as parents.

I pray our children also will learn from a young age that the Christian life is not something they can live in their own strength, but that they will learn to lean on you from beginning to end. You are the beginning and the end of everything.

May they know that. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, children, we're going to do a little bit of a revision. I'll hopefully finish the rest of my thoughts on what I started sharing last Sunday, and we were talking about laying a foundation for eternal life.

Humanity’s Need for Eternal Life

We talked about two tracks, two paths, one that we are born into. We didn't choose it. We were born into it, and it's just like a cow was born a cow and didn't have anything to do with it, will die a cow.

A dog that's born a dog will always be a dog. I mean, if you have a dog at home, do you expect that someday you come home and find out the dog's actually a cat now? No, you never hear of such a thing or any other animal like that, and we human beings by birth are exactly the same.

We will always be human beings until the end of our lives, unless God being powerful, infinite, and the eternal God can take something inside of us that makes us human beings and changes us to be something eternal.

And God never did that for any of the other of creation. He doesn't say, dogs, you can have my spirit within you. Cows, you can have my spirit within you. Even the angels who were pure, and he created the angels just like he created the rest of the world.

He created the angels before that, and he has never made a way for the angels to partake of his divine nature. Okay, leave aside the bad angels who became the devil and all his demons. What about all the good angels who didn't fall away with the rest of the angels who fell away?

Don't you think they watch God working in us and think, oh, I wish I could have had that chance? I think they do. At least I use my imagination to think they do. They see the work of salvation so beautifully.

I don't think they know the end and all that. They read God's word. They see God in there, in his presence, and they know he's going to work it all out. But don't you think that they see that here we were created beings just like they are, and just like the dogs and the cats and the cows and plants and everything, and of all of creation that was on this track and was forever going to be on this track, he said, Santosh, and put your name there, human beings, I'm going to pick you as the only ones I'm going to allow to be on this track, to be moved to this track.

I hope in my taking time to explain it that way, you think, Lord, I better not waste this chance. Angels long to look, we read. They long. The old prophets in the Old Testament, everybody, all those men and women of faith in the Old Testament longed to see what we see.

Children, you know that there are children who lived 3 ,000, 4 ,000 years ago that would have loved to be sitting at our LCF and hearing the things we're hearing. Oh, they would have said, you kids, you don't know how fortunate and blessed you are to hear this and to know it, that you know Jesus.

They would have given anything. So let's not neglect it. The book of Hebrews says, let us not neglect this great salvation. Don't be careless with it. So some child tell me, I want to say one more thing about this, these two tracks before we get into, so if you have a few minutes, remember what we talked about.

These are the three blocks we talked about so far. But before that, these two tracks, I would say there's one characteristic that differentiates, that is the difference between this track and the other track.

The track that all of creation is forever going to be bound in. Human beings who remain on this track will always remain that. They won't have the eternal life of God in them. But the distinguishing factor, what's different between these two is this.

I look at it like this, is if you look at their eyes, not their physical eyes, but the eyes of their heart. And so children, again, I'm trying to speak especially to you all this morning. If you want to know, how do I know whether I've really gone from this track to this track?

And if the children can get it, hopefully us adults can also know, have I really come to this side? Children, the reason this is important for us in this church is because we don't want you, as I said last week, to get to be 30, 40, 50, 60 years old, sitting in a church meeting, attending a church every Sunday and thinking somehow you're on this track when you're not.

If you've really received Christ and the spirit of Christ dwells in you, I'm not, that's wonderful. But if you're not sure, if you're on the fence and you think I'm just sitting in the church meeting or I'm in a church where we, in a home where we read the Bible and we pray and all that, that's not going to put you on this track.

It must be something you choose to receive. But the difference very simply is this, is where are the eyes of your heart? What does that mean actually? What do you spend a lot of your time thinking about during the day?

What are you most interested in? The book of Colossians, maybe children you can turn there with me. To me this is the key difference between the two tracks, Colossians chapter 3. The eyes of your heart, you read about that in Ephesians chapter 3 also, but the eyes of your heart is essentially, I think of it like the affection of your heart.

What do you love deep down, deep in your heart children? What is it that you're most interested in? Is it winning the game that you're going to have this week or getting an A in the class test that you have this week or being popular with your friends?

All of those things are an indication. If that's what you're most interested in, then it means that you're still on this whole track. It's okay to do well, it's okay to succeed and it's good that you work hard, but fundamentally deep down, deep down, if you look at it, you take away everything else, what are you most interested in children?

