DAILY VIDEO DEVOTIONAL
1 Peter : Chapter 2
1) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2) Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3) now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. The Living Stone and a Chosen People 4) As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5) you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6) For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”[b] 7) Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”[c] 8) and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”[d] They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Book of the Month
Sammy Tippit told his fiancée, “I can’t promise we’ll be rich, but life won’t be boring.”
Sammy had no idea what an understatement that would become. Beginning in the bars of Baton Rouge and the nightclubs of Chicago, Tippit has shared the news of life-changing faith in Christ all over the world – including in the middle of a revolution in Romania, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, and war in Burundi and the Congo.
Sammy’s lifelong adventure has come at a great price. He’s been cursed, threatened, arrested, deported, and blacklisted. He’s also been personally broken, ravaged with illness, and devastated by grief.
Yet he continues to preach to in stadiums, in open fields, and via satellite technology to hundreds of thousands around the globe. For all other books…
The Evangelist Makes Disciples: The Discipline of Discipleship
I want to welcome you to day 7 of week 2 of our study on revival and evangelism. Now, last week in this particular session, we talked about discipleship and the wineskin and how there must be a wineskin for revival and we talked about discipleship – being – that – wineskin.
The last thing that Jesus told His disciples – and by the way, anytime it’s the last thing that someone tells someone something, you know it’s vitally important. Everything Jesus said was important but you know this is really important. He told His disciples to go and make disciples of the nations of the world.
Now, this word disciple comes in the English language from the same root word: discipline. So, a disciple is one who must learn discipline.
Now, let me be very clear here. Christianity is all of grace. One difference in being a Christian and being any other religion is that we are a people of grace. And that means, it’s not any of our works – it’s not rules and regulations – it’s not doing this and not doing that that makes us Christians or helps us to grow. It’s all by His grace .. we come to Christ by grace .. we grow in grace
Now, that is not an excuse for a lack of discipline. A Christian is not to be an undisciplined person. We’re saved by grace but because of that grace, we have disciplines in our lives.
Now let me give you 4 disciplines that will help you to grow in your faith – in your walk with God and 4 disciplines that will help others that you can help to disciple to grow in their walk with God.
First is the discipline of prayer. Now remember, prayer is not just some legalistic ritual that we do as Christians where we go and we have to pray so many times to really have a relationship with God. No .. prayer is simply the communion of two hearts – it’s you sharing your heart with God and God sharing His heart with you.
What I have discovered is that in any relationship there must be good communication. Most relationships break down with communication – poor communication. So the discipline of prayer is not to be ritualistic and legalistic about this, but the discipline of prayer is because you need to communicate .. you need to share your heart with the Father. In order to have a relationship, you need to talk to Him .. it needs to be fresh and new .. you need to share what’s on your heart and you need to do that on a regular consistent basis where you talk to God and pour your heart out to Him.
Now there’s a second thing and that is the word of God. You need to read the word of God because communion and communication is a two-way street. Most people when we think of prayer, it’s us talking to God. But I want to tell you something, the greatest part of prayer is not what you have to say to God, but it’s what God has to say to you.
And how does He speak to you? God has given us His word and He speaks to our heart through His word. How do we know what’s on His heart? How do we know what He’s like? Through His word. It’s not just some figment of our imagination where we work up something but it’s His word.
So, if you’re going to have a relationship with God, then you need to consistently not only talk to Him but let Him talk to you. So you need to have the discipline of being in the word of God.
The third discipline is fellowship with other Christians. Now, this discipline again grows out of relationship. Listen, I love the church and it’s not because .. I don’t go to church because, you know, in order to be a Christian I have to go to church. That’s not what it’s all about.
I go to church because there’s brothers and sisters in Christ – yeah, they’re just like me. I’ve never met a perfect .. been in a perfect church because it’s made of people who are imperfect. But they’re people who’ve found Jesus and they’re trying to grow .. they’re trying to become what God wants them to become – just like I am.
So, because of that relationship, I need that relationship with other Christians. And so having fellowship with other Christians is critically important for us to grow in our faith .. And it’s been other people I’ve mentioned to you … many other people in this series here that have helped me in my walk with God. You need other Christians and the fellowship with them.
The final thing – the fourth discipline is this .. that is the discipline of sharing your faith with others. When you have the heart of God .. when you get to know God .. when you’re walking in relationship with Him, you’re going to want what He wants and what He wants is this world to come to know Him.
He loves this world. So you’ll be sharing your faith – so you need to make it a regular part of your life where you’re sharing with others. Not out of a legalistic sense – but out of the overflow of your life. And that’s why I’m talking about revival evangelism .. As you walk with God – as you grow in His .. the relationship with Him, you need to be sharing with others what Christ has done for you. And it’s out of that that you will see God bless you and you will grow and you need to teach others to do that and you will be making disciples who will make disciples .. who will make disciples and the word will be multiplied.
About Sammy Tippit Ministries
STM has been providing inspiration and help around the world for nearly 50 years. Sammy Tippit, founder and president, is a world renowned counselor, teacher and evangelist with experience serving and helping people in over 80 countries. Sammy provides materials that help people tackle a broad array of social, societal, psychological and spiritual issues. He is particularly passionate about making materials accessible to other countries around the world. Sammy is married to Debara “Tex” Tippit, and they have two children and five grandchildren.
Sammy Tippit Ministries is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization.
Contact: info@sammytippit.org
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