Balanced Christianity 2. Discipleship and Worship — Zac Poonen

The Great Commission Requires Both Evangelism and Maturity

As we concluded our last session, I was mentioning how it's not enough that we have let people hear the Gospel once. We got to make sure that they grow. Birth and growth to maturity are what brings a balanced ministry.

And Jesus made that clear in what is known as the Great Commission. If you were to ask the average Christian, what is the Great Commission? They would say it is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.

I say, is that all? That's all they know. But that is like one side of a coin or one side of a currency note. What's written on the other side? A currency note that's printed only on one side is a fake.

It's counterfeit. It's worth nothing. So, the problem with many Christians is they know the truth partially. You know, in chemistry, we studied that two parts of hydrogen plus one part of oxygen makes water.

So, if you only have the hydrogen, you don't have water. If you only have two parts of hydrogen, you don't have water. You got to add another part of oxygen to make it water or one part of sodium and one part of chlorine make common salt.

One alone doesn't make it. So, there are many things like that in the Christian life also. If you have only one side of truth, it's not the real thing. Like I said, two parts of oxygen is not water. It's part of water, but it's not water.

It's H2 plus O, oxygen, that makes water. So, in the same way, when you speak about the Great Commission, if you don't understand it right, we don't understand what Jesus told us to do. So, let me read it to you from scripture.

Mark chapter 16 is the more well-known part of the Great Commission. I'm talking about being balanced in our understanding of scripture, the balanced Christian life, a balanced ministry, a balanced understanding of the Great Commission Mark 16, 15, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures, all creation.

He who has believed and is baptized will be saved. He who has disbelieved will be condemned. So here, Jesus speaks about preaching the good news all over the world and only believing and baptism is mentioned.

That's the beginning of the Christian life. Believing is the way you… repentance is understood that a person's turned from his sin to believe in Jesus and then to be baptized to publicly testify that he's finished with sin.

That's the mark of his repentance. And in connection with this ministry, which is what I call frontier evangelism. Frontier evangelism means pushing the frontiers of where the gospel has been preached further and further and further to areas which are not reached yet.

The Acts of the Apostles is full of frontier evangelism. Many people don't realize that. Going to new places, pushing the frontiers of the gospel further and further and further. And when you do that, and those who are involved in that type of ministry, going into areas where the gospel has never been preached, these signs will accompany them.

They, in my name, they will cast out demons. It's not saying that… you've got to read carefully. It's not saying that every single believer will cast out demons or every single believer will speak in new tongues or every single believer will pick up serpents.

No, no, no. It's those who are involved in frontier evangelism, when they go there preaching the gospel to a new place. In that ministry, these are the signs that will accompany them. Them, the group of them.

Cast out demons, speak in new tongues. That means they will not be hurt by serpents or deadly poison. And if they lay hands on the sick, they'll recover. Now, this is very important. And you see that happening in the Acts of the Apostles and frontier evangelism.

People wonder why it doesn't happen all the time in churches, because it's not referring to churches here. It's referring to frontier evangelism. If you are involved in frontier evangelism, you'll see it.

It's happening today in places where the gospel is going for the first time. So, I'm trying to present to you the truth in a balanced way. You shouldn't be surprised if you don't see all these things happening in your church, that every sick person is being healed.

But it's very essential when you go into a non-Christian place, where they've never heard about Jesus. There are many places like that in the world, even in India, where they've never heard the name of Jesus.

They don't know what a Bible is. They don't know that such a person as Jesus existed on the earth. Imagine going to, picture this in your mind, going to some place where nobody's ever heard of the Bible or of Christians or about Jesus.

And you go there and you begin to tell them about Jesus Christ. How will you begin? You tell them, hey, listen, do you know there's a many thousands of miles ago, there's a place called Israel. They never heard of it.

They say, so what? Okay, 2 ,000 years ago, a little baby was born there. Okay, so what? And he didn't have a human father. Ah, that fellow is immediately convinced that you've got something wrong with your head.

He didn't have a human father? You mean, what was he then? No, no, no. He was God, came in human form. He was born without a father. We know it's all true, but this chap's trying to, you're trying to convince this guy.