This is what we must be interested in. Colossians 3 verse 1, if you have been raised up with Christ, if you have been moved from this track to the other track, if you are born again, if you have been raised up with Christ, the proof of that is that you will keep seeking the things above.

That means what you're most interested in at the end of the day is something heavenly. Okay, maybe you failed in your test, work a little harder next time, young boy, young girl, but keep seeking things in heaven.

Don't lose out on the things in heaven. Okay, maybe you lost that game that you were trying so hard to win, that's okay, keep seeking things above. So what's changed deep down in the root at the bottom of it all, what should have changed if you are a child of God, if you're born again, is that everybody that's on this track, whether it's dog, cat, cow, horse, pig, human being, they're seeking things on this earth.

The characteristic of all of the rest of creation is their head is down. You watch dogs, you watch chickens, you watch, you know, we have a few of those, and you watch pigs, always down, down, something here.

And I think if the angels could take a picture of human beings, they would say the same thing. Look at human beings, they're always down. How can I win this game? How can I get a little bit more money?

How can I, this, how can I have more friends? My eye is down, down, down, down, down. You see how, if that's how you live your life, you're no different than the pig, and the dog, and the cat, and the chicken, always looking.

There's something here, scratch that, scratch that, there, there, got a little bit of seed, okay, scratch that a little bit more. The dog's always digging something here, something downward. But the moment you're born again, the moment God puts you on this track, your vision is lifted upward, like we said.

Lift your vision, see things above. Yeah, if I get something here, that's fine. I'll work a little harder, but my eye is there. That's the difference, children. So what does that mean? Throughout the day, when you're sitting in class, or you're doing homeschool at home, or you're playing a game with your friends, constantly remind yourself, hey, okay, they scored a goal, or it looks like I might be losing, or something else happened, I'm a little sick today, that's okay.

I don't want to lose sight of my vision. I'm on this track now. Everything I'm ultimately interested in is a little bit here, that's okay. But at the end of the day, I'm interested in something heavenly.

That's how you know that you've been moved from the old track to the good track. And I'll tell you, as adults, we have to check ourselves. That's why the word is written here, keep seeking. That means when you were raised from Christ, see that word keep, that means keep doing what brought you from this track to this track.

When I was raised with Christ, I used, before I was raised with Christ, I used to always think about what can I get out of this? So children, for you, that might be, how can I get the biggest piece of cake, or the largest bowl of ice cream, how can I get more for myself?

That's me, me, me, me, me. If you have been raised with Christ, then what's happened is now you're not thinking about me all the time, you're thinking about Christ. What will help Christ more? What will glorify him more?

And now, if that's really true, keep doing that. So the encouragement for us adults is, keep doing what brought you to this side. And if you find that you've been sitting and calling yourself a Christian, perhaps even sitting at RLCF, but you're still seeking your own, still seeking only the things of this earth, a better life for yourself here on this earth, perhaps you're still on this track, brother, sister, friend.

But if you are really a child of God, it means that you're seeking something above. Okay, I wanted to share that. That's the difference, your eye, your affection, your love, what you're ultimately interested in is heavenly.

Honesty, Repentance, and Faith as the Foundation

So some child tell me, somebody that's a Sunday school class, 12 years old or younger, let's say, what was this first foundational thing we talked about? You remember? Somebody shouted out. Honesty, very good, very good.

Honesty, that's where it starts. Now, I want to also say that all of this foundation is Jesus Christ. First Corinthians three, I think I showed you that verse last week. No man can lay a foundation except that which is Jesus Christ.

So Jesus is all of these things. We're not to take away from Jesus, the person, but it's the different characteristics of Jesus so that we can experience his life are here. Jesus is completely honest.

What you saw on the outside was what he was on the inside. Now, it sounds kind of weird to say Jesus was honest. Of course, he was honest. He's always tells the truth. But it's when you think about it deeper, that if you saw something of the outside of Jesus, and you could look on the inside of Jesus, there's absolutely no difference.

That's the honesty I'm talking about. I'm not talking about telling lies and being honest, so you always tell the truth. That's one level of honesty. But the Christ like level of honesty is that what you are and who you are on the inside is exactly who you are on the outside.

It's no difference. And because Jesus had no sin, he was transparent. And so, like I also said last week, it doesn't mean you have to confess all your sins to everybody, confess them to God. But if you've if you had a bad thought, confess it to God, you don't have to tell others about it.

But if you hurt somebody, then set it right with them. Then what was the first one we the next one we talked about? Anybody remember? Repentance. Repentance means on that basis of that honesty, where I acknowledge I'm not, I'm on this track, I'm headed to hell.

