00:02:56.700He's calling us to constantly follow him, move forward, walk after him, chase after him.
00:03:04.740And so this idea of, hey, let's evaluate if we did that well last year.
00:03:09.040And if we're doing that this year and we need to kind of understand what those are, what does that actually look like?
00:03:15.960And so that's something I think we need to have a conversation about today.
00:03:20.680And and Veronica will kind of open us up on what we're going to chat about.
00:03:24.420Yeah. So just again, like I said, going over your goals and vision for last year, going into the new year.
00:03:31.060What does that look like? A big question to ask yourself.
00:03:34.280Are you growing in Christ? If not, are you actually living for Christ? Because we need to remember that belief in Jesus doesn't just make us Christian. There are atheists out there that believe that Jesus existed. He's a historical figure, but they don't necessarily actually believe that he was a savior of the world.
00:03:52.840So, um, the book of James even says, uh, even the demons believe in Trumbull. So what makes your marriage a Christian marriage or your home a Christian home? Isn't just your belief in Jesus. It's your belief in Jesus in combination with the fact that he is Lord over your life.
00:04:09.440Yeah, this is a huge point that she's making right here, is that, yeah, cool, you believe in Jesus? Great.
00:04:17.080You know, and there's lots of Christians out there that are, or people that identify themselves with the Christian faith that believe in Jesus.
00:04:23.580We have Jehovah's Witness saying that they're Christians and believe in Jesus.
00:04:27.040We have Mormons calling themselves Christians and believe in Jesus.0.52
00:04:30.060And so you get this situation, you go, okay, well, what does it mean to be Christian?
00:04:34.400What does it actually look like to be Christian?
00:04:37.260And so, and especially biblical Christian,
00:04:40.100because again, that's where we're going to have to turn to,
00:04:42.180is that what does the Bible say about our faith?
00:04:44.800Yeah, and it says you'll know them by their fruit.
00:04:46.880Yeah, that's exactly what's one of the points we're going to be mentioning today.
00:04:49.720We're going to dive deep into what that actually looks like in your marriage and family.
00:04:55.280I'm going to say a couple of verses that I think are critical to just backing up our claims right here.
00:05:00.000Romans 10, chapter 9, or Romans chapter 10, verse 9,
00:05:03.540says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has
00:05:08.620raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And I want you to just recognize the two-part
00:05:13.540element right there. Belief in lordship. Belief in lordship. You're going to see this reoccurring
00:05:17.300theme throughout the New Testament is that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
00:05:23.140That word confess in the Greek is homo legale. And that word means to authentically acknowledge.
00:05:29.100It's not just like yelling out in a crowd, the Lord Jesus.
00:06:33.200We've gotten so much that it's just about belief and that's it.
00:06:37.400That we've forgotten just the many commands throughout scripture of what it looks like to identify yourself as a Christian.
00:06:46.000And so we're going to talk about that.
00:06:47.880We want to go over three really fundamental areas that I think would be helpful for you guys to evaluate and that you might need any improvement in your walk.
00:06:59.260Now, I want to clarify that we know that you're saved by grace through faith, but we also know that faith without works is dead.
00:07:06.400And most importantly, we know that God says to be holy as I am holy.
00:07:10.980We know that there's a variety of scriptures and commands that Jesus himself asks us to fulfill.
00:07:16.200So it's not just we're saved by grace through faith and we can't leave out the requirements that God calls us to walk and how to behave and how to walk with one another, especially in the sanctification of our marriages and of our personal Christian walk.
00:07:32.320And so we're going to talk about, I don't think people, we're not going to talk about the apologetic side of do you actually believe.
00:07:38.020This isn't a show for people who are skeptical about if Christ is the Savior or is God.
00:07:44.900this is a show on Christians that need to be reminded what it looks like to be a Christian
00:07:49.840according to the scriptures. And so we're going to dive into that and talk about that.
00:07:54.100Yeah. So what are the marks of a Christian? So first John four, one says, beloved, do not believe
00:07:59.860every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone
00:08:05.480out into the world. So not everyone who says I'm a Christian is a Christian. Yeah. Test the spirits
00:08:14.500right there it says yeah beloved test the spirits and you know uh jesus gives us a variety of ways
00:08:21.520to examine ourselves and examine others to determine the authenticity of their faith
00:08:27.360of their professed faith of what they're saying yeah and when they say test the spirits what are
00:08:33.000we to test them against the word of god yeah we're to test them against scripture you go hey
00:08:38.320uh what you're saying doesn't align with what he's saying therefore i don't believe what you're
00:08:43.840saying. And so this is what the scripture is about, is test those spirits and test them against what?
