Climbing Gods Mountain Stop Two Foundation part 1

Welcome to episode 146.

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 146. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we're going to take the next step on this Christian journey through life and God's mountain, and I'm calling this second step or the second station on this mountain the foundation. And everything is built on the foundation of Jesus. Jesus is the chief cornerstone He is the rock of offense. He is a stumbling block to those that do not believe. To those that believe and receive, he is the chief cornerstone. He is the one that we put our whole life and our whole trust and everything in, and that is step 2. Now, if you're a frequent flyer or a fanatic, you know how many times I have talked about Jesus. In fact, I've got my little intro guy every time talking about, and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Bible. The best way to spend time with Jesus is to get into the Bible, get into God's Word. I know I've said this before, but I'm not even going to pretend that I know what episode I said it on, but Jesus is multiple things. But Jesus is the rock, the anchor to what you can just attach to your life. He is the Word. We've already talked about that. He is the bread of life. He is seed. The word of God is seed. It's an incorruptible seed. It is water to wash away some of the dirt and gunk out of your mind. You just renew your mind by the washing of the word. You continue to read and that washes all the dirt and mess out of your mind that the enemy has put in there. And it's the sword of the spirit. So there is so much that— to this word And this is the foundation. If you do not get into the word of God, if the word of God does not get into you, you are going to get mashed by the enemy. I would love to tell you that it's going to be different. I would love to tell you that there's another way, but we've got to go back to Matthew 7:13 and 14 where he said, wide is the gate and broad is the way and many travel it. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way, and few find it. Narrow and wide— it is a tough row to hoe, and you're gonna have some opposition. That's just one of the rules. This is a fight to the death. We don't want to just continue to talk about the negative, but the positive is Jesus has overcome the world. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You have got so many pluses. You have got the Holy Spirit that is never going to leave you nor forsake you. And there's a multitude of things that we can talk about to encourage you, but if you're not in the Word of God, you are going to get the crap kicked out of you. And I know I probably shouldn't say crap on the podcast, but just the only way I can describe it. So get into the Bible. We're on episode 140-something, so you've had to have heard it about 100 times that I've just jumped up and down and said Get in the Word. The day I was saved, I was given advice, and I want to give it to you as well. And I know if you've heard my testimony, you probably heard the advice, but the first steps, they told me to pray every day. They told me to just have a conversation with God. God is not mad. God wants to hear from you. The whole reason he sent Jesus is to restore our relationship, so he wants to hear from you every day. So every day, pray. The second thing was to read your Bible. Get you a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, get one. I've talked about ad nauseam, you need to be in the Word. I'm not going to continue to talk about, but that's a second step. Worship. This is put on some praise and worship music. You can get into a worshiping mindset. You don't have to get on music. You can just tell God how wonderful he is. You can look up at the sun or look at the ocean or look at the forest or look at some flowers. Tell God how wonderful a world he made, just continually to worship God. That's not always with praise and worship music. You can worship God just by looking and just by thanking him for everything that he's done. I wanna add a step that I did not hear when I first got saved, but since this is a Christian podcast and I want to just encourage you, I want you to start thinking about and getting into the habit and the lifestyle of giving. And we talk— we can talk about the tithe. The tithe, that all that is is 10%, and it's a number, it's a testing. I don't believe that God is mad at you if you don't tithe, if you've never tithed. I don't think that God is mad at you, but I think that is a spiritual truth, and it's a— we live in a physical world, and I just believe that if you're going to learn to give, that God shows you, hey, you can give your money. And if you've got a $10 bill, 10% of that is a dollar. And 10% is easy to figure out. If you make $100, 10% of that's $10. If you've got $1,000, you get the idea. The math is pretty simple with the 10%. But you can give, for God so loved the world that he gave. God is a giver, and in order to be God-like, you need to give. And by faith, this is a faith step, and this is not— God's not going to mash you. God's not mad at you. You're not going to sin. I don't think God God is going to smite you down if you don't give. I just think that this is a natural way to show God, hey, I believe your word. I believe that you are a giver. I want to imitate you and I want to give. And I believe I am so qualified to tell you this because this has changed my life. This podcast is not a church, and when I start teaching the Bible, it's going to be— and we're going to have a group and we're going to have a community, but it's going to be a community of like-minded believers they're going to come together. I'm not going to be a 501. I'm going to have lessons, I'm going to have all this stuff. So we're not going to have a place where you can just give money and get a tax write-off, because if you're looking for a tax write-off, you're giving for the wrong reason. If you give to help God's kingdom, and if you want to give because God is a giver, that's the right reason. But the local church is the last step, and that is where you need to tie into an area or local believers where you can lock arms with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. My pastor used to say, fellowship means more than one fella in the same ship. And so when you have fellowship with other believers, you're all in this same boat together. You're not walking through the same exact problems or the same areas or the same challenges, but y'all can come together and you can help one another. And we're going to talk about that I believe it's extremely important to be connected to a group of like-minded believers, and you need to go where they're teaching the Bible as the Word of God, not some compromised Christianity someplace where you got some touchy-feely— someplace where they're opening up the Word of God and they're not making any excuses, they're reading it, the pastor is held accountable for what he's teaching and preaching. Find a place where you're comfortable, where you feel like you fit in, and then just dive in. Now I just looked down at my notes and there's an awful lot left to talk about, so I'm probably going to finish up on the next episode on the foundation. But I want to talk about dying daily. We've already talked about dying to self, but Paul teaches in Romans 12:1, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable which is your reasonable service. And I've told you this multiple times, but I daily— I die daily. I present myself to God a living sacrifice, and I put myself up on God's altar, and I say, God, whatever you wanted me to do today, have your way with me. I die to myself. Now, I don't do a wonderful job of this. I try, and— but you know, because I'm a, quote, living sacrifice I step off of that altar and I start walking in my day-to-day routine, and I just kind of get back into self. And so it's a constant battle. You're constantly coming alive and you're constantly getting feedback from your 5 senses, and then you got to put the 5— all the stuff you're getting in your 5 senses and put it through that filter or prism of the Bible. And I believe that's one of the reasons that Jesus said it was going to be difficult and hard and narrow was the gate. Because you have to walk through this gate daily. You're daily fighting your flesh, Satan, the world. There is a battle going on. It's not the most difficult battle you've ever fought, but I'd be lying to you if I told you I've got this thing all figured out and I walk just in the Spirit all day, every day. That is not even close to the way I go through my life, but I do die daily, and when I do that, I'm conscious of the fact that I have presented myself to God a living sacrifice. Then I put on the whole armor of God and I start getting after it. So I'm gonna stop it here. I'm gonna pick up the foundation on the next episode. There's a lot more to talk about. If you can imagine, I've got a big old pile of notes and I'm gonna try to get into some more scripture and talk about the next step in the foundation. There's a lot going on in this second step on the mountain. But let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for the person listening to this episode, Lord, and I pray in Jesus' name that you would just meet them right where they are. Holy Spirit, lead them into all truth. If I've said something to confuse them, or if I've said something that didn't make any sense, I pray that you would help them understand what it is that I was trying to say. God, we thank you for everything that you're doing in our lives, and we thank you for what you've done by sending Jesus to live a perfect life and die a wonderful death for me and for the person listening to this episode. Lord, we thank you, we love you, 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 on the next episode.

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