Class 5: Salvation Lived Out | Salvation Made Simple

If you've just given your life to Jesus, or you're ready to grow deeper in your faith, this is for you. Hi, I'm Pastor Will, and today we are talking about spiritual practices. What does that mean? How to live this thing out. We have heard about salvation, identity in Christ, baptism, obedience, and community. And now it's time to go and live this out. We're going to start learning about spiritual practices. Spiritual disciplines turn your belief into a lifestyle. James 1.22, I love this scripture. It says it like this, but don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says, otherwise you are only fooling yourself. Here's the thing. Any good relationship or anything you want to grow and develop, it takes intentionality. You can't just say things or hear things. You actually have to be intentional and go and live this thing out. So any relationship that you're in right now, how do you get to know somebody? You spend time with them. You talk to them. You ask questions. So that's what we're going to do here. You said yes to Jesus, which is the best decision you could ever make. And I want to talk through some practical things that we can do, some intentional things that we can do to grow and deepen our faith together. So the first thing we're going to talk about is prayer. Now what is prayer? It is connection with God. It's us communicating with Him. How do we do this? Because you're going to hear there's lots of different ways that you can pray.

There's thanksgiving. There's supplication. There's adoration. There's confession. And I just want to tell you this right now. There's no wrong or right way to pray. Okay? I need you to hear what I say. There are days, if I'm just being transparent, even in my life, that sometimes the only thing I can say is, God, I need you. And literally the only words that come out of my mouth sometimes are, God, I need you. And I need you to know that that is okay. It's us being honest. It's us being able to communicate. Say thank you, God, that I have breath in my lungs. Because even that alone, I'm just going to talk for myself real quick. There are days when it's, because life be lifin' sometimes, okay? There's times where I just need to say thank you because it does something to my heart. Those prayers of thanksgiving and acknowledging God's goodness and focusing on the things we can be thankful for. It just does something to our heart. So I just need you to hear me. There's no wrong way to pray. Okay? Now, why are we praying? I need you to read this scripture to you, okay? Mark 1.35 says this, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus, Jesus got up and he left his house and went out to a solitary place where he prayed. Why is this important? If Jesus is taking time to go and pray, even more reason for us to take time to pray.

Because Jesus, he's the example. He's the model. He's who we look to. He's who we want to reflect. And I'm telling you right now, if Jesus is intentionally, we're reading this. This is God breathed. His word is saying Jesus went and got away and prayed. You better believe this is a moment we're like, okay, we need to be doing this. And can I say this? Prayer works. I'm sitting here. I have a crazy testimony of what God has done in my life. And I believe with everything in me that I'm a product of a praying mom. My mom never gave up. She sought the Lord. She went in her prayer closet. She got on her hands and knees. She got in the presence of God. And I just need you to know whatever it is that you're walking through, whatever you need, even if it's just, you just want to say, God, thank you. Like, thank you for being here with me. It works. He listens. He cares. Okay? So the first thing we're going to be doing is committing to a prayer life. All right? The next thing, the next important practice that we're doing is reading the Bible. Now this one is crucial. Okay?

The Bible, the word of God, I'm telling you right now, it is a weapon. Now I need you to imagine with me real quick. Okay? I need you to focus and imagine with me. Okay? Imagine some gladiator going out into an arena. The crowd is cheering. He's going into battle. He's ready to fight. He's walking through the tunnel and he gets out there and he has no sword. He has no weapon. That is what it is like for you to go to the day-to-day life, to the things that you're walking through, that we're going through, anything that is happening in your life right now, not being in the word of God, not knowing what it says about you is the equivalent of going into battle, going into a war without your weapon. And so I want to encourage us. It's important. I want to tell you a few reasons and what it can do and why the word of God and reading your Bible is so important is the first thing it does is it deepens our relationship with God. Okay? Because what happens when you read this is you know God's character. You start to learn about who he is. You start to learn about what Jesus did and says and how he moved. We saw that He prayed, we saw that He cared about people. I'm telling you right now, this is so important to read your Word because you learn about who God is. And the biggest thing too, you learn about what He thinks about you.