And no matter how many memory verses I say, and what church I'm sitting in, and whether I pray before my meal, and I say, I'm a Christian, if I'm not on this other track, I'm going to hell, I'm never going to have eternal life.

And so I repent, I turn from that sin. Repent, that means you turn 180 degrees, you were headed this way. Now you're turning the other way. So that's repentance. And together with repentance, we also heard about faith.

Very good. I'm so glad the children were paying attention last week. So we have a slide where I can pull those up. Then if we pull up that first slide, so I'll show it to you in picture as well. So honesty, repentance, and faith.

Very important. And I want to talk about what holds these together. And that is the way of discipleship, the way of discipleship. It's a big word. But let's turn to Luke chapter 14, where Jesus told us exactly what discipleship means.

The Call to Follow Jesus as His Disciple

Now, up to this point, I would say, I think most of Christendom is preaching these things, or a significant portion of Christendom. I think repentance, it's one thing that's missing in a lot of churches.

Unfortunately, a lot of churches, a lot of preaching, this is what you get, honesty and faith. But even honesty, that's sometimes hard for people. But repentance is missing. Repentance means you must turn.

You can't just say a prayer and remain the same person that you are. And unfortunately, there are churches that are, whether they realize it or not, are communicating the gospel in a way that doesn't turn people from their sinful life.

They're told you can say a prayer, sign a card, say I'm a Christian from now on, but they've not actually turned. So remember, repentance, so important. Repentance and faith. But then, even many of the, much of the teaching that talks about honesty and repentance of faith doesn't talk about discipleship.

Discipleship. Discipleship is essentially saying that what's different when I've gone from this tribe to the others, I have decided to follow Jesus. Not, you know, like we sing in that song, I have decided to follow Jesus.

No turning back. No turning back. So following Jesus is not just something that says, oh, I've decided to look to Jesus. I think many people are hearing that message. Look to Jesus. Yeah, you can look to Jesus.

That's fine. You see him dying on the cross and you hear about what he did and you say, oh, wonderful Jesus. Thank you for doing that for me. Please forgive my sins. You're looking to him and you're getting something from him, but you're not following him.

Which means, if you add this third piece here in the middle, you can't just stay where you are. Following has a continual aspect to it. Means you're continuing to do something. This, you're honest. You could just sit where you are and remain honest.

You could turn. You could repent and turn. Like you say in a chair, you could believe. But if you stay in that same place, being honest, having repented and believing, you're not a Christian. You're not a true Christian.

The true Christian, having been honest, having turned and having believed, now must be moving. Must be following. Must be following Jesus. So remember that. Luke 14 verse 26. Jesus said that following Jesus is, means that every day there's a little bit more of detachment.

That means Jesus is cutting off things from my old life in my following him. And first of all he said, Luke 14 verse 26, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Now children, I'm only going to focus on the last part of that. I'm not going to preach to you about hating your father and mother or hating your brother and sister. That's a message for us adults and your own wife and your children because you may not understand that fully.

The time will come when you will need that truth. When it'll be important for you to hate your father and mother because you're attached to them. But very simply remember this. I would say this. You must hate anybody that you're attached to in a way that prevents you from following Jesus.

For you it's probably friends. Friends you have at school or friends who are not Christians. Friends who want to draw you and make you, help you be popular. Friends that you want to be popular with. Friends whose opinion matters to you.

Friends who do things that you like to do with them. You must hate them. Do you want to be a child of God? Be honest, repent, believe and now hate those friends in the world who will draw you away from Christ.

And for us adults, it could be your father, mother, somebody you're attached to in a way that prevents you from following Jesus. So very simply children, you must be attached to Jesus 100 percent. And any love you have for friends or even your family ultimately must be through Jesus.

That means I'm loving my friends. If you love your friends, if you like to hang out with them, it must be through Jesus. That means everything that happens with them and that you do with them. Even the games you play with them or the interactions you have with them.

You go over to their house or they come over to your house. You play on a football field together. Jesus must be the center of that relationship. Even if they don't know Jesus, in your heart you must say, Jesus I know I'm having a wonderful time with these friends.

But remind me Lord, help me to remember you are the center of my life now. I'm not on this track anymore. When I was on this track, I could enjoy all the things that I enjoy with them. But now I can only enjoy it if you can enjoy it with me.

That means if those friends are telling a story or they're looking at you boys. Maybe you're with some friends and they're looking at a girl that's passing by. They're talking about how pretty she is or something like that.

