Climbing the mountain of God

Welcome to episode 142.

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 142. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am starting a brand new teaching and it's going to be on the mountain of God. And doesn't that sound so wonderful? Maybe you knew, maybe you don't know, but God has a mountain and I've got a picture of it right here in my handy-dandy office. And I just want to talk to you probably for the next 2 weeks about the mountain of God and the steps that we're going to take going up the mountain. We're going to go from point A to point B, and point A is of course salvation. That is the very first step, and that's the only step that matters. If you are not saved, it does not matter where point B is. In fact, well, it really does matter where point B is, because if you're not saved, then your point B is going to be a whole lot different than my point B. And I've got 9 different steps, and I've got them labeled, and I've got a picture. And I'm, you know, I haven't really figured out the best way, and I guess it's just on the website. Say I'm going to post a picture, I have a hard time posting the picture if you hadn't figured it out. So I've got to go back to my website on nodoubtonlybelieve.com, and I know many of you don't want to go over to that website, and I don't blame you, that's fine. I mean, but I, that's the only real place that I know to do it. Now I can put it on the Book of Faces and I can put it on the Instagrams and I can try to put it in the LinkedIn and all of those different places, but in all honesty, the meat and potatoes of this is not the picture. It is the stuff that's inside the picture. It's the step-by-step process, kind of as I see it. And I, you know, and I know this is up for argument, but I've got at the top of this picture or diagram, I've got growing your faith in Christ, and then I've got, I've got a little point A and then I got point B. And if you remember in our previous episode, I talked about point A and point B is not a straight line, that it's, you know, and I again, I tried to post that picture, but I've got it on the website. But the— actually, I've got this diagram showing that it is a logical path up the mountain, but it is filled with turns and twists. And I think that's more like it, how it really is in life. I think that there are steps that you take, and I think you get on track, and then you may get a little off track, and you're going up, and sometimes you're going sideways. And, you know, I, I just think that in life it's not a straight from here to there straight line, and you're never going to make a mistake. And again, I'm going to go to the Bible, Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means we've all made mistakes. And sin's not some just big egregious act that you perpetrate against humanity. Sin is just missing the mark. It is an archery term for not hitting the bullseye. And that's what's so incredible, is Jesus hit the bullseye every step of every day of his life. And that is incredible. That is miraculous. That is godlike. And that is why I worship and follow Jesus as my Lord and Savior. He hit it perfect every time in every area of life and everything he did. And that leads me to the first step, which I've got labeled as justification. It's actually where you're spiritually born again. It is a spiritual birth, and that is where you— and I've got a little picture of a baby on here, so I think that's appropriate. It's actually not a picture, it's more of a— guess it's called an icon. Just a little thing in the box. I, I mean, I don't know, it— this is— I'm making this more than it is, but I, I guess I'm trying to develop some curiosity so you go to the website and take a look at it. But the second step I've got is foundation, and it's built on the foundation of Christ. That is step 2, is that we are to go from salvation and then start building on Christ. And then step 3 is growing And it's finding your place in the body. And that has a— but in each one of these steps have different steps, and I don't know that I'm going to go into all them, but maybe on later podcasts, later episodes, maybe I'll dive deep into each one of these topics. But the fourth one I've got is imitating, and that's what would Jesus do, or what did Jesus do is actually what I've got. Instead of imitating somebody else in life, try to find out what Jesus did and then imitate that. Now you're not going to do it perfectly, and As an example, we've talked about when a father was walking on the beach, or when I was walking on the beach and Seth was trying to follow behind me, and he's stepping in my footsteps on the sand, and his foot didn't hit the exact same footprints that mine, but he left his own footprints outside of my step. I didn't get mad. In fact, when I looked back, I saw him and I just smiled. I mean, it kind of made me glad. I mean, if you need something to rhyme, you know how I like to rhyme. He was trying his best, and I don't think that God gets mad. I'm pretty confident that God does not get mad when we're trying our best to imitate his Son Jesus. The fifth step is getting plugged in. I've got it called endued with power, and we talked about this on the Jesus Pattern. One of the things that Jesus said to his disciples, hey, wait in the city, wait in Jerusalem, until the Holy Spirit has come. Well, I believe the Holy Spirit has come and he is here and he is with us, but I really believe that there is another step, and I'm not gonna dive deep off into this today, but I believe there is a plugging into the power of God, and that is getting endued with power. Then he said, after that, the next logical step is to become fishers of men or proclaiming