HOW TO GROW
SPIRITUALLY
FANNING THE FLAME YOU
GOT WHEN YOU WERE
SAVED
STARTING THE
JOURNEY
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Every child has to be conceived
– When the sperm enters an ovum a
process is started that in time will
result in a mature man or woman
of worth
– The only way this is accomplished
is for the mother and father to
nurture the child i.e. to feed his
body soul and spirit after he/she is
born
Nurturance
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In the womb the child receives his
bodily needs from the mother
through the placenta and the
umbilical cord. This is a passive
process
This continues until he comes into
the world. It then become necessary
for the child to continue to get his
needs met though his mother, but
this is an active process.
Nurturance
You are all familiar with the
changes that take place in the
physical nourishment of the
child as he/she matures.
 What most people do not know
is that a child begins its
emotional nourishment in the
womb.
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Nurturance
Talking to the child in the womb
with loving words will begin the
process of bonding
 After birth the child has to have
love if it is to thrive
 This will be true for the rest of
their lives
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Nurturance
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In the same way the child has to
have intellectual nurturance
They have to be taught to crawl,
walk and run as well as to talk and
amass knowledge so as to be able to
deal with the vicissitudes of life
They learn at home, at school and in
the community they live in
They do not stop learning until death
Nurturance
The Christian life begins with
God’s loving the individual
before he or she is born again
 This is called prevenient grace
 When they are born again they
will experience the width,
depth, height, and length of
God’s love.
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Salvation
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One cannot be born again and grow
without making Jesus the Lord and
Master of their lives
If they know him and have not grown
they should rededicate their lives
and resolve to grow in their faith
It is a simple act, all one has to do is
to confess with their lips that Jesus
is Lord and believe in their hearts
that he was resurrected from the
dead and they will be saved. Romans
10:9,10
Spiritual Growth
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Just as a newborn child is
incorporated into the family the
newborn Christian is incorporated
into the family of God
They seek other members of the
family (the church)
And just as the family of a child
cooperates in the nurturance of the
newborn, so the church family
should nurture the new Christian
Spiritual Growth
Sadly in this day an age it rarely
happens
 Only 5% of born again
Christians have ever been
discipled
 All need to be!!!!
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Spiritual Growth
What should the church do?
They should do exactly as the
family does for the newborn.
They should feed them and
teach them.
 The process of nurturing the
newborn Christian is called
discipleship
 It will cause them to grow
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Discipleship
The Bible tells us that we
should teach our children God’s
laws. Deuteronomy 6:7-9
 These laws and other
scriptures are guides to right
living and we are told to study
the scriptures that we might
know how to live rightly
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Discipleship
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When a Christian is born again they
receive the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit’s presence in their
life makes them a new person
– They have a happy mood
– They perceive truths that that they have
not perceived before
– They feel clean inside and out
– And their behavior is changed, often
dramatically
Discipleship
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They may receive supernatural gifts
although they may not be manifest
immediately
Above all they receive the power to
change their lives, and to do great
things for God
Even so they have to be taught what
a Christian life is about and how to
live it
They also need to know God’s truth
Discipleship
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What is Discipleship
– Jesus made it plain that it is
training in spirituality
– For those of us who adhere to the
Lord's meaning, we can expand
that concept and say it is the
provision of training that corrects,
molds or perfects the mental
faculties or moral character
True Discipleship
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True discipleship will begin when a
person absolutely surrenders to God
Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me
and does not hate his father and
mother, his wife and children, his
brothers and sisters---yes even his
own life—he cannot be my disciple.
And anyone who does not carry his
cross and follow me cannot be my
disciple.
Carrying Your Cross
This statement is for most
people difficult to interpret
 Carrying a cross has had
different meanings to many
people
 For me it means being obedient
to Christ’s commandments
Philippians 2:8
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Christ’s Commandments
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Love God with all of your being
Love your neighbor
Love yourself
Love one another as Christ has loved
you
Do love by feeing the hungry giving
water to the thirsty, clothing the
naked, visiting the sick and
prisoners and taking strangers into
your home
Absolute Surrender
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When this happens the person will
really come to know God and
– They will have great energy for God
Daniel 11:32
– They will think great thoughts about God
Daniel 5:18-21
– They will have great boldness for God
Daniel 3:16-18
– They will have great contentment in God
Daniel 3:16-18
Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
If we absolutely surrender we
will most often be baptized in
the Holy Spirit
 This can occur at the time of
our regeneration or later
 One gets a gift or gifts with the
infilling that has taken place
 All of the fruits of the Spirit are
enhanced with this event
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Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
Everyone needs the Spirit
 You cannot get it from someone
who does not have it
 It is available
 In the Bible it was received
from the elders by the laying on
of hands and anointing with oil
 It is available today
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Discipleship
The Holy Spirit will motivate a
person to know more about
their faith
 Only if they are motivated will
their faith grow!!