If you were on the old track, you could just have that conversation and you could also join them. Oh yeah, she's I wish I could be with her or something like that. But now that you're on that track, you know that that's wrong.

You know that your life and your heart and your eyes belong to Jesus. And so when they start to talk like that and do things that you know that's not right for me to talk about that, you have to leave.

Because Jesus is the center. When they start to show you something on their phone perhaps or they talk about some movie they watched or some book they're reading. You used to be able to do that. That's why I'm so glad that most of I think none of you kids have phones that you're on when you're here together.

I love that. Why? Because I see this happening in the world where kids even from the age of 10, 12 have their own phone and they have data and they can go on the internet. And now even the kids that don't have a phone are gathering around them looking over their shoulders and seeing what that kid has on a phone.

And children, maybe you're around other kids in other places where they have phones and dad and mom are not there. But like I was saying, deep down when you move from this track to the other track, it doesn't matter if daddy and mommy are watching or not.

Jesus is watching. God is watching. The eyes of the Lord are in every place it says. Beholding the good and the evil. You know now that God is watching everything. That's what's character, that's what differentiates.

That's the difference between this old track and this new track. God is watching and I can't do that. I'm a new person. The old me used to be able to do that. I can't do that anymore. So a detachment, a disconnect, a cutting off of attachment or close friendship with anybody that's here on this earth, especially if it prevents me from being with Jesus.

Then he goes on to say, you must carry, verse 27, your own cross. What does it mean to carry your own cross? Again something that you rarely hear in churches. In a lot of churches you'll hear about Jesus carrying his cross.

But what we speak about often is you carrying your cross also. Not to take away in any way from what Jesus did. But if you don't carry your cross and you only know about Jesus carrying his cross, you're not a disciple of Jesus.

You're not on this track. It's just plain and simple in God's word. If you're not carrying your cross every day, you're not a disciple of Jesus. Now what does that mean children? You may think, well I've heard that a lot.

But Santosh, can you explain it? Very simply it means that you, your old way of living, only seeking yourself, what I want, what I want to do, what will help me. And I, me, me, me, me, me. That's this old way of life.

And to carry my cross means that not only have I died to that old way of life, I'm continuing to choose a life where Jesus and what he wants is most important to me. And I give up what's important to me.

Carrying my cross means, you know, if you saw somebody carrying his cross in Jesus day, you knew they were going to die. They had seconds left to live. And so to carry your cross today, dear children, please listen to this, means that I'm no longer interested in myself.

I give, I'm only interested in Jesus Christ and he will take care of me. He will provide for me. I'm not thinking about me, me, me, me, me all the time. That's what means to take up your cross and it's something you must do every day.

So every day, very simply children, I hope you'll pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, help me to take up my cross. Help me to deny myself. Help me to, in a situation where I could choose what I want and what will feel good for me or what will glorify you, what will please you, help me to choose that, what will please you.

Denying Self and Renouncing Earthly Possessions

So many adults, the root of sin is this ultimately, self-pleasing, whether it's lust, whether it's anger. You know why so many fathers are always so angry? You know why? It's because it feels good to be angry to them.

You know why so many grown-up men are still defeated with lusting with their eyes? Because it feels good. It pleases oneself. You know why so many women perhaps gossip? It's because it feels good to hear gossip and to talk about others.

All sin, deep down when you examine it, it's pleasing myself. It's pleasing myself. Popularity, pleasing myself. So at its root, when you're only interested in pleasing yourself, the kind of sin that you will do will be many, many different things.

Seek to please God alone. Never seek to please yourself. And then the last one is verse 33. I talked about hating your old friends and attachments in the world, hating yourself, that which pleases yourself.

And last thing, hate the possessions of this world. Be free from the money. Many of you children are now old enough where you're seeing kids that have nice things. Maybe they have nicer clothes or nicer toys or they have a nice phone or they have a nicer house or all these things.

Those are possessions. If God has allowed you to have it, that's great. But don't seek after those things. Don't desire to have more things in this world. Verse 33, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions.

So let's say young lady, young girl, if you have a nice dress, don't be proud of it. Give it up. It's okay to wear it. That's fine. But don't think that you're somehow more important because you have that nice dress.

That's a possession. And if that dress was somehow to be destroyed, okay Lord, you took it away from me. You can feel a little bit sad if it got torn or if it's too small for you now. But don't be attached to that thing for you.

