Know that the Christian anthem song of the year that won many awards was that song, Every Praise is Due Our God. Every word of worship with one accord. That was a good song, but I reached the point where, Theron, if I heard it one more time, I was going to lose my mind.
But I never tire of hearing. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. I like every praise, but it can't hang with that, that there's something about that hymn that ought resonate within your spirit.
Would you pray with me? Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love. But here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. I don't know what else we need to say, oh God, other than thank you for binding our wandering hearts. Thank you for the gift of your word, that goodness that ties us like a fetter.
Lord, I pray now that your Holy Spirit would take complete control of this teaching and preaching moment. That you would find a gracious and merciful way to speak through faulty, frail flesh. And Lord, speak a word of life and clarity and love.
Where someone is struggling, give them hope. Where someone is hurting, God, lift a burden. Where someone is confused, speak an answer. Someone stands at a crossroad, give them discernment.
Lord, when it's all over, said and done, we'll be careful to give your name the glory. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, we do pray. Amen.
I can't hide the excitement I have to share with you what I believe God has pressed in my spirit as a word he would like to speak over our congregation today, and I want you to hear afresh with me what are some of the most popular verses of Scripture. scripture in all the Bible and arguably some of the most popular by the pen of the Apostle Paul. If you go to the back of your Bible to those letters written by Paul, you'll find that after you get out of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and in John and get through that book of history of the Acts, you get this segment of Paul's writings.
And for those who do not know, they are ordered according to their length. And so the reason Romans is before Corinthians or Philippians is simply because Romans is longer. As you navigate through the length of those books, you'll find Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, the book of Philippians. And in the third chapter, there are some...
some very familiar words to some of us who've been in church for any appreciable amount of time. If you would find yourself in the third chapter of the book of Philippians, I want to read in your hearing beginning in verse number 12 by the New King James Version of God's Holy Word. We ask those who are physically able, if you would stand with us, that together we might reverence the reading and the authority of God's Holy Word from Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse number 12. Hear these familiar words of the Old Testament.
the Apostle Paul. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected. But I press on. That I lay me hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren and sisters.
I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind. And reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press, somebody say press, toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I. Press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
You may be seated for the time that is ours. I want to talk and teach from the thought pressing for progress. Pressing for progress.
As some of you may be aware, especially if you have young children, there's a little epidemic of the flu that is going around. That flu found the Wesley household last week. Both of my sons contracted the flu and were down and out.
for a little bit. Deuce didn't get it as bad as Cooper. Cooper had to stay home one Friday.
Wasn't feeling well, complaining of a sore throat and wrestling with a mild fever. Judy, I had to do a funeral that day. I came to church and after the funeral, I ran home to see how Cooper was doing.
I had to do a funeral that day. I came to church and after the funeral, I ran home to see how Cooper was doing. I had to do a funeral that day. I came to church and after Cooper was doing, and to my surprise and dismay and even disappointment, his temperature was now hovering right around 103, because my mother decided she wasn't going to give him the medicine I'd left out for her to give him. So when I got home, I found my youngest child, lethargic, burning up with fever, laying in the bed.
I did immediately what any parent knows to do. I called the pediatrician and got an appointment scheduled. I needed to take him in to see the doctor.
I gave him some medicine to try to break the fever, but Mark, it didn't take hold right away, and we rushed out to the pediatrician's office, and there I am carrying my youngest child into the doctor's office. He's lethargic. He's got a fever of 103, no energy, burning hot.
Signed in, and they made us sit down and wait. That didn't sit well with my spirit. My child had a fever of 103. He's lethargic.
He is on fire. You need to see my child right now. They made us wait for a few moments, and Brother Henry, after a while, I decided that I was going to let the nurse know, no, I'm not waiting any longer. Y'all are going to see my child right now. So they ushered us into the back.
I thought we were going to see the doctor. No, they had the audacity. to take us to another room where a nurse took my child with 103 fever.
Asked him to take his shoes off and get up on the scale so that they could weigh and measure him. Hold up, Paul, stop, rewind. I brought my child in here with a fever of 103. I didn't bring him in here for y'all to weigh him and measure him.
