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[0:00] Good morning. Today we're going to read from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 46 to 47.

[0:26] You can start looking for that passage. And today we are going through our third series regarding biblical discipleship.

[0:48] And if you don't have hands out, there's still more in the back.

[1:01] This contains the handouts of the first two teachings and sermons. And then also contain the one from today. So it's like nine pages there.

[1:15] And I encourage especially those that are like 50 people who fill a survey and going to be useful for you. And also for filling the second survey.

[1:30] But everybody, please, I make like 100 copies of this, plenty there. And next Sunday I'll also bring this in Spanish, in our Spanish-speaking service.

[1:42] These three ones are going to be translated plus the one that's going to be preached next Sunday. And then we're going to continue giving both English and Spanish in their respective services.

[1:53] And we have talked about discipleship for the purpose of Christlikeness. We have talked about Christlikeness in our prayer life.

[2:08] And today we're going to deal with Christlikeness in a scriptural intake or Bible intake. And we're going to read from the book of Luke, chapter 2, verses 46 and 47.

[2:25] And the word of God says the following. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

[2:42] And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Let's take some time to pray.

[2:53] Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness, for your mercy, for your love. We know that none of us here are deserving of the things you have done for us and your gift of salvation.

[3:11] That great, great salvation. And as we go through your word today in terms of thinking how we can follow you, how we can be followers of Christ, how we can do things like you, how we can grow in imitating you.

[3:32] I, Lord, ask for your Holy Spirit to be with us, helping us. And that you take out any distractions from our minds, please. That you help us to focus in your word.

[3:45] Lord, and Lord, especially as Lord, there are so many things that can worry us.

[3:55] And we need your Holy Spirit to help us to focus our mind in you today. In the precious name of Jesus, amen. And brothers, we have seen how there are three important things that we need to take into account when we're talking about the subject of discipleship.

[4:22] And, you know, the first word that I told you weeks ago, two weeks ago, that I want that to stay in our mind is Christ-likeness.

[4:34] Right? Christ-likeness. Like Christ. And there's a very intrinsic connection in those into discipleship and Christ-likeness.

[4:49] Because a disciple of Jesus imitates Christ, as we read in 1 Corinthians 11.1. Wants to do the things that Christ did. But also, a disciple of Christ helps others and equip others, assist others in doing the same.

[5:13] And the final lesson of this series will go more in depth about that. But it's not only us following and being like Christ, but also the same thing that we learn and the same thing that we practice in terms of imitating Christ as a body in the church.

[5:37] That's what we do. In our conversations, we, one-on-one conversations with brothers and sisters, we have to be kind of helping us to grow into Christ-likeness.

[5:52] And when we talk about imitating Christ, you know, remember the Great Commission, right? Teach them all the things that I have teach you.

[6:03] And as I thought about this series, there are four things that we as followers of Christ grow into imitating and also equip others to do, right?

[6:18] And number one is spiritual disciplines. The first three thermals are about that, spiritual disciplines. How we grow into the godliness that Christ practices in terms of prayer like we did, we saw last week.

[6:35] Today, his Bible intake, his scriptural intake. Next week, about another spiritual discipline. But that's just number one aspect of growing into Christ-likeness personally and helping others to grow also in the same thing, right?

[6:50] Especially those mature Christians, we have to be looking out for baby Christians, like those that come to Christ.

[7:01] Like, you know, it's our job in discipleship to help them to pray like Christ, to help them to have Bible intake like Christ, to help them to practice the spiritual disciplines like Christ.

[7:11] We do it, and we help others to do the same. And we need to know it first in order to teach them to others. And then, this is just one aspect, spiritual disciplines.

[7:23] Then, obedience to the Christ teachings, to God's teachings. Third, practice of love vertically and horizontally.

[7:33] And fourth, the Great Commission. So, all of these are aspects of things that we grow into being like Christ and that we equip and help others to do the same.

[7:45] Remember the three purpose of our church. Exalt God, equip, and evangelize. So, the equipping part is, right?

[7:59] We're helping others to grow in imitating Christ. We're growing into doing these things ourselves, and then we do the same with others.

[8:09] And as a Christian, right, it's good to have, I mean, this equip team, it's amazing because we can start doing this one-to-one, two people, three people together, and growing and encouraging each other into doing the things of Christ, which is imitating Him.

[8:33] And as I said, today we continue talking about ways in which we imitate Christ in our personal life, and also encourage, help, and equip others for the same in discipleship.

