January 4, 2025 • 26 mins
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, Mark asks if you are eager to grow spiritually? God may have done some amazing things in your life, but sometimes it seems to have stopped. Well, drawing from the book of Hebrews chapter 5, Pastor Mark will teach how you can continue to see growth and change in your life.
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S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps weekend, Mark Jobe asks if you're
eager to grow spiritually.
S2 (00:05):
The apostle Paul is writing to these people and he's saying,
you're not learning and growing because you're not motivated to
learn and grow anymore. You've lost your desire to grow
and learn and go to the next level. You're not
hungry anymore to do that. So therefore, because you're not hungry,
you're not motivated. You're not learning.
S1 (00:35):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Do
you remember a time when you were all in and
God was doing some amazing things in your life, but
then things just stopped? Well, today, Mark, you're going to
tell us how we can start this process of hope
and change all over again.
S2 (00:56):
You know, Wayne, there's times in our life where we
really grow. We're like sponges, absorbing everything that God wants
to teach us. And then, if we're not careful, we
can go into those seasons where we just stagnate.
S1 (01:10):
Lose our first love, so to speak. Right.
S2 (01:12):
Yeah. And that desire to learn, to grow, to draw closer.
And this passage is about that, directed to a group
of people that had become, well, stagnant and slow to grow.
And the writer of the Hebrews is motivating. It's time
to get out of your growth slump and get back
(01:34):
into growing.
S1 (01:35):
Well, let's see what God has for us today as
we open His Word in Hebrews chapter five. This message
is titled Growth and Change.
S2 (01:43):
The writer of the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter five verse
11 says, we have much to say about this, but
it's hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
In fact, though, by this time you ought to be teachers.
You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of
God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.
(02:07):
Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is
not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. But solid food
is for the mature, who by constant use have trained
themselves to distinguish good and evil. I've had an opportunity
to speak at a lot of churches and minister for
(02:30):
a long time, over two decades, and one of the
observations I've made is that oftentimes people start out in
their Christian life fast. They have a conversion experience in
which somehow they they come to an altar, they pray
with a person, but they bow their knee and they say, Jesus,
(02:54):
you will be Lord of my life. And they give
themselves over to Christ. And then they get up with
excitement and enthusiasm and begin to try to change their
life and change their family members and neighbors. And they
have this zeal about them of a new believer. I
want to tell everybody, invite people to church and learn
as many verses as I can and hungry for God
(03:16):
because they're just starting out and it's sort of this
fast out of the chute run. But I've also noticed
over the years that oftentimes people slow down and it's normal.
You need to slow down. Sometimes that energy and enthusiasm
of the beginning gives way to more maturity. But I've
(03:38):
also noticed that oftentimes in our spiritual progress, that we
slow down to the point that many times we stop growing,
that people come to the point. Sometimes they've been believers
for ten years, but it doesn't mean they've grown for
ten years. They may have grown for the first five
years and then stopped growing after the fifth years, and
now they're just kind of at the same place they
(04:00):
were five years ago. They stopped growing and they get stuck.
They're not learning. They're not stretching. They're not growing in character.
They're not using their spiritual gifts anymore. They're just kind
of stuck in a place. They haven't gone back to
the world. They haven't backslidden, but they have. They're not
making progress. They're not changing. They're the same as they
(04:21):
were several years back. And the writer of the Hebrews is,
is challenging some people that were in that condition. And
I'm going to give you this morning four characteristics of
people that grow. It's my desire that we as a church,
(04:44):
as a body, as a people, as a community of faith,
that not just the new believers grow, but those believers
that have been believers five years, seven years, ten years,
20 years, 15 years. I believe that God wants us
all to be growing. Every single one of us needs
to be growing in our knowledge and our character and
our gifting. We need to be going to the next level.
(05:06):
It is not God's desire that anybody should be stagnant
in this place. So this morning, I want to challenge
you to growth. Challenge you to go to the next level.
Challenge you not to get stuck. And if you're not
going to get stuck. Here's four characteristics that need to
be a part of your life. Are you ready? Number one,
(05:27):
if you're taking notes, write this down. People that continue
to grow. The first thing that's evidence in their life
is that they learn quickly because they're eager to grow.
