Can I Say I'm Growing Part 1

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Here's our hosts Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. probably in driving to see family at this time. But I want to ask you all a question. How many decisions have you made today? How many things have you decided on that you really never thought about? You didn't give it any thought. You just automatically did it because it's something that needed to be done. You didn't have time to think about it. So you just made a decision on it.

Of course, never mind the repercussions that you might experience as a result of that decision, but we make hundreds of decisions every day. And so today's broadcast, we want to talk about not how to grow, but we want to ask the question how do you know you are growing? Because a lot of us have been in the body of Christ for a very, very long time and we've been going to church and we've been listening to the messages, how to grow. We've been talking about Sunday school and Wednesday night Bible study and and we get all of this information and yet we're still babes in Christ. And it reminds me, of course, of Hebrews chapter number 5 verse 12 through 14 where God is blessing through the writer of Hebrews to say, though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. Now that's a sad state to be in if you say someone asked you to question how long you've been born again and you can't even explain to them the basic process that the Word of God calls for in reference to how to be saved. So we want to talk to you today we want to give you a process we want to give you some very good principles biblical principles to know if you are growing so we're not going to talk about how to grow we're going to talk about how do you know if you're growing. So with this we started off by saying all of all of today you were bombarded with information information was all of a sudden just coming in rapidly coming in and you you're deciding on these things but you have to be careful of what you take into your spirit whatever you take into your spirit it's going to generate a seed and if this seed is a seed of bitterness or if it's a seed of hate or if it's a seed of division then it's going to be planted in your inward man and if you give attention and focus to it it's going to begin to grow and it's going to begin to sprout the thing that it was designed to do spread division spread hate spread bitterness spread all of these things that are against the body of Christ so anytime when you bombard it with something you are taking in this information so that's that's the first the first phase if you will or principle is information it's coming in so rapidly but the word of God warns us he warns us in Colossians chapter number 2 and verses 8 through 10 where he says beware lest anyone cheat you or spoil you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of man according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ and of course I'm reading from the New King James Version so this is a warning that all information that comes into your spirit is not good so you want to be able to identify what I'm going to appropriate and what I'm not going to appropriate and if I appropriate it then I've let it go through the Word of God the Word of God has filtered it and now you're you're doing something positive for the kingdom of Jesus Christ you're allowing these things to to blossom but they can also come in a form of man's wisdom and there are some men who are very wily when it comes to words and philosophy and things that you may not know and they can twist things and they can turn things they can make things sound so inviting to you that the next thing you know you you under the impression wow this sounds so good it must be true so you've allowed it to come in not getting full understanding on what it is and the potential damage that it could do to you going forward so that's a warning bit man's tradition there are so many traditions that goes on in the church sometimes I think we have been so traditionalized and we have held to this because we've said from the pastor on down to the usher we've said well you know that old cliche if it's good enough for mom dad grandma grandpa it's good enough for me well I have to ask the question is it really was grandma grandpa mom and dad were they basing the decisions that they were making coming into their spirit and taking in this information were they allowing the Word of God to screen it properly in order for that information to be fruitful and to blossom and to benefit the kingdom of God he goes on to say for in him dwells all the fullness of the God head bodily so we don't want to do things according to the world and we don't want to do taking in things that are going to do us harm or hurt we want to be fruitful and another warning comes from 1st John chapter 4 verses 1 through 3 where God blesses through the Apostle John to say beloved don't believe every spirit but test the spirit or the King James Version says try the spirit by the spirit whether they are of God and again these warnings are so poignant and they're so direct when it comes to all of the things that we hear in a 24-hour period and all of the things that we are saying yes to when we should be saying no to and of course the opposite of that is true there's some things we are saying no to that we should be saying yes to so all of what we are depends on what we take into our spirit because it goes on to say because many false prophets are gone out into the world and we know that there are all kinds of false prophets that exists now in John's time there were individuals who were saying Jesus didn't come rise but in bodily form and you know there are some individuals who are still looking for Jesus to come the first time so we have a mixture of so many doctrines that are being delivered to God's people today and we don't know what's