I'll Be Honest

The Bible says that in the beginning that God made us in His image. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? How are we made in God's image when God doesn't have a physical body like we do? Has this image been lost after the fall of man into sin?

I am a sinner saved by grace; a child of the living God; a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; a man striving to live by the Spirit-that is who I am. That is all you really need to know. God saved me when I was 26 years of age, after pastoring two churches. - Michael Durham

What does it mean to abide in Christ? Abiding in Christ is not automatic, it is a command to be obeyed. It is us learning how to maintain fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and we must have active daily and conscious awareness and interaction with Christ.

As Christians, we have a book from another world. We have a book that's likened to a sword, and this sword is directly from the Spirit of God for our spiritual warfare against the Devil. If you would be a conqueror in this battle, you must believe, obey, trust, and use this one piece of offensive armor given to us by God.

Many believers will ask about how to abide in Christ. What branch do you know that struggles about whether it will remain in the vine or not? Neither are we to struggle to abide in Christ. All of our struggle to abide is proof that we are not abiding but rather we are trusting in ourselves. There is no work to hang onto Jesus because Jesus is hanging on to us. We have misinterpreted our responsibility to mean that we must work, struggle, and fret to abide.

John 15:4-5 - Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Listen to Jesus in John 15, He is saying that the branch will get what is given to it and excerpts nothing different; it gets what it needs. Meaning: If I don't have it today I don't need it today. What a liberating reality. This in no way means that we do not ask, we do cry out to God; but we trust that the Lord gives us what we need.

Believer, you might very well be looking at your faith way too much. Turn away from looking there and gaze at Him who can create faith, and then you will trust Him. How do we abide in Christ? John 15 tells us three things, let us consider those in this last sermon from the Men's Retreat.

In the Bible swords are given and used for one reason, to kill. And the sword of the Spirit has been given to us for the exact same reason, to kill our sins. We are in a spiritual war and we need to be familiar with our weapon and know how to use it. How can we actually use God's Word to kill the sins that seek to ensnare us?

When you read the Bible, do you read it as a textbook or as a treasure book? Do you read it to learn information and facts about God, or do you read it in order to know God?

Although Christ and the Church are distinct and not the same, the Bible describes them as inseparable. You can’t have Christ without also having His Church. You can’t be united to Christ without also being united to His Church.