And he grew up and he did miracles, opened blind eyes and all. He says, that's amazing. And finally they killed him. And he kind of said, what do you mean they killed him? You mean he couldn't stop them from killing him, even though he was like that?

And then they killed him and then he died for your sins. How in the world could he die for my sins? If it happened 2 ,000 years ago, what does he know about what I'm doing today? And after three days, he came out of the grave alive.

He's absolutely convinced you're off your head now. Telling him some fairy tale. And then after 40 days, he ascended up into heaven. And that's removed all doubt from his mind that you're crazy. And he's alive today.

What am I supposed to do? You must yield your life to him. Why in the world should I leave my life to him? Who is he? And then you say, is anybody demon possessed in this village? Bring him here. And I will show you that the name of Jesus has power.

And that demon-possessed person who nobody could cure for years, in the name of Jesus, immediately delivered. Bring me a sick person here. Pray for him. This is happening today where there's frontier evangelism.

If you're not involved in frontier evangelism, you don't see it. Most of my ministry is not in frontier evangelism, but a little bit of it is. We have two churches planted in India where there were no church for 2 ,000 years.

And we've seen demons cast out and sick people healed. It's exactly like this. So anyone who's involved in this will see it. And speaking in tongues and everything there. But that's one side of the Great Commission.

Disciple-Making and Obedience as the Second Half of the Commission

Now let's look at the other side. Equally important. This is balanced understanding of the Great Commission. That's in Matthew 28, where Jesus came and spoke to them. It says in verse 18, Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore, now it's not saying preach the gospel. That's one side. We've looked at that. Make them disciples. A disciple is a learner and a follower. A disciple is one who sits at the feet of his master and learns what is the way and then decides to follow in his master's footsteps.

So this person whom we converted through frontier evangelism, going to new places, must now be made a disciple, one who learns and follows. We can't just leave him and say, okay, I've got to go to another frontier now.

Now, if you feel that your calling, I'm talking to anybody, feels that counting is only frontier evangelism, then you must work with somebody else who is doing this disciple making. Otherwise, it's not balanced.

So the apostle Paul didn't just go and go to new frontiers and preach the gospel and bring people to Christ and all these signs and all took place as you read in the Acts of the Apostles, but he went back and built them up because he had to make disciples.

So here the commission is make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The baptism is made clear. It must be in the name of the Trinity. And then that's not enough. Now here in this ministry, there's no mention of signs or wonders or casting out demons or healing the sick, nothing.

That is in the ministry of frontier evangelism. Mark chapter 16. Here in disciple making, the emphasis is not on the miraculous. The emphasis is on obedience to what Jesus taught. Now, if we can understand this clearly, this balance, that in frontier evangelism, there will be signs and wonders that accompany the preaching of the gospel and it will happen to anyone.

You don't have to be a very mature Christian. If God has called you to do frontier evangelism and you go into places where the gospel has never been preached, I would advise you never to go there if you don't believe that the Holy Spirit can do supernatural things through you.

I wouldn't dream of going into evangelize to preach the gospel in places where the gospel has never been preached. If I don't believe that God will do supernatural things and casting out demons and healing the sick, I wouldn't waste my time going there because I'll be telling them what they think is a fairy tale, as I told you just now.

It has to be confirmed by God with signs following. But then, once that is done, God is not in the entertainment business to just keep on doing miracles like some magic show. He's now interested in making disciples.

So, the second stage, this is balanced Great Commission. Now, I want to make them a disciple. I want to make this guy who's been converted, who was probably a non-Christian and wouldn't believe, who thought it was a fairy tale till he saw the demon cast out in the name of Jesus, till he saw some miraculous healing took place in the name of Jesus, and he comes to faith in Jesus Christ.

That's how some people do come to faith in Christ initially. And then we got to tell him, hey listen, this is not all there is to it. You have now to become a disciple. There's something more exciting than casting out demons.

There's something more exciting than physical healing. It is to follow in Jesus' footsteps and partake of his nature. And to learn to see the footsteps of Jesus and walk in it, then he's got to be taught that.

And then I have to teach him, it says here, everything that Jesus commanded. You think you can do that in one day? How long does it take to teach people just the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6 and 7?

It's not enough that I brought him to Christ. I have now to teach him how to overcome anger, which all human beings are slaves to. How to overcome sexually dirty thinking, which all men at least are slaves to, everywhere in the world.

