This is Michael Carbone with the Truth Network. We're partnering with Bible League International on Open the Floodgates, Bibles for Africa.
In many parts of countries like Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique, as many as 9 out of 10 Christians are denied God's word by corrupt governments, majority religions, and poverty and remoteness. $5 sends a Bible. $100 sends 20. $500 sends 100. Call 800-Yes-Word.
That's 800-937-9673. Thank you for caring. This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast. On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it.
Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones, Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome back to Man Talk Radio.
Again, you have one half of the duo here. I'm Pastor Will Hardy, and we were talking with you last week about the principles of how do I know if I'm growing? We gave you information, and we gave you revelation last week. So today we want to talk to you about meditation. And we're not talking about some transcendental stuff.
No, no, no, no. We're not talking about that. When we talk about meditating, we're talking about continue to give an extended thought to what God's Word has said. So you heard the Word, or you read the Word, you did your daily devotion, and then all of a sudden now you're reflecting on what you read. This is how you know you're growing in Jesus Christ.
You're thinking about the Word. You're putting the Word of God in front of you. And just because you are a young man, you're a young woman, or if you're young in Jesus Christ, you might be an older man or older woman with respect to age, and you could be young in Jesus Christ and not know a whole lot.
Don't let that discourage you from sharing the Word of God, because there was a command that was given to Timothy from the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4, verses 12 through 16. He said, don't let anyone despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in the Word. So if you are a young Christian or if you are young in the body and God has blessed you to grow more than your parents are growing, don't let the fact that you're growing keep you from not revealing what God has placed within you. And so he says, be an example to the believers in the Word.
When you're an example, you're allowing God to share with them those things that they need in order for them to grow and to know that they are growing. He goes on to say, do it in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. And then he says, till I come, reading to exhortation to doctrine. So give attention to all of these things, young Timothy.
Don't let anybody despise your youth. Continue to share the Gospel. Continue to let the Word of God go forward in you. And don't neglect, he says, the gift that God has given to you by way of prophecy. And then he talked, he gave an example here with the laying on of hands of the eldership. Let the elders come around and lay hands on those who might be sick and pray for them because we know that prayer is a powerful tool and we know that prayer does change things in God. And then he caps that thing off by saying, meditate. Here's our word, meditate on these things.
Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. So if I'm giving myself to the things he talked about, to the reading of the scriptures, to exhortation, to doctrine, if I'm giving myself over to them and I'm meditating on those things, in other words, I'm putting them in front of me, I'm letting these things lead me, I'm letting these things guide me, I'm letting these things determine ultimately my destiny. The Word of God is going to point you always in the right direction because if you're born again, it's already pointed you to Jesus Christ. Now you have to show others the way of the cross. Then he says, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Wow. So if you are preaching the doctrine of Jesus Christ, if you are reading, if you are exhorting one another and then you're meditating on these things, he says that you're going to save yourself and you're going to save those who hear you. Because you remember now, God has saved us, we are being saved and we will be saved. So he has saved us from eternal hell fire and we are being saved from the power of sin because we're no longer slaves to it. That's why we're being saved.
So every day we get up, this is an opportunity for us to grow, this is an opportunity for us to give our lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can advance the kingdom and exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, we will be saved. What will we be saved from? The presence of sin. We will no longer be in the presence of sin once we get our glorified bodies and the Lord Jesus Christ come to take us away from here.
That will be such a beautiful time. So he talks about those too. Our next principle is the principle of transformation. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 12-15. This is talking about a change. You're changing yourself in form, you're changing yourself in appearance and you're changing yourself in your nature and character. See, this is how you know again, because this is what we're talking about, this is how you know that you're growing.
We're not talking about how to grow again, we're saying, how do I know that I'm growing? So we are saying that you should already have the basic principles and you should be building off of those things if you're in the body of Christ. Now in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 12-15, God bless us through the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. He says, but what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things in which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself, transform himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing for his ministers to transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. See, last week when we were talking about the Word of God warning us and what type of information we're bringing in, when we are bringing in the right information, God will transform us by his Spirit and he would protect our mind, he would protect our heart against these false apostles, these false teachers who transform themselves into apostles for Christ. In other words, they have the right things to say.