[8:49] And the subject for today, as I said, is Christ-likeness in scriptural intake. Three points that I want you to remember in what we are going to discuss today.

[9:01] Number one, our Lord Jesus Christ was a man of scriptural intake. Number two, reading, studying, meditating, and memorizing God's Word.

[9:14] Memorizing to God's Word. Number three, doers of the Word, not only hearers of the Word. So let's go to point number one. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a man of scriptural intake.

[9:28] And we see here in the Gospel of Luke how Christ, since a young age, was devoted to a scripture.

[9:38] And in this text of today, our Lord Jesus Christ was only 12 years old. 12 years old. 12 years old. Young, right?

[9:49] And we see how in Luke chapter 2, right? Verse 41 and 42, we see how this story developed.

[10:06] Now, now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. So Jesus was brought to Jerusalem, to the temple in Jerusalem, by Joseph and Mary, for the Feast of the Passover.

[10:24] And a feast that all of us know, right? Was in celebration of the Exodus. How God released them from slavery in Egypt.

[10:40] And verses 43 to 45, And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey.

[10:56] But then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. And when the Feast of the Passover ended, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing about it.

[11:15] After a day's journey, which is about 25 miles, it was walking journey, right? 25 miles or walking mostly.

[11:28] And at that time, Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus was not with them.

[11:43] It was a journey that they used to do with relatives, like, you know, cousins, brothers, sisters. And they maybe saw that Jesus was around the other relative, right? And a day passed and he was not there.

[11:56] So they went back to find Jesus. They went back to find Jesus. And they looked for Jesus for three days.

[12:09] So three more days in addition to that one day, right? And after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

[12:23] We're talking about 12-year-old Jesus again. Because in the temple, usually the way it used to be, you have the rabbis and the teachers, and hearers and people were sitting around them, hearing the teachings about the Bible and about Scripture and asking them questions.

[12:47] And Jesus was there among them. Jesus had the context, right, of being in a very pious environment in terms of very, very, very sure that Mary and Joseph were parents that, excuse me, teach Christ the Scripture.

[13:19] And in here, Jesus is depicted as an eager student, learning from taking every advantage, you know, in being in the temple.

[13:32] And Leon Moritz explained the fact that Jesus stayed for days in the temple after the Passover feast, listening to the teachers and asking them questions.

[13:43] And this indicated a very interest, like a thirst for a Scripture in Jesus, a thirst for the knowledge of God.

[13:56] There would have been a good few teachers in Nazareth, but Jesus wanted to take advantage of having the best teachers, maybe, in the temple in Jerusalem. And He did that, did exactly that.

[14:11] And all the teachers in the temple, right, when they heard this 12-year-old Jesus, they were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

[14:22] Because our Lord Jesus Christ, even at this young age, was, had an amazing knowledge of the things of God.

[14:35] Jesus valued the pursuit of comprehending God, and He, as Luke 2.52 says, He grew in wisdom and stature.

[14:48] And stature, yeah. So, brothers and sisters, Christ-likeness. Again, the same word. Are we imitating Jesus in His devotion, passion, and love for Scripture?

[15:05] Since a young age, our Lord Jesus Christ was seeking understanding of Scripture and was devoted to all the Scripture, and He loved and enjoyed talking to others about the Scripture.

[15:19] and certainly, we, as followers of Christ, we have to do the same. We have to love Scripture. And another way we are called to imitate Jesus is by loving His Word and studying it and memorizing it and meditating in it.

[15:44] ourselves and also in our daily conversation with one another, like Christocentric meetings in terms of everything we do.

[15:56] Talk about that to one another and encourage with that to one another in every topic, on every point that we're going to make.

[16:06] And we also have proof, we can say, how our Lord Jesus Christ was devoted to the study of Scripture.

[16:20] And we can appreciate that in many ways in the Gospels, in the way Christ interacted with the people who opposed Him throughout His ministry, right?

[16:37] In the way He interacted, for example, when He was tempted by Satan and in the way He interacted when He was dealing with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes who were opposing His ministry.

[16:51] If Jesus did not study, if Jesus did not memorize Scripture, He had not been able to fight with the truth of Scripture against those who opposes His ministry.

[17:04] And for example, in Matthew 4, 1-11, Christ won over Satan's temptations because of His knowledge of Scripture.

[17:17] He was in the desert 40 days. And I doubt that Christ had, like right now, we have the advantage of having 66 books of the Bible in one book, right?

