Growing our Faith

In this episode of the Bible Gal podcast, we talk about confronting our faith, and being convicted to no longer be lukewarm, but to be on fire for Jesus. Bringing people to Jesus, doing life with them, and leading by example. 

In this episode we cover: 

1. Matthew 12:30
2. 2 Timothy 1:7
3. Hebrews 10:24-25
4. Matthew 28:19-20

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Bumblebee Come House, and I'm the Gumma Emperor. I'm just supporting certainly one woman, empowering women to step into their on the fire for the Lord mentality. I'm encouraging us to live in our faith, to grow, and to believe in the calling that God happens for us. My vision is to help women break the chains of their past and their struggles and fears to create new chapters that only our father can write for us. I'm on a mission and passion to empower you and all the women out there. This is going to be your new favorite podcast for daily devotionals and Bible study chats.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today we will be talking about growing our faith. Um, and before we get started, I just would like to pray um so that we can all be ready to receive the word. Dear Father, um, I just ask that you open our hearts, Father, open our minds, fill us up with your Holy Spirit, fill us up with your daily bread today. Um, and I just pray um that you will speak through me, Father, that you will help me deliver this message, that these people will hear the message the way that it is meant to be heard. Amen. All right, so today um is kind of a message where we should be really looking at our hearts and doing uh, you know, a faith check and seeing, you know, how are we doing in our faith? Um, you know, and so I'm just gonna come right out there and ask the question. Uh nobody likes to hear this question, but it's a question that we all need to make sure that we're constantly asking ourselves, and it's are we being a lukewarm Christian? Um, so the definition of lukewarm is water that is tempted, which is neither hot nor cold, right? So there's little enthusiasm there. Um and in the Bible, in Revelation chapter 3, 15 and 16, the Bible states that if you're being a lukewarm Christian, he's gonna spit you out of his mouth. He is disgusted with people who don't have enthusiasm for him, for people who see him just as an added peace in their life instead of the priority in their life. Um, and is that something that you want? Is that something you want to be caught doing? Do you want God to be disgusted with your lack of efforts? God is calling us to be on fire for him. God is calling us to be bold in our faith, to tell people about Jesus, to be the light, to be the love, not just continue to, you know, get to know Jesus more. Yes, that's important. Um, and yes, it's important to go to church, and yes, it's important to do those things, but we need to be doing more than just showing up to church on Sunday and going back about our life. We need to be doing more than just soaking up the word, but not actually going out and doing anything else about it. You know, it's time for us to stop being comfortable. That's one of the worst things that we do as Christians is we get too comfortable. You know, in Matthew uh chapter 12, verse 30 says, Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters. He bl he puts it very blatantly blunt, you know, and I think he says it very black and white, you know, and again in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, he says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, of timidity, um, of but he has given us a powered love, self-discipline, right? He doesn't want us to be afraid, he doesn't want us to be scared or timid or silent, but he wants us to be bold, to be on fire for him, loving him by loving other people, to live in his power, to have self-control. We need to be more intentional to be the Jesus in our lives, to be the light in people's lives. Are you okay with your friends and your family going to hell? Truthfully, look at the people around you in your life. I know that there are people in your brain right now that are popping up like Christmas lights that you know that are not saved, that you wish one day would be saved. Let me say something. Who's gonna do it? You are the one. You are put in their life for a reason. Not by accident, but by purpose. Plant those seeds. Continue to pour into them, pray for their salvation, pray for their softened heart. It's okay if they, you know, their life looks like it's far away from Jesus because of you, they can be brought to salvation. You pray for them day in, day out. You can check up on them, you build a relationship with them, you continue to plant seeds in their hearts. I'm gonna say there's somebody in my life, in my family, who is very far from Jesus. They believe in um other things, they believe in the universe, and they don't know if God's real, they question it. And I have been praying for this person in my family for a while. Um, I have a prayer of three, which is the top three people that I um focus on bringing to Jesus and the top three people that I pray for. And so this person is on that list, and um I have been praying for them for a while. They were um they have come out and they have started to kind of reinvent themselves. Um, they used to have a different life, um, and they are trying to get clean and to start something new, and now is the perfect opportunity for them to come to Jesus. And so as I have continued to pray for them, I start to build this relationship with this family member because at first I didn't really have one. It's an extended family member, and it's somebody that I didn't really have a good relationship with, not that it was a bad one, but I just didn't really have one. Um, and so I I knew that it was time to start building a relationship with them, a genuine one, you know, and so I started building this relationship, and I was really surprised by you know how nice this person is and how pleasant this person is to be around. And