Living The Good Life - Pastor Jesse Soto

Is it 14 or is it?

I think we're going to start in the 11.

Oh, creo que vamos a empezar in el 11.

We added a couple of scriptures, but this is the main passage this month.

Yeah, but we're starting in the middle of a sentence almost.

It says of whom we have many things to say and hard to be said, seeing you are doll of hearing.

He says you're still drinking milk.

When you should be eating solid food.

And so some of you are still drinking milk.

And if you are still drinking milk, you're advancing, that's good.

You gotta start somewhere.

But you can add a little coffee to that milk and it'll be a little tastier for you.

One day he said, Can you make me a cup of coffee?

He said, Can you make me a cup of coffee?

And you're gonna have a lot of helpers here.

And I said, You're growing up, son.

Without coffee, it's impossible to please God.

So that's our anchor, so to speak, anchor text.

And then verse 14.

But strong meat belongs to those that are of full age, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

To discern what is good, what is excellent.

The word good and evil buena y mal is much more than just doing what's right and the opposite which is sin.

Develop your spiritual senses so you can know the difference between a life that is a life of excellence.

Until we do what Paul said here.

We exercise, we develop our good spiritual senses.

But the way we access these good things in life that He has prepared.

Not only is He our God, not only is He our Savior and our Lord and our Friend, but He's also our Heavenly Father.

And as a Father, He wants good things for His children.

Amen.

Right?

He wants good things for His children.

Sorry.

That's what we call the good life.

Living the good life.

As parents, we we want the best for our children.

If you're uh not a parent, your parents want the best for you, and that's the way God is with us as children.

And when the and when our kids begin to do the right thing and live a good life, that means they're growing, they're growing up.

Growth is evidence of a healthy life.

And so God doesn't want his children to remain babies.

A little bit of a shot of coffee in there.

So we want to grow up spiritually, that's what God wants for us.

Now sometimes we think we think this way, just because we think religiously.

We don't want we just want them to grow up.

And as they grow, they're pleasing us.

But don't put the horse before the cart.

The cart before the horse.

I knew what you meant.

As you grow, you'll just it'll be normal to please them.

And as we grow, we begin to live the good life.

We begin to have a full life, I think.

You see, growth is what pleases him.

No, if we just grow, we'll please them.

And so you have to develop your spiritual life.

And there's some things that we're going to show you today.

But one of the things I want you to really get in your heart today is that God has prepared great things for you.

That's why He wants you to grow, that's why He wants you to grow up.

So you can enjoy it.

This is how he judges his own, his people.

Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Notice that he prepared things for us since the foundation of the world.

Before he brought Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden, everything was prepared for them already.

And over in 1 Corinthians 2 9.

Verse 9.

But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

See, God has prepared things for those who love him.

That's us, that's his children.

It's as we discern between good and evil.

That's how we begin to grow.

We do some things.

And say, oh, we shouldn't have done that one.

And so we grow.

I think Peter said it like this.

We grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 2 Peter 3.18, I think it is.

I want to look at the word knowledge in that verse.

It says, Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peter got a little excited about that.

He said, Glory to God.

Get a little excited when God reveals something.

Sometimes you think that we get the revelation at home.

Sometimes we get it right here while we're preaching.

There was nobody in front of him.

He was just writing a letter.

And it hit him and he got excited.

But he says here grow in the knowledge.

I want to look at that word knowledge.

But not yet.

This word grow is interesting.

It means to augment.

To make something greater by adding to it.

To increase.

To expand.

God wants to expand our spiritual capacity.

Why? ¿Por qué?

To make our lives great.

So that we can live a good life.

You see, he told Abraham, I'm gonna make you great.

And we are the seed and the children of Abraham.

He wants to make us great, he wants us to live a great good life.

Now, this word knowledge.

There's a difference between knowledge, the word knowledge here.

And information and information.

Knowledge in the word of God and information are two different things.

I was a baby still in diapers and the good ones, I was in spiritual huggies.

But I was reading, I would read a particular author some books that he wrote.

And I remember back thing he was talking about head knowledge and revelation knowledge.

But when you look at this word knowledge in the original language, when Peter says grow in knowledge, he's not talking about information that you put in your mind.

