PASTOR DARRYL BAKER
teaching you how to walk in the light of god's word
Receive Correction And Grow
Hebrews 5:13-14
13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.
14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
One of the most important things for a believer is the ability to recognize the difference between right and wrong. What a difference this would make in their lives and in the church as a whole. Without this ability it is unfortunately relatively easy for the enemy to mislead and take advantage of peoples lives, and yet they will think they are justified in the actions they take.
For one to have this skill they must have gone from the milk of the Word to the solid food or meat of the Word. This is where the challenge comes. Paul gives us some great insight into this process in writing to the Corinthian church. Take a look with me.
1 Corinthians 3:2-3
2 I gave you milk to drink. I didn’t give you solid food because you weren’t ready for it. Even now you aren’t ready for it
3 because you’re still influenced by your corrupt nature.
For a believer to get beyond milk and onto solid food they must be able to receive correction from the Word of God. Those who cannot are still more influenced by their old corrupt nature, their feelings and emotions. One is not ready for solid food if they are easily offended by correction through scripture. If they are not humble enough to receive such correction and be submissive to the Word of God, they will only be able to be fed what they want to hear that they like and agree with, the milk of the Word.
Solid food believers do not get offended by correction from the Word and therefore as they grow they become spirit dominated instead of allowing their flesh to dominate them. This is imperative if you want to recognize the difference between good and evil. http://www.cffchurch.com
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No Codemnation
Romans 8:1
THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
Once you are born again there is no condemnation for the believer who does not denounce Jesus Christ. The word condemnation is defined as a damnatory sentence or judgement of guilt. The reason is because the old sinful man within has been done away with and we are made new. Jesus on the cross not only bore our sin, He bore the punishment our sin deserved.
This is why in Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus he said that Jesus was stricken and smitten by God. Jesus then went into hell itself paying the full price for our sin and the judgement that is to come for the sin of man. So the damnation (separation from God) that man deserved has been taken away for those who receive Christ as their Savior.
He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. If we still focus on and see ourselves through the fleshly man on the outside, we will feel condemned. But if we see what God sees, our new spirit man within, we will not feel condemned for we will see our new nature. Become spirit conscious and spirit led, governed by your new nature, and you will not fall prey to feeling condemned.
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Justified By Redemption
Romans 3:24
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
In Christ we have justification given to us as a gift. You do not earn a gift you simply receive it. Justified means you have been “Declared Righteous” (right with God), and because you have been declared right with God you have been redeemed from the curse of the law and given the blessing of Abraham. Jesus purchased this gift for you.
You don’t try to get right with God you already are because of what Christ has done for you. It is because of justification that you now have the right to all that Christ has provided through His shed blood. We don’t receive what Christ has provided for us because we have earned it, but because we have been made right with God.
So just as you receive salvation by faith in what Jesus Christ has done for you to be made right with God, so do you also by faith in Him receive all that He has provided for us in the New Covenant. For all who are born again have been made the righteousness of God, and through your right standing with Him you receive what God has for you. You now have a right to all He has purchased through His redeeming work.
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More Than A Conqueror
Romans 8:37
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
God sees everyone who is born again as more than a conqueror because of what Christ has done. This simply means we are able to overcome all things. One who is just a conqueror may be able to overcome some things, but those who are more than conquerors are able to overcome any challenge they may face. Why then do many believers seem to be overcome instead of overcoming in areas of their life?
Notice it says we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. One translation of this verse says we overcome all things through His love. You see a key to overcoming in life is not just knowing God loves you, but believing in the love He has for you. There is a difference. In 1 John 4:16 John said that he knew and believed in the love God has for him. This word believe means to trust in obtaining or doing something.
If we believe God truly loves us in our hearts, we will have absolute trust in His ability to do what He promised in His Word. Many do not walk in the surpassing victory they have in Christ because they lack faith in how much God loves them. If you believe He loves you, God’s perfect love casts out all fear. You will never question God nor doubt His Word when you have faith in His love for you. So get it settled in your heart how much God loves you. When you do then you can walk in the glorious victory He has already provided for you.
