Climbing the Mountain of God Stop Seven Just shall live by faith Part 2

Welcome to episode 158, 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 158. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I have a wonderful announcement for me. I finally got the Mountain of God map on my website. Praise God! I have multiple times bitten off more than I can chew so far this year. You know, the word was relentless and it still is, but I just tend to I tend to put too many things on my plate. I don't know if you've noticed that. I don't know if you ever do that. I don't know if you ever put so many things on your plate, you— it gets a little bit muddy, it gets a little bit messy. And I tend to have so many things going on in one day in my life that I can't possibly get to all of them. But not this time. I have got the Mountain of God. If you'll go to nodoubtonlybelieve.com/mountain, you can pick up your copy of the map. And that's the map that I've been talking about, and it's the map that I'm going to continue to talk about for the rest of the year. We're going to take a deep dive after we get through this quick little introduction as we go up the mountain. And we are still on— we're on stop 7 on the mountain. We're calling it Sanctification. And we've got the little— it's got a little boy with his hand up if you look at the map, but it, it says, the just shall live by childlike faith. And I know we had a whole lesson on faith and hope and love and all of that, but I want to reiterate in Hebrews 11:6, but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is rewarder of those who diligently seek him. In fact, I want to encourage you to read Hebrews 11 and 12 in your spare time. Again, I'm not sure that on the podcast I can assign homework, but that— this is your homework assignment. If it's possible, I would encourage you, strongly encourage you, to read Hebrews 11 and 12, because we need this. The just shall live by faith, and we need to get a picture of what faith is and maybe what faith is not. I've heard people say that faith moves God, and I don't believe— and I've talked on this multiple times— but I don't believe God's stuck. I don't believe faith moves God. I think faith appropriates the grace that God has already provided in his redemption at the cross. I believe the grace of God was poured out when Jesus got nailed to the cross, died— he, he was beaten, he died, and then he rose again the third day. I believe that is the grace of God in a three-day picture. That Jesus poured out his body and his life for you and I, and then by faith we use the faith that God gives us to appropriate all of the grace that God has already poured out. Now that may be hard to deal with while you're driving or working out or mowing your grass, but the grace of God is a gift. It's a free gift. That's salvation. And again, we've talked on book on Colossians. I want to go to Colossians 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. And that's just a quick little verse, but it says a lot. If you receive the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk in him. You received him. If we go to Romans 10:9-10: That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Well, that is how you receive the Lord Jesus. As it said in Corinthians, so walk in him. So you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. That is how salvation comes to you. You humble yourself, that you repent. We've gone over this, uh, multiple times, but salvation comes when you first repent and turn away from your wicked ways declare Jesus Lord of your life and confess him with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you're going to be saved. Now, when we continue on in Colossians 2:6, as you received Christ Jesus, therefore continue to walk in him. So you received him with your mouth, confessing him with your mouth and believing in your heart. So you get the same— that, that's how faith— and we've exercised our faith before We've talked about this before, but the just shall live by faith. Faith is voice activated. You have to confess with your mouth and you have to believe in your heart. You cannot doubt. There's a lot going on here, a lot of moving parts. This is just an introduction, and we've, we've talked about this before, but I just want to encourage you to just continue to just believe the word of God. We have got to be in the word of God for our faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And so we have got to be in the Word of God to allow the Word of God to be in us and to change us and to change our world. And this is a Christian worldview. We're talking about using the Bible as your sword, using the Bible as your bread, using the Bible as the seed, using the Bible as the living water, and then asking the Holy Spirit, "Lord, help me with this." Help me understand what it is you want me to know, and then not worry about how all the moving parts work together. You just believe it and receive it, or you can doubt and do without. I mean, there's just two different ways that you can look at this. If you've got to know everything before you take a step, you're going to be in trouble in a Christian walk. But if you can just use your childlike— and I'm putting air quotes up— if you can use childlike faith, just receive the word of God, just like Father God, the perfect Father, said, here, Use this in your life right now. And I'm telling you that Father God loves you. You are his favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. So I want to encourage you to get into the word and study the word to show yourself approved, but use the word of God as a sword and use the word of God as bread, as nourishment. The word of God is so key to this, and you cannot grow your faith without being in the Word of God. And it's also because we're on the disciple level. We're up to the third part of the mountain. I label that discipleship, and his disciples abide in the Word. And let's go to John 8:31-32. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth And the truth shall make you free. And knowing the truth is where freedom comes. And the only way to know the truth is to understand that Jesus is the truth and that Jesus is the Word of God, and the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. You know the routine, you know the soapbox moment coming up. If you abide in the Word of God, if you abide in his Bible, you will be disciples indeed. You will become a follower and a disciple and a believer of Jesus. You just continue to stay in the word. You continue to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help me with this, and just have a communication with God. I mean, and use the word of God to communicate. Let the Holy Spirit talk to you through his word, and I'm telling you, it will change your life. If you just believe what you read in the Bible, you, you know, you're going to get some opposition. There are plenty of people that are going to come against you and come against the word, and people continue to come against the word of God. I mean, that's just one of the rules. It's going to happen until Jesus returns, which by the way is one day closer today than it was yesterday. So we are one day closer to Jesus' return, and he is coming back. I don't care what anybody says. Can't tell you when, but I can tell you for certain that Jesus is coming back to get his bride. And if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you ought to be excited about how chaotic the world's getting. We need to do our best to tell people and bring people into his world and bring people into the body of Christ. But you do that through love, and you do that by living a life that is worthy to be called a Christian. I've heard someone say that if you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And that is pretty heavy. Do I have enough evidence of me being a Christian to where people can look at me, or they can know how I act and what I say, and they would lead them to Christ? And I just want to encourage you, we got one life to live, and I know I've messed up mine the first 30 years, and I haven't done a great job the next 28 years. I've done better, but I just want to encourage you to, to do the best you can today and then just forget all that garbage that went on yesterday and all the past, because God has thrown it into the sea of forgetfulness. And if God's forgotten it, why should you and I remember it? So I want to encourage you, just continue into God's word. The just shall live by faith, and it's childlike faith. If you do not come to Jesus as a little child you will have no part in the kingdom of God. I want to encourage you to continue to seek God and to seek his Holy Spirit and to ask for guidance, ask for leading and guiding. And I— that's why I'm here. I'm here to encourage, empower, and inspire you to get in the word. And let's pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. Holy Spirit, I thank you for never leaving us nor forsaking us. Holy Spirit, you know exactly where this listener is sitting and what they're going through in their life. And I pray in Jesus' name that you would just encourage them, you would comfort them, Lord, you would help them. You are the helper and you are the comforter. And God, I thank you for everything that you've done in my life, and I pray that you would continue to lead and guide and direct me. Lord, direct this person listening. You are the lamp unto their feet and the light unto their path, Lord. Each step they take it should be lighted. And Lord, we thank you for the light, that you are the light of the world. And God, we thank you and 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.