From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. You'll discover what life is like when you fully enlist in the Lord's Army. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Well, we're in a series called We Are Soldiers and we're learning about being a good soldier of Christ Jesus. How do we do it? How are we to live life as a good soldier?

Now, here's a secret. There is no easy way. There is no shortcut way. There is no cheap way to being the good soldier God wants you to be and God wants me to be.

It's very straightforward in what we are supposed to do and how we go about doing that.

Speaker 3

There is treasury, there is blessed, there is hope that you always dream of. He can heal the every scars will love real.

Speaker 1

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today as we begin the last message in Pastor Jeff's series, We Are Soldiers. We're learning about how to be a good soldier for Christ.

We've already covered some biblical examples of good soldiers for the Lord. But today we want to talk not about the who's, but about the hows. Is there some great secret or perhaps some shortcut for living life as a good soldier of Jesus Christ?

The message you'll hear today is entitled Life in the Lord's Army. So let's begin. Open your Bible to the book of Philippians, Chapter three, as Pastor Jeff explains to us what it's like to really be in the Lord's Army.

Speaker 2

Well, we're in a series called We Are Soldiers and we're learning about being a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Paul told Timothy, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Well, today we want to talk about how, the how of this thing called being a good soldier, the how of the Christian life. How do we do it? How are we to live life as a good soldier? So we don't have a disconnect, so we don't hear things and then think that's great, but how do I do that?

Now here's a secret. There is no trick to it. There is no easy way. There is no shortcut way. There is no cheap way to being the good soldier God wants you to be and God wants me to be. It's very straightforward in what we are supposed to do and how we go about doing that. Paul said to those in Philippi, Philippians chapter 3, verse 17, he summed up his letter this: "Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." For many walk, of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

Paul shares three essentials to hear from the Lord at the end of your life, to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," to be a good soldier for Christ Jesus. Three essentials, things that you need to know and things that you need to do. It's the how. How are we to live life as a good soldier? Three essentials.

The first essential we are to walk with the Lord. How am I to do this thing called being a good soldier? Well, you walk with the Lord. Verse 17 again: "Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." Did you know that's one of the favorite things of the writers of the epistles? They talk about walking with the Lord as you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Colossians 2:6 says, "So walk in him." Walk is very important. It's used 27 times in the epistles.

Now, a walk with the Lord means how you behave, how you conduct yourself, how you live. And it's a great word because that is our relationship with Jesus. It starts the moment that we receive Christ as Savior and Lord. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. And it's a moment by moment, step by step, walk with Jesus Christ. That's the Christian life. So to be a good soldier, you walk with the Lord. Paul said, follow my example and then observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. Walk after them.

Paul said to the Corinthians, be imitators of me and follow after me, because I'm following after Christ. If you're walking in the same direction I'm walking, then we're both walking with the Lord and we're going onward and upward in our relationship with the Lord.

Well, I want you to notice some things about this walk with the Lord. First of all, it's a wonderful walk. It's wonderful to walk with the Lord. Don't ever get the idea that Christianity is like taking bad medicine to get well. You know, I mean, you're thinking, well, gosh, I heard the gospel and I know that if you don't have Jesus in your life that you're gonna die and go to hell. That's part of the gospel. You're in trouble without Jesus. And so you hear that and you say, man, I don't want to go to hell. And so I'm gonna hold my nose and somehow drink down this Christianity, this thing called a relationship with the Lord, because, you know, it's just awful, but I have to have it. That's not Christianity.

Christianity is a wonderful life with the Lord. Bill Bright, in the four spiritual laws, law number one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Now, some people have taken issue with that and they say, well, you know, you shouldn't tell people that God has a wonderful plan for your life. I had a guy email me that. He was all upset because I said, well, you know, I agreed with Bill Bright. God does have a wonderful plan for your life. He said, well, what about people that get killed? What about people for their faith? What about people that have cancer? What about people that have this, have that happen? God doesn't have a wonderful plan for their life.

I said, well, your definition of wonderful and mine obviously are different. To walk with God and to have a wonderful walk with God doesn't mean you're not going to have trouble. It doesn't mean you're not going to have sorrow. It doesn't mean you're not going to experience loss in this life. Loss of loved ones. If you live long enough in this life, you're going to experience all that stuff and you're going to have loved ones die. And you might even experience the tremendous blow of having a child die. And God, there's nothing in the Bible that says, well, God is compelled to keep his little darlings from any kind of adversity and any kind of problem. He never says that you are going to have trouble in this world. Jesus made that clear. In the world, you have tribulation, but be of good courage. I have overcome the world.

And so the wonderful part is when I receive Christ, he comes to live inside my life and he says, "Jeff, I will be with you forever and I will never leave you and I will never forsake you." And when you go through the trouble and when you go through the hard times and when you go through the trials, you can know for sure that he is there with you. He says in Isaiah, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, the flame will not kindle upon you." Why? Because I'm there with you. And that's one of the greatest promises in all of the Bible.

