Christian Transformation: 7 Steps to Spiritual Growth and Holiness

Don't make excuses for disobeying God's commands.

Read the Bible until you understand it, and then act on what you understand.

Get serious about walking with God by changing your motives and actions.

Forgive those who hurt you and drop it immediately, as God gives you the power to do so.

Thank you. Now, the other idea in this same portion is absolutely be with no excuse about obeying the commands of Jesus. Stop making excuses. You cannot live a Christian life if you make excuses for what you're doing. Don't make them. Admit they're wrong. Cry out to God for change. Look at that word until it saturates your mind that you are wrong in what you're doing. Because we get so many people today who want to twist the scripture. The way people do the study of the Bible now is they'll go, let's see, I want to get remarried. Or I want to do this. Let me find half of a sentence that says it's okay. And you kind of look around and say, it shall happen. See, God said I could do it because it says it shall happen. I just read it right here in Zechariah 12.3. So it's okay for me to do that because it says it shall happen. That's a twisting of Scripture, isn't it? I can make anybody say anything if I take three words out of context of what they say. You read the book until you understand it. And this is why the culture is so twisted. Can you imagine reading a novel the way we read the Bible? You get a novel and you open up to page 412. Read three sentences. Then you quit for the day. Then the next day you read your novel, you go to page 614 and read three sentences. What happens with the story of a novel if you do that after 25 days? You won't have a clue to what that novel is talking about, will you? It's absolutely perverse and twisted what I was saying. People do that to the Bible every single day. No wonder they don't understand it. And no wonder our country is so full of garbage. Because they have got themselves twisting one little sentence here and there. And it glorifies them to do anything they feel like. And they are pleasing God. Because they read it in the Bible someplace. They remember reading that one sentence, you know. Even though it doesn't say what they want it to say. And that can't be done here. If you want to walk with God, you've got to get serious. If you want to walk with God, you've got to get serious. You've got to read it enough to understand what it says, not just read it, blah, blah, blah, blah, and go to bed. Read it until you understand it, and then act on what you understand. Then you glorify God, don't you? And that's part of what he's saying here. Again, this is only baby food I'm talking about. Does it sound baby food to you? People will call this heavy teaching. God says it's baby food. That's what scares me about our culture also in the church. Also, do not take chances or even get close to disobedience to God's commands. Can you imagine somebody saying, listen, I want to practice target practicing. I know the Bible says thou shalt not kill. But listen, will you put an apple on your head? I just want to practice. Oh, I'm sorry, I blew off your ear. Well, listen, the Bible doesn't say thou shalt not blow off your ear. It just says thou shalt not kill. So I didn't do anything wrong. Will that work? No. See, I don't want you to get close to killing me. I'm not going to put an apple on my head, and I'm not going to let you shoot at my ear or my anything. I'm sorry. I want you to be away from that command by not even aiming your gun at me. Right? This is what God's saying. He wants you to be so far from sin, you're not walking the tightrope saying, oh, well, I can control myself. I don't want to fall into sin, but I'm going to get so close. Oh, see, I didn't sin. Praise God. No, no. He says, get away from it. Even here's an example as he begins to show this concept for if you're going to really walk with God. Verse 26. Go ahead and be angry. Now remember he's saying that anger is an emotion. God put anger in our emotional. God gets angry. So it's not sin to be angry. Understand that. But there's something that can happen directly that would be sin. Go ahead and be angry. You'd do well to be angry, but don't use your anger as a fuel for revenge. See, what happens immediately, the anger is such an emotional powerhouse in a person, it quickly goes from anger to bitterness and revenge. It's a dangerous emotion. It's dangerous in that way. So he says, I don't want you to get close to practicing revenge and bitterness. So he says, go ahead. I mean, you've got an emotion. Be angry. But then it says, don't stay angry. You can stop after a brief time and stop being angry. Don't go to bed angry. because what happens when you go to bed angry? You build a bitter hatred toward that person. They offended me. Now, next time I get into their company, I'm going to knock their block off, or I'm going to say something that they're not going to regret. I'm going to get back at them for what they did when they hurt me. I'm not going to let this go. That's going to bed with anger. Instead, it says, don't give the devil the kind of foothold in your life, because