Maybe it's something you want to do, something that you're interested in doing or something you're going to do, some fun thing you're going to do. That's great. But if God allows you not to have it, that's okay.

Don't hold on to anything. Maybe it's a sport you're going to play and you're excited about playing that. Don't hold on to it so tightly. Hold on to Jesus alone. This is what it means to be a disciple, that God can take away anything that he gives you here on this earth as long as he doesn't take away himself.

Please listen to this carefully, children. You can at a young age come to a life where you say, Lord, you can take away anything you want from me. Just don't take away yourself. I know it's hard. Oh, I'm not trying to tell you that it'll happen overnight.

But you say, Lord Jesus, will you help me so that the only thing I want from this day forward, even as a young boy and a young girl, is only you? And yes, I'll enjoy all the things you allow me to have.

But if you take away any of them, it's not going to be the end of the world for me. This is what it means to be a disciple. So hating our earthly attachments, hating our own life, and hating those things, we're not possessing anything.

If you've really come to this place where you've been honest, you've repented, and you have faith in Jesus Christ. Faith also, I talked about that last week, but that means that no matter what I do, my honesty and my repentance and even my discipleship means nothing if it isn't recognizing that it's through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's my trusting him, his work of salvation that makes all these other things meaningful. The next step I'll talk about is baptism in water. Now, most of you children are probably not baptized, and it's good that you understand what this is before you are baptized.

Water Baptism as Burial and New Life

But if not, this is essentially what baptism means. Baptism is only meaningful if this foundation underneath that is there. And unfortunately, there are many, again, many denominations in Christendom that are baptizing children, what they call baptized, and I'll talk about that in a moment, or saying children you're baptized when this foundation of honesty, repentance, faith, and discipleship has not been laid.

So baptism in water, now it can happen as soon as you're born again, as long as that foundation is there, and you know what you're doing in baptism. Baptism essentially means immersion, means putting completely into water, putting completely into water, or burial, burial in water.

Let's use that word. If you've ever been to, if you had a somebody that you knew that died, and you went to a burial ceremony, or the funeral, you saw that, perhaps you saw if they did it this way, that that body was put into a coffin, and that coffin was put into the ground, and then mud was put over it, and that's completely gone underground, and at some later point, they'll put a stone over it usually, and now you know that that dead person is buried.

That's exactly what baptism is, except we don't actually put you into the ground, we put you in water, because that's what God said you can do, is put into water, that that's a symbol of a dead person being buried into the ground, except it's a burial into water, and it doesn't stop there.

If you ever went to a funeral, you saw that the body was put into the ground, and then the mud was put over it, and that's it, nothing else happens, but in the spiritual baptism, in the spiritual burial, that person that's you goes completely into the water, completely buried, and that means that you're dead now, completely dead, and God brings back up a new person.

