I remember uh maybe uh six months or so ago um somebody sharing I think it was Sundep sharing um a story of uh I don't remember who it was maybe DL Moody or somebody who um somebody asked him oh what's the secret to your Christian life

live like a new creation in verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature the old things have passed away behold all things all new things have come a new creature creature not of this world not of this universe I

think he would have said he would have been better off staying home you didn't really give your life and when I saw there is that the way we give our life to the Lord every Christian is exactly the same it's by cleansing the inside of

such loving eyes, but uh he Over time, he's showing me more that there's so much more to the Christian life than just screaming at the God for problems like a baby. And so, um my life started changing uh after I I progressed in the Lord little

i have been crucified with christ and it is no longer i who live but christ lives in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself up for me i don't believe it's possible that i can

so we pray that you would open our hearts Lord help us to hear you speaking Lord I pray that um you would uh let the words spoken be from a pure heart and we ask that Jesus Christ would

take it up daily take yourself off the front every day because you can't just it's not a one there's no there's no finish line before we die there's always there's no I've attained and now I can coast in this Christian life there's a

phillipians 1:6 he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus Philippians 1:6 one more time he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus

um it's a slavery and God doesn't want us to slaves to anything except Jesus and and him and so um I saw that like we've been hearing basic Christian teachings we should have discipline but it's different there's a difference between

moment we declare my life has changed but really we can't it hasn't changed we were just feeling that excitement that temporary excitement I read I was reading a Christian writing some time and I think it was I don't remember who

strong tree where the roots are really deep it'll hold your weight and that's what we hope for all of us I hope that if we've been a Christian for over a decade that were able to hold up strong if not this is the church you want to be

to get today together okay ready but whatever things were gain to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ more than that I count

that God is uh hard and um that there's no hope it it won't result in a Victorious Christian Life overcoming sin and so I've seen how important it is to um have love God's love in my heart um I remember hearing uh one time um how how

what I had to share was I had a few points I wanted to share and the first one that as you know we've been going through the basic Christian teachings study by zac poonen we already gone through that as part of our weekly

what do I have that I haven't been given and so that's helped me a lot this verses really helped me and sometimes I've been tempted to judge people who I know are Christians and who I feel aren't very walking very seriously after

said but when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia Paul began devoting himself completely to the word song Lee testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ I was listening to a sermon by brother Zack the other day and I

that's it's uh that's what nature is my understanding of it and so imagine a man who's the most angry guy even as a professed Christian he's angry but then one day he sees the evil of what his anger is doing the ugliness of it and he

the devil tries to counterfeit valuable things in the christian life and he tries to make us think that we have something that we don't for example he'll try to deceive christians into thinking they have the holy spirit

Martin Luther said something to the effect I don't think I'm quoting him exactly but he said there are only two days on my calendar today and the day I stand before Christ and uh if those were really the the the only two days that

does he want me to be but he was looking at so much deeper than that and the the with his main burden with what we've been hearing that Christ's likeness sent to um partake of the divine nature compared to Earthly Logistics of life

a truth so i think that that's been a great principle that sticks with me because it keeps me from a lot of things that are out there that sound good but aren't really truth for example hearing people say you're not a christian if you don't wake up and pray