He's sick. He needs to see the doctor. I don't care how much he weighs.
I'm not here to see if he needs to get on a diet. I don't care how tall he is. I didn't bring him here to see if he's going to play in the NBA. He's got a fever of 103. You all are wasting precious time measuring and weighing him when I just want him to see the doctor. I started to complain.
How dare you waste my time with a sick child with a fever of 103 weighing and measuring. And the nurse said, Mr. Wesley, every time he comes, before he sees the doctor, we weigh and measure him. So we can compare that to his last visit because we know that if he's not growing, something is wrong.
that health is attached to growth and that before you see the doctor we've got to measure your growth so that we'll know if you're healthy now you're slow on sunday because you think i'm still at the pediatrician's office i just slid up in the sanctuary because before you would see god There's some measuring that has to happen. Where the God we serve wants to know, are you growing? Because a sign of your health is your growth and you ought to be growing in God.
Every time you cross the doors of the sanctuary, the Lord wants to measure and see, have you grown since the last time you were up in here? Can I preach and teach this morning? It is the expectation of God that you would grow in your walk with him. It's the expectation of God that day after day, season after season, month after month of your life, that your walk with God would be deeper, your knowledge of God would be more foundational in faith, your understanding of the things of God would grow stronger and stronger, that every time you come into the doors of the church, you ought to come in stronger this Sunday than you did last Sunday.
It was never the desire nor the design of God. For you to stay at the elementary entry levels of salvation. That wherever your understanding of the Lord was and the closeness of your walk with him when you got saved, it was the expectation of God that you would grow from that point.
God never wants you to become stagnant and sterile in one place of discipleship. It is God's divine expectation of growth that leads to the disappointment of the writer of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews is trying to address some Christological confusion, some doctrinal division, some theological... teaching that needs to happen and when you read through the book of Hebrews when you get to the end of chapter five in the beginning of chapter six you'll find the writer expresses some disgust with those to whom he's writing he says listen y'all have some problems and your biggest problem is that you're at the same place with God today as you were when I first met you.
And so now I can't teach you the deep things of God because y'all haven't grown. He said, listen, by now, your faith should be stronger. By now, your understanding of the Lord ought to be greater.
By now, your witness to the world ought to be evident. By now, you ought to know more than Jesus wept. By now, there ought to be some questions about God that you put some final and firm answers to, and you aren't wrestling with anymore. By now, your faith ought to be strong enough that there's some things you can endure without even breaking a sweat.
By now, you should have grown in God, and it is a shame to be in the same place with the Lord today that you were back then. Yeah, yeah, that's the message of Jesus. when he runs up on the disciples who've been fishing all night and they're packing up their nets jesus says what have you caught peter says lord we didn't get anything and the command of jesus is launch out in the deep because your problem is that you're still fishing in shallow And you didn't caught everything you can catch in shallow waters. But the next harvest of God requires that you launch out into deeper areas in your walk with God because that's where God has the next blessing.
for your life. The Lord says every now and then you got to get out of the shallow stuff of sanctification and wash out into the deep waters of growing with God. I feel like I'm in Bible territory.
you'll remember that certain versions of the gospels jesus feeds the multitude with the breaking the bread not once but twice and in the first instance he blesses 5 000 folk with bread and fish and then the bible says a little bit later he comes back and he blesses 4,000 with more bread and more fish. And Jesus is upset because the same disciples who saw him bless 5,000, when he gets to 4,000, they're still asking questions about how he did it. And the word of Jesus, hold on.
How can you have seen what I've done in the past and you still have questions about what I'm doing right now? By now, after everything I've done and everything you've seen and everything I brought you through and everything I blessed you with and everything I performed in your life, there ought to be some stuff does not cause any question in your life because you've grown so much with God that there's some things I understand better today. So I came by to ask you a question. As I measure you at the door of the sanctuary, are you growing? As a matter of fact, I want you to be a preacher for a minute.