revenge and bitterness are strong sins that are hard to rip out of your heart. You do that and you're opening yourself up to a major problem in your life that will go on for years of bitterness and hatred and so forth. That opens the door for destruction of your life. I don't care what someone did to you that hurt you. And who hurt you? Usually your closest people. I mean, the guy down at Home Depot can say what he wants. He's not going to hurt my feelings. Who hurts your feelings? Your spouse. Your children. Your best friends. They're the ones, and God says, you don't even do it. You forgive them and drop it immediately. It's over with. Isn't that what it says? Forgiveness? Of course they hurt you. Of course they were not right in what they did. But you're not the one to bring judgment on them or revenge. God will bring judgment. you're required you're required to forgive as Christ forgave you do you want every time you pray for Jesus to say well I would answer your prayer but do you remember when you offended me last week I'm not going to answer your prayer is that what you want God to do to you well yeah but Lord I ask you forgiveness well I don't care I'm not forgiving you I'm not answering your prayers suffer is that what you want God to respond to you absolutely not and God orders you I don't care who hurt you and how, you choose by your will to forgive. I don't care how hard you say it is to do, you do it anyway. Why? Because God's will is you forgive, and God says He gives you grace to do it. He gives you the desire, and He'll give you the power to do it. Stop making excuses and say you don't have the power to forgive. God gives you the power. Are you with me? Again, these are all baby steps here. This is just basic Christianity we're talking about. We haven't got to the heavy stuff yet. Okay. Also, change your way of budgeting and spending your money. Even the motive of why you work must change according to the Scripture. Look at what it says. This is very powerful. Ephesians 4.28 Did you used to make ends meet by stealing? Notice he goes to the Ten Commandments. First of all, the stab. Again, this is what we're saying. Know the commandments. But look at the answer. Well, no more. Get an honest job. Why? So you can buy more stuff for yourself? Look at what He commands you to do. He says get an honest job so you can help others who can't work. You tell me one American who works so he can help others. Everybody gets a job. Why? So they can make money for themselves. Right? Boy, this is powerful. To learn to walk with God, you change your very motives so that you have enough to share with others who have need. That is basic repentance in Christianity This is too heavy for people to even think through on Now did I put that word there Look at it You can help others who can work Get a job for that reason. Wow. Wow. We get a job so we can buy more stuff. We get another job so we can buy extra more stuff for ourselves. We get another job so we can get more and more stuff for ourselves. But how many get a job so they can help others? I know some people actually have done it. but I mean it's very few. Literally, this is how radical you've got to get your thinking changed from the world. The world says greed. Get it for yourself. Jesus says I'm not greedy. I want you to help other people. Make room in your thinking, in your budget, so you're helping people. That's what I'm talking about budget here. Budget into your budget so that you live in your means and have extra to help others. That's what he's telling you. Does that make sense? Literally, make sure you pay your bills. but if you've got too many bills, get rid of them. Get it so your bills are cut down so you've got space where you're helping others. That's what He orders you to do as a young believer. That's part of overcoming the temptation. Now, think about stealing. Most people will say, I'm not stealing. Americans, right? Only a few. Let me explain to you how you're stealing. When you get yourself so full of debt that you can't pay it off and you go bankrupt, What have you just done? You've taken all that money from those people for your own selfish desires, and then you refuse to pay it back to them. God calls that stealing. If you take their money and don't give it back, that's stealing, right? You're a thief. You're required to pay it back. If you don't do it, you're stolen it. Just because the United States government says, oh, but you're under bankruptcy, you don't have to. I'm sorry, you still stole that money. You did. You're a thief. But we don't call it being a thief. We say, I had to be bankrupt. Well, why did you have to be bankrupt? Well, after buying 600 things from the store, and I got my backyard full of stuff, and my garage full of stuff, I couldn't pay the bill. I just got overwhelmed with all the stuff I got. I couldn't pay for it. So I had to file bankruptcy just so I could survive. Now, do you hear that often? Oh, you hear it often. That's being a thief. if you went to a service and said I need to have my car fixed and then you go I'm not paying you you just stole from them haven't you? you've got to pay them that's the point you've got to be honest enough God says I want a believer to not act like the world you be honest and you take care of your debts no matter how hard it is you take care of it that is my responsibility God says it and make sure you've got extra on top of that That is a huge, huge call against believers of America. Now, also, stop talking until you can control your words. Stop talking until you can control your words and to be only helpful and kind, building up others, not backbiting, slandering, and so forth. Here's Ephesians 4.29. Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps. Each word is a gift. If you can't say words that are strengthening and helping others, shut up. Shut up. Until you as a Christian learn how to say things that are encouraging and helpful. Do not stab people in the back. And don't listen to people when they're stabbing people in the back. If you are, you're not even getting close to learning how to walk in the Spirit. Right? This is still being baby problems that you have to rip out of your heart and get out of your life. These are all the issues of becoming this simple first step of becoming a virtuous person. Next, think how children break their parents' hearts. And I jumped the gun and said this already. Disobedience cuts you off from God's grace, leaving you stuck and trapped in sin. Ephesians 4.30 says, don't grieve God. You grieve God the same way children grieve your heart. Don't break His heart. His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in you is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for Himself. don't take such a gift for granted don't ruin your connection with God when you grieve Him you've lost all power let me explain that in a physical story remember a guy named Samson? Samson was a well-known biblical character he was given supernatural strength beyond humanity's norm remember? and he was given that on purpose and he was given basic command one of the things was simply don't get a haircut. Don't get a haircut. How big a deal is that? Don't get a haircut. All his life he wasn't to get a haircut. He was a Nazarite for life. Now understand, they had Nazarite vows created in those days and it was a one year contract. And even Paul mentioned in the New Testament he did that. What they'd do is they'd get a haircut. Shave their head so it was all nice and off like the sports guys do. and then for one year they would never get a haircut. Their hair would just keep growing and growing for a year. And at the end of the year their contract was over and they then could get a normal haircut again. It was a symbolic obedience to saying, I love God, I'm completely committed to Him and I completely offer my life and service to Him and Him only. And I'll show it by doing something of no value of not getting a haircut. I mean, that's not really a very big deal, is it? But it was a visual symbol of their obedience and complete commitment to Jesus, or in that case, they didn't know Jesus yet, but a commitment to God. Samson got a haircut. And he didn't even want a haircut. He got the haircut. What happened? His strength was gone. Now, he didn't feel sick. He didn't notice. He didn't have any funny feelings, guilty feelings. He only realized he didn't have strength was what? When he tried to do some supernatural thing, it didn't happen. This is exactly what he's talking about here. When you grieve God, you cut yourself off from that extra grace, that extra power of God. You won't even notice it when you do that, when you slander somebody, when you backbite, when you do some of these things we've talked about. You cut yourself from the grace power of God and you will find it only when you find yourself trying to do something you can't and you fail. You can't walk with God. You find yourself frustrated with sin. You find sin overwhelming you instead of you being overcoming. And you can't understand why. It's because you got a haircut. You hear what I'm saying? Because you got a haircut. You did that which cut you off from the mighty grace of God and left you in a position where now you are weak spiritually and cannot do what God told you to do. Now that is what he's warning about here. So when I talk about this, don't get trapped in sin. What is the solution when you cut yourself off and get a haircut? What did Samson do to get his strength back, I should say? How did Samson get his strength back where he was able to do what God wanted? Anybody remember? How did Samson... Huh? How did Samson... He would be allowed to die with his enemies. He repented. and confess he was wrong and ask God's ability again. How do you get back the strength of God's grace in your life? Stop slandering and say, God, I confess I slandered my friend or my wife or whatever, my neighbor. Forgive me for being such a fool to speak out against them when I was evil. Forgive me. I beg you to give my strength back. Give me my grace back. I need it. See? It's real simple, but it's got to be a humility. You've got to humble yourself and admit it. You're wrong. See, people will make excuses. Oh, they deserve to be slandered. They said it first. God doesn't care who started the fight. He doesn't care who started. The