Elevate To The Next Level: "Living Biblically”

Elevate to the Next Level

“Living Biblically”

Watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfJXb_jgCds

In this series, we’ve been looking at how we are to level up our discipleship to the next level by living our lives as believers in Jesus Christ in a whole new way. Today, we’re going to be looking at how to live biblically as our title say, “Living Biblically.”.

I remember reading the history of the Great Wall of China, and how the Mongols successfully overcame it and invaded the country. And while the Great Wall has a complicated history, what I found in some historical accounts is that the Mongols bribed one of the gatekeepers to let them in.

And my thought was, that in a way, this is what is happening within the church. It is the gatekeepers, that is, church leaders are selling out to the cultural norms of society, which is why we see major doctrinal shifts toward unbiblical stances.

Now, Satan knows how to get at our hearts. Satan has a strategy, as he continues to fill our minds with all the stuff of the world. And I hope you understand and hear what I am going to say, and that is that Satan doesn’t have to curse us, instead he gets us to curse ourselves by living our lives in direct opposition to God and His word.

This is why Christians, and the church are not affecting the communities and the world for Jesus Christ. We need godly wisdom if we want to live successfully in this ungodly world. Therefore, we need to watch what we let into our hearts.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life,” which is what Jesus makes sure we understand saying, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” (Matthew 12:34-5)

And seeing what Jeremiah says about the heart, that it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), we need to be careful not to let in any more of the bad stuff.

How can we do this, by putting in more of the good stuff, that is, we need to stop giving into the philosophy of this world, and instead we need to take a Biblical worldview, that is, we need to form our opinions and base our lives upon what the Bible says, and stay true to the biblical doctrines of holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, and the like.

Literally, we have to start telling our minds how to think; instead of letting the world and social media run wild through our brains. We need to stop allowing the world to conform us to its way of thinking, and instead allow the Holy Spirit to transform us through renewing our minds through the intake of God’s word. 

The Bible tells us to take off our former corrupt conduct and deceitful lusts and put on the new man we’ve become in Jesus Christ in true righteousness and holiness, and it says we do this by being renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:22-24).

We need to allow the Holy Spirit who resides within us to let us know how to think. However, if we’re not putting in the good stuff, that is, what the Bible has to say, the Holy Spirit has nothing to work with, and we’ll start moving toward our automatic default setting, which is sin.

We can only begin to live biblically by thinking biblically, and we do that by opening up God’s word on a daily basis and take in the wisdom of God on how to live a holy life in an unholy land.

And so, we need to start living our lives by what the Bible says. And we need to be careful not to just read it, but study it and put it into practice, as the Apostle James so wisely said.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22 NKJV)

We also need to be careful of not being so doctrinally correct that we become devotionally wrong.

What this looks like is when we allow the church teachings and doctrines to stop us from living out what the Bible says. Are we allowing doctrinal differences from stopping us gathering together and making a difference in the lives of others.

There would be those who came to debate me on a particular doctrinal stance and what I realized is that what we were debating has divided the church for hundreds of years with no end in sight, but continued division. And I knew this walking in, but I wanted them to realize that there were two sides and that there were Scriptures that spoke directly against their position, and my desire was that they would find a balance to their approach and to their teachings. But that never happened, they just wanted to make sure I knew that they were right.