That God would grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Wisdom.

We hear it, but we don't do it.

So we know about God, but we don't know God.

If we knew God, we would do it.

But this word knowledge, it means precise and correct information.

It's spiritual illumination that comes from God.

And he opens his word and it becomes revelation to us.

In other words, we understand it for the first time we're like, ah, I know what that means.

But when we just read the Bible for information, it just stays in our brain.

But it doesn't affect our lines.

But what we want is spiritual information, revelation from God.

When that comes, that's stored in our heart, in the deepest part of our being.

And when it comes alive in us, when it does, we're starting to walk and flow with God.

We're now in his stream.

Where there's life, where there's power, where there's reality.

Sometimes we think the things we see are reality.

But the reality is what God has said.

It's a higher, it's a higher reality.

I say it like this: God's truth is greater than the reality of my life.

So when the attacks of the enemy come when life doesn't look good, his word is still truth, it's still higher than my reality.

It doesn't mean my reality doesn't exist.

It just means my reality has to adjust to God's truth.

It has to change, it has to move.

I'm not gonna move from the word of God.

It has to move and adjust.

So when pain comes in your body, it's reality.

It hurts.

But then there's the truth of God.

By his stripes I am healed.

He took my sickness and my pain.

That's the truth.

This is real, but this is truth.

So this pain has to adjust and align itself to the truth.

You see, and when the word of God comes alive to you.

The first few times you're like, oh, I wish that were true.

Oh God, heal me, please.

Oh, I seen you healing people, why don't you heal me?

Keep reading that word.

Keep letting it get on the inside of you.

And one day you're gonna do like Peter did.

His word is truth.

Yes, this pain is real.

But it's gotta go.

Because by his stripes I am healed.

I'm not trying to be healed.

I'm declaring what God has declared.

I am healed.

Let that get on the inside of you.

Sometimes we say it.

Before it's on the inside.

So it doesn't have any effect.

No, you gotta get it on the inside.

You gotta get into that stream of life.

Everything in God's Word is for our good.

It's so that we can live this good life.

I have come that you might have life.

Life and life more abundantly.

He's trying to preach for me now.

That's my problem.

Sorry.

That's my problem.

I have come that you might have life.

And have life more abundantly.

That's a good life.

He didn't say I have come that you might have salvation.

And struggle the rest of your time in this world.

He did say we'd have problems, right?

In the world you will have problems.

You will have adversity.

But he said, be of good cheer.

Don't go tell your whole neighborhood about what you're going through.

Be of good cheer.

If you're of good cheer, you're not gonna tell everybody your problems.

You're of good cheer.

He has overcome.

That's what he said.

And because he has made us more than conquerors.

I don't care what I'm up aga what comes up against me.

It's gotta move.

Or I'm going over that wall.

That's the good life.

We live like Jesus lived in the earth.

He had problems, problems with people.

You ever have problems with people?

He had to rebuke Peter one time and say, get behind me, devil.

He said, You're being influenced by the devil right now.

And that wasn't that wasn't somebody outside of his circle, that was his main disciple.

So he had problems along the way.

He was trying to sleep one time and a storm hit while he was trying to sleep.

And they tried to kill him.

And he walked right through the middle of them.

And they're like, Where'd he go?

Where'd he go?

More than a conqueror.

No matter what you face, God is with you.

And so the ultimate goal of the Word of God for our lives is that we live a life with God.

That's a life above, not below.

How can we say that we're walking with God?

But we don't know what we're going to do with all of these problems and we're going to have to do that.

But we just turn to God and we say, well, what do we do with this?

Peter said, They're asking for money, Jesus, what do we do?

He told them what to do.

He says, Go fishing.

And the first fish that you pull out.

And take that gold.

And the money they're looking for, the money they're asking for.

Use that gold to pay it.

So what do we do when problems come?

We say, Jesus, what do we do?

Holy Spirit, direct my life.

That's the purpose of walking with God.

It's not to say, man, this is horrible, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

Oh, but I love God.

I'm still going to church.

I'm still gonna tell people about Jesus.

I don't care if the devil kills me.

I'm on my way to heaven.

No, that's not what the Lord said.

In every circumstance, He wants to take us over.

