★ MY SERMON NOTES
@ Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN)
LCC Hwolshe Ring-Road,
Plateau State, Jos
2nd August, 2015

YOUTH WEEK & DEDICATION OF YOUTH BAND ALBUM "KURSIYIN GAFARA"

★ SERMON
* Speaker: Pastor Sunday Daleng
* Topic: Growing Like Jesus in the 21st Century
* Theme: Growing up in Christ (Ephesians 4:15)
* Service Leader: Regina John
* Text: Luke 2:52  →"Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man."

* To understand how to grow up like Jesus, you need to carefully study His life

★ 3 Steps of How Jesus Christ Grew Up:
1. Jesus knew and embraced His ldentity
→ The understanding of your true Identity paves the way for your growth

2. Jesus had passion for the father's business
→ You must also love what He loves

3. Jesus was obedient to His parents
→ Obedience is the key to gaining God's favor

* As young Christians, we need to connect to Jesus even in the 21st Century

* NOTE: Everything Jesus went through (in His time on earth) is still beneficial to your growth as a Christian

* Question: How do we grow like Jesus in an environment that is hostile to the Gospel of Christ and sin and evil are increasing astronomically?

* Jesus went through all he went through to show us how we should grow in Him
→ Though tines have changed, the basic principles remain the same

* Today people are attempting to redefine the values & principles that Jesus lived by while here on earth in order to suit their sinful and selfish tendencies

* Prevailing issues in the world today:
→ Growing acceptance for homosexuality and other peversions
→ Compromising Christians in the business place
→ Rising state of evil & wickedness
→ Everything in the economy seems to be crumbling
→ Unfaithfulness in marriages
→ The school systems (academic) do not recognize hard work
→ Domestic violence & oppression of women
→ Rising cases of divorce
→ etc

* NOTE: Most of the above listed issues also existed in Jesus' time

★ How Jesus dealt with the issues of His time:
1. You can keep growing like Jesus if you are focused on Him
☆ Matthew 22:15-22
→ There are people that are seeking to get you entangled & twisted and will try to place you in difficult circumstances
→ What do you do if you find yourself in tight situations that are complicated and inescapable?

* NOTE: Not every praise is good praise (Matthew 22:16)

→ You need to grow to a level where you are able to distinguish between true praise and an act of hypocrisy and temptation

* Whose image are you carrying? (Matthew 22:20)

→ If you must grow like Jesus, you must give to God what belongs to Him (Matthew 22:21)

* You cannot be in this world and grow like Jesus if you do not carry the image of God

* What makes you think you can make it in life without Jesus?

* If "they" tempted Jesus, be sure that "they" will do it to you too
→ They will always seek to entangle and tempt you

* Those used of the devil to entangle others usually take religious forms that you will not easily suspect
→ See: Matthew 22:15

* When others are doing wrong, will you also compromise?

* Whose image will you represent when you find yourself in difficult circumstances?

* You cannot afford to go the way you are going if you must grow like Christ
→ You must develop your own spiritual countenance and stop depending on your own human wisdom

2. Know, apply and use the Word of God
→ NOTE: In the world, your wisdom cannot help you. You need to operate by God's wisdom
* Matthew 4:1-4

* NOTE: even the man that is full of the Spirit of God can face temptations

* The first thing the devil does to destabilise your growth in Christ is to sow doubt in your heart regarding your identity

* Temptations usually come at your greatest moments of need, weakness and vulnerability

☆ Matthew 4:3 →"Then the tempter came. “Since you are the Son of God,” he said, “tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

* The temptation of food is one of the greatest avenues where you begin to degenerate
→ This is the cause of many corruptions, hoardings and sinful compromises among Christians

* God's Word should be your standard for life's decisions
→ What proceeds out of the month of God is all that you need to survive
(Matthew 4:4)

* What you need may not be another academic degree to sail through in life. You need God's Word

☆ Psalm 19:7 →"The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring life. The testimony of the LORD is steadfast, making foolish people wise."

*NOTE: The Word of God makes you wise
→ The word of God is power!

* The Word of God is all you need to overcome EVERY challenge in life

* There is nothing that the Word of God cannot achieve

* NOTE: Just like fish cannot survive once taken out of water, a child of God cannot survive without God's Word!

* The Word of God is the most effective weapon you have against Satan

* You cannot afford to remain a child spiritually, because, sooner or latter, your instability will be obvious to everyone

* Today, there are so many misleading teachings regarding God's Words and many 'Christians' are falling victims to it
→ You can only distinguish false teachings when you grow (and mature) in the Word of God