right because we're especially a young person who is coming into the body of Christ they can go to a particular house of worship and they can say wild people in here are you know singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs they're making melody to the Lord they are allowing the Spirit of God to bless in and through them and the Spirit of God must be here and so they will keep coming back listening and the things that they're hearing are inviting but deep deep down in the doctrine that the pastor may be preaching or teaching is not good for you spiritually this is why it is so important for born-again believers not to act on impulse do not do it don't act on impulse because feelings that you might have or impulses that you might have if someone is attempting to coax you into doing something just be leery of it listen to what they have to say go out and determine find someone who is a mature Christian and say this is what this individual said to me I just want to bounce it off you to ensure that you know this these things that they're telling me is of God and so in doing so not only are you taking a blessed approach in trying to differentiate truth from error but you're also letting God bless you to grow and so this is one aspect of how you know you're growing on the information that's coming into your spirit on whether or not you are allowing that information to be fruitful or if it's hurtful or harmful so by the Word of God we know that the truth will stand for on its own and the end of that verse in 1st John 4 1 through 3 says that and this is the spirit of Antichrist if someone has confessed that Jesus Christ is not coming to flesh and we have a lot of doctrines out there that says oh Jesus had a spiritual death and and we are believing all of these things that are non biblical and again if you have someone with the silver tongue who is able to convey a point to you and that point sounds reasonably logical not biblical but reasonably logical and all of a sudden you start getting on board then you have opened up the door for certain things to happen to you so we're getting ready to go on our first break and when we come back we're going to continue to talk about the second process of how do I know that I'm growing in Jesus Christ because growth is important for all of us but if I know that I'm growing then I know that Jesus Christ is pleased with me TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month they have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town the meeting location is at their gracious host church first Christian Church in Kernersville 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville they have a hard start at 7 o'clock and a hard stop at 8 o'clock first time visitors eat for free join your host will Hardy and Roy Jones jr. a black guy and a white guy affordable chiropractic in high point as you might tell from their name affordable chiropractic even for the cash patient dr. Jeff Ricky has been caring for patients in high point for 34 years physical therapy such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions such as herniation comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out-of-pocket expense remember affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in high point hall three three six eight eight five one nine eight seven welcome back to man talk radio and we're giving you a process on how do you know that you are growing in Jesus Christ because if you're not growing then you would could be classified as some of these Hebrews were as we read earlier in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 12 through 14 he says the writer of Hebrews continues to say for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but solid food belongs to those who are of full age so if you if you understand salvation and you understand how God bless you to be saved all of us who are in the body of Christ and have been in the body of Christ for some time we ought to be teachers okay so what is the next phase or the next step or process whatever you want to call it it's revelation see revelation is something that's disclosed to you that was not realized before so when God reveals something to you that you didn't know before that is through revelation so revelation should be what we use to determine what type of information we bring into our spirit in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 through 12 God blesses through John to say but God has revealed excuse me Paul not John but Paul but God has revealed them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches all things yes even the deep things of God anything listener that you know anything that you know it's because God had given you the wisdom and knowledge due to determine what it is we can't determine anything on our own we don't have the ability we have to be totally dependent upon God so revelation knowledge with the information that's coming in will begin to instruct you on whether or not the thing that you're taking in is good for you or not because it says the spirit is the one that searches the deep things of God not the superficial things but it says the deep things of God so God plummets down and he begins to dissect everything that is coming into your spirit and then he goes on to say for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him even so no one knows the things of the spirit of God except the spirit of God so you if you are carnal minded and you are not born again you can't determine what is right for you because you cannot understand the things of the spirit of God until you are born again and once you're becoming born again then they be revealed to you you start to get revelation knowledge revelation knowledge is the key to us guarding our heart and mind and our spirit against things that are not fruitful for us he says now we have revealed and we have received not the spirit