Climbing Gods Mountain Stop Four Imitating Jesus

Welcome to episode 151.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 151. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we're going to start back up the mountain, and if you'll notice on the map, which I am going to post— I promise I'm posting it— you will see that we have made a turn and gone up to the mountain. So I, I wanted to signify this as we're going upward, it may be getting a little more difficult, and I want to make sure that you understand that this picture, this map Each little stop on this mountain is not all-inclusive, and it's not in this necessarily in this order. This is things so we can have a visual representation of different steps in your Christian walk and the journey that you go through. And there's not— I'm not, I'm not here to start any new religion or anything like this. I just, in my mind, I've got to have a point A and a point B of where we're going. I think this map and the journey up the mountain of God makes a good visual representation so that you can see where you start. And we all start the exact same place, and as Christians, we're all going to end up in the same place, which is by standing before God. To be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord. So we're going to be standing before our Lord one day, and I think at B that we're going to want to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. And then at A is where we die to self, we're dead in our trespasses and sin, and we admit that we're a sinner and that we're lost without Christ. And then we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, and then we become a new creature and we become born again. But everyone starts out as a baby, and so this journey, it takes effort. Beginning, I wanted to lay the foundation. You kind of see the bottom, it's more of a learning, and then it— we're going to start going up the mountain and it's going to be more doing. And again, we go back to Matthew 7:13-14. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. So my job here is just to encourage you to take the narrow gate, is to take the difficult path. And difficult means the just, the justified, shall live by faith. The quote difficult part is We're going to have to live, start living by faith. We got to look in the Bible to see what faith is. We got to use our faith eyes and our faith ears instead of our natural eyes and natural ears. And so we got to kind of combine that, but we also have to walk through this world in our natural bodies, and we're three parts. And so without getting overly complicated and over convoluted, on step 4, that stop is showing us What did Jesus do? And so what I want to do with this stop is I want us to dive into the Gospels, and this is where I want to encourage you: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I want to encourage you to dig into the Gospels. This is where we just get to know what Jesus did instead of trying to figure out what would Jesus do. I think that's a little more philosophical question. Maybe get you a little more deep into the whole philosophy of God. I, I don't know that that's a bad— it's a— I think it's a great question, but I think a better question is, what did Jesus do? Because we can actually see how Jesus reacted, how Jesus walked through his life, what he actually did, and how he went about doing that. And before we get started, I want to go to the end of the Gospel of John, and that would be John 21:24-25. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and who wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. And so I don't want this discussion or this topic or what did Jesus do, I don't want you to think that this is going to be an all-inclusive all-encompassing stop on the mountain of God. I just want to open up your eyes to the fact that when you're reading the Bible, I want you to see Jesus as a man, just like I am, just like either your husband or you are if you're a man listening to this. I want you to see Jesus as maybe your best friend, or if you were hanging out with him, this guy cracked jokes, he laughed. I think he laughed, he joked. God's got a sense of humor. I know that's true because he has a personality and he made me. And if he didn't have a sense of humor, then I wouldn't have a sense of humor. And we are made in his image. And now we can argue whether my sense of humor is any good, but we do have a sense of humor. And God has a personality. Jesus had a personality. And I believe he cut up with his 12 disciples. I believe that he— I mean, they were walking and they were talking. I don't know if Jesus was a practical joker. I don't know what kind of person or what kind of jokes he told or played or anything like that. I do know that he never sinned, and I do know that he loved everybody that he came in contact with, even the people that nailed him on the cross. Jesus looked at them in love and said, "Father, forgive them, for they, they know not what they do." So we know that God was love. We know that Jesus loved everybody. And again, Paul reiterates this in Ephesians where he says, "We're not warring against flesh and blood. We're warring against the demons, we're warring against the punk, we're warring against the world and our own flesh." But I just wanna go back into and see some of the things that Jesus did. I just wanna