How do we study Scripture to rebuild the basics of our faith? What do we do with the Word of God once we understand the basics? What power does His Word have in our life? We should always be growing in our faith but must understand the foundational principles of the Word first. Continually develop spiritual muscles in order to become effective witnesses to the goodness of God.
welcome back to our Sunday conversation
that we’ve titled back to the
basics and for many of us you might
think it’s something that you’ve heard
already or been through before however
for each of us every time that we go
back to doing the simple principles of
our faith we grow in strength as we
exercise our spiritual senses and
continue to develop our faith you know
for several years
I’ve practiced the habit of identifying
a word for the year something I share
with our staff and Ministry team here at
Cornerstone and heggy Ministries and
it’s something that I utilize as a focal
point that helps me continue to measure
whether or not I’m making progress for
example several years ago the word was
grow another year it was
discipline last year the word enabled us
to face challenges that we didn’t think
we would face it was courage this year
the word is
increase and it’s my desire to
increase in my ability to be of service
to the Lord now for that to
happen looking at what the Bible says
about in Reas I’ve realized these
things John the Baptist in John chapter
3 said this of himself and Jesus Christ
he said he must increase but I must
decrease isn’t that true of each and
every one of us Paul Echoes some of what
John the Baptist had to say when he says
I am crucified with Christ therefore I
no longer live but but Christ lives in
me Jesus told his disciples If any man
comes after me let him deny himself take
up his cross and follow me so as we talk
about the basics of our faith one of
those very simple Basics is our
willingness to deny our desire in order
for his power to develop in our lives
this is one of the things that Paul was
saying to the Believers in Hebrews when
he utilizes the analogy of meat and milk
he tells them again visiting Hebrews
chapter 5 by this time you ought to be
teachers yet some of
you need milk and not solid
food why is he utilizing this analogy
one because they could all understand it
as you and I can as well
we know that whenever we have a child
and we bring that child home the
pediatrician gives us a diet that this
child should develop on it begins with
mother’s milk it begins with a process
of them growing and developing on very
simple foods and then the older and more
developed they get the more complex and
nutritious the food
becomes Paul is saying to these
Believers you you’ve known the Lord for
decades you’ve experienced his power
you’ve sat and received
information and yet you have come to
need milk and not solid food you can’t
handle the meat of God’s
word now he’s utilizing the Physical
Realm to establish something in the
spiritual realm it would be ridiculous
for you to bring a newborn baby home and
give them the leftover steak that you
brought back from Ruth Chris in the
refrigerator why they don’t have teeth
they can’t chew it they choke they can’t
digest
it and the same is true of
Christians there’s nothing wrong with an
infant needing milk it’s natural but if
that same individual is 35 years old and
still eating Gerbers there’s a problem
they probably weak they’re anemic they
don’t have the right
nutrition and what Paul is saying to
this body of Believers is one of the
reasons that you don’t have the strength
to do what you need to do is because
you’re not able to ingest the right
spiritual
food what’s wrong with
America I think everyone obviously sees
that we’re drifting further and further
and further away from our foundational
principles life liberty in the pursuit
of happiness that even our constitution
says these inalienable rights were given
to them by
God we’re drifting away from the
foundations that built this nation as
one nation under God and you’ve heard
pastor haggy and I say several times
that if we do not want again become a
nation under God we will be a nation
gone under that tension is more
prevalent in our society today than it
has ever been at any point in our
history especially in our
lifetime why is this the case one of the
reasons is because the church does not
have the strength to be the church that
Christ
created read the church that Christ
created in the gospel of Matthew he says
Upon This Rock I will build my church
what rock was he describing he was
describing the foundation of the
profession of Jesus Christ he asked the
disciples who do men say that I am and
they gave several answers if in the
world today you said that same thing to
a room full of people they would
probably give you several answers who do
you believe Jesus Christ to be some
would tell you he’s a good teacher some
would tell you an ancient character of
History some would tell you he’s a fraud
some would tell you that he’s the son of
God but when he turned and he asked his
disciples not who do others say that I
am but who do you say that I am he was
making it
personal and Peter spoke up and said
Thou Art the Christ the son of the
Living God by calling him the Christ he
was saying you are the one who is
Anointed
anointed not only to
deliver and not only to redeem but you
are the anointed you are the
Messiah the one who was promised to come
and you are the son of the Living God
Jesus responds to Peter flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you only my
Father which is in heaven he’s letting
Peter know you have spoken under the
power of the Holy SP spirit and then he
says Upon This Rock upon the foundation
of your
profession will I build my
church let me ask you this if the church
was built upon the foundation of your
profession how strong would it
be when somebody asks you who Jesus is
can you tell them with confidence he’s
the Christ the son of the Living God or
do you try and explain why you don’t
want to persuade anyone to believe
anything that they don’t want to believe
but you know for you you’ve found out
that sometimes putting your faith in
this individual that’s spoken of in the
scriptures and you use a bunch of words
and explanations to give a very
diluted kind of
confusing argument that maybe you
believe in Jesus
Jesus one profession is Rock Solid the
other profession is sinking
sand one of the reasons that our nation
is in such disarray is because the
church has lost the power of its
profession and it’s a powerful
profession because Jesus said Upon This
Rock will I build my church and then
listen the Gates of Hell will not
Prevail against
it now understand this the
gates in the biblical sense is speaking
about
Authority government and a
kingdom he’s not talking about access
he’s talking about a structured Kingdom
so he’s saying the kingdom of Hell the
kingdom of darkness the authority of