Find that neighbor that looks like they don't want you to talk to them. And ask them, say, are you growing? Now, I know it's Sunday, you're sanctified, you're in the sanctuary, so you want to lie and say yes. But how do you know you're growing? Are you really growing in God?
Are you just going through the motions of church? Are you growing in your walk with the Lord? Or is Jesus just an extracurricular put on your resume next to your fraternal commitments?
Are you growing in your understanding of the Lord? Are you still at a wanna level? How do you know you're growing?
How do we measure the growth we ought to have in our discipleship? How do we measure the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Mark, I just finished reading a book called Reveal, and in it, the author suggests that in every Christian congregation, saints of God fall in one of four categories.
They say in every church, there are four groups of Christians. See which one you fall in. They say at the entry level, there are those who are exploring Christ.
And those who are in the church who have not made a full and final commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, you're still testing the waters, you're still trying to figure out if this Jesus thing is for you, you're still just trying to figure out whether church ought to be part of your agenda or not, and you haven't really made a commitment. You're just kind of exploring Christ. So after that, there's a group that's growing in Christ. There are those who made a commitment to Jesus Christ, but now you're trying to figure out what it means, trying to live it out, trying to grow in it. You own a Bible now.
You put a cross up next to your bed. You've got some oil in your purse. You're trying to grow in the Lord. But you're not fully sold out yet. You're saved, but you ain't delivered from everything.
You got one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world. And every now and then you vacillate between which one you want to be, a citizen or a disciple. So then there are those who are close to Christ.
Those who made a full and final commitment to Jesus Christ. You pray daily. You read your Bible every now and then.
You worship regularly. You serve. Then the final category, those who are centered in Christ. Those who are exploring, those who are growing, those who are close, and those who are centered.
These are the folk that are so sold out for Jesus. They don't want to do anything in their life that the Lord isn't blessing. These are the folk that pray about every decision you've got to make. These are the folk that don't want to wear an outfit on Monday that the Lord didn't sanctify and bless on Sunday night.
These are the folk who everything in their life revolves around obedience to the will and the word of God. Which category are you in? Exploring, growing, close, or centered? And the author suggests that there really is no indictment to identify where you are.
There's nothing wrong with exploring Christ. There's nothing wrong with being growing in Christ. There's nothing wrong to be close to Christ.
But the objective of every saint. ought to be to press your way into a deeper relationship with the Lord. That no matter where you are today, you ought to have a goal in your life that tomorrow you will be closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. than you were today that tomorrow your life would be more pleasing to God than it was today that tomorrow your relationship with God would be stronger than it is today that every day you wake up every season of your life you ought to be pressing your way to progress in your walk with God because a relationship with God is always progressive You ought to be moving from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from knowledge to knowledge. You ought to be getting deeper in your walk with the Lord, stronger in your commitment to Jesus Christ, more overtaken by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, deeper in your knowledge of the word, serving more, loving more, showing the love of God.
You ought to be growing and pressing. That's what Paul understood when he writes to the church in Philippi. he in essence says i can't stay in this place where i am with the lord i have learned how to press my way Into the next level of my relationship with God. Paul in writing to this church. These famous words about I press.
If you continue to read Paul. You'll see that he understands that. That there really are.
Two obstacles. That will keep you from growing in God. There are two things that will.
Diminish your desire. To push and press your way. Beyond where you are.
Two things that will make you comfortable. In any place you are with God. And cause you not to push.
Push and press towards a deeper relationship with the Lord. Two things. that'll keep you stayed and stagnant right where you are. Can I show you what they are?
Paul says the first thing that'll keep you where you are is past progress. That you can become complacent with how far you've come. That you're no longer pressing to where you need to go.
I'm convinced, Dr. Olson, that most people, when they use Philippians 3, these verses 12, 13, and 14, they use them out of context. Because oftentimes when you hear people say, forgetting those things which are behind and pressing and reaching towards those things which are ahead, people are talking about forgetting some stuff in their past that they ought to forget. Some mistakes I made that I want to leave back there. Some mess I created that I'm walking away from.