other day, I was babysitting. I tell you this because this really blew my mind I was feeding a baby my little grandson back there and I was on the sofa My older two and my granddaughter three were in their little tent they have in the airplane All of a sudden I heard the sound change to more of a warfare sound and scuffling going on. As quickly as I could put the baby down, I can run over to the tent and there's a little opening in it. And I looked in there. The first thing I saw was my granddaughter with both fists hit my grandson in the chest as hard as she could. He went flying back like this. And just wham! He was like knocked back. And he somehow didn't fall down. I think he hit the wall of the tent that didn't knock him over. Oh, that wasn't a good thing. He turned into a major warrior. He ran at her. And before I could grab him, he had both hands, grabbed her hair, and was yanking hair out of her head from both hands. Just, oh man, that had to hurt. And they were just in it. I'd never seen them such, I mean, such a battle before in my life. They were at their throats and killing each other. I grabbed, I had to get into the tent and grab my grandson out of there, pull him out of there. And I walked him a few times and said, no, that's evil. And he's so rough, he laughs at you. And when you do it, I had to hit him like four times before he quit laughing at me and would cry. And I finally made him cry. made him set with me and I told him no no you don't hurt your sister that's naughty and then I hugged him and showed him I loved him you know showed him I cared for him I said no ever do that oh in the meantime then um Charlize was kind of standing in the back and so then I got him calmed down and went over to her I kind of touched her bottom like that she cried I she's different I have to beat the daylights out of my grandson he laughs at you and my granddaughter you barely look at her and she cries you know because and so and I told no no you cannot fight like that you are hurting each other real bad and so then I had them both I grabbed them up and they had them both in the sofa with my arms around both of them I had a baby in my legs and I'm trying to keep them all happy here it was like man alive but the idea here that I want you to see is this whole issue is just whoa grieving I couldn't believe it it hurt me to think that they would kill each other And they were so little. I mean, it just came out of them like, wow! Next thing you know, they're ripping their hair out of their heads and pounding each other to death. It's like, whoa, man. And this is what I want you to see here. This is horrible. God says, no, no. Disobedience cuts to your heart, and it cuts you off from God. And all those things even come from a little children growing up. That stuff's in you. And you have to get it renewed by the true living God who invades your soul and makes you a new believer. and to see that it has to be taken out of you, you've got to come to the place and say, God, forgive me, I don't want this stuff here, and get real about it. You can't make excuses. I mean, my granddaughter could have made an excuse by saying, well, Zeke started it. And then Zeke said, but he can't talk very well. He would have just went, in other words, she started it. God doesn't care who started it. I didn't care who started it. I wanted it to stop, right? I don't want to see them hurt each other. I don't care who started anything. God doesn't care who starts it in your life. I don't care if somebody says something bad to you or disrespects you or hurts your feelings or whatever. It doesn't matter who does what. What does God care about in your life? What does He care from you? What does He want out of you? Contrite heart. Okay, contrite heart. He doesn't want you to give back evil for evil. He doesn't care who starts it. He wants you to do what's right. And He even says it. Love your neighbor and love your enemies. Love your neighbor, love your enemies. You don't know my neighbor. It doesn't matter. How do you love your enemy? They're mean. It doesn't matter. You love them in spite of themselves. It doesn't matter how mean they are, how hard they are. You love them because God says, you're going to come to me at judgment day and I'm not going to ask you, what did your neighbor do? What's he going to, at judgment day he's going to say, what did you do to obey me? Not, yeah, but I couldn't help it. My neighbor made me do it. The devil made me do it. Somebody made me do it. It's not my fault. If you say that, that's not humble. You don't make excuses. is you say, I was wrong. I'm sorry. Forgive me. It's over. I will not do this. I determined to be a better person like Jesus because Jesus never did that. In fact, that's what we'll get to in the next few verses to finish here. He actually tells you. He says, do not stop until you completely change your words, your attitudes, and your deeds. You will know you are right when you are gentle and forgiving like Christ. Look at verse 31. Make a clean break with all cutting backbiting and profane talk. Be gentle with one another. Sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God and Christ forgave you. No excuses. Don't tell me it's too hard. Forgive anyway. They meant it for evil. Of course they did. They're evil. But you're going to answer to God and God says, I don't care how evil they are. