The Path to Christian Living – Part 6

# The Path to Christian Living Part 6

**Dr. Madasu Home Version 2:** [00:00:00] So as you can see here, we're looking at part six. You're wondering, are we not done with these parts? No, not yet. This might be the Lord willing, the last part, I don't know. We might have part seven. How about part seven? Maybe that'll complete the whole part of this section. So maybe we'll do another part seven next week if I, if, if I can obviously, but text must allow me to do so.

But actually in reality, I'm actually surprised that I'm on part six because that was not the initial plan. But praise be to God because he's speaking to me and through me to all of us. Uh, he's speaking through his word and there's nothing great about me. Um, I pray there's nothing great. There should never be anything great about me, but I pray the Lord will be glorified because it is the Lord who's speaking through His word.

Therefore, we are not moving because God sees that some of these things are so very important for us to pay attention to. And so we are in part six and Lord willing, we maybe do it part seven next week and be done with these parts. But I doubt because we've been studying about Christian living for the rest of the, since the beginning of the year, and we [00:01:00] will.

Continue to study Christian living for the rest of this year because that is so very important because this is the part that we fail a lot. We can read bunch of theology books, we can read books about New Testament, we can read books about Old Testament, we can read books about languages, whatnot. Um, all kinds of biblical things.

But this is one of the most important thing where we fail because we can have all kinds of head knowledge, but if what we learn doesn't produce. Fruit. There is no use with it. Head knowledge would cause more problems actually. Even though we might learn something and we might think, oh, I know about this subject.

I have some confidence in this area, and I can teach and I can do this and that. Wonderful. That's good. But then it may also puff us up. Head knowledge can steer our minds as if we, it can make us think, and then there might be the problem with pride. It can make us think that we are supreme in this knowledge and we have all kinds of knowledge about [00:02:00] this content and that can make us so prideful, and that is a dangerous thing.

God hates the ones who have pride, who's got pride in their hearts and pride is sin. Obviously. We know how devil fell because of pride. When pride entered the heart of the devil, the devil fell. So pride is not something God would honor at all. In fact, he is against the prideful heart. And so having knowledge without proper, without us being careful can lead us to have this puffed up, arrogant attitude.

But then when we read more and more and more, we gain more and more knowledge about the Lord, and then we have to act upon it. So if you are not acting based on what we've learned about the Lord, and again, no matter the area, the concentration, the field, whether this New Testament, old Testament theology, whatever, if you are not acting.

And living from what we've learned from the word of God, then we are not really living out the Christian life. Praise the Lord that he is given us all kinds of means and ways to study the word of God and also [00:03:00] to understand the depths of the word of God. Because sometimes, and actually most of times we need help.

And especially, we need help from Holy Spirit. God, if we don't have help from Holy Spirit, then we're not going to learn, or the, the word of God is not gonna be clear to us. We need God's illuminating work so that he could help us understand the content of the word of God. So we need the primary teacher of the Word of God, that is God himself, who's Holy Spirit.

It without teachings of the Holy Spirit God, we would not be able to understand a whole lot of text. Now we can read, anybody can read the Bible, but that doesn't mean they understand the insights of the Bible. You may have the surface reading, and by the way, memorize all the scripture you want to memorize.

But you still won't be able to connect the dots because you have no spirit in you. And only a Christian can understand the word of God because the true Christian Tu has the Holy Spirit God in dwelling in him or in her. Therefore, they'll be able to understand the beauty of the word of God. So you need.

I need, we need [00:04:00] the help of Holy Spirit God, to understand the word of God. Reading is good. In fact, the Bible says, my people are destroyed this book of Jose because they do not have the knowledge of me. They don't have knowledge of God. Therefore, we are all destroyed. When we are destroyed and they don't complain, uh, something, something happened, therefore I'm destroyed.

No, you're destroyed because you lack knowledge of God. But when God is providing the knowledge, what do we do? We've got to work on it. Not simply learn, not simply xg, not simply extract the beauty of the word of God, but we must also live it out. That's where we get into today, living out our salvation briefly.

That is because that is not the point, whole point of this text here. So we have to live out our living and if you and I don't live out our salvation. And live out the knowledge that we gain from the Lord then, and God is not responsible for our problems. We [00:05:00] are. We are. So path to christening, obviously we have many more, much resources.