hell is not going to Prevail against the
profession of your
faith this is also supported in the Book
of
Revelations when you read that they
overcame him who are they they are
Christians Believers in Christ who is
him him is the devil they overcame him
how by the blood of the lamb and the
word of their testimony their profession
defeated the
devil
later in the
gospels we read that Christ laid his
life down then in the book of Colossians
Paul writing to that church tells us
that Christ triumphed over
Darkness it says that he made a public
spectacle of powers and principalities
when he triumphed over them you’ve heard
Pastor heggy teach and you’ve heard
heard in the Bible studies and sermons
that we’ve shared from this ministry
that Christ has conquered Darkness
Christ has defeated Satan why is that
important because when Jesus is telling
his disciples that the Gates of Hell
shall not Prevail he’s letting them know
that he has already given them Victory
and now all that hell can do is try to
take
it you’re not fighting for victory when
you put your faith in Christ you have
Victory you’re standing in it this is
why Jesus said and I will give you the
keys to the
kingdom for every way that hell will
attack you Christ has given you a key
that unlocks Heaven’s answer that causes
hell to back
up hell May attack your physical body
Christ has given you a key to Healing
hell May attack your family Christ has
given you a key to protect them hell May
attack your finances Christ has given
you a key that opens the windows of
heaven and provides you pressed down
shaken together running
over as it says in Malachi chapter 3 he
will rebuke the devour for your
sake the question is not do the keys to
the kingdom work and can hell Prevail
against it those questions are answered
the question is do you have faith
enough to take the key and use it for a
Kingdom
Purpose the only way that you do that is
by
developing your spiritual muscles your
understanding your desire to see the
power of God work in your
life Paul uses the analogy of milk and
meat in Hebrews chapter 6 he starts to
discuss the very
Basics as he gets back
into leaving the discussion of the
elementary principles of Christ Hebrews
6 and verse one let us go on to
Perfection not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works
of Faith toward god of the doctrine of
baptism of the laying on of hands of the
resurrection of the dead and the Eternal
judgment he said this we will do if God
permits now think about this what is he
calling the basics what is he saying is
the milk sin and
salvation he’s saying in order for you
to get away from those simple things you
have to first understand them how often
do you hear people say well we don’t
hear many sermons on sin anymore Paul
says that talking about Sin and
salvation is milk for babes not meat for
the
mature meat the deeper things the harder
things the things that it requires some
understanding in order to be able to
accept the things that make you more
than a conqueror through Christ are far
beyond the milk John 316 God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believes in Him
should not perish but have everlasting
life Paul would call that
milk Jesus Christ being a righteous King
of the order of
MDC Paul calls that
meat your spiritual growth is not a
matter of
content your spiritual growth is a
matter of being able to impart the
content that you’ve
received be being able to teach someone
as we’ve talked through these
lessons is a matter of not
only receiving information but being
able to distribute the information that
you’ve received we used the simple
analogy in one of our previous
conversations about teaching your child
to tie their shoes the same way you were
taught to tie your
shoes well first you had to learn how to
do it then apply what you’ve learned
until you gain understanding then share
it with someone
else if maturity was a matter of content
then the more you know the more
spiritual you will be there are a lot of
people who do not have faith in Christ
that have a lot of knowledge about the
Bible some of them went to church all of
their life and sat and listened to
sermon after sermon but never applied it
to their life others have studied it
just as is a matter of historical
fact and have a good knowledge probably
better than most professed Christians
today and yet still don’t know the Jesus
that the Bible
describes milk and meat not only involve
learning but
application milk is something you
ingest meat is something that you
utilize to grow on
in order for you to develop in your
spiritual
strength it’s going to
require that you develop an appetite for
more of God than you ever have before in
the lessons to come we’re going to begin
to
discuss salvation water baptism baptism
in the holy spirit because these are the
principles and the tenants of faith that
if we get back to the basics we can
develop understanding and then utilize
these principles in your life now here’s
something that you need to know about
meat and I’ll close with
this meat has to be
chewed otherwise you’ll choke on
it whenever you see a child who has a
choking problem one of the challenges
that they have is that they don’t chew
their food long enough and they try to
swallow it whole that’s is where the old
phrase don’t choke down your dinner
comes
from well one of the things that you do
with God’s
word that I believe enables you to
understand and
grow is that you meditate on
it this is what God told
Joshua he said meditate on my
word he said take the word be bold and
be strong for the Lord thy God is with
you meditate on it day and
night that you will prosper wherever you
go let it be before your eyes let it be
in your speech let it be the source of
your
actions and no man will be able to stand
against
you now that concept of
meditating is for you to take the time
to chew digest think about what God’s
word word
says so that it has the ability to soak
into your life into your spirit into
your soul and strengthen
you it may not go down as easy as the
milk some of it may be hard to swallow
because it’s going to require that you
make some adjustments to become what the
word of God has asked us to be remember
this book reads you when you read it
it’s a mirror that you look into and
anything that’s out of place you should
adjust but the more you meditate on his
word the more you chew it the more you
let it sink in the more spiritually
solid you will become the more stable
your life will get the more confidence
you’ll develop the more hope you’ll be
able to share the more you’ll begin to
believe that God’s promises are
true and they’re for you I want you to
come back and join us as we continue to
discuss the basics of God’s principles
and how we can grow together in his word
this year God bless you thank you for
joining us for this Sunday
conversation hi I’m Kendall haggy thank
you for connecting with us today God
bless you and we pray that you’ll join
us again next
week