[17:35] In those times, it was scrolls, scrolls. I don't think our Lord Jesus Christ was in the desert with the back of scrolls of Scripture, right?

[17:54] He actually had to have it in here, in His mind, right? It's so easy for us right now. Even in our cell phones, we have it.

[18:05] It's easier. It's a lot easier. But even with those, with that facility in our times, you know, it's a battle.

[18:18] It's a fight to do it. So our Lord Jesus Christ, for example, when He was tempted by Satan, He, we saw that He, His devotion for Scripture, He, in the way He answered to Satan, He has read these things, He has meditated on these things, but He also has memorized these things.

[18:40] Let's read some verses from Matthew 4, 11, 1 to 11. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[18:51] And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

[19:03] But He answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

[19:15] So brothers and sisters, Christ here was reciting to Satan, to the devil, a Scripture. A Scripture that he had studied, learned, memorized.

[19:30] In here, sorry, Christ was, Christ learned and memorized Deuteronomy 8, 3. Because this is what He told Satan.

[19:43] And in here, in Deuteronomy 8, 3, Yahweh is telling the Israelites to remember about how He fed them in the desert. Right? Telling them, and He, Yahweh, and He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, Deuteronomy, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

[20:21] So you see, brothers and sisters, Christ was reciting to Satan the word of God, scripture. He, he was devoted to scriptures.

[20:36] And these are ways in which we have to imitate Christ to. In our trials, in our temptations, in our spiritual battles, all of us have that.

[20:47] Like, we fight against temptations. We fight against Satan too, right? We fight against our flesh. We fight against the word. The more scripture we memorize, the better we are being able to fight things that comes against our life.

[21:09] It is with scripture that we fight our battles, our spiritual battles. Ephesians says that it is the sword, right?

[21:20] The sword of the spirit, the word of God. But if we don't study it, if we don't know it, if we don't meditate on it, if we don't memorize it, then our chances of fighting effectively against the enemy temptations will be decreased significantly.

[21:36] Again, this text proves how Christ was devoted to the scriptural intake. Let's read a little bit more about those verses in Matthew 4 to understand how Christ knew a scripture.

[21:51] Now, verse 5 of Matthew chapter 4, Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the lawn.

[22:17] Jesus said to him, to the devil, against it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to test. And again, our Lord Christ is citing here a scripture from Psalm now, 99, 11 to 2.

[22:34] If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, let you strike your foot against a stone.

[22:47] So, brothers and sisters, here, Satan is quoting Jesus' scripture.

[22:59] Right? Here, Satan is quoting to Jesus scripture, Psalms 99, 11 to 12. That's what it says. If you are, right, it's like an invitation to do that.

[23:19] But, in here, we see Satan using a text out of context in order to try and trick Jesus. Satan uses a scripture in here, but he uses it out of context.

[23:36] There's a commentary in Wilkins who points out, the original Old Testament context does not imply that God will send protecting care for every harmful situation.

[23:47] Jesus sees through the devil's scripture twisting to the sinister motivation behind it. So, the devil wanted to convince Jesus into deliberately jumping off when the psalmist's intention was talking about his unintentional stumbling.

[24:07] Excuse me. We see the difference here? It's not the devil was twisting it about intentional doing something when the Lord is talking about unintentional stumbling in the original text.

[24:24] So, we dare not deliberately put our life in danger as some kind of fleece, right? So, Jesus, who studied and interpreted the scripture correctly, he refuted the devil's wrongly interpretation of the scripture, and our Lord Jesus Christ cited again from memory, now Christ here cited scripture in right context, Deuteronomy 6.16, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

[24:59] So, it's not only studying and memorizing and knowing scripture, but not misapplying it.

[25:14] And, this is especially important in the times that we're living when there are so many churches and movements that misinterpret scripture, take text out of context and make things scriptural that are really not scriptural.

[25:42] So, brothers, the point I'm making here is that Christ was devoted to a scripture. He was. Let's just finish here.

[25:53] Verse 8, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kindles of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all this I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

[26:08] Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and only shall you serve. Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

[26:25] So, once again, for Jesus to be able to fight, to refute those spiritual battles against the devil, against Pharisees, against scribes, against Sadducees, he had to know scripture well.

[26:44] And here, since Jesus was 12 years old, we see how that, you know, what happened in his adult life, right, was a reflection of his devotion to scripture his whole life, since being a child.