In fact, we don't need them. Sometimes when I look at my library and logos and I think, Lord, why do I need more books? Because I don't need more books. I have so many that I would never read them. Lemme repeat that. I would never read them all. Because I have that many books in, in my software. Uh, but I, I only use a whole handful of them.

That's all. So we got this extensive knowledge written being preached every day somewhere in the world. Scholars and godly men, obviously, they come and preach the word of God up from the pulpits. And we have all this available. We just are not living. If we think we are living well, obviously that's problematic.

We have to live out biblical lives, not some prosperity lives. And of course, we have lots of [00:06:00] prosperity going on for a very long time where people don't talk about sin. These consequences of sin, the rebellious nature. People don't talk about, you know, what is, what does it mean to follow Christ and the gospel, the cross, the crucifixion, the resurrection.

None of that are in the, in the message of this prosperity people. It's just about. Think in your mind you're going to become a millionaire. Really, that is nothing but a fraud. That is nothing but misleading. That is nothing but a lie. Be happy because God made you to be happy. No, he didn't make us to be happy.

Even though God wants us to be happy, how can we be happy? There's only one way to be happy. To be happy in the Lord. That's the only way. Our riches, you might gain the whole world. I mean, our riches would not make us happy. Our wealth and properties that we work so hard throughout this life would not make us happy because, you know, once we start gaining more, our heart has a tendency to lean towards it and we are going to be destroyed because, and why do I [00:07:00] say that?

Because we are going to fall into this trap of earning more, living, more wealthy, and so and so on, and on and on, and walking away from the Lord without our knowledge. That's the greatest tactic of the devil, that he would make sure that he would not doubt. For a millisecond that you are walking away from the Lord.

But that is all the more possible Why? Because sometimes our brains are shut. We are not working. Uh, and our thinking rationally, we're not thinking logically. We're not thinking spiritually. Most important, when the devil is taken away, we are blindfolded. We think, oh, it's okay. I'm just living my wonderful life.

Like there's one guy next, uh, on the other side of the street. One time he told, well, actually two times he told me that he knows his theology. In reality, he doesn't know anything. That's how we live in utter blindness thinking that I know what I'm doing. I know what my life, I know what I want. In reality, none of us knows [00:08:00] what we want.

Only the Lord knows what is right for us. God is giving the wisdom that we need. God is giving the knowledge that we need. Are we living that life? Are we leaning on to this so-called false promises where all you got to do is meditate in your head somehow you're going to become rich. Why you not become rich?

Because you're not thinking, you're not claiming the promise God made that. God made a promise that you ought to be rich. Therefore you, I mean, you're still not rich because you haven't claimed it yet. How about you claim today and see if you're gonna get rich? You're not gonna get rich because that is not the purpose of the Bible.

That is not why Christ came. There's so many false people who are unashamedly proclaiming false stuff, and they're heading to hell, by the way, and also leading these people to hell unless they seek forgiveness of God. And we gotta pray for this. Lost so-called preachers and teachers from the pulpit and the lost people who go into [00:09:00] churches to this prosperous stuff and listen to the prosperous stuff because they're not saved.

There's their mind is so wrapped in this worldliness and think everything we gotta do what we gotta do right here, right now. And make sure that got you, got everything and much more in your hands so you can live a happy life. And let me, I ask you, when is the last time any rich men live such a happy life?

There is no such thing of happy life without the Lord. Without the Lord, there is only one life, and that's the dangerous life. Heading to a dangerous path of no turning, no returning back again. There is no option once you enter the gate that is so broad. Your life is done. You are over, that looks so pleasing and appealing, and you wanna run straight through it.

Why? Because it just is with all kinds of fancy gold coating, by the way, they're not real gold. They're coating. And we see sometimes this coating and we're like, oh, look at this. Uh, look at this [00:10:00] precious, beautiful, shiny stock. We don't even think about it. We don't want to think about coating. We just want to be, you know, amazed by it.

But God said, Hey, where I am. You're gonna walk on the streets of not coated gold, not rolled gold, whatever the fancy that, uh, that unreal gold, it's actually pure. If it's 24 Karas or 500 Karas, who knows? But it is infinite carat gold. We don't know what kind of, kind of gold that is, but we're gonna walk on the streets of gold.

And, and so when people enter into this false view of life and, and, and a demonic broad way, which looks so pleasing and, and pleasing the flesh and eyes and everything of this. You know that, that God said, uh, not to be pleased with. So we walk into this. If you're not careful, and we have to be very mindful of that.

