Dr. Chris Stephens

Teaching That Transforms

Hey Friends,

What teaching are you walking in? Following the teaching of Jesus will transform your life. Jesus said in John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life…” Notice the Lord equated belief with behavior. Do we really believe the parts of the Bible we don’t obey? Great question to meditate on, don’t you think?

Proverbs 13:14 says, “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn aside from the snares of death.” Jesus gave birth to wisdom and His teaching is truth. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus is the Word and He walked among us. WE must walk in His teaching. (2 John 9)

What is amazing to me is how the church today thinks learning it and not living it is O.K. to the Lord. Our verse from John says not hardly! Are you walking in His teaching? To turn aside or to not obey is to “walk in snares of death.” I challenge you to get a plan to take in more transformational teaching. Last weekend at FPC our teaching involved this topic and you can click on GRO-UP to hear it.

How much transformational teaching do you take in? By transformational I mean life changing. That is the reason the Bible was given. Far more than belief – it is about behavior. More that learning – it is living. With 168 hours in a week, how many hours of teaching do you get? Is your spiritual growth plan sufficient to help you soar to the next level with God? Are you changing daily more into the image of Jesus?

Paul told Timothy to be “diligent and his progress would be obvious to all.” Can others see your growth? I am hungry to grow and achieve my full potential. Maximum effort will be required and I am ready, willing and able to do it.

Together let’s grow.

Yours to count on,

Pastor

7 Comments

sabrina

September 24, 2009

Yes Pastor, I believe it may be the most important ? for Jesus’ Body to meditate on and digest down from the head to our heart.It’s as though John the baptist is crying once more in the wilderness only in these days it’s a cry to repent of denial.Duet. 18:19 says: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My WORDS which HE shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him.Confirmed in Acts 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear THAT PROPHET, shall be destroyed among the people.That Prophet is Jesus’ Words.Rev.19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me,See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. God has been teaching me for months that my “doing not His Word” is dangerous to my eternal spirit. I had withdrawn from the body because I was seeing around me people who confessed Christ but did not heed His Words.It hurt to see it so I left for two years and decided because God met me at home mightely I did not need the body.BUT the book of Hebrews just wouldn’t be quite.He began to show me that by not “doing” what His Holy Word said plainly I was in danger of denying Him before men and I hope we all know what He says to that. I had somewhere along the way tried hard, to begin to believe my own opinion but then He showed me different because of His Word in It’s entirety. I have just shared the tip of the iceburg with you as there are many, many other scriptures that He illuminated to me to keep me from the snares of death.We most certainly can not see His Word and ignore it if we call Him LORD. {Mathew 7:21}I do realize that to say these things to other professers of Christ is sometimes dangerous waters but if I don’t and they continue on in “there” way then I am a bad servant and that’s more scary than their shunning of me.I did a while ago share these thoughts with someone and they bristles and became prickly with me, but a seed was planted just the same, perhaps God will water it and then cause it to grow with His SON.He then gave me these Words: Mathew 10:32-36 and Mathew 16:24-27. I see that God is speaking and moving and I am glad I am here.The last thing I want to add is as soon as you,Pastor Chris, said this The Lord brought instantly these LIFE WORDS back and I remembered these lessons and knew that you spoke Truth to this congregation, to those who will hear.

Stephanie O'Connor

September 24, 2009

I believe that what is in our hearts determines the choices that we make on a day by day, hour be hour, minute be minute basis. Our hearts are shaped by what we believe and the view point through which we view life. If our hearts are full of scripture, God speaks and directs our paths because he delights in every detail of our lives. Our lives are the sum total of millions of little choices…little details. The pattern emerges after years of living….of receiving second chances…and what we do with them. Yes, I believe that everything…absolutlely everything that we do in life is ultimately based on what we believe. I don’t think that you can separate what you believe from how you act. How you act is merely a result of what you believe. No human would ever continue to help a person who had hurt them, nor pray for an enemy, nor stop at the side of the road to pray with a total stranger who was hurting or frightened unless they believed that they were here not for themselves but to serve others as Christ had served. Similarly, a true Christ beleiever could never turn away an enemy if they thought that God had placed them in their path so that they could hear or experience the love of Christ. No mere mortal would have such faith in the power of love over revenge unless it was part of what they believed. If we weren’t driven by what we believed, then it wouldn’t be so impossible to convince a non Christian teen that sex outside of marriage actually was hurting someone.Once we believe in Christ, He becomes one with us and we can no longer separate who we are from what we believe. God created us with a heart for worship. We worship what we believe in…if we believe in worldly success, we worship that..and our actions reflect that. If we believe in Christ, we make choices that go against all common wisdom…because we believe. The sum total of all our life choices is based on what shapes our hearts, thoughts and desires….and what shapes our hearts, thoughts and desires is what we believe.