A person can change without growing, but you cannot grow
without changing. And change is difficult. But what I've discovered
(05:51):
is that people that grow are eager to grow. They
want to grow. They're hungry. It says, the writer of
the Hebrews says, we have much to say about this,
but it's hard to explain because you're slow to learn.
Now that that phrase slow to learn in the Greek
literally is dull of hearing, we have a lot to
(06:13):
say to you. He's saying, but we can't say it
all because you're dull of hearing. You're slow to learn,
is what the NIV says. Um, it doesn't mean that
their IQ was low. It doesn't mean that they just
kind of like, hey, what are you saying? We can't
understand what you're saying. No, no, it's not about their IQ.
It's not about their ability to comprehend. It's about their
(06:35):
hearing had become dull. Not not their physical hearing. They
weren't wearing hearing aids. I mean, they could hear, okay,
but it was their spiritual ears had become dull. You know,
when someone's hearing is dull, you only catch half of
the things that are said because you can't really hear it. Well. Now,
(06:57):
how does your spiritual ears become dull? Your spiritual ears
become dull when you stop listening because you're not that
interested in what is being said. You see, we typically
listen to the things that we are motivated to listen to.
(07:19):
Someone once said that that motivation is the spark that
lights the fire of knowledge and fuels the engine of accomplishment.
When we lack motivation, we stop learning. How do I
learn something new? Only when I'm motivated to learn something new,
(07:40):
I stop learning when I cease to be motivated. The
Apostle Paul is writing to these people and he's saying,
you're not learning and growing because you're not motivated to
learn and grow anymore. You've lost your hunger. You've lost
your eagerness. You've lost your desire to grow and learn
and go to the next level. You're not hungry anymore
(08:02):
to do that. So therefore, because you're not hungry, you're
not motivated. You're not learning. Let me explain it this way.
When I was in high school, I had algebra, and
I remember arguing with my mom saying, I'm never going
to use it. I mean, all these fancy formulas. I mean,
what practical use does it have? I mean, when am
(08:23):
I ever going to use algebra in life? So therefore,
if I'm not going to use it, why should I
learn it if I'm not going to get into if
I'm not going to become an accountant, which I'm not
going to become, then why do I have to learn algebra?
Because I don't I'm not going to use it. I'm
not going to practice it. So why do I need
to learn it? So therefore I became a demotivated learner
because I didn't see any practical use for what I
(08:45):
was learning. When you're not motivated to learn something because
there's no practical use, then typically you don't learn it.
Let me give you another scenario about motivation. If this
morning I were to say I need ten volunteers and
ten people to raise their hands. And I say, okay,
I'm going to give you a lesson this morning. And
we were to jump into the church van, and we
(09:07):
were to drive down to O'Hare airport. And I would say,
we have an airplane waiting for you at O'Hare airport,
and you're going to learn about skydiving today. And so
we were to load those ten people into that airplane,
and we were to put parachutes on their back, and
we were to set out and get several thousand feet
up into the air. And we were to open the
(09:27):
door of the airplane. And as that wind is brushing in,
I were to say, hey, the instructor is going to
give you a few little tips on skydiving. I can
guarantee that as that instructor was talking about skydiving, every
single person would be hanging on to every last word
he said. And at this quarters, at that one. What
if it doesn't work? And how far do I have
(09:49):
to be before I pull it? And what if it
doesn't happen? And do people really die? And how many die?
And what if the wind blows this way? You would
be listening to everything he says. You'd be attentive, taking notes.
Say that again. Asking questions. Why? Because you're a highly
motivated learner. Why are you highly motivated? You're highly motivated.
Because what is being taught you're going to put into
(10:11):
practice right away. So therefore, because you're going to put
it into practice right away, you're highly motivated to learn
what is being taught. Are you tracking with me? I
remember when my daughter, uh, a couple of years ago,
she was young and I was she was asking a
(10:31):
little bit about driving, and I was saying, see, honey,
here's when you put in the gear and this is
a gas pedal and brake pedal. And she, she, she
wasn't that interested. And she said, oh, that looks easy.