Once we enter this way, the door is gonna be locked and the devil would not tell us, by the way, I'm gonna close the door right behind you. He's not gonna say that. What is a lie? Of course you have an exit plan. Don't worry about, I'm here for you. [00:11:00] I have many plans for you. In reality has got no plan at all.

Not even for him. What is this end going to be? Everlasting lake of fire, there's no plan. He's not going to come out of it. He's gonna take everybody with him. That is the mind of the devil, whether either we all are going to live or we all going to die because nobody's living without me. That's a demonic intent.

So we don't want to listen to this so-called junk. That is proclaimed today the, the false stuff where God promised that he is gonna make you wonderful. He's gonna bless you if you only listen to him. No, God bless. God has already blessed us with everything, with all the scripture blessings. Read Book of Ephesians, these false Es go against the scripture.

They use scripture. They need scripture. Why? They need scripture so they can fool people without the Bible, without the name Jesus. Without God, they cannot do anything. They need God. They need Bible. They need the scripture to fool people. Why [00:12:00] people? Because people would be thinking, oh, well, look at him.

He's quoting straight from the Word of God. Therefore, ought to be real. Ought to be real. Sounds like real. But it's not. I mean, if I take a broken car, damaged, shattered car, remodel it right, somehow, work on the body, paint it nice and shiny, everything else, fix the part. Doesn't make it. Doesn't make it. Is it, is it gonna make the car a new brand new one?

No, I fixed it. That's what David is going to do. Fix stuff and show us how pretty they are.

Horrible. Our, our eyes are so weak, by the way. I'm not talking about eyesight, physical eyesight. I'm talking about the spiritual blindness. Our eyes are so weak. If the Lord is not in us, our eyes are so big, we're gonna fall for this kind of traps. But what if the Lord is in you? When the Lord is in you, [00:13:00] the Holy Spirit, God is gonna tell us, stop.

That's not the way. This is the way. And we say, Lord, thank you for saving my life, for protecting me, Lord. But your way is so difficult, uh, seems impossible. And the Lord says, what Son, daughter, trust me. Trust me. Come on. Lord. Hold on. I see some strange deep valley right there. I don't think I can go through that, Lord.

I'm just so very scared. It's so sharp down. I mean, look at the deep dive. I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to walk down this valley, this hill down into the pit. No, Lord, I'm just so scared. The Lord is saying, hold on a second. I'm with you. I'm holding your hand. Come on. I am the sovereign Lord. I spoke these things into existence.

I am the one who created all things. Have you not heard of me when I come to sea? Have you not heard of me saying, let me this and everything create was created? Yes, Lord. I heard. I heard, of course. I read Lord, not [00:14:00] simply hearing. I read your word and I know that you said let me, and there was, and you said be still, the sea was still, and you, you split the sea as well as, you know, I heard about from Moses, I read the story of Moses and he.

Lord, I think Moses was surprised. Yeah. Wonderful. So what's your problem now? Nothing. Lord, then follow me.

I mean, Lord, don't get me wrong, and please don't be angry at me. I want to follow you, but

let me think about it. What is that? What does it mean? We're not trusting God because we are trying to take, take things in our control and who cares if it's a valley or whatnot? A storm, God is in it. Just yesterday I saw a big massive cloud. I don't know where it is in the mainland, US maybe Nebraska I think, or North Dakota.

Somewhere I saw this big, massive cloud. I thought, looking at that thing, I thought at least just like half a mile, big, I don't know, maybe more, [00:15:00] and the wind, a hundred miles, wind. Just imagine who wouldn't get sort of scary about those things. You know, I saw these, uh, tornado hunters, I believe they call them, whatever they call them, uh, weather hunters, something.

They have a name. Even those guys were screaming, don't go, don't go, stop, stop, stop. Don't go. Don't go stop. Why? Because it's getting so heavy, so windy. The, the cloud is getting so close and it's dangerous. Even those people are scared for life. Of course. So when we see storms in our lives, it's an automatic thing.

It's a natural thing where we are so concerned and we get worried, but then with the Lord, we don't have to. That's where our Christian life test comes in. We have to be so strong. The Lord must be happy. Forget about other people. The other people might think, oh, what is up with you? I mean, you can't do that.