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Don’t Quit On God
Galatians 6:9
9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
One of the most important things to walking in victory as a believer in this life is to never quit. Our adversary knows if he can get us to stop walking by faith and give up on God He can defeat us. But if we will not grow weary in doing what we know that scripture teaches us to live a life of faith, we will be victorious in life. There are several things we can do to keep from growing weary. First of all the preceding verses here in Galatians 6 tell us we will reap what we sow. If we sow to the flesh we will reap corruption, but if we sow to the spirit we reap the kind of life God has for us.
Don’t spend your time consumed with fleshly things that will not build you up spiritually. Maintain a consistent walk with God by making time for His Word, His house, and the things of God a priority. To often the devil gets believers weary by simply pulling them away from spiritual things that would bring a great strength to their life. This is all about keeping right priorities in your life. If the things of God are no longer your priority, make changes in your life to correct this. God is the strength of our life but when we no longer put God’s things first, we will grow weary for there is no other source of sustaining strength.
Keep your focus on God for scripture teaches us that when our focus is set on Him we will have perfect peace. Simply put, don’t make things or people in this life your source of happiness. All these things are temporary, but God is eternal. When we try to find our joy in anything other than God we deceive ourselves and lose sight of where we find true peace and contentment in life. So maintain your spiritual walk as a believer by seeking first the things of God, and don’t fall for the deception of looking to the world for your happiness in life for it is God who completes you and He is the strength of your life. Quitters never win and winners never quit.
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Love Never Fails
1 Corinthians 13:8a
8 Love never fails.
In 1 John 4:8 we find out that God is love. When we walk in love we are walking with God, and if we are walking with God we cannot fail. There is much emphasis placed upon walking by faith in the Christian life and rightfully so, but there should be just as much if not even more emphasis placed on the importance of walking in the love of God.
In 1 Corinthians 13:13 we are told to abide in faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Galatians 5:6 reveals why this is true. Faith works through love. In other words you can have faith to move mountains as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:2, but if you don’t have love your faith will not work. Think of it as a power plant that generates power, a switch releases that power, and cables transmit that power to where it needs to go, but what if the power lines are down? That power will not accomplish what it is there to do.
We have the power of God within us, the Holy Spirit, faith is the switch that releases that power, but love is the power lines through which that power flows through, and if you are out of love that power will not get where it needs to go. When we are born again God’s love is poured out into our hearts, it is already in there. We need to act upon that love for our faith to work.
The love of God is not an emotion or a feeling, but a fruit of the new recreated human spirit. Practice waking in the love of God, for what you practice you get good at. God’s love is simply treating others the way you want to be treated, no matter how they treat you. When we were enemies of God, He still loved us. Choose to act upon His love within you, for your faith depends on it.
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Stay Awake
Mark 13:35-37
35 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—
36 lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.
37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”
Jesus gave His disciples stern warnings about the last days. When you are given a warning from our Savior you should heed that warning. Here He is telling us that we do not know when He, the Master of the house will return, but when He does he better not find you sleeping. Then He reiterates what He said at the start of verse 35, “Watch”. It does not matter what you or I think about what we need to do to be prepared for the Lord’s return as one who is born again, what matters is what He said about it.
What does it mean to be found sleeping when He comes? Vines complete expository dictionary tells us this word in Mark’s gospel means: a condition of insensibility to divine things involving conformity to the world. Sound familiar? Another definition would also be lukewarm. In Revelation 3:16 Jesus warned the church at Laodicea if they were lukewarm when He returned He would spew them out of His mouth.
Romans 12:1-2 tells us believers, not sinners, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God and to be not conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, proving what is the good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The word Jesus used telling us to “watch” means to stay awake. Jesus is warning believers not to be living a life conformed to the world when He returns to catch us away.
This is not working for your salvation but working out the salvation He has given to us (Phil. 2:12). The renewal of the mind includes being a doer of the Word. If as a believer my life looks no different then a sinner, I would have fallen asleep becoming conformed to the world. Time to stay awake living a life of following in the footsteps of our Savior. In doing so we shine our light to bring others out of the darkness. Stay awake for His return draws ever closer each day.