Most times when we use this passage, we talk about getting away from some sinful behavior, from some fatal flaw, from some iniquitous behavior, from something that we know we should not do. But I'm letting it go because the Lord is giving me another chance. And I'm moving on into greater things than God.
And that's well and good that you ought to leave behind some stuff in your past. There ought to be some things you're not allowed yourself to be held hostage by. Don't allow the devil to send someone in your life with a gift of memory to keep you from moving on in the things of God.
Because all they want to do is remind you of what you used to be. No, there's some stuff you ought to leave behind. But when Paul says it, Paul is not talking about some sordid past.
He's not referring to some mistakes he's made. As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. If you read Paul in chapter 3, he's not talking about a messed up past. The past he's talking about is a glorious one filled with accolades and sanctified trophies. Paul says this, listen, church in Philippi, y'all don't know who you're dealing with.
I am Paul, a Jew of the Jews, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the... faith day a Pharisee according to the law trained at the feet of Gamaliel I was a religious brother I have come a long way and Paul says I've got to learn to put my past progress behind me because you can become so satisfied with how far you've come that you fail to see how far you have yet to go I'm preaching to some folk right now, some folk who can testify today the Lord has brought you a mighty long way. Ooh wee, your life is different today than it was five years ago.
Praise be to God. The Lord has wrought a change in your life. Here you sit on Sunday morning talking about, I don't do what I used to do. I don't go where I used to go. I don't hang with the folk I used to hang with.
And glory, hallelujah to the Lamb of God, the fact that you don't do what you used to do and don't hang where you used to hang and don't run where you used to run, but have you failed to realize you have not crossed the finish line of the desire God has for who you ought to be in your life? How long, how long you gonna brag about the fact you don't go where you used to go? Cause it's closed. Saints of God, I don't do what I used to do.
You got arthritis, you can't. I don't run with the people I don't used to run with. They passed away.
And most of the hypocrisy and the judgment, the self-righteousness that exists in the contemporary church exists from those who are so content with past progress that they feel that they can judge others who have not attained the level that they have, not failing to realize it. Realize that you have not crossed the finish line of your walk with the Lord either. And that the Lord has another assignment for you. And the Lord has more growth in you. And the Lord has some more work he's doing in you.
That's why the songwriters say, please be patient with me. Because God. God ain't through with me yet.
Does anybody here today know God ain't through with you yet? I know you've come a long way, but you still got some work to do. There's still some things God has called you to do.
There's still some maturing you got to do. There's still some growing you got to do. There's still some changing you got to do.
There's still some maturing in God. I've got to keep pressing. Don't get caught up in past progress.
Paul says, listen, the one thing that'll keep you from growing is past progress. He says there's another thing that'll keep you from growing, you ready? Your religious resume.
Paul is bragging and boasting about his religious criteria and credentials and recognizes that it is absolutely easy to convince yourself that being religious means you're growing in God. Oh, and I know, I know this is going to be a shock to some of you, but there's some folk who are religious and ain't got an ounce of Jesus in their heart. Don't look down your pew. That, that was so wrong. That was so wrong.
There's some people who are at church every Sunday and as ugly and nasty as you've ever want to meet. Being religious does not mean you're growing in God. Hear me, discipleship development cannot be measured with Sunday statistics. You can't measure your growth in Christ by church criteria.
As a matter of fact, it's the exact opposite. One sign of spiritual immaturity are people who pervert the purpose and the place and the priority of church in the life of a believer. They want to suggest that all of our sanctification exists within this. place that this ought to be the full and complete measure of your walk in God that how you act in church and what you do in the sanctuary and how many ministries you're committed to is a sign of how much you're growing in God that is a sign of spiritual immaturity hear me it is a spiritually immature person that gets disgusted when they come to church and expect to find what they don't bring Yeah. Ooh.
It is immature to expect that the church collectively can be more than the sum of its parts. And so you expect the church and people in the church to exhibit a level of maturity that you don't have. So you get upset, it's folk in church are hypocrites, you a hypocrite.