If I don't teach him that, Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount. I've got to teach him to speak the truth always. Your yes must be yes and your no must be no. Telling lies is another thing common to all human beings.

I've got to deliver him from all these habits. And his mere accepting Christ has not delivered him from all these things, just like all of you know. When you accepted Christ, did you get delivered from all these things?

No. Some of you or most of you didn't even know that these were sinful. I've had people tell me all my life, I never even heard that anger was a sin. I think a lot of people are like that. How will they know unless they are taught?

So all that I taught, we have a, if you go to our church website, CFC, CFC stands for Christian Fellowship Church, cfcindia .com is our church website. If you go there, we have a 40-hour series, 80 half an hour messages on, the title is All That Jesus Taught.

And the reason we did that was to fulfill this command of Jesus, teach people all that I taught you. And we've just covered just the whole Gospel of Matthew to pick out things that Jesus taught, which every disciple of Jesus must know.

So this is the other side of the Great Commission. And if you do this, I'm with you to the end of the age. Now, Christians have got a tremendous tendency to take a promise without fulfilling the condition.

You know, some well-known promises, ask and it'll be given you. Supposing you just take the letter part, it'll be given to you. No, it says ask and it'll be given to you. James says you don't have because you don't ask.

Or you ask and don't receive because you've got wrong motives in your asking. So there's a condition to every promise. And you believe and repent and believe and you'll be saved. There's a condition. If you don't fulfill the condition, then the promise is not fulfilled.

Haven't you seen in many places this verse, I'm with you always. Well, it's mentioned, Jesus mentioned it only once. Lo, I'm with you always. What is the condition? Have you ever thought of that? Is it just automatic?

A lot of people think it's automatic. Well, let's look at scripture carefully. The condition is, make disciples, teach them to do everything I commanded you, and I'll be with you always to the end of the age.

I've sought to do that. I've tried my best for many years now to make disciples, to be a disciple myself, first of all, and to make people disciples by teaching how to hear Jesus, how to follow him. In fact, that's the only thing I've done for 40 years in our churches.

And all the things that Jesus taught, and I want to tell you, I have experienced the reality of Lo, I'm with you always in all types of situations. And you can experience that. See, you can imagine when Jesus was physically with the disciples, there was never a problem that could not be solved.

Whether it was lack of food for thousands of people, or a storm in the lake, or anything, you never find a problem that Jesus couldn't solve. You never find anyone coming to Jesus and saying, here's a problem, and Jesus sort of scratching his head and saying, boy, that's a tough one.

How do I handle that? Never, never, never teaching us that there is no problem Jesus cannot solve. Do you believe that? Why is it that we live saying, oh, I wonder what will happen here? I wonder what will happen here?

Because you think he's with you. He's not with you. There's sin in your life that he doesn't tolerate. You live your own selfish way and you say, he's going to be with me always. You're imagining. Be a disciple.

Seek to do all that Jesus taught you. I guarantee he'll be with you till the end of the age. Whatever your problem, he'll be there. That's the way God wants us to live. And it doesn't matter if everybody forsakes you.

That's how Jesus lived himself. Jesus lived on earth primarily dependent on his heavenly father. That's why he was not disturbed when people left him. His job was to make mega congregations into small group of disciples.

He is the opposite of what a lot of people are trying to do today because his conditions were so strict. Let me show you one example to show you what balanced Christian preaching is. In John chapter six, you read about this great multitude and we read of the feeding of the 5 ,000 in verse 10 and 11.

John 6 verse 10 and 11, where five loaves and two fish fed 5 ,000 men plus many women and children, probably 10 ,000 people. And to them, he taught first. Verse 47, if you believe in me, you have eternal life.

But that was only one side of the truth. Very often, truth is not contained in only one verse. Remember, it's balance. You remember in the temptation when the devil tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread and Jesus said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Matthew chapter four.

And the devil said, aha, you are a, it is written type of man, is it? Okay. Jump from the roof of the temple because it is written that his angels will protect you. He was trying the same tactic. It's written, you go by the word, right?

It is written that his angels will take care of you. And Jesus said, it is also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So don't think that when you get a verse of scripture, it's always from the Holy Spirit.