I mean, it's impossible. Well, with God, who's living, that is our living God. With our living God, all things are possible except sin. [00:16:00] Why is that? Because he is the God of impossible. When we have God of impossible, what is our problem? From trusting him who made all things, in fact, who gave us this very life.

You see how we backs stab God? How we belittle God, we don't trust him. That gave us life.

Now you think God doesn't know that before he made us. Of course He knows every single thing and and that's what grieves God in Bible is so clear in Book of Ephesians, chapter four, do not grieve the Holy Spirit who's in you. I mean, he seal us under the day of redemption. Think, think, think about what God.

Has done for you and for me. Think about who God is, number one, where is he? Who is God? And who are you in this whole creation? Who am I in this whole creation of God? And why is God so mindful of this little teeny, teeny creature called human being? Think about what this [00:17:00] whole big creator has done for this little tiny dust particle called man, because in Psalm 1 0 3, I believe the word of God says, I know God knows our very form that we are from dust, and he's so mindful of this dust.

How thankful are to are we to be to God? For, for taking care of us, for being a mindful of small thing. And I mean, if you see dust on the desk here, what do we do? We want pick it and put it, put it in the pocket. No, we just trashed away. But God didn't trash us. He kept us, and he's keeping us. Hebrews chapter one, three, verse three.

He is sustaining everything. He is the creator. Christ is. He's sustaining everything. He's holding us together. What a precious Lord he is. And when we understand the whole creation order and the purpose of it and the, and the extent God went for to keep human beings that he created who even though they reed against him, we are to be humbling ourselves, falling [00:18:00] our ironies and praising and worshiping God.

That is all. We ought not be doing anything else because you know, for anything else, we're not even qualified. We are not qualified to ask our questions and obviously it's to threaten him. We're not qualified for anything else but to praise God. When are we going to get to that sense? Unless we get to that, the rest of it is not gonna make any sense.

So if any of that doesn't make sense, and obviously we would not be able to come to this point, the rest of it doesn't make sense. We have to understand what God has done for you and for me, and when we rightly understand what God has done for you and for me, we would fall before him and worship him because we are not even, we are unfit, unqualified for anything else, and that's what the Bible says.

You and I are saved, not because of who we are, but because of the grace of God. [00:19:00] Ephesians two, eight, for by grace you are saved. Nothing else, nothing else. So this whole theme that we are looking at, and we are still looking the same big idea that is true fulfillment of obviously Christian living. You know, when we are talking about the Christian living here, the theme.

True fulfillment comes from a deliberate pursuit of God's desires. A Christian, a Christian who's true believer of the Lord, a Christian who's true to his or her calling a Christian who faithfully understands the call of God, a Christian who actually truly sees the plan of God and and who they are in the Lord.

A Christian who's who fears the Lord, who reveres the Lord. They understand that. They have to pursue God's desires if there is a fake one. They pretend as if they're pursuing God's desires, but they don't do it. [00:20:00] They pursue their own desires in the name of God. It's a bit confusing, but that's a fact. True fulfillment comes from a deliberate pursuit of God's desires, A humble submission.

Of his to his authority. We have to submit to God's authority because he is sovereign God and a radical embrace of our new identity. Again, when we, when we understand the grace of God, the work of God in our salvation, it is because of grace of God. God saved us. So when, when he saved us, we became a new creature, new creature.

And we have to understand that when we become a new creature, because we are now born again, we are no longer to live based on the old life, but in alignment with the Lord, we have to live in alignment with the desire of God, with the will of God, with the heart of God. He [00:21:00] tells us, my son, my daughter, live in such a way.

We just have to say, okay, father, and live on. Because once you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. You once you believe in the Lord, as Paul says, man, sir, how can? How can I be saved? The jailer asked. The Paul said, what? Believe in the name of Jesus, you and your household shall be saved. That doesn't mean this guy believes in the rest of 'em be saved.

No, everyone must believe in the Lord. Once that happens, you have become. A child of God now you cannot become a child of God when you are stinking and sticking to this old garbagey life. You become the child of life when you just willfully reject your past, repent of your sin, and take on, put on the new life that is available provided by and in and through Christ.

Once that happens, you are adopted, you're born again, you're regenerated. You are a believer. You have a new life now, and you [00:22:00] and I ought to be living up that new life as the word of God says in Romans chapter six. Really quick and, uh, let me go to chapter six, four or three, I believe the verse that talks about this.