I think I could do it. Several months ago, she
got her driver's permit. And so I decided that her
first drive in the car, we would do it in
an empty parking lot. That's smart. Empty parking lot behind
(10:55):
a theater. I said, okay, honey, get in the driver's seat.
She sat in the driver's seat. She said, okay, the pedals,
which is the gas, which is the brake, okay. Gas brake.
Here's how you put it into gear. She was asking questions.
She was motivated. She gave me a few head lashes
while she first started out, but I was instructing her
(11:15):
and coaching her. Okay, dad. Now how? Where do I go? Okay. Dad, dad, dad!
Tell me. And I'm instructing her. Coaching her? Turn right
here a little harder, honey. Watch it. There's a car coming.
Watch it! A car, a car, please, honey. Slow down.
I'm giving her instruction. Very motivated to listen to me
because she's putting into practice immediately what I'm teaching her.
(11:35):
Then she got a little confident. After ten minutes of driving,
decided to take a wide turn. It was when there
was snow around the embankment and literally I thought she
was going to turn our van upside down because we
went onto an embankment like this. When we plopped down,
my heart was up, up, up. She was highly motivated
(11:58):
because she was immediately putting into practice what she was learning.
Track with me here. These people had become dull of
hearing because they were not putting into practice immediately what
they were hearing. It had become theory to them, not
(12:18):
life to them.
S1 (12:24):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And
before we continue with the second half of today's message,
I'd like to share an exciting opportunity with you. If
you've been inspired by Mark's passionate teaching, I want to
invite you to become part of our growing Bold Steps community.
One of our most popular free resources is The Bold
Step Weekly. It's a thoughtful email devotional that arrives in
(12:45):
your inbox every Monday morning, and hundreds of listeners have
already joined this encouraging weekly journey. And we'd love to
have you join, too. Signing up is simple just visit
Bold steps. Org and look for the Bold Step weekly tab.
There's no cost or obligation. It's our gift to help
you take your next bold steps in your faith journey.
And while you're at the website, you'll also find additional
(13:06):
resources to support your spiritual growth. Now, let's return to
the second half of today's message. Mark Job titled it
Growth and Change.
S2 (13:20):
Oh, I wish you could hear me this morning because
this is huge. You see, if you're not putting into
practice what's being taught, you lose your motivation to learn.
All it becomes is theories and principles that had no
direct relevance to your life. But if every time you
hear the Word of God you're saying, I want to
apply it, I want to learn. I want to take
that to my marriage, to my job, to my children,
(13:42):
to my life. I want to become more like Jesus.
I don't want to stagnate. I want to grow. I
want to become different than what happens is that whatever
is taught, you're eager to learn because you're applying it
to your life immediately, and it has direct relevance to
where you're at because you're applying the word. You're not
just a hearer of the word, you're a doer of
(14:02):
the word. And so therefore you are hungry and eager
and desirous to learn because you're putting it into practice.
When someone doesn't put into practice the word, you start
feeling okay. Here's another message. I hope it's short. I
hope it's not hot. I hope the chairs aren't because
(14:25):
you're not putting it into practice. And so people that learn.
People that grow, they learn quickly because they're eager to grow.
They're hungry to grow. Have a desire to grow. Secondly,
write this down. People that learn and grow are people
(14:47):
that build on the foundational truths and begin to teach others.
Notice what he says next. He says. In fact, though,
by this time you ought to be teachers. You need
someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word
(15:08):
all over again. You need milk, not solid food. The
writer of the Hebrews is saying, you've been Christians long
enough at this time that you should know the basics
of Christianity. In fact, you should be teaching others the
basics of Christianity by this time. But what has happened?
(15:31):
Although you should be teachers by this time, not only
are you not teachers, but the basics that you should
be teaching, you don't even remember the basics because they've
grown fuzzy in your own life. So therefore, even though
you should be teachers by this time, you need someone
to teach you the elementary basic foundational truths all over
(15:55):
again because you started to forget them. You say, well,
how does that happen? Well. If you don't use it,
you lose it. If you don't use the basic knowledge
that you have, you begin to lose it. It becomes
(16:15):
it becomes rusty to you. When I was 16 years old,
I wanted to work somewhere to make some money. I
had a friend that had a connection in, in in France,
in a town in France. I lived in northern Spain.
