Zion Church | Keep Going | Pastor Keith Battle

This ain't my mama's religion. This ain't my father's faith. It's gotta be personal. It's gotta be personal. Anybody glad that you know him for yourself, amen. It it matters when it matters, amen. I'm grateful for the faith of my fathers and my mothers and my parents and my grandparents that helped shape my life, but it doesn't matter if I don't know them for myself, that's what I really need. He says, you've done that, but you now have to continue to follow him. Because you never graduate as a Christian, not while you're alive. [00:06:09] (35 seconds)  #FaithIsPersonal

he end up getting her to put it on the floor. She put her on the floor and he stood up and pushed it out into the aisle and he stepped into it. And he says, I don't wanna give God money today. I wanna give him my life. Offerings have always been a part of worship. And most things that were offered never made it back the same way they came to the altar. They they their lives were sacrificed. They were called sacrifices. And this is what God calls us. He says, I want you to be a living sacrifice. You've died to yourself and you've been made alive in me. [00:29:05] (49 seconds)  #LivingSacrifice

Building your life on Jesus is public. Now we get to see what was happening in the roots on how you talk to people, how you handle, how you how you drive. Oh, Lord. I felt something over there. I felt road rage over there. How you drive. Yeah. Yeah. How you deal with people in line that ain't treating you right. How you deal with people who offend you. Like, that's your that's your life being built. It's your attitude. It's your interactions. It's how you handle your money. It's how your relationship goes. It's managing your flesh. You see what I'm saying? Now that's public. It's service. [00:13:43] (36 seconds)  #FaithOnDisplay

And I'm saying, you gotta check your motive. Did you go live? What's the motive? Is it now to impress people? How do you think God feels when you go live when you got the attention of the only one that really matters? Why did you have to invite others in when you have an audience of one who matters the oh, I'm I'm talking to the wrong people. That's not root work. As soon as you went live, that's external work. [00:10:06] (30 seconds)  #CheckYourMotive

When the way by the way, as a takeaway, you need to start, restart, or continue routines routines routines that continue to build up your spiritual life in private. I said in private. This shouldn't be your only encounter with God. You need to be in the word because you need the word. You need the word on Sundays, but you need it all week too. When you do that and you build your life on Jesus, he says, then your faith will grow strong. You wonder how your faith grows strong when you practice when you put all that together and he says, this is this is important to the context of the verse. Your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught. See, what Paul's talking to is a group of people who are questioning what they were taught. They [00:17:18] (43 seconds)  #RootedRoutines

And I'm saying, can he trust you to say I will give you all of me. I offer my life to you, my dreams, my career ambitions, my money, my relationships, my plans, all yours. The next verse says in that, it says, because why? Because I trust you. My God is personal. I trust you because you're trustworthy. I trust you in my life. Give me the ERV version of twenty five one. Lord, I put my life in your hands. I put my life in your hands. If God's talking to you about doing that today, I'm gonna invite you to come to the front of the church and say, imagine putting yourself in the offering today and say that's me, need to do that. And it doesn't matter if you're serving in this church, if you're a leader in this church, if you ain't all in, get all in. [00:30:51] (58 seconds)  #OfferYourLife

Roots don't come out the ground and say, y'all see what I'm producing? If a root comes out the ground, we're in trouble. Get rooted. Get your private walk together. Get your private life together. Now he's gonna get to the public life. That's the next thing. He says, don't just be rooted, root draw your roots roots down into him. That's agricultural. Next the the next analogy is not agricultural, it's construction. He says, make sure your life is built on him. Now that's above ground. He's the foundation. That's public. So root work is private. [00:13:03] (39 seconds)  #RootThenBuild

You need to be praying that God would add into your life a circle of people who are following Jesus, who will encourage you and hold you accountable and support you in your faith walk. Your circle matters. Are y'all listening to me? Because without that, you can't follow him. So that's one of the ways you do it. But then he goes in verse seven and gives a couple of ways that we can follow Jesus. And watch the watch the allegory that he used. He says, you you follow him and you continue in this waste race, you keep going by letting your roots grow down into him. Yeah. [00:07:51] (36 seconds)  #YourCircleMatters