so, as the more I continued to grow this relationship, um, I continued to pray for this person, I invited them to my Bible study. I never thought they would come, and they came. That's crazy. Now, they haven't come since, and that's okay because I planted the seed and I know that God will work on his timing, and I just continue to plant the seeds where I can. I continue to pray for them, but I know that they came to Bible study that day, and that stirred something up in their heart, and that made them think. And that's all I can do, right? And I know that God will do the rest, but it weighs on me so hard, I never want them to go to hell. It makes me s sick to think that I could have been the reason that they didn't make it. So I want to make sure that I make that all the effort that I possibly can to make sure that I'm doing my part. I'm constantly asking myself, am I being a lukewarm Christian right now? Who else is in my family that I you know or in my life that I'm surrounded with that I can make sure that I'm trying to bring to Jesus, right? Are you okay with the people around you missing out on the goodness of God? Are you okay with them not knowing who God is and not having a relationship with him? It's time we start making disciples. Not just, you know, pre bringing people to Jesus, yes, that that definitely is what we're doing, but that we are thinking in our heads with a bigger game plan than that. We are making disciples. We want to reach people to Jesus and we want to do life with them and we want to build them up so that they will go out and speak Jesus into other people's lives. And it's time for us to stop making excuses on why we don't spread the word. You know, I'm tired of hearing I'm not gifted like that, or I don't know what to say, or I'm too scared of rejection. You know, it's too much work. Because let me say something. You should never feel lazy to do God's work. They said something the other Sunday when I was in church, they said something like that, and I was hit. I was like, damn, because if I'm honest, there have been a handful of times that I feel lazy to do God's work. I'm like, I'm just not today. Maybe tomorrow. Not today, you know, maybe maybe mom day or maybe next week, right? And you push it off. But the longer that we wait, the more it will cost. This silence costs more. And when I heard that in church, I just sat there, like somebody threw a brick in my head. I was like, damn, I had to recalibrate. That that's tough. You know, God doesn't choose the perfect ones, he doesn't choose the ones with the degrees, he doesn't choose the you know, the fancy ones with all the you know, all the teachings and and and the bachelor's degree, and and you know, he doesn't choose all the all of that kind of stuff. He chooses somebody real. He breaks them, he makes them brand new, and then he says, I've chosen you to do my work. I'll be honest, that's what he's done with me. I got no accreditations, I have no degrees, I have no experience in being a pastor. Nothing. I was broken, just like everybody else. I had been through way too much trauma. But there was a day that I was like, I need Jesus in my life, and not the way I had it as a kid. You know, I really needed Jesus to change my life. I needed a relationship with him. And when that happened, my whole life changed. Yes, I feel like an imposter, still to this day, sometimes of like, why did he choose me? Who am I? I'm just an ordinary person. I'm just sitting on my guest bed right now, making this podcast episode as my newborn sleeps in the living room because we just got back from a walk. Who am I? But an ordinary person. But God said, no, I choose you. Because I know that you can do my will through me. And I know that I can do his will through him. You know, there's always somebody watching you. Sounds creepy, right? I'm not gonna sing the song, but you can sing it in your head. Co-workers, your children, your spouse, your family members, your friends, your neighbors. How are you acting? Are you having lukewarm faith? Expecting that they just see the light in you. How? What are you doing? Look at your life. Evaluate your faith. Right? We had to stop getting offended and attempt to protect ourselves the second somebody is assault in our life. I know it hurts. Let me tell you, God's convicted me. Phew, he's offended me at plenty of times. But he ain't never wrong. And most of the time, no, let me not lie. All the time. If my feelings was hurt, I deserved it. We need to confront our sins and be convicted to change and be like, oof, God, you right. That's not that's ugly. We don't want to show that beside people. We we we don't want to have that side anymore. I'm gonna change that. Right? Because we don't want to be caught being lukewarm. We want to have beautiful faith that grows fruit that's on fire, that other people just naturally see. That you just have this aroma that people smell, that they're like, hmm, they they're just they smell like such a good person. They're such a godly person. I want some of that. Look at what God's done in their life, and it's literally all by you being a walking testimony of faith, by you being on fire for the Lord. It will just come, it will just blaze a path, people will see it. Because being a leader isn't about giving a sermon, being a leader isn't about leading a Bible study, being a leader isn't about just preaching messages. You can be a leader because it's all about how you are acting, it is about your influence on others. What do you smell like? Hopefully, you have deodorant all, but that's not what I mean. Your godly aroma. You smell like flowers. What'd your godly aroma smell like? What's your godly character look like? Uh, you know, think about all the ways that you could be shedding, shining a light. Are you shining your faith so bright that you radiate with love to others, that you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you, that when you tell people about Jesus, you have that power of the Holy Spirit that lives in you, that