[27:02] He had a hunger for God's word and he was disciplined in a scripture intake. Consequently, he acquired exemplary knowledge of it, which is clearly evidenced by the way he reputed all those who opposed him, Satan, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and so forth.

[27:23] And the way he did it is also the way we should do it. Christ's likeness in scriptural intake, Christ's likeness in we doing it, Christ's likeness in helping others also grow in their love for scripture.

[27:45] And because of, why? Because we will need it in our daily battles, battles, we will need the word.

[27:58] Ephesians 6, 17, right? The word of God is the sword of the spirit. And we need it to fight evil. And also, as 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 says, the word of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

[28:20] With that, we go to point number two, reading, studying, meditating, and memorizing God's word. And how often do we read our Bible?

[28:33] It's something that we do every day. Do you or me, I mean, this is a question for all of us.

[28:43] I'm not perfect, I mean, I'm growing so much during this time of studying all this and it's just reflection.

[29:00] Are we doing this? Are we, do we love God's word? Is there any other book that we like to read more than God's word?

[29:12] it is easier for us to spend hours reading something else and it is tough to read even a chapter of God's word sometimes.

[29:27] moreover, it is when we get together with our brothers and sisters, when we talk to each other, do we talk about the word of God to one another?

[29:43] Do we have somebody that we are teaching the word of God? Right? We are, I don't know how long you are in the, you are a Christian, how long have you been a Christian, but are you discipling somebody into teaching them the word of God?

[30:01] And are you being an example for them? This is what he said about, growing into being like Christ. We are like Christ and we also help others to be like Christ.

[30:14] There is an aspect of discipleship that we do it, it's personal, we do it alone. Christ likeness, growing to him. But there is an aspect of discipleship that we cannot do it alone.

[30:28] We do it with others, right? We practice that with others, we help others, we encourage one another. Do we take time to think and meditate on the scripture on a regular basis?

[30:44] Do you enjoy that? Another question, when was the last time that we memorized the verse of the Bible? When was that? I am guilty of that, right?

[30:54] When I was young, I came to Christ when I was 12 years old. One of the things that I remember I used to do was memorize a whole song. Still, I remember a lot of them. But as we grow older, we stop doing that, we stop memorizing scripture.

[31:09] We stop feeding ourselves and having that available in our brains. One thing that is for sure, what you learn as a child, stay your whole life.

[31:25] So, those apostles who have children, let's make a task to help them memorize as much as possible regarding scripture because those things stay forever.

[31:43] There is somebody called Donald Whitney. He's an author professor of biblical spirituality and professor of biblical spirituality in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

[31:57] He cites a survey done by Vanna Research Group. Whitney cites a survey done by Vanna Research Group among people who profess to be born again Christians, basically Protestant Christians that attend Protestant churches in the United States.

[32:20] And what he found in that survey, in that research, was very sad and disheartening. This is what he found. Only 18% less than two of every, sorry, only 18% of the people that were researched read the Bible every day.

[32:43] We're talking about professed Christian people that attend Protestant churches and come to Sunday Church. And only 18% is pretty low, right?

[32:57] Read the Bible every day. Worst of all, Whitney cites in this research, 23%, almost one in four professing Christians, say they never read the Word of God.

[33:13] I mean, personally, taking time for that. And he said, this is, sorry, this is not the only one. I mean, there are other, because when I saw that, I said, are there other research like that?

[33:26] And then I found another place called LifeWave Research, who also did do research in Christians about this. and what they say was, in this other research, in LifeWave Research, that LifeWave Research, in which they asked the question to profess Christians who attend Protestant churches regularly, on how often they read their Bible, and the answer was that 32%, 32%, here is a little bit better, from 18 to 32, but still it's low, 32% say they read the Bible personally, personally, every day, every day.

[34:05] 27% say they read it a few times a week, fewer than, fewer say they only read it once a week, 12%, 11% said they read it once a month, close to one in eight, like 12%, they say that they rarely or never take time to read the Bible.

[34:33] So, it is a problem in general in our Protestant churches, right? And maybe it's because we are not having those conversations.

[34:46] Are we growing into Christ-likeness? Are we imitating Christ in the simplest of things, like his devotion for personally, studying the Word of God, and also applying that with other brothers and sisters in the church?

[35:04] If we are going to take Christ in a scripture intake, then we need to make every effort to read and meditate on the Word of God every day, because this is vital, right?

[35:16] 1 Peter 2.2, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. And there are so many texts in the Bible that just encourage the same thing, that tells us how a follower of Christ has to imitate Christ in his scriptural intake.