Romans chapter six. Um, let's just read from one to four. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? Of course, no, that is not the case. That Grace May bound, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin? Look at that. Live any longer therein. When you and I are dead to sin, there's no way that we could live in that sin unless we are not dead to sin.

If you and I are dead to sin, we don't continue in sin. Knowing not. That so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Also, obviously don't we know that? Therefore, he says based on verses one three, we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as [00:23:00] Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Even though even so we also should walk in newness of life. We are. Born again believers, obviously, we have to be living up that new life God has given us. Based on Second Corinthians chapter five 17. The word of God says therefore, if any man be in Christ, and I hope and many that claim to be Christians are therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a what?

He is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. We are no longer to be living those old life. We actually don't even belong to that thing, that old life. And when we die to Christ, obviously

we are buried to those sins. We should not no longer be [00:24:00] living. So we have this new life. And if you are not yet embracing that new life, you gotta take on that new life. F, the new identity that we received in Christ upon salvation. And also we have to transform our lives every single day for his name's sake.

And so we learn about the previous one, aligning our hearts with God's desires. Very important. The aligning of our hearts with God's desires, as we learned previously, is equivalent to walking in Christ. It is equivalent to being obedient to Christ. It is not simply a following Christ. There's a lot of people that follow somebody.

You know, if you have Facebook, you see the people follow you. They don't even know you. They follow. We not, we are not to follow Christ. We're not simply clicking that button. Follow Christ, follow. No. We have to obey Christ. That's where the whole problem begins, as long as we follow Christ. [00:25:00] We got no problem.

We're simply following, okay? We're seeing what he is doing. Just like the Pharisees of the time, the sades and everybody else. Okay? Let's just watch what this guy is doing. Is he doing another miracle today? Hey, you gonna do some, uh, some stunt? Lemme ch lemme see. They followed Christ. What's a big deal for those who are following today?

They're just repeating what they've done. Following doesn't mean anything.

Uh, maybe you get a notification, right? Hey, Christ is in capital. Oh, Ling there is a notification on, on your phone. I wonder what life, how would've been if there were only smartphones back in the days? There's gonna be news all over. Everybody in the world would know what Christ is doing because it's a live show.

And people of some of them, at least not all of them, we know they're faithful, faithful servants of Christ who died for their faith in Christ. [00:26:00] But we do know people who followed him to see what he was doing. They were craving for notifications. Literally, they're craving for God. Hey, what's going on? You have so many news.

Message me.

We'll be doing the same thing when we are following Christ. But when we obey, when we obey, there is that shift. There is a different. Thing that we need to do, which is so complicated and which we don't want because until as long as we're following, we are autonomous. We are just, we are governing our own life and hey, we are free to do whatever we wanna do.

We have this freedom. But once you start obeying the word of God says, Hey, you got, you cannot continue in such a life. You have to change, repent off your sins and start your new life. When you obey, you gotta do what Christ has told you to do. When you obey, you gotta follow in his footsteps. Oh, this has become like that.

You know, complaining. Now we [00:27:00] turn to be complaining. Oh, like that rich guy, master, rabbi, what should I do to gain eternal life? Christ said What? Hmm? Go sell everything you have. Come back and follow me. And this is when Christ should follow me. It's not, it's not equivalent to following him on Facebook or Twitter.

Okay? Christ should follow me at least take up my cross, take up the cross of Christ and follow very difficult. And so when, when it comes to obeying the word of God, we have, you know, we, all kinds of problems just falls right in front of our face. Oh. Uh, I have to obey Christ, meaning I have to give up on this and give up on that.

Give up on my liberty, my freedom, what happened to my independent life? Now I have to depend on, yeah, we have to depend on the word of God. We have to depend upon the instructions of Christ. We have to depend upon the holy scriptures live based on what God has called us to live, and that's gonna be [00:28:00] super problematic because we are rebellious in nature.

But again, when we go back and see the picture of God, how he sees us, by his grace, we would not do anything but fall flat on our face. Like John, the, the, the, the disciple of Christ did in the Book of Revelation. He fell face down and worship the Lord, because if he is been talking to the creator, God, these disciples understood.

Paul understood who Christ is, what he is done for him. When he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He said, Lord, who are you? He fell on the ground. But then within that moment, within that time, he realized who this Saul was, who this resurrect Christ was, and what this guy did to Jesus Christ, and who he was then and who he was.

