Pressing On: The Journey of Spiritual Growth

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The entire Christian life is to be a pressing on to perfection so we must not confuse health with growth. The little baby can be 100 percent healthy yet but it is immature. He does not understand much. Growth comes slowly. We can have a healthy tongue but yet we may not have grown spiritually. It takes time. [00:00:46]

The path of the righteous person, Proverbs 4:18, is the light up like the light of dawn, like sunrise that makes the day brighter, brighter, brighter, brighter until the Sun comes to the noonday position. That is the full day. So being born again is like sunrise. Do you become perfect overnight? No. [00:04:22]

The mark of a true disciple of Jesus is not that he's become like Christ. No. Paul said at the end of his life he's not perfect. Now surely another thing that I've discovered in sixty years of being a Christian and in the last 44 years of being a more serious wholehearted Christian is that the more the closer you come to God, the more you grow in the Christian life, you know what? The more filth you see in yourself. [00:07:50]

It's through overcoming temptation that we become like Christ. And so even Jesus was tempted, so we are tempted. And if you look around this white circle and the edges of that white circle, a battle is going on. Think of a little wavy line on the edge of that circle. Battle, battle, battle. I'm battling with some particular temptations. [00:09:55]

Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." That is spiritual growth. So it's a picture of Jesus used pictures that everybody can understand. For example, he spoke about the vine and the branches. And when he spoke about "take my yoke upon you," it is a very common picture that everybody in Israel could see. [00:11:09]

Although he was a son, referring to Jesus, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. He said, "Did the Son of God have to learn something here on this earth which he did not know in heaven?" The answer is yes. As God, how could he learn obedience? Who did he have to obey? Nobody. [00:13:41]

Temptation is where you learn obedience. And when you are tempted, you discover whether you learn whether they have learned to obey or not. It's like when a student is studying in a school and that finally at the end of the year, the teacher gives an examination. Then you discover whether the student has learned anything or not. [00:14:36]

We learn by making a mistake. Here's the correct way to do it and learns correct. And the final examination, that student still gets a hundred percent, but he learns through making mistakes. And that's exactly how we learn too as we seek to progress in the Christian life. We slip and fall when we confess our sin. [00:22:58]

We must always be willing to be absolutely honest. What does it mean to walk in the light? The Bible says the blood of Jesus will cleanse me only if I walk in the light. To walk in the light means just to be honest. And I've seen through my life that sometimes the newborn born-again believers are more willing to be honest. [00:27:30]

I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, always be willing to consider the possibility that you were wrong and be quick to set it right, quick to confess to God, say, "Lord, I was wrong, I'm sorry, forgive me." I'll give you one example. It's an example I use often. Sometimes we don't realize where we've done something wrong. [00:33:26]

I thank God for the light I got out of that, but it took me many years to get that light because I have to grow to go to fourth grade, fifth grade. I can't learn in the kindergarten what I learn only in the fifth grade. That's why it took me time to learn it. But there are some people even after 25 years they don't learn it. [00:36:02]

I decided my life long ago to be spiritual is a million times more important to me than being healthy or being educated. The same for my children. I want my children not just to get an education on earth. I want them to be spiritually minded and wholehearted. And I decided that not after they were grown up. [00:41:29]

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