Could be from the devil. If the devil can quote scripture to Jesus, you think he won't write that on you? That's why you need to know when a verse is quoted to you, what is also written. The whole truth is contained in it is written and it is also written.

Like a bird has got two wings. What will happen to a bird has got only one wing. However much it flaps it, it'll just keep going around in circles. And that's what a lot of Christians are with one truth.

They keep going around in circles and 25 years later, you see them in the same position because they've heard one truth and not the other. It's balance. So he said, if you believe in me, you have eternal life.

But that was not all. He went on to say in verse 54, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have eternal life. So which is the truth? It's like saying, is this side of the coin the right side or the other side?

Both are necessary. Here's the balance. You believe in me, you have eternal life. But it says, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood if you have eternal life. And what is eating his flesh and drinking his blood mean?

The word flesh and blood, whenever it comes in the Gospels, it speaks about his death on the cross. That's what we testify in symbolic way in the breaking of bread. This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for your sins.

It speaks of his death on the cross. And what he was saying is, it's not believing me is good, but you must participate in my death. Die with me. Like Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.

That's the person who's going to enjoy eternal life. Not just he who believes in me. It's true. That is one side of the coin. That's there. John 6, 47. It is written, he who believes has eternal life.

I want to say it is also written in verse 54 that you've got to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Participate in his death on the cross to have eternal life. A lot of false preaching is because people go by, it is written.

It's not balanced. And Christians are being fooled by these hundred dollar notes, which are only printed on one side and they think they're rich. It's a fake. Turn the other side and see what is printed on the other side.

Don't just read what is written, but see what is also written. And that's why it's important for us to read the scriptures. You say, well, my preacher never taught me that. Okay. If you were living in the first 1500 years of Christianity, when Bibles were not available, there's some excuse for that.

But if you're living in this age, when you have a knowledge of language and you've got a Bible in your own language, you have absolutely no excuse for not knowing the truth. You cannot get away by saying, my preacher never taught me that.

Well, you got a Bible at home. Do you know that that is the answer to many questions? You got a Bible at home. The Bible says you must have participate in his death. Let me show you an example of that in the gospel of Luke chapter 16.

Sometimes we say, if I can see a miracle, if I can see a supernatural thing, I'll believe. There are many Christians who say that. Let me see a vision of Jesus or let me see some miracle and I'll believe.

Or let an angel come and tell me, let an angel appear when I'm praying and I'll believe. Here's the answer to that. Luke chapter 16, we read about the story of rich man and Lazarus. And you know, the rich man, I don't have time to go into the detail, the rich man went to hell.

And Lazarus, the poor beggar, went into the kingdom of God. And the rich man said to Abraham, who was with Lazarus in the paradise, Abraham, will you please, this is Luke 16, verse 27. Will you please send Lazarus from heaven down to earth again to tell my five brothers about this message that they need to repent?

And he knew that he went to hell because he didn't repent. He had only believed, he didn't repent. All the people who believe without repenting, he discovered when he went to hell that repentance is the most essential thing there.

And so he says, please tell them, otherwise they'll also come here. And do you know what Abraham replies, verse 29? They've got the Bible. They got the Bible, that's enough. The phrase Moses and the prophets refers to the Old Testament Bible, which was the only thing they had then.

Genesis to Malachi. Genesis to Deuteronomy is Moses and the rest of the prophets. Moses and the prophets, they've got the Bible. Let them read that or let them hear it. As being priests in the synagogue, let them have that, hear that.

They've got the Bible. How can they make an excuse that they don't know that they have to repent? No, but father Abraham, verse 30, if someone goes from heaven and comes in shining dress and saying, I have come from heaven and I want to tell you it is true what the Bible says, that if you don't repent, you will go to hell, then they will believe.

No, he says that they will then repent, verse 30. And Abraham says, no, if they don't read the Bible, even a miracle is not going to make them repent. Do you understand that? Even an angel coming from heaven or somebody coming from heaven is not going to make them repent.

So if you have a Bible, there's no excuse to say, well, my preacher didn't preach it. Jesus taught us to do all that he commanded. That's the other side of the gospel. Let me show you another verse about where we see this balance, which is so important.