Later on after he believed in Christ. I mean, he saw the difference of these two different universes that is the sinful one, whom he was not saved before this old life and this new [00:29:00] life. And so when are we going to come to the point of seeing the distinction between our past and the present in Christ?

We got no time. We have no tomorrow. We've got to make sure our hearts are in alignment with the word of God, with the desire of God. We have to make sure that we were living in obedience to Christ. We have to make sure that we are no longer living in the old life. We should be careless about the old life.

We should be making sure that we are living a life that God wants us to live in a life that glorifies God so. When aligning our hearts with God's desires, I mean, it should be important for us to align our hearts, and it is equivalent to walking in Christ. It's equivalent to being obedient to Christ.

It's equivalent to living our lives in accordance in the name of Jesus, in accordance with the Lord Jesus Christ. And when are we going to do all of these things? Somehow we think, oh, I have like 20 years, 30 years, 50 [00:30:00] years, 40 years, 70 years. We don't.

We don't, just last week or week and a half ago, the Air India, some forgot the flight name. The flight crashed. It just took 11 seconds. I think it took off from the airport in India. Boom, hit the buildings. It crashed on the buildings. Innocent kids, kids of, I've seen a picture of a family. They're so happy before a takeoff.

Little boys and one girl, mother and father. The dream were to move to London, and that's the day they were moving to London. It only stayed 11 seconds. It's two small boys and, and girl, they're just smiling like this. How in, oh man, it broke my heart. And I heard, and I saw, and I didn't say it. I heard in the news they two infants too.

Uh, with, with other people. All the flight is full and the air host is, they're just, and the [00:31:00] pilots, they're just laughing before in the video. Laughing and doing all kinds of things, and before going into the flight, what happens? 11 seconds after the flight took off, they're done. Everybody turned to an ash except one guy.

I don't know how he would say it. I hope you believe the Lord. The God has given, God has given him a second chance.

But you see, life doesn't, I mean, we got no control over life. It's so fragile. So fra like a balloon. You know, we put up some balloons for my son's birthday. It's like, what happens when you poke with the needle? Doesn't matter what big, how big the size of the balloon is. P gone. And just this morning I saw in Brazil the, uh, hot air balloon crashed with 21 people.

What happened to the balloon air in the bo gone, the basket came down.

You never know what's gonna happen. [00:32:00] We got no time. We got no tomorrow unless the Lord by his grace gives us. That's why we have to do what we have to do today. We have to live up that life that God has called us to live. And so we learn that Christian living requires both belief and action. Even then, of course, we come to the point, Christian living requires both belief and action.

It's not simply saying, Lord, I believe you, and the Lord is saying, alright, show it to me. I am glad you believe me. I saved you, son. Wonderful. How about now? You live up that life and show it to me. Um, that's where again, the problem comes, but we shouldn't be having any problems at all. When you believe the Lord, you believe the Lord, period.

And you don't believe him, 20%, 30%. You believe him a hundred percent. If you don't, then go back and search your heart. Ask the Lord, seek my heart and fix the problem. Lord. Help me fix it. The Lord is not going to chastise us because I went to the Lord and asked Lord, uh, last week, I didn't live up to your calling.

How about you fix me? And the Lord is gonna slap me upside 300 [00:33:00] times. He's gonna punish me for asking him. No. The Lord is more joyful, more happy. I mean, he would be so glad to come and help us fix the problem, the spiritual problem. And one, our spiritual lives are better. We are doing well. Ask the Lord of this.

And the God never said, don't ask me about anything else. No, that's, that's, that's not true. God said, ask obviously shall be given, but of course, everything that we ask ought to be in alignment with the Lord in accordance with God. Somehow, sometimes we take that into our own understanding. Well, the Lord said, ask everything.

I'm gonna ask everything what? And the Lord didn't give. Now I got angry at the Lord.

Small thinking. Don't make God so small. Of course, he said, ask shall be given, but you have to be asking in alignment with the Lord, how can God answer prayer? By the way, when this is aligned with the Lord, if this heart is not aligned with the Lord, don't you dare demand [00:34:00] God to answer prayers. It takes humbleness, humility.

To come before the law. Really, when you will not understand what a Christian is, what a true Christian is not. Don't fake, don't fake because God has no mercy for the fake people. Don't fake now, don't, don't, don't, don't preach wrong stuff or don't lead people in the wrong direction. God has no mercy for them.