[35:39] Psalms 19, 97, oh how I love your love, it is my meditation, all day, wow, all day, it's not like something that we just do it, like it has to come to our mind from time to time, during the day, and everything we're doing.

[36:00] We should be focused on this. Acts 17, 11, we know how the variant, right, they were, they examined a scripture every day, too.

[36:10] You see how those two texts talk about everyday things, it's not like once a month or once a week.

[36:21] A scripture tells us to do these things every day, it's because these are our food, spiritual food, this is our spiritual food.

[36:36] There are others, Esther 7, 10, Psalms 19, I'm just going to read those two for the sake of time, but in the handouts that I gave you, there are more texts we can read.

[36:50] And this is just a few examples of verses that encourage us to meditate in God's word everyday, to examine and study in scripture everyday, to delight in scripture and to not forget memorizing his word.

[37:05] Psalm 119, you know, verse 16, encourage us to not forget your word, so this is an indirect encouragement to memorize it.

[37:24] If we go to our church fathers, they also encourage us to do the same. St. Augustine dedicated a great amount of his writing to encouraging the Christians of the 4th and 5th century to read, meditate, memorize, and live according to the scripture.

[37:39] Theonas of Alexandria wrote the following, let not they, let not they pass by without reading some portion of the sacred scripture at such convenient hour as offers, and giving so much space to meditation, and never cast off the habit of reading in the holy scripture, for nothing fits the soul and enriches the mind so well as those sacred studies do.

[38:13] Reformers, too. Luther, Martin Luther directly linked sanctification to scripture intake, pointing out that the desire of the flesh are overcome only by the earnest meditation of the word of God and invocation of Christ.

[38:34] Puritans, too, like Thomas Watson, in his book, The Godly Man's Picture, highlight how a genuine disciple of Jesus is somebody who loves his word, who loves scripture, and furthermore, who chose his love for the word by diligently reading it.

[38:51] This is Thomas Watson, diligently reading it, meditating on it, delighting in it, defending it, preferring it above things most precious, talking about it, and most importantly, by being conformed, and molded to it.

[39:12] So, this is something that we are called to be doing, all of us.

[39:22] as we discussed in the first teaching and sermon, 1 Peter says, let's make every effort, right?

[39:39] We know we don't do the things to earn salvation, we know we cannot be more pleasing to God, do the love.

[39:52] We are united with Christ. But as we discussed in our first lesson, these are like those who are united with Christ, who start loving what Christ loves, and start loving more and more his word.

[40:06] The last point of today, doers of the word, not only readers and hearers. doers of the word, not only readers or hearers.

[40:18] We read, we hear, we study, meditate, and memorize the word of God in order to be applied in our life, in order to live according to what we learn in need.

[40:31] Look what James 1, 21, 22 says, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.

[40:56] So, brothers, if, like, we need to be intentional and we need to be making every effort to practice what we learn and hear.

[41:09] Intentional acts from our part are required to be doers doers and not only readers and hearers of the word. Our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 11, 28 says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

[41:29] Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. so we read and we study, we meditate, we memorize God's word in order to grow into imitating Christ and also practicing it.

[41:52] It is pretty sad when we know God's word but we don't do what it says. Like happens to all of us, right, at times. But we need to be fighting our nature into practicing what we read.

[42:12] Because Satan knows the word. Satan knows the word and demons, many demons know the word. and some liberal universities professors that proclaim to be atheist theologians, they read and know the word maybe more than you and me, maybe more than any of us.

[42:46] But if they do not apply, if there is no fruit of the spirit because of the word, then there's no benefit.

[43:03] You meditate and memorize God's word but in addition to that, me who meditate and memorize God's words, we do, we ask help to the Holy Spirit in order to help us to be doers of the word.

[43:21] this is exactly what Jesus taught his disciples in the part of the sewers in Luke 8, right? We know how he explained that many hear the word and receive it with joy but only a few bear fruits, only a few are doers.

[43:43] verse 11 of Luke 8.

[43:55] Now the parable is this, the city is the word of God, the ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

[44:08] And the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but this have no root, they believe it for a while and in time of testing fall away.

[44:22] And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

[44:39] As for that in good soil, they are those who hear in the word, hold it fast in a wholeness and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

[44:50] patience. And bear fruit with patience. So, we as Christ, we grow into Christ likeness, we grow into devotion to the word of God, but at the same time, we pray for God to help us to be doers of what we read.