You get upset because someone didn't speak, you don't speak. The church can never be collectively more than what you are as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And if you are not growing in your walk with the Lord, if you are not getting deeper with God every day, if you are not drawing closer to the Lord, how do you expect the church to manifest a level of maturity that you don't even bring? The perversion of church by the spiritually mature exists when they believe that church is the primary place of worship. God never intended church to be your primary place of worship.
That worship, the first place God commands and calls it, is by your bedside under the roof that you live in. Hear me. And what church ought to be is a place where on the weekend, watch this, we perform what we've been practicing at home. You just missed that. That I don't come to church to do something here that I've not been doing all week long and church is better when you're just performing what you have practiced.
Now, now, now I understand why half the folk who come to church can never say amen. I get why some of y'all come and never feel the Holy Ghost. I understand now why you can never raise your hand and never say hallelujah and never bless God with all your strength, because you ain't done it at home. And you don't know how to do it on Sunday, because you never did it at home.
Oh, but there's some folk who wake up every morning. I don't need a choir. I don't need a preacher. I don't need a sanctuary. I'll bless God with sleep in my eye.
And when I come to church, I'm just doing on Sunday what I've been doing all week long. Is there anybody here that practices praising at home? Is there anybody here that worships at your bedside? Paul says you got to press beyond your past progress. Don't get caught up with your religious resume.
So how do I measure my growth, pastor? By what criteria do I look at my life and see, am I growing? How do I set a goals for growing in God?
Well, let me give you a few things God weighs when you come to church before you see the doctor. I'll tell you what the nurse measures to find out if you're growing or not. A few things. Number one. your sacrifice for Christ, how much you give up for the will of God in your life.
I am convinced that one of the indictments against contemporary Christianity is that we have become a crossless faith. Now, but by that I don't mean that we don't preach the cross anymore. Because in any good Baptist church, sooner or later the sermon will find its way to the cross. I mean, it ain't really Baptist if we don't get our early Sunday morning in there somewhere.
We can start off in Abraham, but we gonna end on Calvary. We can preach the cross. The problem is not that the cross is missing from our homiletics and our sermons. The problem is that the cross is missing from our daily discipleship. Here's what Jesus said.
If any man or woman would come after me. Let them deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow me. The discipleship is cross-carrying. Discipleship is sacrificial living. Discipleship is self-denial.
Discipleship is not about getting and gaining. It's about putting down. It's about sacrificing.
That was the problem with that heretical prosperity that infected Christianity in the mid and late 90s that suggested that your walk with God ought to be measured by what you drive and how you live as somehow affluence and anointing. hand in hand when Jesus says no that's not how you measure your walk with God it's not the bend you drive it's not the boo you have it's not the budget of your sanctuary in your church it's how much you lay down for the cause of Jesus Christ how much you give up how much you walk away from how much you say no to yourself that you might say yes to the will of God that you don't spend all you make But you don't get a promotion and go get bigger, better, and newer. But you learn to take that and freely sacrifice it into the kingdom of God. If there's no sacrifice, God cannot be honored in our lives. We've got to learn to live sacrificially, which means that everything we could do, we don't do.
Everything I could buy, I don't buy. Everything I could have, I don't get. Do you really need another dress?
Did you see how quiet it got? I mean, someone was like, Rev, I was with you, but... And I don't know how the Holy Spirit convicts you of it, but every day I want you to ask the question.
Have I made a sacrifice for Christ today? Have I given up something? Did I deny myself something? The problem that leads to so much iniquity within the body of Christ is that we know how to tell other folk no, but you don't know how to tell yourself no.
Some things I've got to say no to. My sacrifice for Christ. Number two, my sharing of Christ. Beloved, we are under divine assignment to share and sow the good news of Jesus Christ into the lives of those who don't know him. Don't you know discipleship is under commission?
We live under the great commission to go and make disciples and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Lord calls and commands us to do more than invite people to church. We are called to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ and his presence and his love in our lives.
We ought to share Jesus. with the world around us, that we ought to influence non-believers to want to come and know Jesus Christ. We ought to live our lives in a way that people declare there's something strange about him, there's something peculiar about her.