I mean, just the right things to say. But these things are not good because again, what sounds good is not good for you. It's just like things that you eat every day. You go to the refrigerator and you know you're not supposed to be eating that apple pie, that chocolate cake, and that ice cream, Neapolitan or strawberry. You know you're not supposed to be eating those things. But you eat them anyway and then what do we end up doing? Running to the doctor and say, Doctor, fix me because I broke myself.
Now you all know that's true. You all know you started eating, you ate something, you may have eaten something today that you should not have eaten. And see, what this is doing is when you eat things, just like when you take in things that are not good for you spiritually, when you eat things that are not good for you physically, you start to transform yourself. But it's transforming yourself into a negative way.
Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to listen to people who are constantly belittling you, who are constantly taking you down? You don't have to respond to these people. And see, when they think that you're weak just because you're not responding to them, then this is when you're the strongest because you're not playing on their ball field.
You're not playing by their rules. They want to bring you down. How do I know that I'm growing if God is transforming me to rise above these situations and circumstances?
If he is transforming me and I see a change in the way that I look at things, if I see a change in the way that I see things, all of a sudden I start to see things as God sees them. I'm not seeing the things the way that I used to see them because those things are unfruitful and they are unprofitable for me. I don't want to be unfruitful and neither should you.
You should not want to be unprofitable. So if someone calls you out of your name or they try to suppress the truth that God is revealing to you dust your feet off and move on. Don't get down in the weeds.
Don't start debating them with some heavy duty psychology, sociology, philosophy. You don't have to go there. You are above all of these things. God have brought you to a point to know and understand that the truth of the word of God is enough for you. And this is why he says, when Satan comes, he's not going to come in a way that you can readily recognize who he is.
He's not coming that way. He's going to come in such a way as to be hidden because he knows what your desires are because you were once out there in the world. So what he begins to do is to present you with these desires because if you had a desire for certain things that was bad for you, if you had a desire to look at the women or to look at the men and do all of these things, then what will happen is now he's beginning to draw you in because you're allowing your physical eyes to take precedence over your spiritual eyes. Do you know born again believers out there? Do you know that you have spiritual eyes?
God have blessed you with the spirit of God to be able to see things even before they come. We are coming up on another break, but I am excited about giving you the remainder of these of these principles. We've talked about three of them already. We're going to come back and continue talking about transformation. And then we're going to go to that last one, which is demonstration. We're going to let God bless us. Join your host, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy.
On West Lexington Avenue and High Point, call 336-885-1987. That man talk radio listeners, we are giving you the principles behind, do I know that I'm growing? If I know that I'm growing, how can I know that I'm growing in the spirit?
God has given you the answer today. We left off talking about transformation and we talked about how the enemy can transform his angels as angels of light. But see, you and I, we are no longer strangers to God. We used to be. We used to be strangers. We used to be foreigners. You say, when was I ever a stranger or foreigner to God? Well, in Ephesians chapter two, verses 19 through 22, God blesses through the apostle Paul to write, now, therefore, you are no longer strangers. You are no longer foreigners, but you are fellow citizens.
You hear that, Saints? You are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God. This is who you are now. You are citizens of the kingdom. You are an individual who can rise above any situation that the enemy throws at you. You are a king and a priest, an heir and a joint heir.
You have all of the blessings that God wants to pour out on you. He goes on to say, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. This is how we build what God blessed us to know.
We build it off of the cornerstone Jesus Christ. We look at how God blessed through the prophets of the old covenant. We see how God had blessed us through the apostles of the new covenant. And we are learning from the old covenant, but we are letting God lead us by the Holy Spirit, those things that he has laid out in the new covenant.
He goes on to say, in whom the whole building being fitly joined together grows into a holy temple unto the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. You see, you are being joined it, fitted and bonded to other believers. You are taking what God have blessed you and you are taking those things forward and you are advancing the kingdom. You are advancing the kingdom.