Brody

September 24, 2009

Going off #2 Stephanie’s point about choices and what we believe…
The part of this blog message that hit me is thinking about how many hours I waste. My wife and I were just discussing the amount of time we spend in front of the computer, in front of the television, or just kind of doing nothing. In just a fraction of that time we could have spent time in the Word, in meditation, or in prayer. I think a good “take home” question of the blog today was “how many hours of teaching do you get?” And to add to that…What can we give up to give more time to God?

Thoughts?

Josh

September 24, 2009

I agree with Stephanie in that our actions are merely a tangible arm of our beliefs. If you follow where our money goes, it shows what is important to us. Well I believe that is also true for our time (obviously). Like Brody said, it is humbling when we examine our own time spent once we get home from our daily grinds. We focus intently on production at the workplace, but do we focus just as intently on production for God, or production within our own families, for that matter.

I looked up 2 John 9 that the pastor referenced in the blog. “Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.” (version: the message)

Jennifer P

September 24, 2009

Wow- Josh is so right! If I didn’t give effort at work, I wouldn’t have a job very long (and my paycheck sustains me physically). But how often I give no effort to Jesus- and HE sustains me in ways far beyond money. I have really been challenged with that since the message Sunday- how can I act and believe in different ways? Maybe self-deception is the worst part of it all. We blame it on the devil, but I think it is often just the sinful side of ourselves that don’t WANT to put the effort in. We say we are too busy, but who else manages our time except us? It’s time to step up and take responsibility for the state our relationships with Him are in. It’s time to ACT OUT what we say we believe. It’s time to fight for holiness and purity in our hearts!

Josh

September 25, 2009

Good point, Jennifer, about relationships. If our relationship with our spouse or significant other were to become stagnant — if we only talked to them one day a week for one hour (church) — how successful of a relationship would that be? By asking this, I am asking it of myself. Because that’s a good reminder to me to put forth a greater effort in my relationship with Christ.

Brody

September 25, 2009

Excellent discussion. The thoughts and analogies you all provide really make me think about my relationship with the Lord.

sabrina

September 24, 2009

Yes Pastor, I believe it may be the most important ? for Jesus’ Body to meditate on and digest down from the head to our heart.It’s as though John the baptist is crying once more in the wilderness only in these days it’s a cry to repent of denial.Duet. 18:19 says: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My WORDS which HE shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him.Confirmed in Acts 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear THAT PROPHET, shall be destroyed among the people.That Prophet is Jesus’ Words.Rev.19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me,See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. God has been teaching me for months that my “doing not His Word” is dangerous to my eternal spirit. I had withdrawn from the body because I was seeing around me people who confessed Christ but did not heed His Words.It hurt to see it so I left for two years and decided because God met me at home mightely I did not need the body.BUT the book of Hebrews just wouldn’t be quite.He began to show me that by not “doing” what His Holy Word said plainly I was in danger of denying Him before men and I hope we all know what He says to that. I had somewhere along the way tried hard, to begin to believe my own opinion but then He showed me different because of His Word in It’s entirety. I have just shared the tip of the iceburg with you as there are many, many other scriptures that He illuminated to me to keep me from the snares of death.We most certainly can not see His Word and ignore it if we call Him LORD. {Mathew 7:21}I do realize that to say these things to other professers of Christ is sometimes dangerous waters but if I don’t and they continue on in “there” way then I am a bad servant and that’s more scary than their shunning of me.I did a while ago share these thoughts with someone and they bristles and became prickly with me, but a seed was planted just the same, perhaps God will water it and then cause it to grow with His SON.He then gave me these Words: Mathew 10:32-36 and Mathew 16:24-27. I see that God is speaking and moving and I am glad I am here.The last thing I want to add is as soon as you,Pastor Chris, said this The Lord brought instantly these LIFE WORDS back and I remembered these lessons and knew that you spoke Truth to this congregation, to those who will hear.
Stephanie O'Connor