He doesn't want us just to put up with things.

What do they say when people are going through things?

Some people's advice is this.

You don't have to put up with it.

You gotta put get to flight.

Get on the word of God and begin to fly.

No matter what the devil threw at you or life threw at you.

Or what you threw at yourself.

Sometimes we create our own crises, right?

But in all of that, there is the mercy and the goodness of God.

Just say, Lord, I messed up.

Get me back on track.

So you don't have to say, well, I guess I have to go through this.

There may be a little bit of transition.

Because sometimes we create such a wall for ourselves, and the Lord's not gonna knock it down, he's gonna help you knock it down.

And so that may take a while, it may take a while to knock that wall down, but it's coming down.

In other words, there may be some consequences.

But that's not gonna be the end of your story.

Look at Colossians 3 10.

See, there's a renovation, a renewing that takes place.

The scripture says his divine power in 2 Peter 1 3.

And in the life to come.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

How is grace and peace multiplied in our lives?

We pray, Lord, give me more grace.

When we're babies, he'll give us more peace.

Ah, but as we grow up, he says, Mama, give me some milk from the refrigerator.

When you're a baby, you say, Oh, let me get him some milk, he wants some milk.

Growing up a little bit, get your own milk.

Get your own cereal cereal.

And so grace and peace are multiplied in our life.

Through the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So when we develop our spiritual senses, we're moving from information to spiritual revelation.

And things begin to happen in our life.

We begin to understand the character of God a little better.

The more we understand his love, did you know that love is the essence, the absolute essence of who God is?

That is God.

The Bible says God is love.

And so when we begin to grow, we begin to know the love of God.

How much he loves people, but how much he loves us.

And that understanding begins to remove the fear we used to have of God.

And we get cemented and anchored in his goodness.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above.

And God said, I'll show you myself.

And the Bible said he hid them behind the cleft of a rock.

And it says that the goodness of God passed before him.

God is loved.

God is good before anything else.

And when we get grounded in love, we get grounded in his goodness.

So that when bad stuff comes our way, we don't blame God.

We don't say, God, why are you putting me through this?

And the devil says, Well, you know you deserve it.

Look what you did.

No.

No.

We're grounded in his love and his goodness.

Lord, you didn't do this.

But I thank you that you're going to turn this around for my good.

We begin to learn the character of God.

We begin to discover the purpose and the destiny for our life here on earth.

Living life becomes easier.

You say, what am I supposed to do here in this life?

Get to know the love of God.

The love of God will place you right where you're supposed to be.

Just like a mom with her baby.

When the baby is tired and sleepy, she goes and picks up the baby and puts him in the right place.

That's the love of God.

That's the foundation to understanding what we're supposed to do in life.

So we stop wandering.

And it works out.

And we begin to learn the voice of God.

We're developing our spiritual senses.

And then when problems come our way, we're rooted in God's love.

Some of you, you may be a preacher.

And so you're doing that.

Some of you are called to work at a job and retire from one company.

Some of you are called just to stay home.

And take care of the house.

Whatever your purpose is, it doesn't matter to God, He's given you that purpose.

You're a star right where you are.

There was a song we used to listen to, my wife and I.

You don't have to be a star, baby.

To be in my show.

You'll shine right where you're at.

You might say, Man, I'm just raising these kids, when are they gonna be 18?

Your star may not be shining real bright right now.

But as your children begin to grow up, and they begin to do some amazing things asombrosas.

You know who's shining, you're shining.

You're like, that's that's her son.

Ese es su hijo.

That's his son.

Sometimes you may have to wait a few years before you hear that.

Sometimes they say that's that's his son.

You're like, no, that's not my son.

No, this is my home.

Not yet.

God is still working on him.

But you know what?

When when life comes at you, because you're developing your spiritual life, the storms of life they may knock you down, but they won't keep you down.

They won't break you.

They can't.

It's impossible.

Our life becomes stronger.

Our life becomes greater even in the midst of storms.

We become more spiritually resilient.

We bounce back.

I like to watch boxing matches from the old times.

Like Mohammed Ali.

Mohammed Ali.

He said, I swing like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

But those fights were amazing.

You thought your guy was going down.

Sometimes they did go down, but they they bounced back up and won the fight.

