Teach what You Know, But You Will Reproduce Who You Are

In this episode I talk about aligning your actions with your convictions, recognizing their far-reaching impact on those around you. You can teach what you know, but will ultimately reproduce who you truly are. 

Chapters

• 0:05 Meaning of Reproducing Your Identity
• 7:12 Encouragement to Walk the Talk

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hey, welcome into another episode. I want to share a small little Bible verse that has such a profound and impactful meaning that has really been sticking out to me recently. It's a small verse in Genesis, chapter 1, talking about creation. And God said let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit. Here it is yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. That's Genesis, chapter 1, verse 11.

Speaker 1: 0:35

So in this immediate context of creation, obviously it's saying apples have apple seeds inside, which will not produce oranges. Pretty clear, right? Apples have apple seeds inside. They will produce fruit after its kind, which are more apples, right? Okay, we all understand this principle. And now, if we apply this to us, what does this mean?

Speaker 1: 1:02

Pastor Russell Johnson says a statement. He says you can teach what you know, but you will only reproduce what you are. So the apple seed could talk all about oranges and be like man. Oranges are just awesome. They're just so much more juicy and awesome. But an apple seed is never going to produce an orange, right? An apple seed is going to produce more apples. And so, in the same way, for us, we can teach all day long on all kinds of topics humility, faith, holiness, you know all these things. We can teach what we know, but we will only truly reproduce what we are Whoever talked to somebody their most favorite preacher, or even a worship leader or an artist or someone that you kind of really been impacted by, really been discipled by from afar for a long time, and you meet them and it's just like kind of a letdown, like man, like I just assumed.

Speaker 1: 2:03

You know, you preach about, you know this topic of the Bible all the time and I just feel like you weren't that at all. Now, obviously there's moments and you know meeting someone for 30 seconds. You can't make a whole you know statement about, you know a thesis about their life, but you give what I'm saying. A great example of this comes to mind is Mike Bickel, who's the director of the International House of Prayer, which I was on full time staff with for 15 years. It was an amazing season of my life and the Lord has since called us out to pursue a lot of these films, these musicals and this production company. We're just kind of following him in that area, but with Mike, who is now a great friend as well as a, you know, a spiritual father and just is such a mentor for me for for going on 19 years now, mike.

Speaker 1: 2:47

One of his main messages is the Sermon in the Mount Matthew, chapter five, six and seven, which talks about, you know, these righteous standards where to uphold these things that we're supposed to do. And then it also talks about these six negative toxins that were to resist from our heart, like you know, anger and and all those sorts of things. And I have seen Mike in hundreds of hours of meetings and one-on-one conversations where I have truly seen, oh, you're not just teaching something that you know, because we all know that. You know, pride is bad and holiness is good, we all know that. But Mike is actually reproducing something because it's truly who he is and so applying this to our lives.

Speaker 1: 3:32

If I talk about generosity, if I talk about faith, but I don't live a generous life and I sew incredibly sparingly and I operate mostly from a poverty small mindset, I'm not going to be producing generosity. If I talk about humility to clients in public platforms and songs or write about it or whatever it is, but if I'm not actually humble, then I'm not actually reproducing it because it's not actually who I am and there's so many areas of our lives that we know what's true, especially if you've grown up in Christendom or you've been around it for a while. It can almost just become just so challenging because we know that. We know that. I know that I'm kind of feeling over here, but I do know that I shouldn't be doing this. I should be doing this when it's like the Holy Spirit just wants to say hey, the fruit of the Spirit bringing it back to Genesis, chapter one, which is talking about apple trees producing apples the Holy Spirit's like. The fruit of the Spirit is what I want to see produced inside of you, what I want to see grow from within you, out of your mouth, from your hands and from your feet and the way that you act and the way that you talk and what you look at and what you listen to, and then you shall see a reproduction truly into who you are, and you'll see in the fruit of those people around you.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Now, again, a fearful verse that talks about you know, let not many of you desire to become teachers, because teachers will be judged more strictly, and I think that also applies to this. Again, you can teach what you know all day long, but you can only reproduce what you truly are. And a teacher who teaches something but then does not walk in what they teach. They're not really producing what they are. And how much more of a detriment to the disciple, to the student, of the teacher. When they see their teacher. They hear them for years or however long, talk about this one topic and then they see their teacher fall or stumble in it or they're not really, you know, producing that fruit. The detriment and the harm can be great. So I want to challenge you, I want to encourage you.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Teaching something, knowing something is great, and this is something I think about a lot with my children, right, because you know they're young and I'm trying to teach them the ways of the Bible and I want to see fruit of the spirit produced in them, even at a young age. But kids are paying attention to what they do, to what dad does, to the way dad talks, to the way dad responds, and I don't want to just teach them something. You know, I was at a conversation recently where, you know, a parent said hey, don't do what I do, just listen to what I say. And I'm saying don't do this, and then the parent goes off and does it. That's like. That's pretty backwards, I think, from the way we're supposed to be doing this.

Speaker 1: 6:30

But I want to actually see fruit produced, the fruit of the spirit produced in my life. I want to sow, financially generously. I want to sow of my time and my effort to help loved ones and friends generously. I want to run away from, you know, sin and perversion and the lust of the flesh, great and small. I want to, you know, run into humility and run away from pride, and I don't just want to have knowledge upstairs in my head and I can teach it because I know you know scriptures and all that sort of thing, but I actually want to produce what I am and I know that that's definitely the cry of your heart as well.

Speaker 1: 7:12

So I want to encourage you just in this few seconds before I end this episode here, just to ask the Lord to say are there areas in my life where I'm maybe talking the talk but I'm not actually walking the walk, if I could use that phrase? Because, like it says in Genesis 111, let the earth bring forth its fruit after its kind, that the fruit coming from our life would truly be reproduced in those that we love all around us. Thanks so much for listening to this podcast, where we look at the intricate life of being an entrepreneur and creative, while encouraging the pursuit of your passions and dreams from a biblical worldview. So appreciate you supporting the show. Um, please subscribe, like, share and leave us a review. That really, really helps us, and I appreciate it so much and we'll see you in the next episode. Yeah.