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about you. And I'm telling you, I'm ordering you as a believer, forgive them. Just forgive them. Drop it. Wow. Humanity doesn't like that idea. Or does it? That's just not normal. I want to hit back. You know, my grandson wanted to hit back. I mean, that's normal. But it doesn't matter what normal is. We're super normal now. In Christ Jesus, we're new creations. We're not the old creation anymore. We don't do it that way anymore. Does that make sense? We're different people. And God says, deal with it until you live it. It's one thing to say, yeah, I hear it in my mind. but God says when you go home from here practice it and keep working at it until it's real in your life that you can look at somebody who hates your guts and say I forgive you. When somebody degrades you you can still look at them and say I forgive you. When you can get to that point you're only at first base. You're only level one Christian. That's basics. That's not being a high up Christian. This is what normal Christian babies do in the kingdom. Hear what I'm saying? This is the thorough repentance that God's talking about. And no one understands it until you look at it in Scripture and say, Whoa! I can't believe it. It's just basic Christianity. I thought that was something only the big saints did. No. God says, this is the little saints do this. Maybe you've got a long ways to go, but it's okay. Get real and go for it all wholehearted. Don't stop until you've been changed completely by Jesus. Also, determine to act only the way Jesus tells you. See, this is where you have to make a determination. You have to make a choice. You must stick to it the best you can and crowd to God to give you the strength to do the rest you can't. But you go after it. Look what it says in Ephesians 5.1. Watch what God does and then do it. That's simple. Now, since God's invisible, how do you watch what God's doing and do it? Read what Jesus did. He walked the earth. It's recorded. When somebody hated Him, what did He do? When somebody did so-and-so, what did he do? Read what he did and mimic it. Copy what he did. That's what he's telling you. Copy what he did. He shows you the example and tells you what to do. He does both. Do it by watching him. It says, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Now, the problem is children learn improper behavior from their parents also. Therefore, it's important that you learn to behave yourself. And as a believer, you'll really behave yourself because whether you like it or not, your children are staring at you and doing exactly what you're doing. They do it. And you can't deny it. So be careful. Mostly what God does is love you. Notice that. The whole key of what God does is He loves you. and it says keep company with him and learn a life of love like he lived observe how Christ loved us That where you go to the Scripture How did Jesus love His disciples How did He love the world How did He love the people? That's the standard of what He's talking about. Learn it because you're like a little child now. Learn what He did. His love was not cautious, but extravagant. What does it mean that His love was extravagant? What? There was no boundaries. No boundaries? What were you going to say? He gave it away freely. He poured His life into people, didn't He? When you read about that, anybody that asked Him for anything, He helped them. He never turned anybody away and said He wouldn't help them. He was constantly serving. They kept thinking, well, if you're the king, why haven't people come to serve you? He said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve. He goes and finds His disciples and becomes a little like a slave and washes their feet like nobody would even do it for pay. It was such a nasty job. Only they made slaves do it. And he goes and washes their feet and they're astounded that he would do that. He did everything contrary to humanity's thinking because he's telling you, this is the kind of love I'm talking about. You bend over backwards to help others. You bend over backwards to serve the Lord God. You do everything beyond your ability to make sure you please Him. You put Him first and you drive forward like you've got a thousand horsepower engine behind you You go serve Jesus and work for it the best you can, and then you keep pushing. You do what you need to for His kingdom. You go all out. It's not half-hearted here. It's not apathetic. It's full throttle. Mostly what God does is love you. Observe how He loved. