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How You Can Grow

Life, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / July 12, 2006

Today my message is entitled “How You Can Grow.” We’re in the middle of a series about spiritual growth. Today our picture is of a large tree with roots going down deep into the earth and leafy branches reaching up to the sky. Healthy trees continue to grow in diameter and height during their entire life span. Healthy believers grow spiritually throughout their lives.

God wants you to grow up, He wants you to mature. What is the goal, what is the point of life? We talked about that last Sunday. The point of growth, the point of life is to develop to become like Jesus Christ. NIV Luke 6:40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. So when a believer is fully trained, fully mature, they will be like their teacher, Jesus Christ.

Growth, however, is not automatic, a believer must cooperate with God in order to grow. In the parable of the sower and the seed, the four different kinds of soil represent four kinds of people. The seed represents the Word of God which brings forth God’s life into ours. You are responsible for the condition of the soil of your heart. Are you receptive to God’s Word or is your life like the hard packed road? Are shallow in your commitment to God, do you have rocks underneath the surface that prevent the roots of God’s life from going deep? Have you allowed wrong actions and attitudes thorns to grow up in your life and so choke out God’s life? Or is your heart’s soil good and fertile receptive to God, allowing the roots of God’s life to grow deep?

Remember growth is not automatic, it depends on you and your choices. NLT Hebrews 5:12 You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. God doesn’t want you to remain babies, always needing to be taught the basics over and over. God wants every believer to mature and become a teacher of others.

When you grow up spiritually, every area of your life will be blessed, your relationships, your work, your family, your finances and your health.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 9, 2006 message entitled How You Can Grow

The Point Of Life

Life, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / July 3, 2006

Today we begin a new message series entitled “Growing in Life’s Journey.” Life is a journey, it has a beginning and an end, you get one shot at life and that’s all you get. The Bible makes it very clear that you are not going to come back another time in another body or any such thing. Reincarnation is simply the result of over active imaginations, no truth to it at all. So since we’re all on this journey called life, it’s important to understand what it’s all about, so you can make the most of it.

Today my message is entitled “The Point Of Life.” Why did God put us on this journey called life? What’s it all about? What are we supposed to accomplish along the way? A lot of people have various goals in life. They think that when they reach those goals they will have accomplished something of great importance in life, then they will have arrived. The destinations that people long for in this life: saving x amount of dollars, retiring, getting to position y on the corporate ladder, winning this or that award, putting the kids through college, really aren’t what life is about. Life isn’t really about you and your goals. Life is about God who created you and His purposes for you.

In the beginning God created people in His image NIV Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. People were created to be like God in many respects, to display God’s character in our lives and to have a relationship with God. That’s the point of life. However something happened in the garden of Eden, both Adam and Eve sinned, they didn’t act like God, they disobeyed Him and so God’s image in their lives was now marred and distorted. Each of us in our own ways has sinned as well and so God’s image for people was not being realized. They were missing the point of life. When you miss the point of life, that sin will also keep you from experiencing eternity with God your creator.

That’s why we needed Jesus, who being God, was born on this earth as a man. He lived a perfect life and He fully reflected the image of God. NIV Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. By dying on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven, Jesus made a way for you to become like Him, so that you could once again bear God’s image, so that you could reflect God’s glory in your life as well. NLT Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son.

So there you have the point of life, to become like Jesus. Life is a journey to become like Jesus. It takes a lifetime because we have a long ways to go. God knew you when He created you and you have been chosen to mirror God’s image as you become more and more like Jesus. So today I’m going to talk about how you can grow to become more like Jesus.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 2, 2006 message entitled The Point Of Life
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lifechurchstlouis/mp3s/2006_Messages/2006_07_Growing_In_Lifes_Journey/070206_The _Point_Of_Life.mp3

Guarding Your Church Family

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 27, 2006

Last week we talked about how fathers can lead their families. One of the things that a father must do is to guard his family from danger When you think of guarding your family, you think of guarding from an external danger. However the biggest danger to your family is not external, it’s internal. If the unity within a family is threatened, if the peace within a family becomes a conflict, the family can deteriorate from inside. The same is true of the church family, which is what I’m going to talk about today.

My message topic is “Guarding Your Church Family.” Notice that my title is guarding your church family. The way you know that you are really part of the church family here at Life Church is when you begin referring to it as my church family. Just as you don’t want anything to disrupt your physical family, so you don’t want anything to do damage to your spiritual church family. A united church family is a strong family. A safe church family is one that has the unity of the Spirit.

NIV Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This verse is addressed to every member of the church family, not just the leadership. The unity of the Spirit is something that can be lost, so every person in the church family needs to be part of guarding that unity.

I’m reminded of the story of a man named Roy Regal. Roy had a dream of playing in the Rose Bowl and his team made it there one year. In the middle of the game, Roy got his hands on the football and was determined to be the hero of the game. So without looking at the rest of his teammates, Roy ran and ran and ran, almost 100 yards before he was tackled just at the goal line. Problem was that Roy ran the wrong direction and was tackled by his teammate. That’s what happens when someone forgets about the rest of the team, when someone just thinks about themselves and not the unity and purpose of the team.