So when I was baptized in water, Santosh was buried into that water, completely put underwater, no part of me was left above, completely put underwater, that means from this day forward, I'm saying, Lord, Santosh is dead, what Santosh used to be interested in, and how he felt, and what people thought of him, all these other things are completely dead, it doesn't matter anymore, dead, and then Christ brought a new person up in the same body, in the same physical body, now a new person came up out of that water, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ in Santosh's body, came up out of that water, that's what baptism means, isn't it a wonderful thing, when you know that, oh I always fight with my brother, I always fight with my sister, I'm always jealous, I always don't like to share, and I tell lies, or I speak disrespectfully, speak rudely, I wish I wasn't that way, isn't it wonderful that you can be baptized, that you, that loves to do all those bad things, can be put into the water completely, and now Jesus, who loves to tell the truth, who loves to share, who loves to be kind to others, who will never say a bad word, who will never wake up in a bad mood, isn't it wonderful that that Jesus can live in you now, that means you never have to have a bad mood again, the old you used to say, well if I didn't have a good day, I'm going to be in a bad mood, or if I didn't sleep well, I'm going to be in a bad mood, but the new you, which is Jesus living in you, says no, that's not an excuse anymore, and you can say, Lord Jesus, since it's you that's living in me, I don't have to sin ever again, I don't have to ever have a bad mood, I don't ever have to tell a lie, I don't ever have to fight with my brother or sister, because it's you living in me, baptism is a wonderful, wonderful thing, because it makes available to us the opportunity to die, you have the chance to die, dear child, dear young boy, dear young girl, God says, hey are you tired of that old life, no matter how hard you try, you still keep falling, no matter how many times dad, mom tell you not to do that, you still do it, are you tired of that, I hope you are, good news, you can be baptized, you can choose first of all to die, allow God to allow you to die, and he can raise up Christ in you, a Christ who is full of joy, full of love, full of peace, full of honesty, full of sharing and kindness, doing good wherever he goes, this is what baptism does, let's turn to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 28, at the end of his life, his time with the disciples, he left these parting words, and that's why we're basically saying the same thing, even in this message, he says, before he ascended, he said to them, all authority verse 18 has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and so the commission, this is what the world calls commission, it's a big word for you children, but this is our job, you can say, somebody says, what's your, why are you here on this earth, very simply children, it's for you to be a disciple like we just heard, and to go and make other disciples, you be a disciple, and you get as many others also to be a disciple with you, this is your job here on this earth, along the way, maybe you'll get, you'll work doing this, or you'll play this sport, or you'll study that subject, you live in this particular town, that's all different for different people, but the one thing that's true for all of us Christians is this, we are disciples who are trying to make as many other disciples as possible, that's it, children, you can, if you're a disciple yourself, you seek to make other disciples as well, so he says, go therefore in verse 19, and make disciples, you disciples, go make other disciples of all the nations, and a disciple is essentially this, he goes on to say, I would say, a baptized obeyer, a baptized obeyer, this is a disciple, a baptized obeyer, so he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey, observe all that I command in you, and then if we do that, Jesus says, I'll be with you, so children, you want Jesus to be with you until the end of the age, until the end of your life, do these two things, be a disciple, and make other disciples, be a baptized obeyer, and that's why children, if you have reached this place, where you are honest, you've repented, you're trusting God, and you've repented, you're a disciple of Jesus, you must be baptized, and it's good for you, especially if you're now, you're in your teenage years or so, and you're you're starting to know, you're able to make that decision, I've decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, if that's really the testimony of your life, don't delay to be baptized, because what does baptism, it's saying that the burial's happening, you know, in some cultures, they wait quite a while before they bury the dead person, but that's not common, most usually, if somebody dies within a few days, sometimes within a few hours, you bury the person, so if you have truly died, if the person is dead, if the old you is really dead, which you've chosen to do, you say, yes, I'm really dead, I want to be dead for the rest of my life, then what are you waiting for, to be baptized, bury him already, and let Jesus be the one living in your body, so that's what baptism is, but Jesus, so a disciple is a baptized obeyer, and it means that from now on, I only want to obey Jesus, is that the story we heard this last Wednesday, I think from Mother Ava, of how she said that she realized to be a disciple of Jesus is essentially to say, I never want to disobey God ever again, young people, children, can you say, Lord Jesus, I want to live a life where I never disobey you even once for the rest of my life, if you really mean that, then you'll testify to that in baptism, and you can read about that, you know, a lot of the things that I'm sharing, at some point, when you're old enough to read it, which I think many of you, even if you're 10 years older, above, should read my dad's book, A Good Foundation, where it's explained in a lot more detail, so I'll leave you with that, the next one, I want to lay on top of this, now this is, no picture is perfect, I want you to know, and so it's not necessarily that some of these things do need to happen first, you must be honest before you can repent, and you must have repentance and faith in order to be a disciple, you can say, and you must have all of those things in order to be baptized in water, but from here on out, it's not necessarily one has to happen before the other, you read in the book of Acts, for example, some people were filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then they would, they took baptism in water, so from here on out, it doesn't have to necessarily happen one after the other, but if you have been baptized in water, and when you are baptized in water, and even before that, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that, again, very few people know, some even deny that such an experience is possible, in the same way that baptism in the water is a complete dipping in water, fully put into water, and then brought back up, it's not sprinkling, it's not even pouring, you see baptism is in, because it's a picture of death, must be a burial, burying of that old man, now baptism of the Holy Spirit, you could say, there's two ways of getting something wet, you could put it completely into a tub of water, or you could pour a fountain, a waterfall of water over it, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you can picture a little bit more like a waterfall, it's coming to a place where the fire from heaven, it's a baptism in fire, where the fire from heaven comes and consumes every part of my being, and in order for that to happen, you must lay every part of your life on the altar, children, you know, now we're getting into a little bit deeper of the Christian life, but it's something that you all can understand as well, I believe, you know, when we read in Acts chapter 1, let's go there actually, Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, you children, I think in the primary class maybe, memorize this a few weeks ago, yeah, you guys probably know where it is, but it's the one that talks about that this promises for you and for you, 39, yes, thank you, Acts 2 verse 39, these people who heard the message that Peter preached, said verse 37, brethren, what shall we do?