Evidence of the Transformed Identity

Guest (Male): Are you experiencing the supernatural Christian life?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Many believers happily admit that they're born again supernaturally. They're happy to admit that, but then they go the rest of their Christian life in their own steam, with their own wisdom, with their own ideas. They come to God in a supernatural way, but then they live the rest of their life in the natural.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Leading the Way, featuring the biblical and practical teaching of author and internationally known Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef. We pray that you have experienced God's grace in your life, and you know that God saved you for a greater work. We also pray that you're experiencing daily victory by leaning into the power of God and his word. Now in this episode of Leading the Way, practical and biblical words of truth to move you closer to experiencing a life of victory and identity transformation. Listen as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this life-changing episode of Leading the Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: In the last message, we saw how as a result of these sevenfold blessings, in fact, because we are the recipient of the sevenfold blessings, or in thanksgiving for that sevenfold blessings, there had to be evidence that proves that we are in the process of identity transformation. And we began to look at those evidence in the last message. And I told you then that there are six in number, but because of the limitation of time, we looked at three in the last message, and I want to look at the other three today. First of all, we saw that in thankfulness to God for his sevenfold blessings, we are to be alert. Secondly, in thankfulness for God's sevenfold blessing, we are to be holy. And thirdly, in thankfulness, we are to revere the Lord. Today, I want to give you number four, five, and six. And if you look at verse 22 of 1 Peter 1, in thankfulness, we are to grow in love. Number five, verses 23 25, in thankfulness, we are to grow in the word of God. And then the last one is chapter two, verses one to three, that in thankfulness, we have to grow up. Follow with me, please. Those three, let's look at them in in detail. In thankfulness, we are to grow in love, verse 22. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you may have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply and from the heart. This is the fourth evidence that we are beginning to have our identity transformed from whatever it is, whether it's family name, whether it is a business, whether it is the title, whether it's a profession, and whether it is a net worth, whatever it may be, to being identified solely as the Lord's possession. Ask yourself the question, how would anyone in the world know that I am a blood-bought child of the living God? In a dog-eat-dog world, being holy is manifested in the believers truly and genuinely loving one another. I know young students probably ask the question, how can I still be cool and be holy? Adults ask the same thing. How can I be holy without being looked upon and labeled as a square or a wet blanket? He me write please, the devil has managed to convince us that being liked and being approved by the popular culture is more important than our convictions. The devil has managed to scare us into accommodating to the secular culture. The devil uses fear to keep believers from growing into maturity. The devil uses this fear to keep us from being truly effective for Christ. But there's only one thing that will make non-Christians literally sit back and take notice, and that is the level and that intensity of our love for one another. It's the way we care for one another. But what are these characteristics of our love for one another? Peter says three things. He said, first of all, it's got to be sincere. Well, what's that mean? For love to be sincere. Let me illustrate it this way or explain it this way. When people outside of the Christian faith who show the trappings of love, and you see it in the movies and the media, they show the trappings of love. They do that because they expect something in return. Not so with us. We love for love's sake. We love because we were loved first. People outside the Christian faith, they also love. Yes, but they love so that they may be loved back, but not with us. In fact, Jesus in Luke chapter 6 verse 32, he said, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even the pagans do that. But by loving the unlovable, by loving the ungrateful, by loving the undeserving, by loving without expecting anything in return, that is sincere love that Peter is talking about. Peter said, our love must be sincere. Secondly, he said, our love must be deep. I don't have to tell you that we live in such a superficial way, and the social media have made everything so superficial, everything is shallow. And if you don't like somebody, just delete them from your Facebook or your Twitter. And Peter said that our love should not be like that. Our love is to be rich, to be deep, and to be bountiful. Our love must be sincere, but also it must be deep. And thirdly, he said, our love should be from the heart. What does that mean? Listen carefully, please. Loving from the heart makes an effort to understand the other person. Loving from the heart gives the other person the benefit of the doubt, and not sit in judgment over your brothers and sisters. Loving from the heart makes allowance for failure, makes allowance for misunderstanding. Loving from the heart means that we keep on forgiving and never close our hearts to forgiving each other. Loving from the heart means that when a person repent and you say you forgive them, you don't hold that as a club over their head. You don't use the past failure as a club to beat them with it. And so in thankfulness, we grow in love. Secondly, in thankfulness, we grow in the word. The reason the very first message was about Peter's own life in relationship to Jesus, and thank God we have such rich biography of Peter. So we understand his epistle much better. And it is not by accident that Peter links love with feeding spiritual food. He links love with feeding upon the word of God. Do you know why? Do you remember the last encounter with Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee? And Jesus said to him, Peter, do you love me? Said yes. What did Jesus say? Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Feed my sheep. Third time. Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know everything. Feed my sheep. A pastor who does not feed his sheep on the word of God is not a loving pastor. Loving and feeding are in extricably linked. How does Peter feed the sheep? By feeding upon the word of God, not pop psychology, not motivational speech, not a pat on the back. He feeds them upon the indispensable food of the word of God. The word of God is indispensable food to the soul. I've lived long enough to know that Satan's number one assault on Christians is to keep them away from the word of God. Why? Because Satan knows better than most Christians. Satan knows that the word of God is powerful, and he does not want us to live in power. He wants us to live a defeated life. He wants us to live a discouraged life. He wants us to live a frustrated life. When God spoke his word, there was power in his word. And God placed his power in his word. When God spoke, this whole universe came into being. When God said, let there be light, there was light. When God spoke to Abraham and he said that Sarah's dead womb is going to have a baby, she did. When God spoke to the virgin Mary, who's never been with a man, that you will have a son because nothing is impossible with God, she did. Beloved, I know I know how difficult it is to feed upon the word of God when you live in a culture where every problem is solved in 30-second commercial. I know that, and you know it too. But we have no other option but to feed upon the word of God. It is difficult to comprehend the power in the word of God in such a culture. But Peter reveals to us in 1 Peter chapter 1 23 that it was God's word spoken to our dead spirits and brought us to life. It is God's word that was spoken to our souls and saved us from hell. It is God's word spoken to us that made us to be the children of the living God. Now we need to daily feed upon that word of God that brought us to life, not leave it alone so that we may who are saved by supernatural power live and walk in the supernatural power. Many believers happily admit that they're born again supernaturally. They're happy to admit that, but then they go the rest of their Christian life in their own steam, with their own wisdom, with their own ideas, with their own thoughts. They come to God in a supernatural way, but then they live the rest of their life in the natural. Titus 3 5, Paul said, God saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. Please hear me right. Salvation is not like an delectable piece of dessert inside a glass window that we looking at it. We can't wait to get our hands on it. No, no, no, no. Salvation is not like that at all because of our sin nature. We did not want salvation because of our sin nature. We were too blind to see it. Because of our sin nature, we were too dead to crave it. But the power of the word of God drew us. The power of the love of God wooed us. The power of the grace of God in the word of God allured us. The power of the word of God revealed the sin. Amen. Amen. And amen. If we truly comprehend the power of the word of God, we would inhale it every day. We inhale it. I'm going to say more about this in a minute, but suffice it to say that Peter quotes from the book of Isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 7 and 8. And I'm going to tell you why he quoting from Isaiah. He said, all men are like grass. All their glory is like flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever. Beloved, listen to me. All people, rich and poor, all people black, white, yellow, green, brown, all people, great and small, they're born to live for a little while and then fade away. But the word of God what? Stands forever. People impressed by the rich and the powerful. People are in awe of the famous people and but soon they going to be forgotten. Ah, but the word of God what? Stands forever. Today, the word of God may be ignored by a lot of people. Today, the word of God may be abused and misused even by those who are in the pulpits. But to those of us who know God, know that his word is all powerful. For God himself placed his power in his word. Let me ask you a question. Please, please, please answer it to yourself. Do not skirt the question. Do you have a daily Bible feeding plan? Do you daily spend time meditating and literally feeding your soul on the word of God? Do you daily grow in the word of God feeding upon it? Do you feed your soul, your heart, and your mind upon the powerful word of God? Do you experience daily power from the word of God? D.L. Moody said, the word of God is going to keep you from sinning, but sin is going to keep you from the word of God. In thankfulness, we grow in love. In thankfulness for the sevenfold blessing, we grow in the word of God thirdly or six in thankfulness. We grow up. I heard it and you heard it. Oh, grow up. We say that to people who behave so childishly. Sadly, my generation has this motto that we only young once, but we can be immature indefinitely. Sometime ago back in Sydney, Australia, a friend gave me this piece of advice that I've never forgotten. Try to remember on a daily basis. He said, if you want your kids to grow up with their feet firmly on the