kinda open your eyes to the fact that Jesus was a man and he walked this earth. Now he was perfect in every way. I can't overemphasize the fact that Jesus, every step he took was perfect. He never missed the mark. Sin is missing the mark, which is perfection. And it's just amazing to me. It's really mind-boggling to think on a daily basis how much I feel like that I've missed the mark. And so when I walk through my life and go, "Oh, I wish I wouldn't have said that," or, "Oh, I wish I wouldn't have done that," Jesus walked through life and did everything as his Father had instructed him to do. And I think that is just awesome. And I think that if we trying to mimic or imitate Jesus, we're not going to go wrong. That's step 4 on this mountain, and we are trying to see how Jesus went about. And when he was young, remember, he was in the synagogue where he was listening to and interjecting with. And I think he stayed in the word of God. I think that's one of his characteristics. I understand that he's the Word of God, but he was also a man and he had to learn the English— or not English language, he had to learn the Aramaic, I guess was that, or maybe the Hebrew. I'm really not sure which language, maybe both, that he talked back in the day. But Jesus, he had to learn the language. I'm sure that the Holy Spirit downloaded things into his mind where he just knew them, or the Father. I don't know how it all worked, but the Father, you know, told him, or he had the thought of what he needed to say, and he knew it was the Father that was talking to him. But Jesus never made a mistake. And he started his ministry, and let's look at the beginning of his ministry. Before he did anything else, Jesus was baptized with water, and he went under. I don't want to step on your religion too bad, but Jesus went underwater. He was baptized, and that just means immersed. And so it came to pass in those days, and this is in Mark 1:9-10, and it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. It's super cool to see this event in a different writer's eyes, and I want to go to John 1:29. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, and he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God. So there you go. John baptized with water. He got him underwater. Jesus came up. The Holy Spirit descended upon him, and Jesus begins his ministry, and the first thing that happens, he then starts following and is led by the Holy Spirit. I just wanna reemphasize, we don't have Jesus that is leading, we are following Jesus' Spirit. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father making intercessions. Father God said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." Jesus, just to be clear, Jesus in bodily form is not the person that you and I are following here on earth. We are following the Spirit of God, which is the Holy Spirit, and this same Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus when he was baptized. So I just want us to get us a picture. What did Jesus do? The first thing Jesus did was he got baptized, studied. He's showing himself approved. He was planting seeds. We're going to get in all that. Jesus stayed in the word. He learned the word. He was the word. I mean, all of that stuff. He never sinned. By following God's leading, he went and was baptized by John the Baptist. He came up, the Holy Spirit came upon him, but Jesus was led out into the wilderness He stayed out there 40 days and had nothing to eat, and so he fasted for 40 days, and Satan came and tempted him when he was at his weakest point, and he still— he used the Word of God, and we're going to get into that in the next episode. But I just want to give you a brief introduction of what did Jesus do. I think it's crucial. Remember, one of the foundations— the second stop on the mountain of God is the foundation that we are built on the foundation of Christ., and it is Jesus. He is the chief cornerstone. And so this is just, again, it's not all-inclusive, but this is— we're just asking ourselves, what did Jesus do? And we're— in order to answer that question, we've got to read the Gospels, and we got to kind of figure that out for ourselves. And we ask the Holy Spirit— remember, he's here, never going to leave us, he's never going to forsake us. So the Holy Spirit, the author of all the books of the Bible, is here with us. All we do is ask. Jesus' Spirit will say, "This is what I meant," or you'll just know. I don't know how it all works, but I promise you that he is no respecter of persons because that's what the Bible says. And if he helps me, he'll help you. Well, that's enough for right now. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. Jesus, I thank you for walking on this earth as a man I thank you for never sinning so that you could become— you were declared the Lamb of God, then you walked your life perfect, and then you sacrificed your precious blood on the cross for me and for this listener listening. And I thank you, God, that you were able to do it. I thank you, God, that you chose to do it. And I thank you that you finished the work and you said, "It is finished," and you went into the grave for 3 days and came back, and you will never die again. God, you are so amazing, and I thank you. We love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

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