- Well, now as you started your journey
in following Christ,
one of the questions that a lot of people ask is,
"how do I grow closer to him?"
"How do I let him continue to change my life
and become more like him?"
It's a great question.
And we did recognize that spiritual growth
never happens by accident.
In fact, I've never heard someone say,
"I just stumbled into righteousness,
I wasn't doing anything and I got closer to God."
It's actually just like anything else,
that we become more like someone else by being intentional
and getting close to them.
And I wanna talk to you about just some simple ways
to be intentional about growing
in your relationship with Jesus.
what do we wanna do?
We wanna love like he loved.
We wanna live like he lived,
and we wanna become like he is.
So what are some simple ways to do that?
I'm just gonna give you five simple things
you can do to help you grow
in your intimacy in following Jesus.
The first thing is this.
I wanna encourage you just to study His word,
study the Bible.
In fact, this is one of the most important things you can do
because the Bible actually renews our mind.
We've been conditioned for however many years to think,
just like the world thinks.
But Paul actually told us this, He said,
'Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world.'
He said, 'but be transformed to be different
by the renewing of your mind.'
Whenever we read Scripture, we learn the thoughts of God,
we learn the hearts of God,
we learn the standards of God,
and the Holy Spirit starts to empower us
to become more like Jesus.
In fact, I mentioned before, but I wanna mention it again,
our church created the youversion Bible app,
and it's designed specifically to help people
get to know God through His Word.
If you go to youversion Bible app, you can click on plans,
and there are literally thousands of different plans
that can help you grow spiritually in any area.
Help you in your marriage,
help you in your finances,
help you overcoming addictions,
help you as a new believer,
you can type in any different thing
and they'll be reading plans that'll come up to help you
read the Bible and the Bible will change your life.
That's number one.
The second thing to do is to pray.
Now, how do you pray?
To be real honest, even as a Christian
and as a young pastor, I felt guilty because I didn't pray
a whole lot.
I know people that could pray like for an hour.
I try to pray for five minutes, I get bored.
My mind would wander.
And so I would encourage you to be creative in how you pray.
What is praying?
It's simply talking to God.
For example,
I talk to different people and with different styles.
Some people I'll talk for a long time.
Some people I do more listening than talking.
Some people we just kind of have brief conversations.
Sometimes we just text back and forth.
And if you think creatively about talking to God,
all of a sudden, you can be more expressive
in ways that are outside of just folding your hands
kneeling down beside your bed.
Now, do you ever wanna fold your hands
and kneel down beside The bed?
The answer is, yes, very possibly.
Posture, kind of gets your heart ready.
Kneeling is a way of saying "I'm coming before you."
And so you may wanna be kind of holy and reverent
in your approach to prayer sometimes.
Other times it may be like a text conversation.
You're about to walk into a meeting and you just say,
"God help me."
You wanna share your faith with somebody
just kind of say, "God, give me the words to say."
So prayer can be longer.
It can be expressions of worship.
It can be formal.
It can be a very short,
almost text, like conversation with God.
More importantly, just be aware of the presence of God.
If you walk out you see this incredible sunrise,
you might just give God credit
for like God you're showing off today.
And prayer is as much of an awareness of the presence of God
as it is a conversation.
Don't just speak, but stop and listen.
Ask God questions and listen for the voice of the Spirit.
You can pray.
A third thing that you can do is, you can grow as worshiper.
In fact, Jesus said,
that the Father is seeking true worshipers.
What is worship?
We do it all the time, you go to a basketball game,
you go to football game, you go to a concert,
and we like, we go kinda crazy
about something that we're excited about.
What I wanna do is just give you permission
in whatever way you feel comfortable,
to express your love for God.
It may be like the Bible says,
lifting up holy hands.
It may be like shouting, and saying,
"God, I love you, I need you."
It may be more kind of private and introverted.
And it may just be in a very private,
quiet expression toward God,
but you're gonna wanna worship in church,
you're gonna wanna to worship privately.
You may wanna worship with music in your car,
you may not need music to worship.
You may just go on a walk in nature
and say, "God, I worship you and thank you
for all that you've done."
Let worship be a part of who you are.
I also wanna encourage you.
The fourth thing is to be actively engaged
in a local church.
This is so important.
The church really matters to God.
Jesus one day is returning for his church.
Jesus said, "I will build my church.'
Growing close to Jesus is not just listening to a podcast,
not just listening to a message.
It's not just having a worship album going in your car,
but it's coming together with other believers to be united,
to strengthen one another.
There's something that's powerful about praying.
But there's something that's even more powerful
about praying together.
It's powerful to worship God.
But it's more powerful to worship God together.
We are the family of God.
The Bible calls us 'the Body of Christ,'
and the body of Christ is incomplete without you,
because you're a part of the body.
We worship, we worship in church.
And then finally, I wanna encourage you to use your gifts.
And this is what's so cool, you're good at some things,
like you're just naturally good at it.
I mean, look at those things and go...
How did you get so good at that?
You may look at some things about me and say,
"Well, how did you get so good at those things?"
Well, God made me this way and God made you that way.
Also, you care about some things
more than other people care about them.
And the reason is because God gave you a heart
to express in areas that you can make a real difference.
What I wanna do is encourage you to use your gifts
in the church, and then use your gifts as the church.
What does this mean?
Somewhere in your church serve.
Serve in the kids ministry, serve in the student ministry,
serve on a host team, helping people feel welcome,
serve by opening up your home.
Serve by giving, serve by teaching the Bible,
serve in any number of different ways in your church,
and then also serve as your church.
In other words, recognize that you don't just go to church,
but as a follower of Jesus, you are the church.
You've got gifts to use in the world.
You can be a voice of encouragement to people at your work.
You can be a voice of hope to those who are hopeless.
You can help someone move into a new apartment
because you're good at moving.
You can use your truck.
You can use your strength.
You can use resources you have to give.
When you give, when you serve, you become more like Jesus.
Jesus actually said, "the greatest are those who serve."
So, how do we grow in our intimacy with God?
We don't just grow in a classroom.
We grow living out our faith, every single day.
study God's word, its living, it changes you.
Pray, talk to God.
Worship, worship in church, worship wherever you are,
be a part of a local body in the church
and use the gifts that God has given you.
And when you do these things, what's gonna happen?
You're gonna be closer to Jesus,
you're gonna be more like Him,
and you're gonna make a difference.
Why? Because you're becoming a fully devoted follower
of Christ.
(soft orchestra music)