00:08:49.580Well, test them against the truth. And that's how you get to examine your life. And so in that,
00:08:56.040I'm going to start off with, hey, I want you guys to evaluate as a husband, as a wife, as a father,
00:09:01.600as a mother. Look at this scripture that we're going to read here in John 8, verse 31. It's a
00:09:08.400critical scripture. It's the memory verse for the show. You should have it memorized anyways. It's
00:09:14.580do you abide in his word? And we're going to read this, what this scripture is. Do you abide in his
00:09:19.960word? He says, Jesus says, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you shall know the
00:09:27.160truth and the truth shall set you free. I want to point out one is that it says, if you abide my
00:09:34.020word you are my you are truly my disciples and you shall know the truth who is the truth jesus
00:09:39.740yeah he says i'm the way the truth and the life he says you shall know the truth you shall know me
00:09:45.540and the truth jesus shall set you free recognize what it's saying there um so do you abide in his
00:09:52.540word that's a big question do you actually follow scripture on how you make decisions on your money
00:10:00.840on your finance on your biblical roles on the way that you carry out your uh your you know your
00:10:09.100finances your your uh your your home management your sex life your whatever it is are you looking
00:10:14.860to scripture to make sure that you're trying to just go god i want to do it your way i don't want
00:10:18.820to do it my way father if you've spoken on this matter in some way i want to seek out the scriptures
00:13:03.380And then the second thing that I do immediately, and this is, you know, five to six days a week, seven days a week, I try every day, is I read the word.
00:13:13.000immediately i just start reading the word i seek god first are you doing that are you abiding in
00:13:19.220his word because that's what makes you truly his disciples and you will know jesus and jesus will
00:13:26.100make you free and keep you free from the sin that is constantly trying to put us in bondage
00:13:32.180um why don't you read number two another mark of being a christian number two if you love me you
00:13:40.260will keep my commandments jesus is saying that the greatest way to express your love and devotion
00:13:46.340to him is is not to worship him um or to pray to him or to talk about him but to keep his
00:13:55.840commandments you do all those things as well yeah yeah that just kind of naturally comes along with
00:14:01.060it but is the number one way he says is to keep his commandments yeah jesus isn't saying if you
00:14:07.440love me go worship me if you love me go pray to me if you love me go teach somebody about me
00:14:13.280which is the the things that we all do those are fruits of obeying his commands yeah but what
00:14:19.340jesus is saying if you love me keep my commandments that that's what he's specifically talking about
00:14:26.320and so ask yourself do you keep his commandments yeah and john 14 uh verse it says in john 14
00:14:35.700verses 15 through 24 but i'm just going to pick out a couple of those verses in that passage you
00:14:39.600can read it for yourself um verse 15 if you love me you will keep my commandments verse 21 whoever
00:14:44.940has my commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me that's worded really weirdly um verse 23
00:14:52.860if anyone loves me he will keep my word verse 24 whoever does not love me does not keep my words
00:14:58.300yeah this is just one section it says it in all the gospels and it even reiterated from the
00:15:04.600apostles over and over and over again yeah i can't tell you how many times that jesus says if you
00:15:08.920love me you keep my commandments and i like how veronica put it of the best way to show your
00:15:13.740devotion to christ is to keep his command he's saying hey if you love me like you don't like
00:15:20.020these other things are important but the best way to show that you love me is to keep my commandments
00:15:25.880and we even say that to our kids totally not necessarily our commandments but to get this
00:15:31.500concept yep uh transferred to them i would say is um aria how do you love mom and dad by obeying
00:15:39.500you yeah by listening to us by obeying yeah yeah and i i ask i ask aria all the time i go hey
00:15:45.600if you or i'll tell her if you love me you'll listen to me if you love me you listen to me
00:15:50.620again you know he who he loves me hears my voice like there's just so many of these parallels in
00:15:56.160scripture is that do you listen to god and how do you hear god you read his word right you gotta
00:16:04.720get into the word and that's how we hear from god this is god's word in the scriptures and so do you
00:16:09.940do you actually keep his commandments in 2019 evaluate in your marriage are you guys keeping
00:16:15.340his commandments um and there's actually there's several uh lists of commandments but there's what
00:16:22.280I would say the real, for sure, easy list is there's about 50 direct commands,
00:16:27.680like undeniable commands of Jesus in the New Testament.
00:16:32.440And I'm not going to list them all out, but it's like, repent.
00:18:09.860This is exactly what my book Saved from Success is all about.
00:18:13.980It's another great book for you guys to read at the beginning of a year to kind of, whoa, be saved from the American Christianity cultural thinking that isn't biblical.
00:18:26.940And that's what that book Save from Success is about is, yeah, like when you seek the kingdom of God first, you go, oh, man, I'm thinking about children incorrectly.
00:18:34.500I'm thinking about marriage incorrectly.