September 24, 2009

I believe that what is in our hearts determines the choices that we make on a day by day, hour be hour, minute be minute basis. Our hearts are shaped by what we believe and the view point through which we view life. If our hearts are full of scripture, God speaks and directs our paths because he delights in every detail of our lives. Our lives are the sum total of millions of little choices…little details. The pattern emerges after years of living….of receiving second chances…and what we do with them. Yes, I believe that everything…absolutlely everything that we do in life is ultimately based on what we believe. I don’t think that you can separate what you believe from how you act. How you act is merely a result of what you believe. No human would ever continue to help a person who had hurt them, nor pray for an enemy, nor stop at the side of the road to pray with a total stranger who was hurting or frightened unless they believed that they were here not for themselves but to serve others as Christ had served. Similarly, a true Christ beleiever could never turn away an enemy if they thought that God had placed them in their path so that they could hear or experience the love of Christ. No mere mortal would have such faith in the power of love over revenge unless it was part of what they believed. If we weren’t driven by what we believed, then it wouldn’t be so impossible to convince a non Christian teen that sex outside of marriage actually was hurting someone.Once we believe in Christ, He becomes one with us and we can no longer separate who we are from what we believe. God created us with a heart for worship. We worship what we believe in…if we believe in worldly success, we worship that..and our actions reflect that. If we believe in Christ, we make choices that go against all common wisdom…because we believe. The sum total of all our life choices is based on what shapes our hearts, thoughts and desires….and what shapes our hearts, thoughts and desires is what we believe.
Brody

September 24, 2009

Going off #2 Stephanie’s point about choices and what we believe…
The part of this blog message that hit me is thinking about how many hours I waste. My wife and I were just discussing the amount of time we spend in front of the computer, in front of the television, or just kind of doing nothing. In just a fraction of that time we could have spent time in the Word, in meditation, or in prayer. I think a good “take home” question of the blog today was “how many hours of teaching do you get?” And to add to that…What can we give up to give more time to God?

Thoughts?
Josh

September 24, 2009

I agree with Stephanie in that our actions are merely a tangible arm of our beliefs. If you follow where our money goes, it shows what is important to us. Well I believe that is also true for our time (obviously). Like Brody said, it is humbling when we examine our own time spent once we get home from our daily grinds. We focus intently on production at the workplace, but do we focus just as intently on production for God, or production within our own families, for that matter.

I looked up 2 John 9 that the pastor referenced in the blog. “Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.” (version: the message)
Jennifer P

September 24, 2009

Wow- Josh is so right! If I didn’t give effort at work, I wouldn’t have a job very long (and my paycheck sustains me physically). But how often I give no effort to Jesus- and HE sustains me in ways far beyond money. I have really been challenged with that since the message Sunday- how can I act and believe in different ways? Maybe self-deception is the worst part of it all. We blame it on the devil, but I think it is often just the sinful side of ourselves that don’t WANT to put the effort in. We say we are too busy, but who else manages our time except us? It’s time to step up and take responsibility for the state our relationships with Him are in. It’s time to ACT OUT what we say we believe. It’s time to fight for holiness and purity in our hearts!
Josh

September 25, 2009

Good point, Jennifer, about relationships. If our relationship with our spouse or significant other were to become stagnant — if we only talked to them one day a week for one hour (church) — how successful of a relationship would that be? By asking this, I am asking it of myself. Because that’s a good reminder to me to put forth a greater effort in my relationship with Christ.
Brody

September 25, 2009

Excellent discussion. The thoughts and analogies you all provide really make me think about my relationship with the Lord.

Teaching That Transforms

7 Comments