And France wasn't all that far from us. And so
he got me a job as a dishwasher and a
(16:37):
room cleaning person. And so my brother and I and
someone else, we went up to this hotel in southern France,
and I washed dishes and learned how to scrub these
big pots and learn how to clean rooms. And we
worked in room service and dishwashing at a hotel in
northern France for, for for three, two and a half
months to three months. And then we slept in the
(17:00):
basement with all the other people that were down there.
And then we worked hard, but we were in France,
so we we were submerged in the French culture, the
French language. The next summer I went there again to
make money. It was pretty good money. I worked in
southern France and since I was in France there enough time,
I actually learned to speak some French and I could
understand pretty much most of what was being said to me,
(17:23):
and I could speak enough to be dangerous. And so
after I got out of there, I felt like I
in fact, I picked up a a French New Testament
and I would read my Bible in French and, and
je parle and petit des Francais, mais pas beaucoup. Mais
je travaille en France do it. Yeah. So I thought,
(17:43):
you know, I know French pretty good. I mean, I
can understand. And so this a few weeks ago we
were in northern Spain and I decided, hey, I'm going
to take my kids to show them where I worked, uh,
get a little incentive in their bones, show them where
I worked for the summer. So we drove up to
2.5 hours away, Drove up to this little town in France.
And what I discovered is that the basics of French
(18:06):
that I thought I knew so well suddenly, because I
haven't used it in a long time, I've gotten rusty.
Those basic words that I used to know real clearly.
I was struggling to remember those words that back then,
20 some years ago, came to me very easy. And
(18:27):
I realized that, hey, my French isn't as good as
I thought it was. It's rusty because I haven't reviewed it,
I haven't used it, I haven't gone over it. So
therefore if I haven't used it and reviewed it and
gone over it, I start to lose it. Now some
of you are tracking where I'm going with this, right?
(18:50):
You see, the Bible says that by this time you
ought to be teachers. You say, well, pastor, I'm not
a teacher, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a preacher.
It doesn't matter. Let me tell you this. Every single
follower of Jesus Christ. If you have become a follower
of Jesus Christ, we are all called to make disciples.
That means what you know you need to share with
someone else that knows less than what you know. We're
(19:10):
all called to make disciples. It means that the basic
things that you know, you start to you start to
share with other people that know less than you. How
many of you know there's always people that know less
than you? There's always people that know more than you,
but there's always people that know less than you. You say, well,
I don't know a lot, but guess what? You know
more than what other people know that have never been
to church, never opened a Bible, never looked at verses,
(19:33):
never saw, sat under teaching. You know more than some
other people know. So what you do know, you start
to share with people that know less than you. We
have baptisms every month, every month as people get baptized,
everybody that gets baptized, we take them through three basic lessons,
three elementary lessons, faith, repentance, and baptism out of some
(19:55):
blue books. Guess what? Guess who does those mentoring people
in the congregation take a new believer and begin to
teach them the basic things they need to learn. This
is what Jesus said. Jesus said, I will make you
fishers of men. Matthew 2819 and 20 says, go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit,
(20:15):
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the world. Jesus basically said, if you're a
follower of mine, then I want you to begin to
share what you know about me. As you begin to
share basic things that you know, you will keep those
(20:40):
things fresh in your mind. If it's been a long
time since you shared, a long time since you've mentored,
a long time since you've helped someone grow. Then the
very basic things that you knew a long time ago
will start to become fuzzy in your mind, Because you
(21:00):
have not used your knowledge. By this time you ought
to be teachers. But yet you're not a teacher. And
now someone's got to come back. Back to you and
teach you the basic things all over again. You need milk,
(21:21):
not solid food. Now, this is huge. Because what happens is,
I believe that God wants all of us to grow.
And I believe that we grow the most when we're grounded. Okay.
(21:42):
The third thing I want you to write down, I'm
talking about people that grow. The third thing, third characteristic
about people, people that grow is this people that grow,
they move out of the role of a receiver and
they become givers, he says. By this time you ought
(22:05):
to be teachers, but you need milk, not solid food.
You know, there's a time frame. Milk is not bad.