The same is true in God’s team we call the church. Every person in the church family needs to be part of working for the unity of the church, making it a better place tomorrow than it is today.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my June 25, 2006 message entitled Guarding Your Church Family

How To Lead Your Family

Family, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 20, 2006

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads here today. Being a father is a great privilege that God has given to us, a privilege to lead and guide our families in the ways of God. Being a father is also a great responsibility. It’s not so easy wearing all the hats that a dad has to wear these days.

I’ve found out it’s a lot of hard work being a good father. It’s not always so easy to do the right things and keep all the parts of my life in balance. In fact, I’ve discovered that I’m not smart enough to be a good father. I don’t know enough to really lead my family well. So what can we as fathers do?

Today I’m going to talk about “How To Lead Your Family.” Even though I don’t know enough to lead my family, God does. In order to be a good father, in order to know how to lead my family, I need to listen to and learn from God. Today we’re going to take a look at the life of a well known yet little talked about father. His name is Joseph, he was the earthly father of Jesus.

Now Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph wasn’t involved at all. Yet Joseph was a very important father. God chose him to raise Jesus and I believe that God knew what He was doing. In the Bible, Joseph is never recorded as saying anything. What Joseph does is to listen to God and then he obeys Him. I think that’s a pretty good example for us as well. Listen, learn from God and then obey Him. That’s how to learn to lead your family in the way that God wants.

NLT James 1:5 If you need wisdom– if you want to know what God wants you to do– ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. As a father, you need wisdom to lead your family. As a father, you need to know what God wants you to do. As a father, you need to know what you should give priority to in your life. So the Bible tells you to ask God and it promises that God will gladly tell you.

Today we’re going to look at three areas that God wants to teach you as a father in. Three times an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him how to lead his family. I’m going to look at each of these three learning occasions in the life of Joseph and apply them to our lives today.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my June 18, 2006 message entitled How To Lead Your Family

How To Restore Broken Relationships

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 12, 2006

Relationships are at the core of what it means to be human. Nobody wants to live life alone, nobody wants to live life without warm, loving relationships. Where do we get this strong desire for relationships? We get it from God. We were created in God’s image and God Himself consists of a relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So God created us to have a loving relationship with Himself and to have loving relationships with other people. Whether you’re a believer or not, every human being has the innate desire to have those two basic relationships with God and with people. Today I’m going to focus on our relationships with other people, but your relationship with God is actually the most important.

Last week we talked about Growing Together In A Life Group, building relationships with new people. Each of us needs to learn to build the relationships in our lives that God has blessed us with. NLT Philippians 2:1-2 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. There you have God’s will for the family of God, we should agree wholeheartedly with each other, we should love one another and we should work together with one heart and purpose. Those three things are also God’s will for your family, agreeing with one another, loving one another and working together with one purpose.

Yet sometimes things go wrong and relationships that were once warm and close become cold and distant. Relationships that were once loving become broken. What should you do when a relationship becomes broken? Should you just give up on it? Look elsewhere for a new one? I believe that relationships are worth salvaging, so today I’m going to talk about How To Restore Broken Relationships. Those who restore broken relationships are peacemakers because broken relationships lead to conflict arguments and fights.

NLT Matthew 5:9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. The blessing of God is upon those who work for peace the blessing of God is on those who restore broken relationships. They will be called the children of God. Why? Because peacemakers are acting like their heavenly Father who made peace with us through the death of Jesus. So now lets see what God’s Word teaches about how to restore broken relationships in your life.

Think about the relationships in your life. Some may be going good, but there may be others that are strained or completely broken. Keep the one in mind that is the biggest problem in your life right now as we look at God’s Word.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my message entitled How To Restore Broken Relationships.

Growing Together In A Life Group

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 6, 2006

We’re currently in a message series called “Become Part of the Family.” In this message series we’re talking about God’s purpose for your life of community or fellowship. God has five purposes for your life and building relationships within the family of God is the one that I’m going to talk about today. None of God’s five purposes for your life is optional. If you don’t grow in these purposes, you’re not going to reach the potential that God created you with. More than that, if you don’t grow in these purposes, you’re going to go through a lot of needless pain in life as well.

People today are relationally challenged, they find it difficult to build and maintain healthy relationships. The most stable of all relationships should be marriage, remember the “till death do us part” phrase? Yet currently about 50% of first marriages end in divorce and the rate for second marriages is even higher. Is this normal? Not at all, people simply don’t know much about building relationships. Life is almost always worse after the divorce than before. When the parents have problems in their relationship, whether it ends in divorce or not, the children have relationship problems and eventually carry them into their own homes.

Why do people today have so much difficulty with relationships? I’m going to postulate two main reasons. The first reason that people have problems in relationships is that they have ignored God and His principles in the Bible. You were never created to try to build healthy relationships without God’s help. Second reason that people have problems in relationships is that the sense of community that surrounded and strengthened families in the past has evaporated. God never intended for you to try to live life in a vacuum, just you and your family and maybe a few relatives. You were created to live life within the context of a godly community.

A strong family can only be built as a unit of God’s family where you are building strong relationships with other believers. NIV Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This verse says that there is a unity of the Spirit in God’s family, a family held together by the bond of peace, a family where conflicts are resolved, a family that is strong and healthy. This unity and peace in God’s family is meant to permeate your family, but it’s not automatic. You and I need to make every effort to keep this unity and peace. If we don’t make any effort, the unity and peace can disintegrate and vanish both in your family and in God’s family.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my June 4, 2006 message entitled Growing Together In A Life Group