Why do we emphasize disciple making so much? Because we find so much of evangelism today without the person being made into a disciple. I think many of you sitting here probably have really accepted Christ, but nobody ever taught you about being a disciple.

The Three Conditions of Discipleship

When Jesus said to his apostles, go and make disciples in every nation, did they understand what it meant? First of all, do you understand what it means? Let me show you what Jesus himself had already taught them, what it meant to be a disciple.

Luke chapter 14 and verse 26 to 33, there are three conditions of discipleship. And I'm telling you exactly what I have taught in my own churches that I have responsibility for, for 40 years. Numerous churches, scores and scores of churches, we preach the same thing in towns, villages.

I say you cannot be a disciple until you fulfill these three conditions. And I say that to everybody sitting here. It's good to examine yourself. These are the words of Jesus because he always uses the word cannot, cannot, cannot.

There is no such thing as a second-class disciple. You cannot be my disciple. And he mentions it three times, verse 25, 26, sorry, 26, 27, 33. So Luke 14, 26. If you come to me and you don't hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters in your own life, you cannot be my disciple.

Now, it's a very strong word he uses, hate. Now, when we compare scripture with scripture, we are told to honor our parents, we are told to love our wives and love our children. So obviously, this word hate must be understood in its context.

We compare scripture with scripture. In Matthew 10, Jesus said, if anyone loves his father or mother more than me, he's not worthy of me. So we understand the meaning of this hate means that your love for Christ must be far above your love for your father, mother, brothers.

Your love for your father, mother, wife, children all must be so small compared to your love for Jesus that they almost disappear. Something like, you know, if you see the light of the stars, think of that as your love for your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children.

There is light in the stars. You love them. That's right. Nothing wrong in that. But when the sun comes up, you can't see the stars. They're there. They're there. Even right now, the stars are there, but you can't see them.

It's disappeared. In other words, when your love for Jesus is so great that you're not going to be influenced by the love of your parents or your wife and children. In other words, Christ becomes supreme in your life.

You don't love anybody like you love Jesus Christ. It's only such a person who's a disciple. In other words, if Christ tells you to do something and your dad and mom tell you to do something else, you're going to obey Jesus Christ.

If Christ tells you to do something and your wife tells you to do something, you say, sorry, I've got to obey Christ. You're not going to please your children and disobey the Lord. There's so many parents who do that.

They compromise because they want to please their children and they lead their children astray because Christ is not first in their thinking. They're not disciples and their children don't become disciples either.

This is the first condition of discipleship. And particularly in the culture in which Jesus was living, which is very similar to the culture in India, where people have such a tremendous respect for parents.

It's very difficult to break away. You know, the first commandment for marriage people is, leave your father and mother and cleave to your wife. Jesus left his father in heaven and came to earth to be married to us.

Now we have to leave our earthly connections to be married to him. That's a happy marriage. A marriage where husband and wife are still attached to their respective parents more than to each other is not going to be a happy marriage.

I'll tell you that. I'm not saying we got to dishonor our parents. No, we must honor them till the end of their lives. Love them, care for them. If they're sick, take care of them. That's all fine. But if your parents are more important to you in your marriage than each other, I can predict it's going to be a very unhappy married life.

And if any other human being is more important to you than Jesus Christ, you're not going to have a happy relationship with Christ. You know, that's why Jesus told those people who did miracles. He said, I never knew you.

And the question comes, what does he mean, I never knew you? You know, the word no is used in the Old Testament of the intimate husband-wife relationship. Adam knew his wife. It refers to that physical relationship between a husband and wife.

No. And Jesus was saying to these people, you never had that type of relationship with me. I was not like your husband where you forsook everything else. You knew me as you are my bride. You're my wife.

You didn't know me like that. Hundred and one other people were more important to you than me. I didn't know you. You said that you accepted me and you're on your way to heaven, but I never knew you. You know, it's like a couple that never had any physical relationship.

Jesus said, I never got into that intimate relationship with you. I want to ask you, have you come into intimate spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ where every other relationship is unimportant compared to this?

Every other relationship is subject to this first relationship with Christ. In other words, what Christ says to me is fundamental. And I do the other things according to whether it's possible or not. This is what made the many early Christians martyrs.