Milk is good. I still drink milk. But if all
I could handle was milk, if I went over to
your house and I said, you know what? Sorry, I
(22:26):
can't eat God tacos yet. Because, you know, I just
haven't developed a system to handle that yet. Well, how
about some cereal? No, no, no, just milk please. Milk
and milk is good if you're a baby. But if
you're four years old and all you can handle is milk,
there's something wrong. If you're 15 and all you can
(22:46):
handle is milk, is something wrong? If all you can
eat at 20 years old is milk and a little
baby food, then there's something wrong with your system. It's
okay when you're a baby to eat milk, but you
need to graduate beyond milk. You need to be able
to handle the stronger stuff, the tougher stuff, the stuff
that gives nutrients to you. And the writer of the
(23:10):
Hebrews is saying, hey, it's okay that you have milk,
but by this time you should be beyond milk. You
should be eating stronger stuff, healthier stuff. You should be
able to be chewing on meat that can digest stuff that's,
that's that's more solid in your system. Here's what the
(23:31):
Scripture says. It is more blessed to give than to what?
UU (23:36):
Than to receive.
S1 (23:41):
Learning to become givers instead of receivers. That's the takeaway
of today's message from Mark Jobe on Bold Steps Weekend.
You can learn more about Mark, our teacher and this
ministry when you go online to Bold Steps. Org. These
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(24:03):
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(24:26):
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(24:47):
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(25:09):
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(25:32):
that's our time for today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you
to join us next time when Mark explains why growth
and change are an important part of our lives. It's
part two of our message from the same title, and
you'll hear it next time on Bold Steps Weekend with
Mark Jobe. Bold Steps Weekend is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Bold Steps weekend, Mark Jobe asks if you're
eager to grow spiritually.
S2 (00:05):
The apostle Paul is writing to these people and he's saying,
you're not learning and growing because you're not motivated to
learn and grow anymore. You've lost your desire to grow
and learn and go to the next level. You're not
hungry anymore to do that. So therefore, because you're not hungry,
you're not motivated. You're not learning.
S1 (00:35):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Mark is
president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Do
you remember a time when you were all in and
God was doing some amazing things in your life, but
then things just stopped? Well, today, Mark, you're going to
tell us how we can start this process of hope
and change all over again.
S2 (00:56):
You know, Wayne, there's times in our life where we
really grow. We're like sponges, absorbing everything that God wants
to teach us. And then, if we're not careful, we
can go into those seasons where we just stagnate.
S1 (01:10):
Lose our first love, so to speak. Right.
S2 (01:12):
Yeah. And that desire to learn, to grow, to draw closer.
And this passage is about that, directed to a group
of people that had become, well, stagnant and slow to grow.
And the writer of the Hebrews is motivating. It's time
to get out of your growth slump and get back
(01:34):
into growing.
S1 (01:35):
Well, let's see what God has for us today as
we open His Word in Hebrews chapter five. This message
is titled Growth and Change.
S2 (01:43):
The writer of the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter five verse
11 says, we have much to say about this, but
it's hard to explain because you are slow to learn.
In fact, though, by this time you ought to be teachers.
You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of
God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.
(02:07):
Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is
not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. But solid food
is for the mature, who by constant use have trained
themselves to distinguish good and evil. I've had an opportunity
to speak at a lot of churches and minister for
(02:30):
a long time, over two decades, and one of the
observations I've made is that oftentimes people start out in
their Christian life fast. They have a conversion experience in
which somehow they they come to an altar, they pray
with a person, but they bow their knee and they say, Jesus,
(02:54):
you will be Lord of my life. And they give
themselves over to Christ. And then they get up with
excitement and enthusiasm and begin to try to change their
life and change their family members and neighbors. And they
have this zeal about them of a new believer. I
want to tell everybody, invite people to church and learn
as many verses as I can and hungry for God
(03:16):
because they're just starting out and it's sort of this
fast out of the chute run. But I've also noticed
over the years that oftentimes people slow down and it's normal.
You need to slow down. Sometimes that energy and enthusiasm
of the beginning gives way to more maturity. But I've
(03:38):
also noticed that oftentimes in our spiritual progress, that we
slow down to the point that many times we stop growing,
that people come to the point. Sometimes they've been believers
for ten years, but it doesn't mean they've grown for
ten years. They may have grown for the first five
years and then stopped growing after the fifth years, and
now they're just kind of at the same place they
(04:00):
were five years ago. They stopped growing and they get stuck.