 They have a desire to glorify
God so they hunger and thirst
after righteousness
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Discipleship
How do we do this?
 We begin with the greatest
Commandment. We love God!
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– To do this we have to get to know
him
– We can know him if we know
Jesus. He is the visible evidence
of the invisible God
– We have to develop a Christology
to truly know God
Discipleship
The Holy Spirit will Begin the
process of revealing all truth to
us (John 16:13)
 The first step in our spiritual
growth is that we learn how to
communicate with God to
enhance our relationship
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Discipleship
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We communicate with him and
he with us in four ways and
encounter him in each
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Prayer
Bible study
The Eucharist and
Worship
These are the MEANS OF
GRACE
Prayer
The definition of prayer that I
like best is that it is a
conversation between two
people who love one another
 It has two aspects
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– Speaking and
– Listening
Prayer
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I know of no one aspect of spiritual
Growth that is more important as
prayer and ONE THAT IS MORE
NEGELCTED
– The average Christian prays only one
minute a day
– The average pastor prays only 3 minutes
a day.
– Turn to your spouse or a person next to
you and in one minute tell them all that
has gone on in your life today. I will time
you. --------- Now reverse your roles
Prayer
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I think you can see that you were
unable to tell them much, and that it
barely enhanced your relationship
If you want to grow spiritually you
will only do so if you pray much
John Wesley wanted his ministers to
pray and read the Bible four hours a
day.
He said that everything happens
with prayer and nothing without it
Prayer
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Who are we to pray for? The answer
is:
– Our spouse, children and extended
family
– Our friends
– Our church
– Our pastor
– Our Missionaries
– Our community
– Our president
– The Congress
Prayer
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More who and what to pray for
– The supreme court
– The peace of Jerusalem
– For our soldiers, sailors, policemen and
firemen
– And for the lost especially those of our
friends who fall in that category
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Finally for ourselves with prayers of
confession, repentance and personal
requests
Prayer
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When should we pray?
– On all occasions
– Unceasingly
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How should we pray
– In the Spirit, i.e. guided, directed
and anointed by the Holy Spirit
– We have to remember that prayer
has many forms
Forms of Prayer
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Forms of prayer
– Singing psalms and other Christian
music Ephesians 5:9
– Praise-Psalm 67:3
– Thanksgiving Ephesians 5:20
– Confession James 5:16
– Repentance Psalm 51
– Offering forgiveness John 20:23
– Making intercession 1 Timothy 2:1-6
Why Pray?
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Why should we pray?
– To fellowship with God, to come to
know him Mark 9:37, John 14:21,
Ephesians 3:14-21
– To obtain results Matthew 7:7-12,
John 16:14
– To glorify God John 14:13,
Jeremiah 33:3
How should we pray?
We should pray guided and
directed by the Holy Spirit
 Praying in the Spirit is a gift of
the Holy Spirit. Why? Because
he anoints it
 Praying in the Spirit is not
praying in tongues. When we
pray in tongues we pray with
OUR spirit
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Praying in Tongues
Are “tongues” a legitimate way
of praying
 Yes! They have been present in
Christianity since Pentecost
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– They may be a foreign language
– Most of them are polysyllabic
utterances without syntax or
grammatical construction
Praying with the Spirit
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Is it demonic? No! but it can be
– The belief of dispensationalists
that tongues went out after the
apostolic era was perpetrated by
Calvin and Barclay and is wrong.