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us, but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that. People say, I love you, and what they mean is they want you. You ever hear that? Say, what do you mean you love me? I can't live without you. What does that mean? You're wanting from that person. That's not love. This America's ideas, when you watch these movies, it's like, these people are so stupid they don't know what love is. It's all selfishness. That's not love. Love is, I can't help but helping you and I can't help but make you happy. I can't help but strengthen you. I can't help by caring for what you need. Are you okay today? That's the kind of love God says. It's an all-out love that says, I want to give more of myself to you. But America says, no, no, no, love is I can't live without you. And love is I've got to follow my dreams. There's all these stupid selfish ideas. And it's not love. And also they think love is... You in love with me? Oh, I feel like it. Love is not a feeling. That's stupid. That's not a love. Love is saying, I will protect you with all my might. I will help you and provide for you everything I can do physically to make sure you're okay. The Bible defines in Ephesians, in fact, after this section, it defines love as providing and protecting. That's the two concepts of what true love is. It's not getting. Love is giving. Giving protection and giving a care to provide for those when you see a need in someone. That is defined by God as what love is. Is that your love? Is that what you're living? If you're not, you're missing the point. You're practicing Hollywood doctrines. And you're practicing the culture's way of life. Stop it. God says, get away from all that trash. It's all a bunch of empty foolishness. It leaves these people empty. They're empty, you can tell it. Why does Hollywood have all the money they want and get married 42 times? They're empty and hollow. it doesn't satisfy anything. When they're all done, they're sad. Until these different Hollywood people start to learn giving, and then you can watch them. Their life's changing. Have you ever seen on the news how they start to give? They get happy because they're actually practicing something God put in every man to actually truly love. It turns from selfishness into kindness. And then they actually say, my life's different. You hear them on the news. You know, it's exciting to watch them. They actually stumble into the teaching of Jesus without knowing it. And it actually brings the blessing God wanted for you in the first place. It's sad to watch it happen in our culture. Last couple points. Be on your best behavior by focusing on selfless love each day. That's the idea. It says, don't allow love to turn into lust again. Setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect. You practice love and you give thanks to the Lord God for His blessings to you and what He's given you. And that's His dialect. That clicks with heaven. You're talking God's language and He hears you. Be extreme. Have an extreme makeover. Or be lost forever. That sobering point I got to there, it just stunned me. After all the teaching he gave for basic, listen to the warning that Paul says here to finish out the section. For be sure of this, that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is covetous, who has lustful desire for the property of others, and is greedy for gain, period, for he, in effect, is an idolater. people say we don't worship idols any longer the bible is clear defines greediness as idolatry do you know that if you're chasing after stuff for yourself instead of what he just mentioned earlier you're literally an idolater you're practicing idol worship you're worshiping stuff and money because you put all your focus and all your time into getting more for yourself That's idolatry. That's a great sin. Second commandment, broken. He says, notice, after saying these things, he tells you, get it out of your life completely. He says the reason you get it out of your life completely, because if you're continuing practicing these things, you're in great trouble with God. Verse 6, let no one delude and deceive you or themselves with empty excuses and groundless arguments for their sins. Don't listen to excuses and don't make them. Because for through these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of rebellion and disobedience. Are you a son of rebellion and disobedience? Or are you a son of obedience that pleases the living God? They're one or the other. You can't be both. That's why it says get all over on one side or the other. Either get it all behind you and get rid of all that junk out of your life. Or if you're in it, you're under the wrath of God. It's not one or the other. So do not associate or be sharers with those folks that are living that kind of life. Get it away from you completely. Leave it. So here's the conclusion then. God's goal for you to get out of phase one, absolute total turning and deliverance from all sin. All of it. No excuses. Wholehearted get away. And remember, you can't make an excuse because everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to you through the Holy Spirit that entered you, you have the means and the opportunity. You ever hear the courtrooms? You have the means and opportunity to obey God. That's what He just tells you. You can't make an excuse. He's given you the grace of God, which means He'll give you more and more desire and more and more strength to do it. Don't make excuses because you don't have it. God has given it to you. you got it

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