But when you understand the whole plan of God, the, I mean, I mean, think of God as a big, big, big, big circle. I mean infinite circle, I just say that. And within that massive, massive thing, we are just so little. And the last week, at some point, I was showing my wife about the solar system and where Earth is compared to sun size.

The size of sun. If it is like watermelon, the size of the earth is like, uh, m and m, maybe even half, maybe quarter size of the m. How many of you know m and m the little candy stuff, the real round candy. So it's, it's probably quarter size of m and m. Earth is this size and, and I'm sorry, sun is this huge and the earth is so very insignificant is what [00:35:00] I thought when I saw the earth.

That's nothing. Nothing compared to other planets and other things, God are made in solar system. But he's so mindful of you and me who are on that small little dot called Earth. We ought to be so very thankful. Christianity is not simply believe, not simply saying, Lord, I love you with all my hearts, all my understanding.

Go sleep. You gotta be acting upon your belief. If I say I love the Lord, I better show it to the Lord. Because God is going to weigh, God is going to weigh my sanctified life. God is going to weigh my Christian life. He's not gonna go simply go nap. Oh, I saved you. Okay. Bye-bye. I'll see you later. He's watching every single day.

What? How can I, how do I know it? Because Holy Spirit, God lives in our heart. He's, he's watching. He's not sleepy. He doesn't get tired. He doesn't need coconut water. Or, or something that we need. [00:36:00] He's always active in our heart. Triune God is in his watching. So Christian, we gotta believe, of course, but we also have to act with the ultimate goal of allowing Christ to live through us, so others may come to know him.

And the word of God tells us that we have to live out our salvation. Very, very important. Christianity is not simply about belief, but it's about living. And added to that, we have beautiful scriptures in God's given word, of course here, that tells us that we ought to be living out our salvation. We gotta be living out our salvation.

And I'm gonna start just with one and we'll continue next First. Timothy four. 11 to 16, which I want to talk about it later on, but of course we'll come back to it.[00:37:00]

These things command and teach. What are those? Remember, Christianity is not simply believing, but it's also living. So what is, what is Paul telling here? Experience. Apostle Paul is telling his son in faith, Timothy Young, preacher boy. Who was preaching to the Ephesian church or churches that no man despise thy youth.

There it is his young boy. But be thou an example of the believers, this is what we all ought to be doing. And of course we fail constantly. What do we need to be doing? We have to be an example of believers. So here is instruction to Timothy, but thou, but be thou an example of believers inward in conversation.

Okay. So in word. Okay. The word. All right. So in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity, there is, there are items listed here that are, that are to do with acting, not simply claiming or saying that you are [00:38:00] so and so, but you are to be acting out till I come. Of course, Paul wants to see him till I come and give attendance to the reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

These are the things that are Timothy to do physically. Uh, he's not just going to mumble in his mouth. He's gonna be acting upon these things and he not, he need to be doing this. Also, neglect now the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of, of a presbytery.

Mediate upon these things, give thyself holy to them. That profiting may appear to all take heed Timothy unto thyself and onto the doctrine. Scripture, the word of God is so important. Continue in them for in doing this, thou shall be both. Save thyself and them that hear thee. I will come back to this next week and explore more in it.

Seems like there's gonna be part seven by the way. [00:39:00] But look at this. Take he onto thyself, onto the doctrine. Continue in them for, in doing this, thou shall both save thyself. Well, Timothy's already saved what is going on here? Save thyself and them that here, the, so here Paul tells Timothy not that, that he needs to be saved as in salvation.

Of course, you gotta be believing Jesus Christ every single day. You've gotta be regenerative every single day. You gotta be born again every single day. That's not the case. It is not, he's not saying you gotta be saved or accepting Christ as a savior every single day, but that he must practice his Christian living and doing so is very important.

So very important. So salvation and encompasses the past, present future. Timothy's faithfulness and diligence in his ministry. Living out his salvation will encourage and equip others to do the same as the word of God [00:40:00] tells. So if you look at this, for example, I'm not saying, but everybody's smoking, but that's the past life, horrible worldly life.

I don't wanna include more pictures in the past because it's gonna be very terrible, but of course it's a dirty past. The past is so dirty. Okay? Once you're saved, the next phase changes that you are in relationship with the Lord. In fellowship with the Lord, you have become child of God. You're adopted by the Lord.