God is the one who gives us a wonderful walk because in the midst of suffering we can have peace that passes understanding. People don't. It doesn't make sense. How can you have peace? I don't know other than the Lord. He gives you joy in the midst of difficulty that comes from the Lord. He gives you just the sense of his presence to hear him say, "Trust me." You know, Paul had many, many instances where it was very difficult for him. And the Lord would come to him and say, "Paul, don't fear, I'm with you. I'm with you." He said, "At my last defense," 2 Timothy, chapter 4, "At my last defense, everyone deserted me. Nobody stood with me. But the Lord stood with me and the Lord strengthened me. The Lord never left me."

Hey, it's a wonderful walk because it's a walk with God and he never leaves you and never forsakes you. Secondly, it's a life-changing walk. A life-changing walk with the Lord. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, "If anyone be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come." And the moment that you receive Christ, your life changes.

Now, when it's genuine and true, there's an instantaneous change inside because the scripture says that you pass from death to life. Christianity is the great exchange. When I prayed at 17 years old and asked Jesus to save me, I gave my life to him. He gave his life to me. The greatest exchange in all of the universe is that exchange. I went from being a child of the devil to being a child of God. I was born again by God's spirit and my life changed instantly on the inside.

On the inside, we call that justification, where the Lord declares, because you put your faith and trust in Jesus, that you are just as if you've never sinned. You are completely righteous in God's sight. And there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that is a wonderful transformation that takes place. But that's on the inside. It takes time for that to show up on the outside.

Just as your little baby comes into this world, they come into this world, they can't do anything. My brother-in-law used to tell me when I first started having kids, you know, I mean, I was one of those guys, little babies. I'm just not a little baby guy, you know, I love them, but I love them from afar. I just kicked in more when they got a little older. My brother-in-law, David, he said, you know, zero to six months, kind of the vegetable stage, they're not doing a whole lot until they get a little, they're able to kind of move around. And then, man, when they got to be about a year old, I just loved my kids because you could do more with them.

So here we are as baby Christians, we're not able to do a whole lot. We're just growing in this thing called Christianity. But real Christianity is life change. It starts immediately at justification and then it goes day by day, month by month, year by year in this process called sanctification. It's the process of Christlikeness. Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, takes out his hammer and takes his chisel and he starts to work on you and me to make us like himself.

If you are not experiencing life change on a regular basis, something is wrong in your Christian life. John the Baptist summed up his ministry this way when Jesus came on the scene. It's a great verse for us that describes what we are supposed to be about in our sanctification process, in our Christian life. He said in John 3, verse 30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." So the Christian life is that the Lord would increase in me, that he would be more and more and more in control of me, and that the old me would decrease.

When I'm around people, all of a sudden they notice, "Hey, you're different. There's something different about you." The scripture says that the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him goes forth in every place we go. All of a sudden people can tell, "Man, what is it about you? You don't get mad like you used to. You don't talk like you used to. The vulgarities that used to spill out of your mouth, they're not there anymore. You don't gossip like you used to." There are just changes that take place and that doesn't ever stop.

Paul said that we are transformed from glory to glory. The Lord continues to work on us and chip away at us and make us what he wants us to be. And that never stops. Paul himself, who was probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, said in Philippians, chapter 3, that the desire of his heart was to know him, that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. And that's what drove him on. He said, "I press on toward the goal of the upward prize of God in Christ Jesus." I keep pressing forward to know him, to grow in him, to be like him.

See, the Christian life, this walk is not a destination, it's a journey. And it doesn't ever end until you get to heaven. We're constantly being changed by the Lord. So here's the question. Is your life changing? You know, that's the acid test to really know if you're a Christian or not. It's not, do I go to church? It's not, have I been baptized? It's, is my life different? Because when the Lord of Glory comes to live in your life, he changes you from the inside out.

Philippians chapter 2 said, "It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." So work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Work out what God has worked in and let the Lord change you from the inside out. Is your life changing? Are you becoming more and more like Him? You know, he says in verse 14, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

The walk that we have with the Lord goes up. It's an upward walk. It's an upward call. And every day, if we're walking with him, we're becoming more and more like Him. Now, you don't see it day to day. Just like you can't see changes in your physical body day to day, you see them over time in the Christian life. Sometimes we don't notice it day by day, but you can notice a change month by month. You can notice a change year by year. And if you're not seeing any of the upward rise in your life, something's wrong.

You gotta remember this. In the Christian life, we can never coast. You may retire from your job, but you never retire from growing in the Lord. The moment that you think that you can coast, it's like, "Ah, I just, you know, I can just coast." In this thing called the Christian life, you can't, because you never stay at the same place. You're either always moving forward or you're sliding back because there's a current coming against us. The current of the world and the flesh and the devil that pushes us back. So we always have to be moving forward.

Now, everybody do this for me. Hold out your hand like this. Be good for you little aerobics. You hold out your hand like this. We're talking about, how do you do this thing called Christianity? Well, you remember your four fingers and your thumb. This is critical for your growth in the Christian life. Your thumb is Bible study. You have to spend time with God and listen to his word. The Bible says that the word of God is our milk, it's our meat, it's our bread. You're not going to be strong unless you're eating Bible study.