She doesn't give in like they do. He doesn't cuss like they do. She stands strong under pressure.
He makes it in the time of trial that we live our lives in such a way that Jesus Christ is seen in us and we draw people to the cross of Christ. We are called to be witnesses that through us others ought to come to one and know him as the Lord and Savior that we all share our testimony. And I'm not just saying going into your office and telling folk how the Lord has blessed you.
No, I'm going in and talking about telling them that I was once a sinner, that my life was spiraling out. of control and one day by the grace of God I fell on my knees and I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior and he has changed my life and baby if he could change my life he is well able to change your life come on and let's pray that God would enter your heart let's pray that Jesus would reign on the throne of your life we've got to be witnesses of Jesus Christ I know what you're saying, somebody today, you know you're supposed to share Jesus, but here's what the devil's told you, well you haven't been to seminary, and what if they ask you some questions you can't answer? what if they want to know some biblical questions and that that's that's why you just divert to taking folk to church well i'm i'm sending the church and i'm gonna pass to deal with it and they'll send dr judy an email she got a phd she'll answer it and so you you don't share christ because you're afraid that you'll be exposed for what you don't know let me tell you something sharing christ is not about answering people's questions Sharing Christ is real simple.
It's about being excited and expressive about the presence of Jesus in your life. I can't explain everything. I don't have every answer, but he means the world to me. That he's changed my life and I'm excited. One of the ways you witness Jesus and share him is real simple.
It's real simple. Let the name Jesus come out of your mouth. It's that simple.
That's why I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed as Cleopatra when I watch award shows. People get up talking about giving honor to God. Anybody knows there's a God.
I'm impressed. You get up and say, I want to thank Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. that we name his name because here's the reality saints whatever you're excited about you talk about whatever you're embarrassed of you keep quiet i'll give you an example two weeks ago i had a lot to say about football And today I'm just so glad college basketball's in season, I don't know what to do. When you're excited, you talk. When you're embarrassed, and when we don't mention his name, when we don't speak his name, when his name does not come freely across our lips, we are guilty of what Jesus said in Mark 8, that if you are ashamed of me in this generation.
I will be ashamed of you in my father's presence. How much you sacrifice for Christ, how much you share Christ. Can I give you the third way that God measures you before you walk in?
How much you show the love of Christ. Here's what Jesus says in John 13. It's real simple. Says in John 13 verse 35, here's how people will know you are my disciples.
Not by your Sunday dress. Not by how many scriptures you can quote. Not by how many Sundays you come to church. They will know you're my disciples by your love. That we are called to show the love of Christ to those who are unlovable.
To those who don't look like us, don't think like us. Don't smell like us. Jesus said it's easy to love folk who love you.
Even the Pharisees can do that. And you know Jesus didn't have no love for the Pharisees. He says, but the real measure is your being able to freely express love to people around you.
That we show that love of Jesus Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, when he's talking about spiritual gifts, he says, now we get through all the gifts. The top three now by this faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. I don't understand Byron folk who say their Holy Ghost filled in me.
How can you be Holy Ghost filled and be selfish? The Holy Spirit leads you into opportunities to share love with people. For my own self, I've told you that one of the things I've begun praying about and I do, I put aside $20 every week and I tell the Lord, listen, I want you to put on my heart someone in my world who I encounter, who I can give this $20 to. I've started... new thing that if I'm out and I run into some members and it's a restaurant I can afford to, I buy the meal for the member and I leave before they know it because I just like showing love to people.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day. I was at a grocery store. store and there's a woman who was behind me and she got to the checkout and she started taking groceries out of her bag and she was going through coupons and looking at her at her wick card and the Lord really spoke to my heart and said buy her groceries so I turned around said sister I want to buy your groceries I don't want none from you I don't want your phone number I'm not even going to tell you who I am She said, why you do as I said, because the Lord just put on my heart to show his love to you. Listen, saints, if you begin to pray and ask God to show you opportunities to show his love to people, the Lord will speak to you and reveal opportunities you have to be a.
blessing to others, to be kind to others. You just have to ask God, show me how I can show your love. God measures us by our sacrifice for Christ.