They were told to say Caesar is Lord. And they say, no, Jesus Christ is Lord. They'd be burnt or thrown to the lions. Christ was supreme in their life. And if we had people like that today, we'd have that type of Christianity, which is powerful.

So that's the first condition of discipleship. And the second condition is, verse 27, if you don't take up your cross, you cannot be my disciple. In other words, you know, if you were living in Israel in the days of Jesus, you saw a man carrying a cross.

You knew he wasn't going on a picnic. It wasn't a movie. He was going to be killed. He had closed his bank account. He said goodbye to his relatives. He is finished with the earth. He was going to die.

So carrying the cross meant only one thing to those disciples when Jesus said, you got to die to all your earthly attachments. You can live on this earth. But inwardly, you got to die. Paul expresses it in one place saying, I have as little interest in this world as a dead man has.

The world has lost its interest in me. And I've lost my interest in the world. I live here. But I don't belong here. It's like you go and live in a foreign country. And you know, you don't belong there.

You're there for a short time. Sometimes some of you visit a foreign country for two weeks. What do you do, build a house and settle down there when you're going there only for two weeks? You know that you're there for a short time.

And then that's not your permanent home because your permanent home is here. There's something like that that we need to have if we want to be a disciple of Jesus. I have died to this world. This world is not my permanent home.

And if some things don't work out for me in this world, that's okay because my permanent home is in heaven. And yet we have to live on this earth. We have to earn our living and take care of our families, maybe build houses to take care of them.

All that is fine. But there must never be a feeling that I belong here. I have to die to my will, first of all. Take up my cross, as I said, to die to my own self-will, which I'm tempted by whenever I'm tempted.

And the third follows on from that in verse 33. You cannot be my disciple if you don't give up all your possessions. Positions are different from what we have. Positions are the things that possess us and that we hold on to.

So what Jesus was saying was not that you have to put everything in the offering box, but I shouldn't possess them. I must hold everything God has given me in my open palm and say, Lord, it's mine. The house is in my name.

The car is in my name. I'm not possessing it. It's not mine. It's yours. You've given it to me for to use. It's only a person who's that type of attitude to his possessions who can be a disciple of Jesus.

The reason I mention that is because the promises in the New Testament are for disciples. And if you're a disciple, you can experience and all enjoy all the promises in the New Testament. It's like, you know, in some clubs, they say, if you become a member of this club, you can enjoy all the privileges in this club.

But if you walk into this club as a visitor, you cannot enjoy all the privileges. And we understand that in earthly situations. And the Lord is saying, there are many promises I have for my disciples.

It's not for everybody. But if you are a disciple, it's for you. And there are so many Christians who are wondering why certain promises in scripture don't get fulfilled in their life. I'll tell you why.

Are you a disciple? Are you a member of the club? Then all the facilities are yours. So you perhaps could check up on that. Three areas. Is Jesus more important to me than any other human being? Number one.

Secondly, am I willing to put the will of God by my own will? Am I willing to die in every situation and choose the will of God? And third, is Jesus more important to me than my earthly possessions? You don't have to give up your possessions, but you shouldn't possess them.

The classic example of that would be Abraham giving up Isaac. See, Abraham possessed Isaac because it was his darling son born when he was 100 years old. And God saw that this son has become an idol in Abraham's life.

And that you can have idols in your life, your job, your house, your car. So many things can become an idol. And your ambitions can become an idol. And the Lord says, if you don't give them up, you can't be my disciple.

So give it up. And Abraham took Isaac to kill him. And God said, no, I don't want you to kill him. I only wanted to see whether you're willing to get rid of this idolatry. Now you can take him back. And from that day onwards, Isaac wasn't dead.

But he had him. He didn't possess him. So once you've given up something to God, God lets you have it. But you don't possess it anymore. That's not the main thing in your life. So the disciples, the apostles knew what conditions of discipleship were.

And when Jesus said, go and make disciples, they had to tell these, tell people, these are the conditions of being a disciple. And it's not something that will make you unhappy. It'll make you the happiest person in your community.

I believe that. I found that in my own life when I decided to be a disciple, to the best of my knowledge. I found it brought happiness. I found I could obey commands like, rejoice in the Lord always. I found I could obey commands like, do all things without murmuring and grumbling.