They have never ceased (1
Corinthians 13:8) and the gift is
still being given today
– Unknown tongues are a legitimate
way to pray if you have the gift
Praying with Confidence
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These are the prerequisites for
praying with confidence
– Abiding in Christ John 15:7
– We are to boldly ask (James 4:2)
– We are to believe that he will
answer
– We are to be prepared to receive
an answer
Prerequisites
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Personally we need
– A right relationship with God 1 John 3:22
– A right relationship with our family 1
Peter 3:6,7
– A right relationship with others Matthew
5:23,24
– A Right attitude toward our self James
4:3
– A right attitude toward sin Ps 66:18
Techniques of Prayer
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We should address our prayers
personally
– Father
– Son
– Holy Spirit
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I address my prayers to the
Lord Jesus since he is my
intercessor with the Father
Techniques
We pray according to his will 1
John 5:14,15
 Pray in the Spirit Jude 20
 In faith James 1:5-7
 With thanksgiving Colossians
4:2, Philippians 4:6
 In Jesus name John 14:13,14
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Listening to God
I know of no form of prayer that
is more neglected than listening
to him
 Throughout our lives we have to
listen to learn. It is not
surprising then that we have to
listen to him to learn of him
 No one teaches you to listen to
God or even tells you to do it
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Listening to God
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God speaks to me regularly
When I say that God told me
something, people will want know
how I know he spoke to me.
The answer is that he supernaturally
illuminates
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My thoughts
His Word
The words of others
And he speaks to me through dreams
and visions
Listening to God
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There is one other way we can
listen to God
– It is through scripture meditation.
How does one do this?
»Begin by memorizing a verse
»Quote the verse as a personal prayer
»Repeat the verse
»Ask God to give you new insights
about the verse and bring it to mind
when you are making decisions
Growing Through Bible
Study
Bible study is our second means
of Grace, and a growth
facilitator
 In the Bible we encounter God
 God speaks to us through his
word
 It also reveals God’s and
Christ’s attributes to us
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Bible Study
It instructs us for salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ
 It is also inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction and for
training in righteousness
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2 Timothy 3:16,17
Bible Study
One should consistently read
the Bible
 If one reads three chapters a
day they can read through it in
one year
 In addition a person who has
questions concerning some
aspect of their faith can do
topical studies
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Tools for Bible Study
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A study Bible and several
translations
A concordance
A topical Bible
A Bible computer program
Commentaries
A bible dictionary and The Daily
Light
And any other tools that your might
like
How to study the Bible
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Make time to do it
Study consistently. Don’t just read
devotionals!
Have a plan
– Pray that God will illuminate his word for
you as you read
– For me the best plan has been to read
three chapters a day
– And to do topical studies as I need to do
them for my writing and teaching
What does the Bible
teach us?
It reveals God and his will for
our lives
 It also reveals his attributes as
manifested in Jesus Christ
 The Work and person of the
Holy Spirit
 And gives us a futurology. We
have eternal life
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Worship
Worship is the fourth means of
Grace
 It means to regard with respect,
honor and devotion---to adore
 It can be done individually or in
a congregational setting
 In the Bible the word in Hebrew
means to bow down, in Greek to
kiss toward
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Worship
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It is, therefore, an action word
It also has an emotional component
The emotions we should experience
are love and awe
Love because we are responding to
Gods love freely offered by loving
him in return
And we stand in awe of him because
of his holiness
Worship
Group worship is composed of
singing, prayer, Bible reading,
expository teaching and the
Eucharist
 In each of these we can
encounter Christ
 When we encounter him we are
refilled with the Holy Spirit
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Song
Ethnomusicologists say that
people worship best in their
musical idiom
 An idiom is: a style or form of
artistic expression that is
characteristic of an individual, a
period or movement, or a
medium or instrument
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Song
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It is not surprising that our churches
do not have much life in their
worship
The musical idiom is often of
another era
Youth like rock and rap
Middle age persons like rock and
sentimental music
Older persons like jazz and
sentimental music
Many people like country and gospel
music
Song
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What they get is usually not in their
idiom. Sometimes it is in 15th and
16th century French, German, Slavic
or other archaic forms
Most persons like contemporary
Christian praise and worship music
Hymn singing is a form of prayer
ministry
Song
It contains praise, thanksgiving
and descriptive worship that
extols the virtues of God
 Examples
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– Oh for a thousand tongues to sing
– How great thou art
– Love divine all love excelling
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Praise is giving thanks for what
God has done
Song
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Church music should be
theologically sound and should
express what is on the hearts of the
people
If your relationship with God is right
then worship will flow out of your
hearts. It should be an emotional
experience. A response to Gods
mercy, goodness and kindness
Song
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What kind of instruments are
appropriate for accompaniment
– Any kind
– Organs, pianos, keyboards,
guitars, drums, bongos,
saxophones, clarinets, trumpets,
harps, flutes, and base guitars.
– In the third world I have seen
sticks used as instruments. That’s
all they had!