They're not learning. They're not stretching. They're not growing in character.
They're not using their spiritual gifts anymore. They're just kind
of stuck in a place. They haven't gone back to
the world. They haven't backslidden, but they have. They're not
making progress. They're not changing. They're the same as they
(04:21):
were several years back. And the writer of the Hebrews is,
is challenging some people that were in that condition. And
I'm going to give you this morning four characteristics of
people that grow. It's my desire that we as a church,
(04:44):
as a body, as a people, as a community of faith,
that not just the new believers grow, but those believers
that have been believers five years, seven years, ten years,
20 years, 15 years. I believe that God wants us
all to be growing. Every single one of us needs
to be growing in our knowledge and our character and
our gifting. We need to be going to the next level.
(05:06):
It is not God's desire that anybody should be stagnant
in this place. So this morning, I want to challenge
you to growth. Challenge you to go to the next level.
Challenge you not to get stuck. And if you're not
going to get stuck. Here's four characteristics that need to
be a part of your life. Are you ready? Number one,
(05:27):
if you're taking notes, write this down. People that continue
to grow. The first thing that's evidence in their life
is that they learn quickly because they're eager to grow.
A person can change without growing, but you cannot grow
without changing. And change is difficult. But what I've discovered
(05:51):
is that people that grow are eager to grow. They
want to grow. They're hungry. It says, the writer of
the Hebrews says, we have much to say about this,
but it's hard to explain because you're slow to learn.
Now that that phrase slow to learn in the Greek
literally is dull of hearing, we have a lot to
(06:13):
say to you. He's saying, but we can't say it
all because you're dull of hearing. You're slow to learn,
is what the NIV says. Um, it doesn't mean that
their IQ was low. It doesn't mean that they just
kind of like, hey, what are you saying? We can't
understand what you're saying. No, no, it's not about their IQ.
It's not about their ability to comprehend. It's about their
(06:35):
hearing had become dull. Not not their physical hearing. They
weren't wearing hearing aids. I mean, they could hear, okay,
but it was their spiritual ears had become dull. You know,
when someone's hearing is dull, you only catch half of
the things that are said because you can't really hear it. Well. Now,
(06:57):
how does your spiritual ears become dull? Your spiritual ears
become dull when you stop listening because you're not that
interested in what is being said. You see, we typically
listen to the things that we are motivated to listen to.
(07:19):
Someone once said that that motivation is the spark that
lights the fire of knowledge and fuels the engine of accomplishment.
When we lack motivation, we stop learning. How do I
learn something new? Only when I'm motivated to learn something new,
(07:40):
I stop learning when I cease to be motivated. The
Apostle Paul is writing to these people and he's saying,
you're not learning and growing because you're not motivated to
learn and grow anymore. You've lost your hunger. You've lost
your eagerness. You've lost your desire to grow and learn
and go to the next level. You're not hungry anymore
(08:02):
to do that. So therefore, because you're not hungry, you're
not motivated. You're not learning. Let me explain it this way.
When I was in high school, I had algebra, and
I remember arguing with my mom saying, I'm never going
to use it. I mean, all these fancy formulas. I mean,
what practical use does it have? I mean, when am
(08:23):
I ever going to use algebra in life? So therefore,
if I'm not going to use it, why should I
learn it if I'm not going to get into if
I'm not going to become an accountant, which I'm not
going to become, then why do I have to learn algebra?
Because I don't I'm not going to use it. I'm
not going to practice it. So why do I need
to learn it? So therefore I became a demotivated learner
because I didn't see any practical use for what I
(08:45):
was learning. When you're not motivated to learn something because
there's no practical use, then typically you don't learn it.