God measures us by how we share Christ. God measures us by how we show the love of Christ. And then God also measures us by how we study the life of Christ.
How much time we spend in our word. In our Bible, hear me, you cannot claim to grow in God and not spend time daily reading the word of God. You've got to hide that word of God in your heart that you might not sin against him. You've got to stay in the scriptures and learn the words of God and read not just verses, but chapters and books of the Bible. You've got to learn how to stay steady in the word of God.
We used to have a saying when I first came here as pastor, and some of you all know it, if you've been here more than five years, you can complete this sentence. Read your Bible. You'll be a better Christian.
That one of the problems that causes deficiency in the Christian life is ignorance of the Word of God. I cannot tell you all the benefits of the word of God in one sermon, but I will tell you that when you know the word of God, it will discourage the doubts in your life. It will deepen your discernment of the things of God. It will put some joy in your heart, some hope in your spirit, some faith in your life, some wisdom in your mind, some stick to it in your hands. Some don't give up in your backbone.
There's just something about knowing the word of God that speaks against the false realities of life. Remind you that God is still able and the Lord will still make a way and God will work it together for your good. And this won't last forever and they shall not win.
And God will heal you of this and God will open that. There's just something about knowing what God is going to do. you've got to spend some time studying the life of christ and let me give you this last one as you get ready to go to sunday school god measures us by our sacrifice for christ god measures us by how we share christ god measures us by showing the love of christ god measures us by studying the life of christ and finally god measures us by our silent time with christ nothing will grow you more Then prayer time with God. Nothing will change your life more than increasing your prayer time. And I can make this statement as an indictment against everyone in this sanctuary and under the sound of my voice today without fear of contradiction.
Everybody I'm talking to, including myself, you need to pray more than you do. That nothing is a deeper expression of our faith. than the time we spend with God in prayer.
And prayer is the sign that your life is changing and growing with God. Can I give you a side order of scripture? You remember in Acts chapter 9, we meet a brother by the name of Saul. He's on the road to Damascus. He's getting ready to go kill Christians.
The Holy Spirit interrupts. His life is changed. He's now known as Paul.
God has an assignment on his life. but in order to train Paul the Lord has to send Ananias to him and when the Holy Spirit tells Ananias to go see Saul Ananias goes oh no I know who he used to be and this is how the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus convinces Ananias that Saul has changed he says he's praying now that's all you need to know is that he's praying now and since he's praying he's being changed since he's praying he's growing in god since he's praying he's drawing closer to jesus since he's praying his life is being turned around prayer changes your life If I can be honest with you, prayer is the only thing you do that lets God know that you know he's real. Let me say that again. I want to make sure you tweet it right.
Prayer is the only thing you do that lets God know that you know God is real. Someone's saying, well, while I come to church, an atheist can come to church. I bought a Bible. An agnostic can buy a Bible.
I sing the hymn, a monkey can hold a hymn book. The only thing that really proves you know God is real. is when you bow down on your knees and you close your eyes and you begin to talk to a god you've never seen because you believe that he is real and that he hears your prayers and that he will answer and make a way it is the greatest expression of faith when you pray and prayer will grow you so much watch this that the devil will interfere with your prayer life you more than anything else you try to do in God.
Hear me, I said this last night. I want you to take note of this. You will never grow in prayer if you only pray when you feel you need to pray.
Say it again, Pastor. If you only pray when you need to pray, you're never going to grow in prayer because that means you only pray when you want God to do something, when you done got yourself in some trouble. Well, you need the Lord to get you out like right now. But you grow when you create a time in your day, every day, where you kneel down in prayer.
And the best time is early in the morning. Can I give you a challenge and a charge? Before you check your phone to see what emails came through last night, Before you turn in turn on the today show cnn sports center that you bow down and spend time with god in prayer and watch how much the devil will interfere with your prayer time So you set it up, Norman, every morning at 6.30, watch how much hell break loose at 6.25.