of the world the spirit of the world cannot discern the things of the spirit of God so it takes the spirit of God to discern the things of the spirit of God so if he is saying here this what we have received is not from the spirit of this world it is from the spirit of God then he concludes that by saying that we might know the things that have been freely given to us of God and when we receive the things that are freely given to us of God then we know that we are growing in him so if we are taking the revelation knowledge that God is bringing to our spirit and we are letting him filter that information that's coming in then we are not going to take anything into our spirit that is unfruitful Oh hallelujah you know that's so good because it speaks to so many things I'm reminded over in Luke chapter 2 verses 25 and 26 God told Simeon he appeared to him by revelation and he says in verse 26 it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Lord Jesus Christ there is all kinds of revelation knowledge that God wants to pour out into your spirit because he know that this revelation knowledge is exactly what you need to know if you're growing and see because we're not talking about the house and you can go back and listen to some of our other podcasts and we've talked about things like prayer reading the Word of God memorizing scriptures getting into a small group making sure you're attending worship service and Bible study and you know letting God bless you to attend Sunday school all of these things are part of the how-to and many of you know that you have been exposed to all of these things so much knowledge so much wisdom that God is blessing you to have and yet what have we done with it what have we allowed God to to take this precious knowledge this precious information that he's given to our spirit and allow us to go out and teach what we know you don't have to be a scholar listener you don't have to have a PhD you don't have to have a master's in theology or doctorate in divinity you don't have to have these things God took 12 ordinary men were 11 ordinary men and he changed the world with men who were basically what we would call today blue-collar workers with the exception of you know dr. Luke but most of them were blue-collar workers these were individuals who were merchants and and and God took these men and because they open up themselves by faith God used them to change the world he wants you listener to change the world he wants you to know that you are truly growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he wants you to open up to him to draw closer every single day you get up God wants you to draw closer and closer to him don't allow impulse don't allow your first reaction to determine your response if someone come at you in an angry way or calling you out of your name don't go to their level God have placed you on a higher plane he has allowed you to be not only a citizen of his kingdom but he has called us priests and kings and in Romans chapter 8 he has called us heirs and joint heirs that means you have every right and every privilege to everything that God has given to the Lord Jesus Christ because we're heirs and joint heirs and if you think about all of the things that you potentially can have and I'm not talking about just material things because that's the first thing we start talking about when it comes to receiving things from God God knows what you need but he also knows what you don't need and he knows what's best for you so if you believe in God for something that's outside of his will you better think again and you better go back and determine what is your reason for me asking God to bring me this or to bring me that or to let me have this because with us in human nature it's all about want want want we want so we come to God God bless us with this bless us with this we want this we want peace in our household and there is nothing wrong with those things but if your prayer is constantly being directed toward the wants of yourself and not the needs of others then you need to do a self evaluation to determine if you are truly in the body of Christ because the body of Christ God Jesus Christ my Savior and if you're born again your Savior he's coming back for a holy church he's coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle this is to say he will determine God will determine when to send Jesus and with Jesus comes we as God's people need to be ready there are so many things beloved there are so many things that is drawing our attention today we don't want these things to determine who we are we don't want these things to determine our character we are more than what we used to be we are not as we were we have come out of the world so when when we start to minister the gospel to someone who is out there in the world we know where they are because we were there we used to be where they are but we are no longer there anymore and God knows our heart so when you come to Jesus Christ think about how you responding to certain things think about these two processes procedures or principles that we're giving you here today information and revelation let God bless you to get into the word take the Word of God and determine what it is that I need to be doing so we thank you once again we hope you're enjoying this broadcast because this is a teaching broadcast that today and next week we're going to continue giving you the other three principles to whether or not you know that you are growing in the body of Christ thank you for listening God bless you and we love you as we wrap up today's show be assured that TAWCMM talking and walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes communities churches and work environments check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future thank you for joining us on man talk today visit us at www.tawcmm.com men walking the talk this is the truth network