https://youtu.be/05aT366Layo
Jude 1:20-21
Jude had just finished detailing the characteristics of certain men who had “crept in unawares” into the Christian faith - men who were ungodly, who were, according to Jude, “ordained to this condemnation.”
His words are scathing to say the least but his purpose is not to bad mouth his enemies; rather, to help his brethren in Christ.
He turned right from that in verse 20 to give five habits meant to protect believers from these “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
**Building up yourselves in your most holy faith
Praying in the Holy Ghost
Keep yourselves in the love of God
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
Some having compassion... etc (witnessing, soul winning work)**
I want to concentrate our attention on the first of these five (although I will touch on all of them to some degree)
I think most Christians take the exhortation to build themselves in the faith as more of an abstract concept.
I know few Christians, I think, who can give you a meaningful plan meant to make them “**grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.**”
I want to share with you what has been my plan for personal/spiritual growth. It has developed over the years. It isn’t what I did when I first became a Christian or when I first became a pastor - I haven’t always had it written out as precisely as I do right now and I can’t say that it is a finished product. I hope to continue growing as a believer until I die and I am sure that will mean that I tweak my daily walk with the Lord further as the years move on.
I also wish to express that I do not present this to set myself up as having in any way arrived.
You do not have to plan your walk with the Lord after mine
Your personal walk will have to be unique to yourself
I only present it to:
Give some ideas and to
Encourage you to have some form of meaningful plan
I want to present my daily walk with the Lord under two headings:
First, the philosophy behind it
Second the nuts and bolts of it
**I. THE PHILOSOPHY**
The philosophy behind my daily walk comes from Luke 2:52 KJV
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Jesus increased or grew in three areas:
**Wisdom
Stature and
Favor with God and man**
This roughly corresponds to the three parts of man:
**The spirit - our connection with God
The soul - our connection with others
The body - our connection with earth**
**A. The spirit - our connection with God**
It is through the spirit that we walk with God. It corresponds with Jesus’ increasing in favor with God. This will be where I spend most of our time.
There are three keys to growing spiritually:
**Bible - not just reading it but learning and heeding it
Prayer - born out of the things God has taught me in the Bible
Church - assembling together for worship and to provoke one another to love and good works**
**B. The soul - our connection with others**
Within the soul resides our
**Mind
Will and
Emotions**
It is our connection with others and it corresponds with Jesus’ increasing in favor with man
We will never really reach men unless we have some favor with them. I get most of my ideas under this segment from things I have read about:
**Benjamin Franklin** - who formed what he called a Junto, with a small group of men - a group whose sole purpose was to provoke each other to personal growth
**George Washington** - who memorized and practiced a list of just over 100 manners - a practice that created in him a reputation that made him probably the only man of his day who could have led the Continental Army and then become the first President of this country.
**Jonathan Edwards** - a pastor whose purposeful approach to the ministry gave him the reputation of being the greatest theologian our country has ever produced.
Our connection with other people can be divided into three parts:
**Our communication with others
Our reputation among others
Our outreach toward others**
Communication involves three skills
**Rhetoric** - the art of speaking or writing in a convincing manner
**Logic** - the ability to form accurate conclusions from the written and verbal communications of others
**Language** - the rules of speech and grammar necessary both to properly express ourselves and to interpret the expressions of others
Reputation is tied to the personal disciplines of
**Manners** - which speaks to how others perceive us
**Attitude**- which speaks to how we perceive the events of life
**Personal growth** - which speaks to our commitment to our relationships with others
A clearer word for what I mean by outreach is generosity which I divide into:
**Ministry to others** - either spiritual or by meeting a physical need of another soul
**Concern for others** - being aware of feelings preferences, background and special days in another person’s life
**Thoughtfulness for others** - reaching out to that person in a manner appropriate to them
**C. The body - our connection with earth**
My responsibility towards my body today is to mortify the deeds of the flesh. I do that through:
**Humility** - God exalts the humble but humility can only occur by being humiliated. Contemplate upon and allow those things humble us or humiliate us to be learning times in life.
**Confession of sin** - Confession requires that I am aware of my sin and that I then acknowledge it as sin before God
**Discipline** - by practicing moderation and purpose in eating, exercise and work.
All of this is meant to give direction and purpose to my spiritual walk. I am not wandering aimlessly in a spiritual wilderness. I have direction- somewhere I want to arrive at in my personal walk.
On a more practical side - let me show you
**II. THE PATH OF MY DEVOTIONAL WALK**
I divide my devotional time into five parts:
**A. Bible**
Read purposefully - use a systematic plan:
1 chapter of NT, 2 chapters of OT
1 chapter of OT, 1 chapter of NT, 1 Proverb
1 chapter of the Bible per day
The goal is to hear from God and not to read a specific number of verses. When a verse strikes you in some way, make note it believing that the Holy Spirit pointed it out.
**Sometimes there will be a doctrine to learn
Sometimes there will be a command to obey
Sometimes there will be a comforting thought
Sometimes there will be a convicting truth**
Don’t try to judge it and fit it into a box you want it to fit into.
Write it out so you can get to it all day.
Use some study helps to learn more about the verse
Pull it out to consider several times during the day
**B. Prayer**
Have a specific list of things you pray for and a means to write down when prayers are answered and how.
Allow those things you heard from God in your Bible reading to lead and influence your prayers for the day (you will pray, in some cases for the same things daily - but how you pray for them will be different depending upon what you heard from God in the Bible.
I write out some of my daily prayers - but not all of them.
**C. Ministry**
I want to purposefully minister to people every day. I use my devotional journal to help me do that.
I record my purposeful ministry as one of the following:
**Letters/cards
Emails, txts
Phone calls
Personal visits
Door knocking
Helps**
I may not do all of these in the same day, but I try to do some of them every day.
**D. Ministered to**
I need to be aware that others minister to me. I try to record those ministries in one of these four columns
**Sermons heard
Books read
Wisdom from friends
Blessings received**
**E. Journal**
My journal is a brief summary of all that is a part of my walk with the Lord. It is general in nature and usually not more than two or three paragraphs. It might include how I responded to a blessing received or how someone responded to an attempt on my part to minister to them. It might include some failure on my part during the day or something I learned. It’s just a general record of the day.
**Conclusion**
I don’t believe my walk with the Lord is perfect, but I can say it has sustained me through some very trying times. God has blessed me through these walks and I am a better off for them.
You don’t need to do exactly like me.
But
**Do something
Do it every day and
Do it with the Lord and not as a religious ritual**
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You will find this message in my sermon blog at https://sermonsbbcpuyallup.blogspot.com/2015/06/building-up-yourselves-in-most-holy.html
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