Second is prayer. Bible study: God talks to me. Prayer: I talk to God. I'm going to have to grow in my prayer life in order to grow. Thirdly is worship. I have to worship the Lord. I was made for worship and I need to worship him. That is critical. The fourth one is fellowship. I need other believers around me. And you know, we come to this service and it's a worship service, but that's not necessarily a lot of close fellowship because we're just kind of participating as we sing and things like that. But we're not necessarily talking to a lot of people.

So this is worship, but it's not fellowship. Fellowship is small group fellowship, getting together with a class of 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, whatever it might be. But where you're able to talk and develop relationships with people, we all need that. So Bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship, and witness. Witness: shine for Christ. Share his story. Share what God has done in your life. You need those five things in order to grow so that your life will change. And you can never cut one out. You can never say, "Well, I don't need to do this one. I've read the Bible before, I don't need to do that one. You know, I'll let other people pray for me." No, you need all five of those things. I need all five of those things. And we need to grow in those five things.

It's a life-changing walk with the Lord and it's a lifelong walk. A lifelong walk. So it's not a destination, it's a journey. And it lasts until you die. Until you die. And listen, for the Apostle Paul, he still struggled with sin. Don't ever believe that you get to the place where, "Well, I don't struggle with sin anymore." You may not struggle with certain things that you used to struggle with. That's called growth. But you never get to the place where, "I just don't struggle with sin anymore. I don't struggle with lust. I don't struggle with pride. I don't struggle with envy. I don't struggle with worry."

The Apostle Paul, he struggled with worry and fear because of the things coming against him. The Lord had to come to him and said, "Don't be afraid, Paul. You keep trusting me, Paul." You never get to the place where it's, "Everything is just. You're done. I'm on easy street. I don't need to grow anymore." No. It's a lifelong walk.

What happens in the walk, just like with anyone walking, if you walk long enough, you will fall down. It's just part of the deal. Especially if you walk over rough terrain and you go through rough patches, you're gonna fall down. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, "Indeed, there is not a righteous man who continually does good and who never sins." We all sin, we all fall. And, man, when you fall, the devil is quick to jump on you.

To say, especially if it's in one area that you think in your mind, "This is just such a terrible sin. This is so awful," the devil will say, "Man, look what you did. You're a terrible person. You're an awful person. You don't need to go back to church. Churches, they're filled with good people, and you're an awful person. And, man, if they knew what you did, they wouldn't like you and they wouldn't receive you. And so you just need to just pick up your toys and go home and just know that God is done with you."

That's the devil. That's what he says. You know what the Lord says? Proverbs 24:16: "A righteous man falls seven times and he rises again." He falls seven times and he rises again. Every time you fall, and every time I fall, and every time we sin and we slip into sin or we jump into sin, whatever it might be, you just know that the Lord's hand is there saying, "You were doing good, we were walking together. Now you need to confess that sin. Put your hand in mine, and let's walk together some more."

The Christian life is all about walking with the Lord. And when you sin, you turn from that sin, you confess that sin to God, you get things right with him, and you start walking with him again. It's a walk. We are to walk with the Lord.

Speaker 1

As you've just heard from Pastor Jeff Shreif today on From His Heart, the life of the believer is a walk with the Lord. But that walk of sweet fellowship with Him comes after our genuine confession of sin. You've been listening to part one of the lesson called "Life in the Lord's Army," and it's the last message in the series "We Are Soldiers." This series helps us to see how we are to live in order to combat the schemes of the devil and duel with the spiritual battles of this life. The series is available online at fromhisheart.org; just click the listen link. You can get the message and the series on a USB flash drive, digital download, CDs, or DVDs—your choice.

Now, this month we're leaning into our desire and need to practice discernment, or to be able to spot the lies of the devil around the world. Earlier this month, we aired the series "Discernment in the Days of Deception," which helps us to focus on the need to identify counterfeit truth both in the world and in our hearts. Pastor Jeff defines discernment as the ability and skill to understand and apply God's Word for the purpose of separating right from wrong, good from bad, and truth from error.

Would you like to be spiritually discerning with your gift this month to From His Heart? You'll gain the tools to know the truth and let it set you free from the grip of Satan's lies. To get the series, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Everything you give goes directly to producing and distributing these programs, now on over 850 stations nationwide and around the world on radio and television. That number is growing thanks to you and others who want to invest in Kingdom work through From His Heart.

To do that and to get the series "Discernment in the Days of Deception," just call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. We pray that each day we can inspire trust in From His Heart as a reliable resource of biblical truth, making it a trustworthy ally in a world saturated with deception.

Well, that's it for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for being with us, and we issue you a personal invitation to be right back here tomorrow for the last message for the month and the series "We Are Soldiers." That's part two of the lesson called "Life in the Lord's Army." Join us as we close out the series on Friday and learn more about how to live life in the Lord's Army here on From His Heart.

Speaker 3

There is tremendous truth. There's hope that you always bring love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more. Go to promisheart.org.