The information that's being given to you is presented in love to equip you,
not to condemn you.
For we know there's now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1.
If we become convicted, this is a good thing, because it's the love of our Heavenly Father
calling us to another level in our relationship with Him.
The Word of God In 2 Peter 1:12-13, NLT, says, 12 Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.
13 And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live.
Reminding you what? 2 Peter 1:1-11, NLT,
1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
3 By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into The Eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Note: You
might say. What's the point of this?
The example is this. You may have already heard the information that is about to be presented.
But, it is beneficial to hear it again and again.
Please have ears to hear what is being said and not what isn't being said.
If you have a question and you truly believe it will not be addressed at some point in the future or it isn't contained in the information provided to you and you believe it will benefit us corporately as a class, then please ask.
If it is personal or you can make a note and believe it won't affect your ability to hear then, please hold on to it and I will be happy to stay as long as necessary after class to address your questions.
With all that said, let's get to it.
I would like to start with and establish some applicable wisdom from Matthew 13:1-23, NLT, In this parable, Jesus teaches about the farmer scattering seed.
Jesus concludes in verse 23 by saying, 23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s Word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
It is crucial we understand the indispensable and vital Truth contained within this teaching of Jesus.
Why is it that a goodhearted Christian can attend service after service and hear sermon after sermon and still live a life of only partial freedom?
It seems no matter what is taught, what they hear, or what they read, they continue to strive, and struggle. Living a life that is dependent upon circumstances more than The Cornerstone and what He paid for.
There's a constant need for prayer. Like, if I could just get past this one hurdle or this season. Having the type of mentality that says, once things get lined up, everything will be better.
Well, I've got Good News for you! This isn't the Gospel.
Jesus teaches in in Matthew, Chapter 10 that things won't go perfect and we will be persecuted plain and simple.
This doesn't mean that we won't walk in the blessings of God. But it does mean, we don't become Christians to have a better day or for our well being.
We become Christians to become all that Jesus died for and for the glory of God's great name.
So what is the priceless treasure found in Matthew 13? It is this.
We must truly hear, understand, and apply The Word of God!
When we truly hear, we truly comprehend and to truly comprehend is to truly understand. Then because we truly understand, our hearing and understanding are set together in our mind in such a way that it becomes who we are and this will be evident by the fruit, from our lives lived.
God can teach us and we can even learn the hard way. But, the best way is to simply trust The Holy Spirit of God to help, hear, understand, and then apply The Word of God in our lives.
What this doesn't mean?
It doesn't mean we just wait around for special revelation from our relationship with God before,
We become proactive with His unchanging Word.
The only way for us to grow in Freedom, Understanding, and Truth is to start applying it in our lives.
Want to remember a sermon. Live it!
Want to hear a teaching and gain something worth while from it. Apply it!
Want to walk in Freedom. Become it!
Then, because you apply it, live it, and become it!
You can share with others how to apply, live, and become.
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a Christian neurologist of over 30 years, and has given insight into this way of thinking, and the takeaway is this.
Your non conscious is what's running you and your outlook on life. To set ideas into our non conscious, it takes daily repetition for 2-3 21 day cycles.
Basically, it takes 21 days at 5-10 minutes a day focusing on one thought of Truth to start rewiring our toxic thought key patterns.
By doing this for 21 to 30 days, you're creating new neural pathways and destroying old ones.
Then after 63 days of renewing your mind in a specific area, you will have replaced one old way of thinking with one new way of thinking.
We see this type of training in the Army Reserves and Army where basic training takes (10 weeks), Navy (7 to 9 weeks), Air force (8 to 9 weeks), National Guard (10 weeks), and the Marines who have the longest and toughest basic training at (13 weeks).
They have one objective in mind. Replace your old way of thinking with a new way of thinking.
Jesus taught much on these subjects. Taking every thought captive, renewing our minds daily, getting rid of the old and replacing it with the new and so on.
Now, I would like to give you an example from my life lived and how a teaching, sermon, and The Word of God can become more of who we are.
I have heard many teachings, and sermons undoubtedly just like you.
But, it's the one's we hear, understand, and apply that stay with us for life.
I once heard a teaching about making ourselves available to God and others. It was about how so many of us pray for God to open doors, and bring people to us. Then when He does, we're too busy with other things.
An example was given.
The Example: What if you opened your garage door and moved everything out into the driveway so you could clean and rearrange everything in your garage. Then someone walked up your driveway in the middle of your mess and asked for help with there mess?
Would you drop everything, spend 20 minutes putting it all back in the garage, so that you could help this person you have been praying that God would bring to you, or would you only help if it was convenient for you?
So, I heard and understood. We need to make ourselves available to those who need us.
I had an interesting thought.
I had made plans to clean my garage this weekend before hearing this teaching and mentioned to God wouldn't it be funny if this happened to me.
Then I went a step further. I told God I would always try to make myself available if He brought someone to me He wanted to reach, and that if He marched someone up my driveway this weekend, I would pack it all up and help them because they're more important than my “To Do list”.
To make a long story short, He did exactly that.
A young man walked up in my driveway crying. He said he felt like his life was falling apart and his car had just broken down around the corner.
He noticed my garage door was up and figured I might be able to help. I proceeded to pack everything up so that I could help him.
He couldn't believe that I was willing to pack it all up and take the time to help a perfect stranger.
The result was this.
The young man's car was repaired, we prayed for some things going on in his life, and he made a decision to receive and follow Jesus Christ.
The point of the story is this. I heard, understood, and applied The Word of God in my life and because of this, it is now part of who I am.
Although, God had to direct someone to walk-up in my driveway for me to understand this simple Truth, I now understand that we should never wait for this type of circumstance.
Instead, we should always be looking for opportunities to apply The Word we've heard,
In the understanding that The Holy Spirit has given us,
So we can walk in freedom
and
Enjoy this great adventure with God.
You must hear it,
Understand it,
and
Apply it
or
You're just wasting your time.
You must be willing to pack it all up and make yourself fully available to God.
Because what your willing to give is what you'll get.
Comments
Post a Comment