What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know- Christianity 101

By Greg Laurie

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God – Hebrews 6:1

Are you a growing Christian? As a Christian you are either growing or going backwards. You are progressing or regressing. You are getting in better shape or falling apart? 

So how do you grow as Christian? There are four ways:

Step 1- Read, Study, Love the Bible

If you want to be a growing Christian, you must read, study and love the Word of God. It is important to know the Bible for many reasons. One reason Greg talked about was because that’s how you defend yourself when you are being tempted. The best place to hide God’s Word is in your heart.

Success or failure in the Christian life is dependent on how much of the Bible we get into our heart and mind on a daily basis, and how obedient we are to it.

If we are a Christian and we don’t have an appetite for God’s word then it’s an indication of a spiritual breakdown. It’s an indication that we are not where we should be spiritually.

By reading and meditating the Word of God is the way God personally talks to you.

We are blessed in hearing the Word of God and keeping it- Luke 11:28

Step 2- Have an Adequate Prayer Life

We should have personal time with the Lord by communicating directly to him. We should not pray only before supper, but throughout the day. As my pastor likes to say, we have a 24/7 hotline to the creator of the world. He wants to hear from you!

Step 3- You Must Be Actively Involved in a Church

When you are walking with God, you want to be with God’s people. When you are not walking God, you don’t want to be with God’s people. It’s actually a good way to find out where you are spiritually.

The Bible commands us to be involved in the church. – Hebrews 10:24-25.

The Lord loves it when we gather together. Acts 2:42-48 is a blueprint. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. – Acts 2:46-47

We cannot love the Lord, and not love other Christians. Don’t tell me you love God, but don’t love his people. Frankly if you are not involved in a church, it is proof that something is wrong with you spiritually.

The church is a place where we can come and grow. The church is a place where first and foremost we can hear and learn the Word of God. The church is a place where we can come and serve the Lord. We have to come to the realization that it is not about us; it’s about the Lord. A sign of spiritual growth is that you come to serve, not to be served. People who haven’t grown up spiritually have not learned to give and serve. When we give, God gives to us. We need to learn the joy of giving and the joy of serving. Church is a place not only where we go to have our needs met, but we go to meet the needs of others and discover our spiritual gifts.

Step 4- Being a Disciple  

To be a growing Christian and I must be a disciple. Personally for me this is the most challenging of the four steps and therefore it contains the most information.

But what is a disciple? A disciple is getting others grounded in the faith.

Jesus gives us an example of a disciple in Luke 14.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:26-28.

Jesus gives us three examples. If we don’t hate our father, mother, wife and children, don’t bury your cross, and don’t forsake all that we have, we cannot be his disciple. These words are directed to fair-weather followers. This was his test to see if they really wanted to follow him. The Lord had a lot of fair-weather followers. A fair-weather friend is someone who stands by us when we do something for them. The disciple must love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. This sounds insane, but it needs explanation because it doesn’t fit with other passages. Certainly Jesus wouldn’t ask us to command us to honor our father and mother and yet command us to hate them. Your love for God should be so strong and intense, that all other loves would be like hatred in comparison. Do we love God more than anything else? Family is very important, but God is number 1. The truth is if we love God more than anything else, we will be a better husband, wife, father or mother than if we loved our family most. If we love our family most and elevate them to a place where they do not belong, and make them into idols, it can be a problem. An idol is anyone or anything that takes the place of God in our life; it can be a person. An idol can be your spouse, children, job, or anything you love.

It matters to be a disciple because Jesus told us to go into all of the world and be disciples. How can we be a disciple if we aren’t one? It takes one to make one.

How do we become a disciple? Follow the Great Commission.

  

And Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. – Mark 16:15-16

  

This is the Great Commission. Jesus told us to go and preach the gospel. It’s a command to go out and preach the gospel. Jesus is not asking this as a personal favor. Jesus is telling us to preach the gospel. We have submitted our life to him, and he’s in charge of us. He says, I’m ordering you to go into all of the world. We belong to him and we should do what he says. These words are given to all believers. It’s not the ‘Great Suggestion’, it’s the ‘Great Commission’. Every follower of Jesus should be doing this. Are you doing this? If I am a disciple, I am commanded to make disciples of others. If you are not making disciples of other, then we are not being the disciples Jesus wants us to be. This is in effect his Last Will and Testament. These are the last words he spoke before his ascension. So obviously this is a big deal to him. If someone on their death bed gave their final words, would you pay attention? If they wrote down their last wishes, would you read the fine print? This is the message of Christ to each of us.

If you are not seeking to fulfill the Great Commission it can actually be a sin. There are different kinds of sin identified in the Bible. There are sins of commission- (what you should not do), and sins of omission- (not doing what we should do).

In case you needed some scripture to back that up, James comes to the rescue:

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. - James 4:17.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. - James 4:17. Here I know Jesus Christ is the answer and I know he can forgive sin and change a life because he’s changed mine. If I meet somebody and they need God, they even ask me for spiritual help and I don’t give them the answer, then that could be spiritual negligence. For many the Great Commission has become the ‘Great Omission.’ Many will respond, Yeah but Greg, I’m not gifted to be a great evangelist! Greg responds: but wait a second, every Christian has been called to evangelize. Notice Jesus didn’t say go into all of the world and live as good examples. The Great Commission is not to just live a good life, but it’s to specifically preach the gospel.

How to people come to faith in Jesus? The come to faith because someone shared the gospel. The primary way that God reaches lost people is through the verbal communication of the gospel.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ - Romans 10:17

The problem that a lot of us never want to close the deal, and we never want to ask the question…. Do you want to accept Jesus right now? Now once they accept, you fulfill the Great Commission. Go preach the gospel and make disciples!

Therefore the full concept of discipleship is this:

·         We need to share our faith

·         Lead people to Christ, and

·         To the best of our ability is to help them mature spiritually.

Then we are to go out and we repeat the process. Wash, rinse, repeat… Preach, disciple, repeat. Preach, disciple, repeat. Do it over and over again. I’m done with this new person, they are on their feet spiritually, go find a new person and get them on their feet. Then go find a new person and do it again, again and again. This is the discipleship process.

By matter or review one more time, how do you become a growing Christian?

1.        Read, Study, and Love the Word of God

2.      Have an adequate prayer life

3.       Become an active member of a church

4.      Be a Disciple

If you really want to follow Jesus, here is all you need to do:

·         Admit you are a sinner

·         Realize that Jesus died on the cross for our sins

·         Turn from that sin and believe in him.

If you really love him then you will want to become a growing Christian by following those 4 steps.