You've become part of God's family. You now are of the Lord. He is hid that person who is saved is hid with Christ in God. Colossians, chapter three. That is our current life. Our past obviously is horrible, but once you're saved, there is that present life [00:41:00] and there's also future salvation. We ought to be living up right now.

The present is so important. Make sure that our fellowship is not shattered with the Lord. That's very important. Sometimes we would not be able to see that shattering of fellowship because we might be blindfolded with so many things that are happening, and the devil might say, devil cannot. He cannot possess us.

But he can influence. He can say, it's okay. Don't worry about your Christian life. Come here. Or he might not even said, don't worry about your Christian life because once he said that, you're gonna be alerted, oh, hold on. Oh, oh, oh, hold on. I'm a Christian now. I can't do that. I'm not gonna do it. No, no, no.

But then he's not gonna say that because he is gonna suddenly deceive you, draw you into something that you ought not be doing. Once you get into that phase and you get used to it, you're over. You're going to justify and justify, justify, like those who constantly drink alcohol, you know it's wrong, but you [00:42:00] continue to do.

Why? Because you have all reasons. Nobody cares about your justification reasons. I mean. You're still doing what is wrong? I mean, you get so drunk and Bible says, don't get drunk. You are committing sin. What about those who get used to these so-called drugs who are probably legalized in other parts of the world?

Once you, you, you're not on drugs, then you just don't. You're not even living your life.

That's how the devil might take you away slowly and slowly and slowly. Once you got used to it, you're not gonna get out of it for a long time. You will. But for a long time. But why should you even give time for that thing should not. Our present sanctification is so very important. Even though God sanctified us in the past, he's calling us to, uh, sanctify ourselves now.

Live out our salvation. We have to be living out our life, our salvation now, and God is going to save us ultimately in the future when that time comes. So very important for us to align our [00:43:00] hearts.

With the Lord to align our hearts with the Lord Philippines, two 12 says, therefore my dear friends, this is Paul talking to the Church of Philippi. Just as you have always not followed, I'm not seeing the word followed, but obeyed. So now, not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out. Your own salvation with fear and trembling.

You've got to live out that life that God has called you to live. That is so, so, so important. We should not neglect our lives and so. Christian Living true fulfillment comes from a deliberate pursuit of God's desires, a humble submission to his authority, and a radical embrace of our new identity in Christ, transforming how we live each day for him.

Very important. Are we going to live our lives? [00:44:00] By trusting in his sovereignty, are we going to live out our Christian lives based on what God has done for you and for me, based on his grace and understanding, his grace, the majesty of, uh, our holiness, who is the Lord Jesus Christ by understanding what He's done for you and for me, comparing this little particle called Dust to the Sovereign God in his act.

Get into the right senses of who we are, who God is, and and even though there is no need for him to save, to do anything about us, nothing at all. We have to understand what God has done so that we may come to the Lord with the right heart, right soul, right mind. Worship him with all that we have, and glorify the Lord and live out the life that he wants us to live.

Because as long as we don't have proper understanding of who God is and who we are and the relationship and what God has gone through to save us, we would not come. To be to fully obeying the Lord, but will we trust God [00:45:00] with all of our heart and not follow him? Obey him with all of our heart so that he may be glorified and we may be sanctified.

We may be living our lives and living our salvation. Would we trust God and obey him? Follow his commandments. Let us pray. Father, we thank you. For the word that you've given us. We thank you for the call that you've called us. You've called us to be conformed to the image of your son, and we fail over and over and over again.

We fail. Sometimes we fail because we don't know that we are failing sometimes. We know exactly what we are doing and we fail deliberately. We insist on failing to forgive our sins. So father. Help us to live our real Christian life. I mean, Christianity is not a simple thing and sometimes we take, we think of it so very [00:46:00] little, but it's such a dangerous thing because we are dealing with the Almighty God, please forgive our sins, correct us.

Help us of Father, so that we may live a life that brings glory to you. You are our sovereign God. We are in your control.

Help us to learn about you so that we may live the life that you asked us to live. Help us to trust you with all our hearts so that we may not think that, oh, your calling is so heavy. It's not heavy. When we have right understanding of who you are, what you've done, and what you're able, we would surrender ourselves and not give excuses.

Please help us to live a righteous life. So that you may receive glory, we ask all of these things in Jesus name. Amen.