the gospel, and he said to wait until you're endued with power. He said, "Once the Spirit has come upon you, then you'll be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And then the next step, I've got sanctification, and that's a fancy pants word, but it's an ongoing process of continually learning Romans 12:2, where Paul says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." And I might have missed it a little bit, but that's what I've got inside of my heart as Romans 12:2. But it's renewing of your mind, and that is, and then it goes into, and I've got a little kid with his hand up as a question mark. It's the childlike faith, and we've talked about that too on previous episodes and used examples that when I've taught my boys how to play sports, that when they stepped over into the arena, when they stepped across the line, then they became animals. They become warriors. They went by the rules of the game. Not— they weren't supposed to be gentlemen. When they stepped off of the field, they had to then become gentlemen. They had to be nice. They had to be respectful. You had to mind your manners and do all those things that law-abiding citizens do. But when you're in the— if you're playing football, nice doesn't get you very far. So I don't know if any of y'all have ever played football, but being nice on the football field is not a good plan. And why do I use that analogy? It's because I think that we are told to be mature. We're supposed to mature in Christ, or we're supposed to be mature Christians, but then come to Christ with childlike faith. It's kind of a dual thing going on. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but we are to be mature believers. We're not to be pulled to and fro by the wind, different doctrine and different winds and different theories and all this stuff. But at the same time, we are to believe the Word and we are to get into the— as children, we are to come as Christ by faith. And I think that's the way we do it, is that we just have— it's not a blind faith, but it's having the ability like a child to trust and believe the Word of God. And I think the best analogy that I can come up with is just that childlike belief that what the Word of God says, it means. And instead of trying to figure everything out— I don't know that a child— I can't remember being young or when I was really young, but I don't remember having to figure everything out before I jumped in and started playing. I, you know, you think about the sandbox and, and you jump in. Do you have to figure everything out about a sandbox before you start making sandcastles? Or do you have to figure everything out about throwing a football before you pick it up and chunk it. You know, there are things that just being a kid and just getting involved and just getting started and just doing has power. And if we can look at our Christian walk, you've got to be mature and you can't be easily misled, but you also have to remain in that childlike faith. And the last step, or the 8th step, is warfare. And I've got that labeled as walking in your God-given power. We go out in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we take back things that the enemy has taken from us. We don't do that by mashing people, 'cause our war is not with flesh and blood. And we've got to get all this right in our heads, but we are not battling against people. Battling against principalities, against powers, against spiritual rulers of wickedness, and we are, I mean, all of those things that are found In Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." So that's who— that's our battle. The reason I put it up there at 8 instead of 2 or 3 is because I think this is a process, and I don't think we need to go to war, and I don't think you send babies, and I don't think you send people that are learning teenagers Now maybe 18, 19, you can argue that that may be too young, but they're 18, 19, almost 20. They're not 5. When we start going to battle and we start going and doing the spiritual battle, I think that we need to be the most mature that we can be. And then the last step, and the step that we should all be striving for, I believe, is if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior at step A, then step be, I think, for most everybody, if they would be honest, would be, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," is to hear Father God say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." That, to me, is what I am striving for. That's what I'm living my life for. That's why I'm here on this podcast. I want to use these remaining days—if there's 40 years left, if there's 40 days left, there's 40 hours left, I want to use that time as best I can to glorify God and to lead people to his word. I want to help you get into the word of God, and I want to help you know God— the same Father, the same Jesus, and the same Holy Spirit that I know. I want you to know it. And the only way to learn about him and them is to get into the word of God. Well, that's enough for the introduction. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for your Holy Spirit. God, I thank you for the gift of teaching that you've given me. I thank you that you continue to help me and lead me and guide and direct me. God, I thank you for the person listening to this episode, and I thank you that you are leading and guiding, directing them. Lord, you know right where they are, and I pray in Jesus' name that you would just encourage them, that you would empower them, and that you would give them a boldness. Lord, to do your work and do your word. And Lord, we 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.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.