ground, place the word of God on their shoulders. Beloved, the reason some people never grow up spiritually, never grow up in the faith is because they are spiritually malnourished. They can be Christians for five, 10, 20 years, and they remain immature. Why? Because they never have learned to be nourished by studying, meditating, literally devouring the word of God. He me write on this one. Every single health practitioner who's worth the name will tell you that if you get serious about your physical health, they're going to say to you to give up some things, and then you add some things in your life. They tell you to give up smoking, alcohol, to give up eating food that is not good for your body. You take these out of your life and in their place you put on good healthy food, exercise regularly. And Peter is saying exactly what the health practitioners would say to us about the body. He's telling us about the spirit. He says, for a healthy spiritual life, you must do the same thing. Look at the things you need to put out. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, all envy. You notice he did not say, keep trying to get rid of these things, and in time you're going to get rid of them. No, no, no, no. He doesn't say that. He actually it's in the imperative mood for those of you grammar scholars. He said, get rid of them. Take them off and throw them away. Ruthlessly remove them from your life. Why? Because they are extremely hurtful to your spiritual health. They are the enemies of your spiritual maturity. And just as tobacco, alcohol, drugs, bad food is harmful to you physically, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, and envy are harming you spiritually. This malice, deceit, hypocrisy, and envy is like a poisonous pill for relationships. And Peter is saying that these things are inspired by Satan. Do you know why? Do you know why? Because he loves to divide the believers. He really does. He's the author of division. He loves to get believers busy fighting with each other. See, that way they're not busy reaching the lost. He loves to hinder the believers from spiritually growing up. And like children, they're always fighting among themselves. Meanwhile, the opposite is true. When you are craving the pure milk of the word of God, when you are growing and maturing and being nurtured by the word of God, when you love one another, when you resolve your differences and your disagreements biblically, when you give and receive forgiveness all the time, that milk of the word of God is being consumed by those believers. And milk here by the way is not opposite to solid food as Paul talks about elsewhere. But here, the use of the word pure milk referring to the fact to its purity is referring to its nutrients. It's the ability to build you up. And there is no additives, no preservatives, and no watered-down milk, no impurities of any kind. It's the pure milk of the word of God. And beloved, I don't have to tell you sadly, there are so many people who are watering the word of God. They adding water to it. It's not even clean water. It's not even pure water. They just adding water so much so that their congregations don't know the difference anymore. The result of this is that we today have saw many spiritually malnourished professing Christians. Peter for whom Jesus entreated to feed his sheep is saying to us that if you want to become spiritually mature, if you want to become spiritually strong believer, feed upon the pure word of God. Do you find the reading and the meditating and studying the word of God to be a drudgery? Does the Bible feel like a 10 ton weight? Please, please ask yourself the question because most likely it is because you have not put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, slander, envy. And they're making the word of God to you to be a drudgery. Whatever it is that is holding you from feeding upon the word of God, I entreat you to come to the great physician, and he will remove it from you. You know, my testimony is because I write things in books and known to all of you. If those of you read my books, there many things that I struggled with in my life, and I cried out to God, and God removed them. Most of you know the story. I have it in one of my books about how short my temper was. And in 1971, I'll never forget it. I cried to God. I said, I cannot be yours. Was this short temper? The Lord removed it just like that. Now they're spending the rest of my life removing it, but it got to start somewhere. It's got to start somewhere. And the very man that I was absolutely angry with, angry to the point of wishing him dead, the very man God said, invite him to dinner. I said, Lord, dinner? I'm so mad at this man, I'll poison him. My wife knows the story. I invited him to dinner. We became fast friends. I was able to do some things for him later on. But you see, you got to start. You know what it is that's holding you back from feeding upon the word of God and growing and maturing in Christ. Now plead with everyone here. Deal with it. Deal with it and deal with it now as we pray. Shall we pray together? Father, I really want to grow in your word. Help me to put away anything that is keeping me away from your word. Help me to develop hunger and thirst for your word that I may mature into the full stature of Christ. And Father God, in Jesus name, I pray that this may be the beginning of a genuine true awakening because it is the word of God that can truly do that in Jesus name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef is inviting you to seek new life through identity transformation. We thank you for listening to Leading the Way. And if you have some faith questions, we want you to consider a conversation with a Leading the Way pastor or a counselor. All you have to do is connect at ltw.org/jesus.
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