You're bringing about change because you know that you are being changed. You are being transformed. So he says, you are growing into a holy temple unto the Lord. And God wants you to present yourself as a holy temple, acceptable of God, which is our reasonable worship or service, as the old King James Version says. So as we are being built and as we are being fitted together, it reminds me of when I see Mason people, not Masonic, but individual who do Masonry work, do brick work or work with concrete blocks. And I see that they don't stack them right on top on top of each other.
But what they do is they stagger the joints in those blocks and bricks to give the strongest possible wall or foundation that the other bricks are going or blocks are going to sit on. And so when we are joined together, we are joined together and we are unbreakable. It's sad, however, that when we don't allow the Holy Spirit to transform us, what we do is we default and revert right back to the things that we are guilty of or that God have brought us out of the world.
Okay. Last, our last principle is the principle of demonstration. When God is demonstrating himself through you, which is the act of proving or being proved by reasoning of showing the evidence, God says, prove me now in Malachi 3, prove me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, if I will not pour you out a blessing that you shall not have room to receive it. Right here, in this definition of demonstration, it says that when God prove you or you're showing evidence that you have been transformed, that you are meditating, that God has revealed to you by by his spirit those things that you need to take in based on the information that I am listening to, I am reading, and I'm not going to go the way of the world. If I see someone committing sin, regardless of who they are, I'm going to say my brother or my sister turned from this way because this way is unhealthy for you. And it is not me judging you.
It is just the things that I'm seeing are not profitable. But when you know you're born again, you know, you are demonstrating now what the word of God is doing in and through your life. In second Corinthians, chapter two, verses one through five, God blesses through the apostle Paul to says, I, brother, when I came of you did not know excellent speech, but the wisdom and I determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. See, this is this is the the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. This is what God wants for us. So I want you to listen to the clip of this song. And it's called Alpha and Omega by New Israel and New Breed. And just let it minister to you.
This is not the whole song, but listen to it and let it minister to your spirit. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised.
Sing it again. You are Alpha and Omega. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised. We give you all the glory. We give you all the glory. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised. We give you all the glory. We give you all the glory. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised.
Sing you are Alpha and Omega. Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah. If that didn't move you, if that didn't bring chills to your spine and just chills all over your body, then you just not alive because that that thing just moved me so good.
I just could not contain myself. I was looking at here at my producer and I was just nodding my head because God is so good. This is what it's about. See, it's not about you or I. And in that passage that we pointed out to you in 2 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5, Paul says, he says, my speech was not preaching persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and power.
This is how you know that you are growing. If God is demonstrating his spirit and power in and through your life, don't don't put no no restrictions on God. Don't put God in a box. Don't say God can't do miracles today. Don't say that, saints, because what you're doing is you're bringing God down from his high place to some some low lofty place. And we don't want to do that because God can can perform a miracle anywhere if that miracle needs to be done and to bring someone to Jesus Christ. And we we in this country, in the United States, we asked ourselves, we said we don't see miracles like we did back in the days of the apostles. But let God bless you to go to a third world country, go to Africa, go to some parts of Australia, go to parts of South America, and you will see the presence of God. Talk to some missionaries who have gone to these places and they will tell you that God has opened up the eyes of people who were worshiping their ancestors, individuals who were involved in in witchcraft and things like this. God has delivered them from that.
Yes, that is a miracle. It is a miracle to be delivered from the chains of darkness and from the pits of Hades. God is bringing his church forward. He is marching us to Zion. He is causing us to see things and to do things in the body of Christ that's going to bring people to Jesus Christ. He wants you to come to Jesus today. If you don't know him, let God bless you to admit that you are a sinner.
Believe that Jesus Christ came down, was born through the Virgin Mary. He went to the cross for you. He shed his blood for you. He died for you.
He rose again on the third day, just like he said, and he's coming back again. If you bowed your head and you believe in that, then you know that you are now a child of God. So don't let the enemy be a chain around your neck any longer, around your mind. Let God bless you to think things that are of him. Think like God.
Don't think like the world. We'll see you next week on Man Talk Radio. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-11-23 12:03:51 / 2023-11-23 12:12:34 / 9