Participants: Eric Garloff
Series Code: WWJ
Program Code: WWJ000008
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00:01 Have you ever wondered how you can have a closer
00:03 walk with Jesus? 00:04 Stay tuned and we'll share with you how you can do just that 00:08 in this edition of Walking With Jesus. 00:26 Greetings, I'm Eric Garloff, your host for 00:28 Walking With Jesus. 00:29 In today's episode of Walking With Jesus we're going to be 00:32 talking about how we mature in Jesus, or how we grow up in 00:36 Jesus, and walk with Him on a daily basis. 00:38 The Bible gives us much to guide us in this area, and I pray that 00:43 this episode will be a tremendous blessing to your 00:46 understanding of what it means to mature in Christ. 00:49 Many people, after yielding their life to Christ, 00:52 and accepting Jesus as their Lord, at some point tend to stop 00:57 walking with Jesus and begin to go it alone. 01:00 They take back into their own hands the control of their life 01:04 in which they had given to Christ. 01:06 It's as if they themselves now have somehow found the power 01:11 to over sin and temptation all by themselves and no longer 01:14 need the Holy Spirit in their life to empower them 01:17 or to protect them. 01:18 Friends, when we do this we are taking ourselves 01:23 out of God's hand. 01:24 We're removing ourselves from His wisdom, His guidance, 01:29 and His protection. 01:30 We are disconnecting ourselves from the very source 01:33 of our spiritual life. 01:34 We cannot go it alone. 01:36 We need to draw our energies, our wisdom, and our very life 01:41 from the Source of Life on a moment by moment basis. 01:45 Jesus speaks about our dependence on God 01:47 in Matthew 6:25-33 which says: 02:31 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, 02:34 which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, 02:37 will He not much more clothe you, Oh ye of little faith? 02:41 So do not worry saying what shall we eat, 02:44 or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? 03:00 In essence, Jesus is telling us here that we should rest in Him. 03:04 We shouldn't go about our day worried as to how our provisions 03:08 will be assured, but instead He bids us to seek first 03:11 the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and in so doing 03:16 all of our provisions will be given to us by Him. 03:19 It's a matter of keeping our focus on the One who gives us 03:22 forgiveness of sin and salvation for our very life. 03:25 It's a matter of leaving our life in God's hands 03:29 and not trying to regain control over it. 03:32 It's a matter of trusting God and taking Him at His word. 03:37 Let's compare this new birth experience with the actual birth 03:41 of a new born baby. 03:43 When a baby is born can he take care of himself? 03:47 Can he feed himself, or change his diaper, 03:51 or drive himself to the doctor for a checkup? 03:53 Of course not! 03:55 He needs his parents to love him, nurture him, care for him, 03:59 and direct him in the right path. 04:01 So it is with us. 04:03 When we experience the new birth in Jesus 04:05 our heavenly father loves us, cares for us, and places us 04:10 on the right path. 04:11 Now, when this baby becomes a few years older, 04:14 and he's able to feed himself, and dress himself, 04:18 does this mean that he's now ready to face 04:20 the world on his own? 04:21 Of course not. 04:23 He still needs to rely on his parents for his daily needs 04:26 and protection. 04:27 So it is with us as we grow in Jesus. 04:30 We need to rely on Him every day for our provisions. 04:33 Reading from the book Steps to Christ, page 46 and 47, 04:36 we find this passage: 05:15 Drawing your life from Him, you will not wither 05:18 nor be fruitless. 05:19 You will be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water. 05:23 Many have an idea that they must do some part of the work alone. 05:27 They have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, 05:30 but now they seek by their own efforts to live aright, 05:34 but every such effort must fail. 06:13 And what beautiful thoughts these are indeed. 06:16 It's a fact of life, friends, when you cut a branch 06:19 from a tree, or from a vine, the branch begins to die. 06:23 It's been separated from the source of its life. 06:26 Its leaves wither, dry, crumble into pieces and blow away. 06:30 Who would even consider being removed from the vine 06:33 or cutting themselves off from the source of life 06:35 when understood like this? 06:39 Yet, my friend, this is what we then do when we try to take back 06:44 control of our life once we've given it to Jesus. 06:47 The new birth experience is like placing a seed into the soil 06:51 and giving it water. 06:52 By the way, water is a symbol of the baptism 06:55 of the Holy Spirit. 06:56 Then, in a few days, the seed sprouts and brings forth life. 07:01 This sprout of new life is tender and delicate. 07:06 If you disconnect it from the source of life by pulling it up 07:09 out of the ground, it quickly withers and dies. 07:12 So it is with us if we disconnect ourselves from Jesus. 07:15 Colossians 2:6,10 says this: 07:51 Now let me ask you this. 07:53 Verse 6 said, As you have received Christ so walk in him. 07:58 How have you received Christ? 08:00 I hope your answer to this question is that you've received 08:03 Him by faith. 08:04 Isn't that right? 