That's you and I as believers.

We're resilient.

We bounce back.

We get back in the ring no matter what happens.

I don't care what happened, I'm gonna rewrite this story with the help of God.

Because sometimes we try and write our own story.

But it wasn't what God wanted for our life.

And so we go, we derail, we go a different way.

Anybody named Jesus, I like to get their phone number.

Because maybe it's the real Jesus.

But Jesus gave his life to the Lord just a couple of weeks ago.

And I was trying to call him.

But here you are in person.

Let me come in for a landing.

I see some people trying to leave already.

Hang on, hang on.

No, they're just using the facility.

There has to be a longing of thirsting in our life.

Something something that you want so bad that you're not gonna stop.

No matter what it takes, David sang a song this way.

He said, as the deer longs for the water, so my soul longs after you, God.

When we long for God that way, you ever been so thirsty that you would drink anything that they put in front of you?

That's the thirst we have to have for the word of God.

Not just for the Bible, but for the Holy Spirit to open our understanding.

Paul said to Timothy on these things.

So that your prophet will be evident to the people.

I know what prophet means, but what does it mean in the Bible?

It means progress and advancement.

I said, wait a minute.

Because on Friday night we were here.

And the Lord gave me a message on that.

And so I thought Friday night was different from today, but it's the same message.

God wants us to advance.

And Paul said, if you'll meditate on these things, you'll advance in your life.

You won't go to the very top overnight, but you'll advance.

But you'll advance.

The results of meditating the word of God.

He said it to Joshua.

You'll make your way prosperous.

That's the word, advance.

And you'll have good success.

Things will turn out for you.

They'll turn out good for you.

This is the higher level of life that God has prepared for us.

But the higher level of life is determined by our level of hunger.

You want to go higher, you gotta get hungrier.

In the world we climb the ladder of success.

Sometimes we just want him when we need him.

But there has to be a level of hunger.

And that we just want him all the time.

And so that means a little more time in the Word of God.

You stay up a little later.

And you get up a little earlier.

And you constantly expose yourself to the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit can't open our eyes.

The Holy Spirit can't open our eyes until we open our Bible.

And it catches my attention y cautiva mi atención.

I'll hear it all week.

That's how the word gets inside of us.

Read books.

Lean libros.

Listen to messages.

Take notes.

Write down thoughts throughout the week.

And I used to drive a truck.

But I was so hungry for the word of God.

I didn't have a church, I wasn't a preacher.

But I was driving a truck.

You know what I would do?

I used to buy these three by five cards.

Remember those?

Where you write down notes or little cards you can carry around.

Back then we didn't have a Bible app.

Now I can just put my phone under and turn the Bible up and while I'm driving, the scriptures are going.

That's all we have back then.

And I would write down an entire scripture.

And then I would put it where I could, it was right in front of me while I was driving.

And at stop signs.

It's that level of hunger that takes us to another level of living.

I was telling the people this morning.

Carry snacks around.

When you go on a trip, I don't know about you guys, but we're gonna go on a trip.

So we're driving and all of a sudden snack time.

We have to be spiritual snackers.

Take scripture snacks to work.

To the gym when you go exercise.

As you're driving, you're snacking on the word of God.

Stop starving yourself when you're not in a place where you can read the Bible.

I write down, I still write down, well, I don't write them down as much, but I do write some things down from time to time.

There's something about writing things down.

But now with these modern things that we have.

And it's taking long.

A thought comes and I just get my phone and put it in my notes.

You can snack wherever you are spiritually.

It's called scripture snacks.

Put those cookies away, those MMs away.

And get scripture snacks.

God has prepared amazing things for us as his people.

He said, Your eyes haven't seen them, your ears haven't heard them.

It doesn't mean they won't, it just means you they haven't.

But when you become a spiritual snack machine.

Your ears begin to open.

Don't be satisfied with just level one Christianity.

Would you stand with us de pie, por favor?

Let's pray for a fresh spiritual awakening in our life.

A spiritual awakening that takes us to another way of living.

Let's ask God to move the scriptures from our mind to our heart.

So we'll have the evidence of his presence in our lives.

The Bible said, and God was with Joseph.

And he was a prosperous man.