So in those moments where you're feeling unworthy or you're feeling like there's no way God could forgive me for this or how could He love me, when you read the Word, you know what He thinks about you. You know that you're a masterpiece. You know that He chose you. You know that you're the head and not the tail. You know how much He loves you. When you read the Word, it deepens your relationship with God. And the other thing it does is it anchors our lives in truth. Can we be honest? There are lies in so many opinions and things we are reading on social media and things that people are saying or have spoken over you. What happens when we're in the Word is it combats the lies. It literally, the things that the enemy is trying to throw at you or make you believe when you're in the Word, it combats that. You're able to speak truth over yourselves. You need to be in the Word. The other thing it does is it strengthens our faith. Here's what I love. There are so many testimonies in the Bible of miracles, signs, wonders, that when you read them, you know that when you're in a situation, when you're in something that you're like, I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't know. You get to be encouraged. It strengthens your faith because you've seen what God has done before. You saw that David got to slay Goliath, which didn't make any sense, but God was with him. You got to see Daniel be protected in the lion's den. He was in a den of lions. And I don't know about you, maybe you're in a season right now where you feel like that kind of is your story. Yes, you said yes to Jesus, but your situations and your surroundings didn't change, but you know what did is God is now with you. He is for you. We see this. So when we're in the word, we can be encouraged. Our faith can come alive again. We all need those reminders. So I want to encourage you. Get in the word because it continues to strengthen your faith. The other thing it does is you gain wisdom from it. You gain direction from it. We allow God's word to shape our thoughts, our decisions in the daily walk that we are walking. It helps us live life. Can I say it like this?

The Bible is a weapon and the Bible is a guide. Psalms 119, I love this scripture. Psalms 119, 105 says this. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. What it does when you say yes to Jesus and you commit to praying and you commit to being in the word, you now have direction. The word is so clear that if you lack wisdom, ask and he'll give it to you. Not just give it to you, he'll give it to you generously. So this is why it's important to know your word. Maybe you're in a season and you don't know if you're supposed to take that job. You don't know if you're supposed to move there. You don't know if you're supposed to be in that relationship. What the Bible does is it guides you, it leads you. Every decision in life, you never have to make it alone. And I feel like sometimes the culture and the world we live in, they want you to think that it's all you and you gotta make the decision and you're on your own with this thing. And I'm here to tell you that's not true.

God left us a book, his very words so that we can be guided so that we know where to go, where not to go, what to watch, what not to watch, who to be around. Like there's just so much wisdom and knowledge in the word. The word of God will equip you. Second Timothy 3.16-17, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped in every good work. The word of God equips us for this life. Another important practice that we need to be practicing is worship. Why do we worship? It's to honor God for who he is, express love and gratitude, realign our hearts with his presence, strengthen our faith and declare his worth above everything else. I love Psalms 150 verse six, says let everything that has breath, praise the Lord,

praise the Lord. I almost wanted to break out in this song. Whenever I hear let every breath, let's praise the Lord. Come on, I'm singing on here because I'm telling you when you worship, something special happens. No matter what you're going through, something happens in your heart when you're able to stop and acknowledge God's goodness. What worship is, it's the only thing we can offer back up to him. When we come to church, when we're seeking all that, when we come in his presence and we're trying to get a word, we're trying to get a revelation, we're praying, maybe we're asking for something, what worship does is it is like. As unto God, we are doing everything. It's not just song. It's our lives that we can use. We can literally use our lives to just express worship to God. How we treat the server, how we treat the person at the gas station, how we treat our parents, how we treat our friends, what that is, that's worship. Worship's the one thing that we can offer up to God. We can use our whole lives to do this. One of the biggest other things, one

of the things I want you to hear me say about, we're talking about prayer. We're talking about reading the Word. We're talking about worship. And these practices are amazing. However, I need to say this. Consistency matters more than perfection in this, OK? You don't have to have this all figured out. I need to, let me just set you free from that right now. You don't have to have all this figured out. Yes, you have said yes, and it's the best decision that you will ever make. But you don't have to have it figured out. But what I am going to encourage you, challenge you, and charge you with is be consistent. Be consistent in these things, even when you don't feel like it. One of the small things that I'm going to challenge everybody that is listening and watching right now is I want to challenge you to do a 30-minute challenge. OK, what does that mean? I want you to spend every day 10 minutes in prayer, 10 minutes in the Word, and 10 minutes worshiping, OK? And I know maybe that seems small, or maybe for you, you're like, well, I already do that. I'm telling you, when you start creating these consistent habits, these disciplines, then what happens is disciplines turn into desire. And then there's something that happens in your heart when you make this.