08:05 By faith we come to Him and trust in Him. 08:09 So if we received Him by faith then we are also to walk 08:13 with Jesus by faith, Amen? 08:15 This is the key to growing up and maturing in Jesus Christ. 08:19 We do it by faith in the Son of God. 08:22 Verse 7 in Colossians 2 said that we are rooted 08:25 and established in the faith. 08:26 Being rooted is a symbol, or another way of saying 08:29 getting our nourishment from our faith. 08:32 Just as a seedling is rooted in the soil, 08:34 getting its nourishment from it, so our roots in Jesus are found 08:40 within our faith in Jesus, which provides us our 08:43 spiritual nourishment. 08:46 Over and over Jesus used things in nature 08:49 to teach us spiritual lessons. 08:50 One such lesson I've learned at home over the years, 08:53 while tending to our lawn, is that when you don't water 08:57 your grass during the hot summer months, the grass turns brown 09:01 and goes dormant. 09:02 It doesn't actually die, that is unless the ground gets that hot 09:06 and dry that the roots themselves dry up 09:09 and wither away. 09:10 When the lawn does go dormant, you can begin watering it again 09:15 and over a period of a few weeks the grass will return again. 09:18 The grass plants wake up out of their dormancy 09:21 and send up new blades of grass; new shoots, 09:23 turning your lawn green again. 09:26 Now another side effect of not properly caring for your lawn 09:31 is that weeds will begin taking it over. 09:33 It almost seems that the hotter, and the dryer the weather gets, 09:37 the more the weeds will grow, but when the grass is full 09:41 and healthy it forms a barrier against the weeds. 09:45 That's not to say that you won't get weeds, but with the proper 09:48 proper fertilization and weed control, you'll have a beautiful 09:51 looking lawn again. 09:52 The fertilizer adds the right amount of nutrients to the lawn 09:56 so that it will grow full and healthy with a deep vibrant 10:00 green color, and along with the watering this will produce 10:04 the best lawn. 10:05 Now let me tell you about weed control. 10:08 Weed control comes in two basic forms. 10:11 The first is what's known as a pre-emergent. 10:13 It's normally put down early in the spring, and it prevents many 10:17 of the weeds from growing in the first place. 10:19 The second type of weed control is targeted at weeds that have 10:23 already come up. 10:24 Some varieties of weeds are very hard to control 10:27 once they emerge. 10:28 Crabgrass is one of them, so you really want to use 10:32 the pre-emergent early in the spring to keep this crabgrass 10:36 from growing up into your lawn. 10:38 Here's how I think about my lawn as compared 10:41 to my spiritual life. 10:42 When I keep myself in God's word it's like watering the lawn 10:46 to keep it alive and growing. 10:47 When I follow God's word by putting into action, 10:50 within my life, those things that I'm learning in the Bible, 10:54 then that's like applying the fertilizer to the lawn, 10:57 making my spiritual life vibrant and causing it to grow 11:00 and mature at an even faster rate. 11:02 This gives my spiritual life a special vibrancy, color, 11:06 and enthusiasm. 11:08 Now when I read the Bible and God shows me that I have some 11:13 weeds growing in my life, then I need to apply the weed control, 11:17 which is, by faith, taking God at His word, and yielding my 11:21 sin, or my temptation over to Him, and allowing Him to 11:25 eradicate that weed, or that sin, from my life. 11:28 Thus it is that the Christian grows and matures as he reads 11:33 and applies God's word to His life. 11:35 Through faith, just as you receive Jesus Christ, 11:39 so you walk in Him. 11:42 Steps to Christ, page 47 gives us some very important 11:45 information to guide us in being able to do this, 11:47 and I'd like to share it with you. 11:49 It says: 12:28 Now wouldn't that be a great way to start out your day? 12:31 When I read this I liken it to the pre-emergent weed control. 12:35 If we give ourselves to God first thing in the morning 12:39 we are taking the first step each day to prevent 12:43 the spiritual weeds from coming up in the first place. 12:47 In closing this episode I'd like to leave you with one last quote 12:52 from Steps to Christ, and it's found on page 48, which says: 12:55 Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, 12:59 the perfection of His character. 13:01 Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, 13:05 Christ in His purity and holiness, 13:07 Christ in His matchless love, 13:09 this is the subject of the soul's contemplation. 13:12 It is by living Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him 13:18 that you are to be transformed into His likeness. 13:21 Well now, to be found in the likeness of Jesus, 13:26 to have the character of Jesus really is the ultimate goal now, 13:30 isn't it? 13:31 To be growing and maturing in Jesus each and every day 13:35 is the will of God for His people. 13:37 May God's rich blessings be upon you, and your loved ones 13:42 as you find yourself walking with Jesus. 13:47 When you walk with Jesus your faith will grow, 13:51 and His love will guide you in life. 13:54 We pray you will draw closer to Jesus every day. 13:57 Our next episode shows us how to be happy while working 14:03 for the happiness of others. 14:04 Please be sure to join us. |
Revised 2014-12-17