[45:11] That is growing to Christ likeness, right? That is being a disciple, that is following us to Christ's example. And, not only that, but we also talk about that with one another in equipped teams, in our personal conversations, in our daily life.

[45:30] So, conclusion and final words of application, we have seen that our Lord Jesus Christ was a man devoted to reading, studying, meditating, and memorizing scripture since a young age.

[45:45] And, I want to encourage all of you to imitate Christ in the way he devoted himself to scripture. Let's be more like Christ in his love and devotion for God's word.

[45:56] I hope that none of us here are in those 18% in one research that Donald Whitney studied, or 32% that the LifeWave Research Group studied, 32% that did not read their Bible every day.

[46:12] I hope that we are in those few percentages, right, that do it daily, and that we do it with love, that we enjoy, that we delight in that. If for some reason we are not enjoying it, let me tell you, we ask to, this is the thing that Christ, that God wants us to pray about.

[46:36] Love for his word, love for, growing into these things. As I said, and that was something said in the first sermon, it's not easy, like, we have the whole word against us to grow into being like Christ in the way he's practiced spiritual disciplines.

[46:57] We have a lot of things against us, but we have also the Spirit of God in our hearts, in our life, who strengthen us, who give us the strength to do it.

[47:13] And at the same time, as the Bible says, we have a responsibility to make every effort, like 2 Peter says, make every effort diligently. That's our part.

[47:25] That's our part. Do we need to grow in our prayer life? We need to make every effort to grow. We have God, we have the Holy Spirit already in us.

[47:37] Are we struggling to be lovers of the Word of God or readers of the Word of God or people who meditate on that or people who memorize it? Let's ask God to give us of that love.

[47:50] At the same time, let's not be people who only knows the Word. Let's also be people who practices it, who obeys it, and who lives according to what is stated in the Word. Let's be doers and not only hearers.

[48:03] We do this not relying on our strength but in Christ alone. 2 Peter 2 3, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

[48:24] He has already done. God has already granted us the power, the divine power to obtain and to grow into these things.

[48:41] So, brothers and sisters, it is through the power that God has granted us by His Holy Spirit that we are able to grow in Christ likeness, including prayer and biblical intake, in order to be disciples who love His Word and practice what it is.

[48:57] I also want to encourage you to memorize God's Word. When was the last time you did it? And I also guilty of that, brothers, when, you know, as I said, I used to do it more often, not anymore, but that's something I'm trying to do more, like memorizing God's Word.

[49:17] There's so much richness in that. Let's occupy our brain with things that matter. the heavens and the earth will pass, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

[49:31] I think that's what matters. Let's occupy our brain. Instead of seeing things that are like putting garbage in our brains, you know, things of the Word, let's put the things that are really important.

[49:47] let's see less TV, right? Let's be less in social media, less, let's do less those things and let's put our brain more into the things that matter.

[50:07] Let's memorize God's Word more. Let's memorize that God can use that Word in the right time in your specific battles against the Word and the flesh and the devil.

[50:26] And finally, disciples also talk about God's Word constantly to one another in our conversations as brothers and sisters.

[50:37] We need to be people that the Word of God needs to be filled in the things we talk about. This is the way we equip and help one another toward our Christ likeness and toward our holiness journey.

[50:53] You know, Ephesians 4 15 says the following, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.

[51:05] So we speak the Word to one another, right? Let's do that not only on Sundays when we are here or in Sunday schools in the teachings, in our equipped teams, but let's get together with one another.

[51:23] This is discipleship, right? Growing together into Christ's likeness. Let's help each other to be imitators of Christ, both in His prayer and also in His Bible intake.

[51:39] Amen? Amen? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for these reflections that we are doing in terms of how we are to be people that grow and to be imitators of You.

[52:03] We have been dealing with spiritual disciplines that we imitate Christ and that we help one another to also imitate Christ in the way He prayed, in the way He loved Scripture and also coming other ways in the coming ways in which we imitate Christ in His obedience, in His evangelism, in His reaching the laws.

[52:27] Lord, let us be truly disciples who make every effort diligently to follow our Master's steps disciples who make other disciples in terms of we grow in these things, but we also help others to grow in these things in our one-on-one conversations, especially those that come to Christ that are baby in their Christian life, those who are more mature Christians that have been Christians for decades, that you put God's desire that those mature helps those that are new, and help us to be a church in which all of us grow into being like Christ.

[53:14]  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.