It's just a part. It's who you are. And then you start to see it play out in your day-to-day life. And maybe somebody cut you off in traffic. And before, you would have said some words. But now, because you've been spending so much time in the Word, and you know God's heart, and you know God's character, you know what Jesus did for you, all of a sudden, now you're not responding. Now you're like, God, I pray that that person has a good day. And I know that feels small, but it's not. Because these daily habits, these practices, it does something to our hearts. What it does is it builds intimacy. And I need to talk about this. This is important. When you have intimacy with God in your relationship, you start to know more about him. You start to get assurance. I want to give you just a few things, what intimacy starts to build as you are practicing these daily practices. Assurance, knowing God's character, it brings assurance in frustrating seasons. Because what happens when you start to spend time with God, you start to be a little bit more sure of yourself, though, in the moments of frustration, when the bills start to pile up, when things start to not go your way, it builds assurance. It also builds trust.

You get this firm belief in reliability, knowing God is faithful, because you've spent time with him. You build the relationship, spending time with him, intimacy in a relationship, knowing the person on the other side, any relationship. I've said this at the beginning. Any relationship, any good relationship you know, what happens is how you grow that thing deeper is you spend time with them. You learn about them. You talk to them. You be honest with them. And I just want to encourage you to allow your relationship with God, now that you have said yes, to grow further. And I know that these practices are going to help you do that. Learning, and here's what I want to also encourage you, because I'm going to wrap up here, but I want to leave you with something that I feel like you are supposed to go and watch, if you haven't or if you already have. Because we've talked about how to be consistent. We've talked about some of these spiritual practices with prayer, with reading the Word, with worship, and that builds intimacy and all of that. But I want you to do me a favor. Pastor Michael preached a message in our receipts series. The proof is in the fruit. I need you to go write that down, write it down, put a little note in your phone, whatever that looks like,

to go back and watch that message. Because this is just a little glimpse of how to live this thing out. But Pastor Michael does a really good job and in-depth breaks this down. So I want you to do me that favor. Go find that sermon. Watch it. It's available on YouTube. And now I need you to go and live this thing out. I need to say this again, if you haven't already, and I'm sure you've been congratulated, but the fact that you said yes to Jesus, all of heaven is turning up for you. So I need you to hear me. I celebrate with you. And I'm going to challenge you at the exact same time. You need to take a next step. This isn't it. You don't just text the word SAVE to 828282. You don't scan the QR code. You don't just raise your hand. There's next steps so that we can grow together. And I'm not going to tell you what that step is. But you know who is? God. God is going to lead you. He's going to guide you in whatever your next step is. But I'm just telling you, there is a next step. I need you to pray about what it is.

Maybe for you, it's attending church on a regular basis. Maybe you've been a little sporadic lately, and you haven't really been attending every now and then. Maybe for you, you're not. You need to commit the next 90 days, I'm going to attend, I'm going to watch online, I'm going to be in person, whatever that is for you, you need to ask yourself. And then maybe for you, it's to serve. It's to get plugged in and serve, whether that be here at Transformation Church or serve the local church if you don't live here, but serve, serving does something so beautiful to you. And maybe for you, you need to get baptized. I'm telling you right now, if you have not taken that step, get baptized. It's a beautiful thing. You can find out more on our website about that, or again, at your local church too, if you're there, but we want you to just be a partner here, man. If that's you and you want to be a part of Transformation Church specifically, you can. You can also visit our website and learn all about us. But right now, the biggest thing I need you to know is that God sees you, God loves you, God values you. And I need you to know, God's not finished writing your story. Do me a favor and go out and live a transformed life. Thank you.