Song
If you want to grow you have to
make music in your heart
 Hymns and other Christian
music along with prayer serve
as a way of keeping our minds
free of thoughts that lead to sin
Philippians 4:8
 They can occlude lust, greed,
pride, envy, and anger
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Growth in the Spirit
Having told you how to access
the grace of God let us now see
what the mechanisms are for
growth
 A prerequisite is that we are
alive in Christ. One cannot
grow unless they have been
born again
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Growth in the Spirit
Therefore we have to formulate
a plan whereby we can grow
 This means we desire a closer
walk with him
 We want to encounter God as
often as we can
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– He made it plain in Jeremiah
29:11-19 (cont.)
Growth in the Spirit
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For I know the plans I have for
you, says the LORD, plans for
welfare and not for evil, to give
you a future and a hope. Then
you will call upon me and come
and pray to me, and I will hear
you. You will seek me and find
me; when you seek me with all
your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-19
Seeking God
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We have to seek God
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In prayer
In Bible study
In the Eucharist
And in worship
If we do not encounter him it is
because we have quenched or
grieved the Holy Spirit
Seeking God
To quench the Holy Spirit all you
have to do is to ignore your
relationship with him. If you do
not pray read the Bible or
worship the Lord he will not be
active in your life
 If you sin you will grieve the
Holy Spirit
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Grieving the Holy Spirit
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All of us sin daily. If you look at the
list of the seven deadly sins you will
realize that you sin every day.
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Pride
Anger
Lust
Gluttony
Envy
Sloth and
Greed
Grieving the Holy Spirit
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To say that we do not sin makes us
liars 1 John 1:10
– Pride is the mother of all sin
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» Positive pride
» Negative pride
We get angry
We are gluttonous
We above all are greedy
We envy others
And are at times slothful
And greedy
Definitions
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Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes
with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been
called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as
Vanity.
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that
which one requires.
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts
instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the
realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
Quenching the holy
Spirit
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The first reason we do not grow
spiritually is that we have
spiritual sloth
– We do not take the time to relate
to God intimately
»Intimacy has many definitions but
spiritually it is a close personal
relationship with someone where we
reveal our innermost self to them and
they to us
Intimacy
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Intimacy is a oneness with God
– This comes about only if we first love
him, and then confess repent and are
forgiven
– Repentance is absolutely necessary if
we are to have an intimate relationship
with him
– In the early church the people repented
every day. They knew they sinned and
took measures to rectify it
Intimacy
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To repent we have to have a Godly
sorrow and an intent to amend our
ways
Godly sorrow is to realize what we
did to Jesus on the Cross
– It was our sin that put him there and he
took our punishment
– His stripes are the source of our healing
– His death made it possible for us to have
eternal life
Intimacy
Our confession and repentance
brings us back into the right
relationship with God and we
are again empowered to do his
will
 Also the fruits of the Spirit will
be manifest in us again and the
joy of our salvation will return
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More Ways to Grow
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I have not mentioned the power of
personal witness to bring us closer
to God
I know of no one thing that helps us
to encounter God more powerfully
than the personal witness of others
who have experienced his grace
It also is a powerful tool for
evangelism
More Ways to Grow
Another way is to have a mature
Christian teacher who can
facilitate our growth by passing
on knowledge and wisdom that
he or she has accumulated
 Then too there are conferences
where there is great teaching
that would not be accessible to
us otherwise
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Personal Responsibility
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To grow in our faith we need to be
personally responsible
God will not force himself on us nor
will he cram knowledge down our
throats. He appeals to us
He also will not force his will in our
lives. We humans do not tolerate the
imposition of another will above our
own. We only respond to an appeal
to our will
Service
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You remember I said that we have to
do love to be obedient
This means that we have to
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Feed the hungry
Give water to the thirsty
Clothe the naked
Visit the sick and prisoners
Take strangers in our homes and
Go to the ends of the earth to witness
for him and make new disciples
Summary
To grow in our faith we need to
obey Jesus commandments
 We are to seek first the
kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all other
things will be given to us.
 We seek the kingdom by
obeying his commandments
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Jesus’ Commandments
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Love god with all our being
Love our neighbor as ourselves
Love one another as he has loved us
Love ourselves
Do love by feeding the hungry, giving
water to the thirsty, clothing the
naked, visiting the sick and
prisoners, and taking strangers in
our homes
And making disciples by being his
witness to the ends of the earth
Obeying His
Commandments
I is not enough to live a nice,
sweet kind life. All that
witnesses to is a nice sweet,
kind life
 We need to obey the biblical
injunction, “let the redeemed of
the Lord say so!”
 Go forth and do it!
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