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The Power of The Blood
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
The rarest thing ever known to man on planet earth is the precious blood of Jesus, for this was God’s very own blood that was given to redeem mankind. The word redeemed means to deliver from an oppressive and destructive condition by the payment of a ransom. That is what Jesus did for us in shedding His blood. There was six different times Jesus shed blood for us and each time a payment was being made to deliver us.
The first time blood was shed was in the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying about going to the cross. He prayed not His will be done, but the will of the Father, and as He prayed in agony the Bible says He sweat drops of blood. Jesus paid to deliver us from our own human will so that we could live in the Father’s will for us. Then He being arrested was scourged at the whipping post, paying the price for our healing for by His stripes we are healed.
After this the soldiers put a crown of thorns upon His head and blood flowed out paying the price for us to have a renewed mind as Scripture teaches we have the mind of Christ. Then He was crucified, nails driven through His hands so that we could live free from the dominion of sin for the Bible says we are to lift holy hands to the Lord. Then they drove a nail through His feet and He provided for us dominion over evil for Luke 10:19 tells us we can trample upon all the powers of darkness.
Finally they pierced His side near the heart and the blood that poured out delivered us from the old spirit man within and purchased for us a new spirit. The key to walking in all He has purchased is to simply agree with God that all these things are already done for the Word of God tells us we already are, not one day going to be redeemed. We must also act upon His promises for faith without corresponding action is dead. May you walk in the liberty of all Christ has freed you from through His precious blood He shed for you.
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Be Ready
Matthew 24:42-44
42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Scripture is very clear that no one knows the day that the Lord will return to catch away His church except the Father. What we do know and everyone agrees on is that He is coming back. Jesus describes this event like a thief coming in the night and if we knew when that thief would come we would be prepared, and then He tells us to be ready for the Son of Man will come at an hour we do not expect. He describes two people in different settings right before these verses where one is taken but the other is left behind.
Recently the Lord impressed upon my heart two questions. If you knew that He would return next Sunday would you live differently this coming week? If you would live differently why? If you answer the first question yes, the second question is very important, because if you would live differently then why are we not living that way now? The why is the issue we need to deal with that is keeping us from living the life we should be living.
For me I had to answer yes to the first question because there are people I would definitely have some direct conversations with about salvation that I have not yet had. The reason why I haven’t done so is procrastination. So I will be having those conversations. Many believers are not living like a Christ follower. If they knew Jesus was coming next week I think they would change the way they are living. Don’t procrastinate any longer, for Jesus said He will come at a hour you do not expect, so be ready. Are you watching?
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Upon This Rock
Matthew 16:16, 18
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
18 …upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus had asked His disciples who men had claimed He was. Some thought He was John the Baptist, and others thought one of the prophets. Jesus then asked who they thought He was. Peter declared that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus tells Peter that he did not get this revelation by natural means, but from the Father. Then He declares that it is upon this rock He will build His church, and the powers of hell itself will not prevail against it.
The rock that the church stands on and overcomes all the powers of darkness with is the revelation of Jesus as the Christ. The word Christ means Messiah or deliverer. When you get to know Jesus for who God anointed Him to be and what He accomplished for us, the authority of hell, the devil himself, cannot prevail over you. Many know about Jesus, or know of Him in a religious way, but they don’t know Him as the One sent by God to defeat death, hell, and the grave so that we can live a life of victory and not succumb to evil and be defeated.
When you look to the cross and what Jesus did for us, it was not just so we could go to heaven. In taking our sin, and the punishment our sin deserved, He bore the curse and all that came because of that curse to deliver us from it. Time spent meditating in the New Testament seeing what Jesus fulfilled through His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension is how we can receive revelation from the Father of our Messiah, our deliverer.
You don’t need a deliverer unless He is delivering you from something. He has delivered us from the powers of hell itself and the way we enforce that victory is by faith in our deliverer and what He has done for us. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
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Pastor Darryl Baker
Join me each day as we dig into the scriptures and share God's wisdom that will help you grow in your walk with God.