Work gotta get done. You hear there's a traffic backlog on 495, gotta get out the house. Kids sick. Spouse roll over. Hey, baby.
I said spouse. The devil will more easily allow you to come to church than develop a prayer life because it's hard to develop a deep prayer life. Because the devil knows if you start praying, your life is going to grow closer to the Lord. Let me give you a good word of encouragement, though.
I have started to really make some health changes in my life. I realize that genetically I'm fighting the presence of prostate cancer in men in my family. And so I decided I was really going to make some changes in my life, doing a lot of things differently, trying to rest more, eating better, getting my... fibrin, drinking 100 plus ounces of water a day, working out religiously now, trying to just really maintain the temple that God has given me.
And the problem with me with working out is that I get bored with certain workouts. After a while, it's just not fun anymore. And so the other day, I lost a bet to a friend.
And as a result, I had to go take a yoga class. I'm going to a yoga class. And I just got to let you know, my expectations were really low.
Because I'm a dude. I'm a black dude. Right? So yoga really ain't high on my list of athletic endeavors.
I mean, if it ain't got a ball, it's not a sport. If don't nobody win, you can't talk trash, which means it ain't fun. So, you know, I go to yoga class and show up, and the lady asks what I'm there for. I say, I'm here to do yoga.
She's like, no, no, we don't do yoga. We practice yoga. All right, I'm here to practice yoga.
She said, oh, we're so excited, you know, come on in, and she takes me in and rolls the mat out, and I'm looking around, I already know how this is going to go now, because I'm the only one that looks like me in the room, you know, and I figured, yo, this is going to be a breeze, the easiest 90 minutes of my life, this is yoga, ain't nothing to do. this. I mean, you know, you gotta know I'm a dude, so I ain't taking no intro yoga.
That's for, you know, I'm intermediate, you know what I mean? I'm strong, you know. I can bench press 225, you know, I'm good. I get up in there, we start off with the breathing. That was cool.
I got the breathing. That was easy. They put us in this pole called Savasana.
You just lay down. I'm like, oh, I got this. I like this.
We warming up, feeling all good, and then... Tina, they start getting in poses that I don't think you're supposed to get in. I mean, one leg over here, the other leg over there. Folk bent over backwards.
Got their head all between their legs, coming out on the other side. You know, I'm looking at some of the posts and I'm like, man, all y'all must work for Cirque du Soleil because I don't understand how you get in some of these positions. I'm looking at it and pop, there's something that got in. I was like, nah, that ain't going to happen today. Not me.
I don't know. So here I am. I'm struggling. I mean, I'm trying to get in some of these poses. I'm falling.
I'm stumbling. And to make it worse, there are these four sisters in the front. And, I mean, they getting into all these poses easily. I mean, they got this thing called the eagle tree leg wrapped around one another, and they just standing there on one foot.
And then they got this one-foot stand. They got a leg crossing. They squat down, and they got one leg, and got the leg all back up here.
You know, I'm trying, I'm trying, and the teacher's trying to be helpful. I'm sitting in Japanese style, trying to sit back. And she's like, get down low. I said, baby, this is as low as I can go.
You know, and my ego took a hit, you know, because of these four sisters up front. And I mean, they're doing this thing easily. So when the class is over, you know, I'm trying to pack up and get out of there before someone recognizes me and I feel embarrassed. One of the ladies walked by, she said, you did good for your first day. I said, I don't know how you can get all this.
I said, that must just be because women are more flexible that you all can get in these positions easier than men. She said, well, part of that's true. She said, but hear me. The more you practice, the easier it gets. It's hard when you first start, but the more you practice, the easier it gets.
It's uncomfortable and you can't get in the right positions when you start, but the more you practice, the easier it gets. You become intimidated and humbled when you first start, but the more you practice, the easier it gets. The more you practice, the easier it gets.
Developing a prayer life is hard, but let me give you some lessons from yoga. The more you practice, y'all are quick, the easier it gets. Make sacrifices for Christ.
Openly share Christ, show the love of Christ, study the life of Christ, and spend silent time with Christ. That's when you know you're pressing and progressing.