I had the great privilege of preaching and leading the Salvation meeting at Swindon Corps on Sunday and what a wonderful group of people I met. Thank you and Praise God.
I was preaching on "How to get deep roots?" Parable of the sower - seed on rocky ground - trouble comes - no deep roots - believer falls away and is lost.
There's an old Salvation Army declaration of "I'm Happy Saved and Free" and we don't use it much these days. Well I'm going to use it more and more in greeting people especially Christians. Too many Christians get saved and that's it. They never experience the JOY (Happiness) or FREEdom from sin that a close walk with Jesus brings. So many reasons why this is but sin is the key one. We do things that displease God.
So the answer....?
- Choose to BE A DISCIPLE (not just follow - the rich young ruler followed Jesus around)
- BE DISCIPLED by joining a cell group, house group, ward system, discipleship group (not enough time or enough intimacy on Sunday meetings to do this)
- DISCIPLE SOMEONE. Make sure that you not only are discipled but that you disciple someone else. Impart what you know and experience to help someone else. Give!
Don't just FOLLOW Jesus but accept His invitation INTO HIS LIFE.
2 comments:
Graham, let me add one more item to your list:
PUT OFF SELFISH AMBITION AND PUT ON HUMILITY -- In Philippians 2:3 Paul says to "Do nothing out of selfish ambition... but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Why? James tells us in James 3:13-16 that where we find Selfish Ambition we will find confusion and every evil practice. Wow! Want to avoid sin? Avoid selfish ambition.
The NIV uses selfish ambition. KJV uses strife. The greek word is eritheia. Here is the concordance entry for it Strong's G2052. Sounds a lot like politics :).
I was part of a church that used this priniciple but then it became very humanistic with men lording it over others and accountability became legalistic. So I would add that the "discipling" you recommend should be done through friendship, so its not a task but normal, I guess.
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