brings people to Jesus naturally? Are you inviting people to church? Do you invite people to a Bible study? You attend, are you listening to them? Are you praying for them? Are you offering your home, opening up the doors, just cooking dinner for them? Do you have game night? Are you, you know, do you have a shoulder to offer to let them cry on, regardless of how crazy their story is? It might be a situation where they keep going back to their ex and back to their ex and back to their ex and back to their ex, and you're like, dude, I don't know how to help you. But you know how you can help them in a godly way? You just you you you open up your door. You say, Come here, I'm here for you. And you listen to their cries over and over and over again. You be there for them. You say, I'm here for you, I love you, I will pray for you. That's how you have faith on fire to be like Jesus. Are you leading by example? So that when you encourage others to do what you're doing, they say, I want to be like Amber. I want to be like her. I'll say there's somebody in my life. I'm so encouraged by her. She I say all the time, I want to be like her. She just has a heart of gold. She's just so much for other people. I have another friend down the road. She got so much going on in her life. She has three kids. She works. She's taking care of her kids. She has a baby. She does it all. You think that she sits there and says, I don't have time to bring people to Jesus. I don't have time to be the light in their life. I don't know what to say to them. I don't know how to talk to them. No, she doesn't make those excuses. And to be honest, in the worldly view, she kinda has every right. Not in the godly view, but in the worldly view, it makes all the sense if she would sit there and say, you know, I just I just don't have the time. But she does. But she does. She asks people all the time how they're feeling. She offers teenagers when they get off the bus a ride home when it's raining out or cold out. She picks her little ones up from school. And then when they when the bus gets off, she offers to take those kids to their house so they don't have to walk all the way home. She still makes time to be the light, and I I look at her and I say, you know, I want that faith. I want to be like that. I need to grow my faith to be like that. Because leading means pouring into people. Leading means gathering with people. Let me say something. I am an introvert through and through. But when it comes to doing something for God's will, I'm an extrovert. I'll do whatever God wants me to do. He wants me to go to that co-worker's house and sit there and listen to them cry and help them clean their home. Absolutely I'll be there. When he needs me to pour into that family member's heart and plant those seeds, absolutely I'll be there. Because it's a chance to bring people to Jesus. In Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25 says, Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing. How do you pour into somebody? You gotta text them. Check in on them. Not once a month, all the time, a couple times a week. Ask them how they're doing. And when they say, Oh, you know, I'm doing good, don't just be like, oh, okay, and heart the message and I'll text back. No, really try to get to know what's going on in their life. Ask questions. Say, hey, how can I pray with you? Hey, you said everything's going good. How you know that's awesome. What's going good in your life? I would love to pray for you. How can I pray for you? We should be looking for ways of being more like Jesus. Meet them where they are. That's what Jesus did. Go to their house, hang out with them, build equality relationships, get your hands dirty, as my pastor tells me all the time. Organize their cabinets with them if that's what they need. Sit and be a mother together with them if that's what they need. Offer to go on lunch dates if that's what they need. Take walks with them if that's what they need. Pour into them as a person by loving them, by being there for them. And look, two things will happen by doing that. For one, your faith will grow. And you will start to become more and more excited to serve God. You will grow this energy that just got you buzzing that only God can give you. He will help you love them more. He will help you learn to enjoy doing his will. He will help you learn to enjoy being extroverted. Let me tell you what, that is something God has really moved in my life lately. When it comes to like worldly things, I am still 100% an introvert and I would just rather stay home. But when it comes to doing God's will, God has changed me. I I'll gladly do and go be and go talk when it comes to doing his will. He's gotten me excited for that. And it's and he's grown my faith in that. But only because I was willing to obey and to get off my butt and to say, oof, I was convicted by being a lukewarm Christian. Let me not. And the second thing is that person will feel your light, they will see your light. They will see the care that you give off to them over time, the genuine relationship that you build. And God will give you opportunities to plant seeds and to talk about Jesus. And it's totally normal. Let me say this side note to be nervous about that. I'm still nervous about that. You pray. Here's my biggest tip. Two of them. Number one, before you get to that person's house or meet up with that person or a group of people, pray. Ask him. Say, hey God, I need I need help. I need help to know what to say. I need help with the opportunities to know how to have these conversations when they come up. And the second one is just talk about yourself and how God's changed your life. Talk about your testimony and how God was a light in your life and how God can be a light in theirs. It's the most powerful way to bring people to Jesus. God instructs us in a very black and white way. He doesn't make it hard to understand. He doesn't say it's optional or only do it when you're having good days or when you're feeling discouraged.

