Craving Maturity in Christ Part 3
Craving Maturity in Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Walk and Talk Like a Man
Walk and Talk Like a Man
Please understand that my sovereign assignment is to prepare the Bride of Christ. It is not to prepare the church institutionally, financially, politically, culturally, socially, or in any other form other than spiritually. Every sermon, every ministry group, event or effort, every prophetic word, every prayer, everything is directed towards that end, the spiritual health, wellbeing and maturity of the Body of Christ. Pastoring is not my retirement plan, my healthcare plan, my financial wealth management plan. The Word of God, logos or rhema, is not to support my ideology, opinions, politics or presuppositions. It is to call people to repentance, train them in the way of the Lord, uphold it’s integrity, and proclaim His glory, not mine or any others. It is not to appease my own agenda, ego, or ambitions. My initial intention in serving the Lord and His Kingdom was to build a safe place in Christ to raise my children, build my marriage and fulfill my sovereign assignment. In the process, serving the Lord has confronted me, challenged me, exposed me, scared me, frustrated me, and at times made me weary or even a little angry. But denying myself and taking up my own cross daily, giving the Lord my whole life, pursuing Him passionately, and serving Him with gladness, has grown me, preserved me, matured me and driven me deeper into the wonder and knowledge of my God and my faith in Him. I can understand the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:11:
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
We are men and women created in the image of God, fashioned by His hands, from His heart and given His breath. However, it seems this world, with all it’s animosity towards the Creator, would seek to convince us otherwise. There are those who would put the burden of proof of His existence and our identity on us, in light of their foolishness. So, why would I give up the absolute, transcendent, evidential knowledge of God to embrace the foolishness of this world? As well, why would I trade the life of love, joy, peace, righteousness and favor of God for anything, any ideology, or any lifestyle this sinful world has to offer?
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Others reject Christ because they do not know God. Some, who say they “know God”, reject the fully living Christ because they have convinced themselves of their own doctrines and theologies about who God is.
A.W. Tozer stated, "I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion."
It is amazing how the flesh craves the foolishness of sin and leads the soul to destruction. Yet, all the while the spirit of man longs to know God. If you really want to redirect the trajectory of your life, choose differently the decisions you make in how you live and who you choose to be.
I am not saying it is going to be easy. It usually is costly. Thus, the reason Jesus said that to truly follow Him will cost you the world but will gain you eternal life and the salvation of your soul.
God will not heal what you will not surrender completely. For the surgeon to facilitate healing, we must lay down ourselves and yield to his unique knowledge and experience. Virtual or implied removal of a cancer is non-effective. The cancer will continue to eat away in you unless God heals you.
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
Christ came to heal your soul, transform your life and give you identity as sons and daughters of God. We were created to walk and talk as people of faith., transformed by the Spirit of God who now abides in us. “We are redeemed by Him and transformed from spiritually dead objects of flesh - walking and talking according to the crudest animal instincts - into redeemed living testimonies of His nature that is alive in us” (Dr. Woody Tolleson).
Just because I can bark like a dog does not make me a dog. How I walk and talk are reflective of who I am and where I am in life. The older I get the slower and shorter my steps may get. But I will never walk or run again like I did in my teen years. Nor will I ever get down on my hands and knees and decide to walk like a dog from here on out. In fact, in my more mature years I ask why I should run before running for no real reason. And if a wild dog is chasing me and you, all I need to do is muster enough to out run you.
How I walk and talk now are reflective of the redeemed and transformed life I have lived, am living, and will live as a true citizen of the Kingdom Heaven. I am not talking about physical living but spiritual living. I am talking about my spiritual walk and my spiritual talk. We were saved and redeemed by Christ to walk and talk like the Son of Man.
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Have you ever tasted some really good pizza? Before you know it you have eaten that good flavor until you are stuffed. If you have really tasted of the goodness of God, you cannot get enough of Him. Unfortunately, we are more conditioned by our flesh than our spirits. Conditioning is a real principle of life. Everything from our thinking to our way of living is often the result of how we have been conditioned by those around us. Athletes must condition their bodies, minds and spirits to achieve their goals. And if they just sit on the couch eating potato chips, that is a form of conditioning as well. It’s just bad form. If a man or woman desires to become or succeed at anything, the first thing they have to recondition is the way they think and perceive things around and within them. They begin to change the way they make decisions. They start making different choices, changing habits, and redirecting their focus and desires. They look at those who live the way they desire or have succeeded at that they wish to succeed at and start movement in that direction changing what needs to be changed and embracing what needs to be embraced.
Unfortunately, many see the benefits of living for Christ but are unwilling to count the cost of Christ. As a result, they easily fall away when the going gets tough. I would rather tough this life out in Christ than to try and tough it out on my own with the world. If you stay the course on the path of Christ, following in His walk, you will persevere, He will complete what He started in you, your faith will grow and you will be found lacking in nothing emotionally, mentally, spiritually, relationally and even in other areas of life.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If you will focus on allowing Christ and His Word to transform you spiritually, you will see Him produce the fruit of it in every area of your life. The trials and testings that we experience now not only refer to sinful allures but to hardships in life, opposition to truth, and our flesh growing weary, discouraged or dis-illusioned. Other testings and trials would include those which try our faithfulness, contentment and character in Christ and His workings in us. To count it all joy is to count Christ as the highest calling in all of these. This is the mature walk that effects the mature talk of the sure believer and follower of Christ.
Oswald Chambers said, “Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Some people mature into an understanding of God’s will more quickly than others because they obey more readily; they more readily sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God.”
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
What does God call a mature man or woman of God? What is His definition, His measure? The Apostle John just laid it out for us:
Stop sinning. But if you do, repent. Don’t use Christ’s righteousness as justification to keep sinning. The goal is to “not sin.”
Know your identity in Christ and live that way. He died for everyone’s sin, so the Gospel is not exclusive. All have sinned but by the death and resurrection of Christ we can be forgiven and restored to right relationship with the Father.
Keep His commandments. If we do these things we should then keep His commandments. Those things He calls sin we flee from and get out of our lives. Those things He commanded we do, we apply to our hearts and lives diligently. If we do not live this way but say He is our Savior and Lord, we have deceived ourselves with a lie.
Let His love be perfected in us. If we live in Him and keep His ways, His love grows in us and is perfected in us, even unto others. As such, we are indeed living in Him and He is in us. As a result, our walk (halak) way of life, our journey and our talk changes to reflect His walk and His talk.
In all honesty, I do not always walk and talk like a man of faith. There are days I catch myself walking and talking, not like an old man but like an uncontrolled animal. What I mean is, there are times I have caught myself not walking and talking like Christ. When I am not living in the nature of Christ, I have reverted to that fallen nature which is contrary to the image of the Son of Man and the nature He has redeemed me to.
These are precisely the times when I need the things that my God has provided to alert me, rescue me, lead me out of danger, and bring me back into an even closer walk with Him.
A. His Word – the lamp unto my feet and the light unto my path.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
B. His Spirit – who has transformed every part of my heart, my mind, and my will -
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
C. His true-hearted and faithful people who love Him and who love me enough to fight for me and beside me.
D. Angie, my ezer kneggdo , my soul-friend, my closest partner in the serving the King of kings, my blessing, and my tiqvah (Hb “hope”)
I want to desire and crave the maturity that every moment of every day I am walking and talking more like Jesus.