unknown 21:51

No.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

He says in Matthew 28 19 and 20 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am always with you to the end of the age. He tells us, Go. Go out there. He tells us make disciples of all nations. That means go out there and speak to everybody, regardless of where they live, where how their family members look like, what you know, what nationality they are, any of that. Go make disciples. He says, to teach them everything I taught you. That means you don't just say, hey, there's a Jesus out there. Go love him. No. You do life with them. You bring them to Jesus. And then you continue to pour into them. You teach them how to pray. You teach them how to, you know, spend time in the Word. You teach them how to read their Bible. You encourage them to go to church. You go to church with them. You know, you be their company. You you teach them everything God has taught you. And then lastly, he says, I'm always with you. So know that you're never doing this alone. He's always with you to do this. There is not a time that you try to reach somebody to Jesus that you are doing it by yourself. God is with you all the time. His spirit lives in you, but you have to remember that. Right? You have to know that God's always with you. So as I wrap this up, I'm gonna tie back into what he says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7. Don't be afraid of spreading the word or making disciples or bringing people to Jesus. Why? You ask because of what he just says in Matthew 28, 20. That he's always with you. That you can do all things in Christ who strengthens you, right? So I'm gonna have a time in prayer. And um, I encourage you guys to have a time in prayer, to have a time of repentance, put some music on, you know, just just be silent, you and him. Dear Father, I just thank you so much for this message. I thank you so much for speaking through me and giving me the words, Father. It is only because of you that I am able to give these messages because Lord knows we have I would have no idea what to say half the time if it wasn't for you. So I thank you for that. And I just pray over everybody listening, Father, that they had a takeaway from today and that they go out in the world and that they no longer are lukewarm, but they choose to have on fire for the Lord faith, that they choose to blaze a path and to reach people to Jesus and to have a light shining so bright that others can see, Father. Amen. All right, guys. I thank you so much for listening, and um, I will see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to hear more, there are new episodes that drop every Monday and Thursday. If you liked what you heard, please help your gamble out by leaving a review. You can also give using the link below. I love to pray for you. If you have any prayer requests, please send me an email to your bumblegammel at gmail.com, which is also in the links below along with all my other social media so you know where to find me. And remember, sisters, you have only in faith this week. God is with you every step of the way.