Let me give you another scenario about motivation. If this
morning I were to say I need ten volunteers and
ten people to raise their hands. And I say, okay,
I'm going to give you a lesson this morning. And
we were to jump into the church van, and we
(09:07):
were to drive down to O'Hare airport. And I would say,
we have an airplane waiting for you at O'Hare airport,
and you're going to learn about skydiving today. And so
we were to load those ten people into that airplane,
and we were to put parachutes on their back, and
we were to set out and get several thousand feet
up into the air. And we were to open the
(09:27):
door of the airplane. And as that wind is brushing in,
I were to say, hey, the instructor is going to
give you a few little tips on skydiving. I can
guarantee that as that instructor was talking about skydiving, every
single person would be hanging on to every last word
he said. And at this quarters, at that one. What
if it doesn't work? And how far do I have
(09:49):
to be before I pull it? And what if it
doesn't happen? And do people really die? And how many die?
And what if the wind blows this way? You would
be listening to everything he says. You'd be attentive, taking notes.
Say that again. Asking questions. Why? Because you're a highly
motivated learner. Why are you highly motivated? You're highly motivated.
Because what is being taught you're going to put into
(10:11):
practice right away. So therefore, because you're going to put
it into practice right away, you're highly motivated to learn
what is being taught. Are you tracking with me? I
remember when my daughter, uh, a couple of years ago,
she was young and I was she was asking a
(10:31):
little bit about driving, and I was saying, see, honey,
here's when you put in the gear and this is
a gas pedal and brake pedal. And she, she, she
wasn't that interested. And she said, oh, that looks easy.
I think I could do it. Several months ago, she
got her driver's permit. And so I decided that her
first drive in the car, we would do it in
an empty parking lot. That's smart. Empty parking lot behind
(10:55):
a theater. I said, okay, honey, get in the driver's seat.
She sat in the driver's seat. She said, okay, the pedals,
which is the gas, which is the brake, okay. Gas brake.
Here's how you put it into gear. She was asking questions.
She was motivated. She gave me a few head lashes
while she first started out, but I was instructing her
(11:15):
and coaching her. Okay, dad. Now how? Where do I go? Okay. Dad, dad, dad!
Tell me. And I'm instructing her. Coaching her? Turn right
here a little harder, honey. Watch it. There's a car coming.
Watch it! A car, a car, please, honey. Slow down.
I'm giving her instruction. Very motivated to listen to me
because she's putting into practice immediately what I'm teaching her.
(11:35):
Then she got a little confident. After ten minutes of driving,
decided to take a wide turn. It was when there
was snow around the embankment and literally I thought she
was going to turn our van upside down because we
went onto an embankment like this. When we plopped down,
my heart was up, up, up. She was highly motivated
(11:58):
because she was immediately putting into practice what she was learning.
Track with me here. These people had become dull of
hearing because they were not putting into practice immediately what
they were hearing. It had become theory to them, not
(12:18):
life to them.
S1 (12:24):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. And
before we continue with the second half of today's message,
I'd like to share an exciting opportunity with you. If
you've been inspired by Mark's passionate teaching, I want to
invite you to become part of our growing Bold Steps community.
One of our most popular free resources is The Bold
Step Weekly. It's a thoughtful email devotional that arrives in
(12:45):
your inbox every Monday morning, and hundreds of listeners have
already joined this encouraging weekly journey. And we'd love to
have you join, too. Signing up is simple just visit
Bold steps. Org and look for the Bold Step weekly tab.
There's no cost or obligation. It's our gift to help
you take your next bold steps in your faith journey.
And while you're at the website, you'll also find additional
(13:06):
resources to support your spiritual growth. Now, let's return to
the second half of today's message. Mark Job titled it
Growth and Change.
S2 (13:20):
Oh, I wish you could hear me this morning because
this is huge. You see, if you're not putting into
practice what's being taught, you lose your motivation to learn.
All it becomes is theories and principles that had no
direct relevance to your life. But if every time you
hear the Word of God you're saying, I want to
apply it, I want to learn. I want to take
that to my marriage, to my job, to my children,
(13:42):
to my life. I want to become more like Jesus.
I don't want to stagnate. I want to grow. I
want to become different than what happens is that whatever
is taught, you're eager to learn because you're applying it
to your life immediately, and it has direct relevance to
where you're at because you're applying the word. You're not
just a hearer of the word, you're a doer of
(14:02):
the word. And so therefore you are hungry and eager
and desirous to learn because you're putting it into practice.
When someone doesn't put into practice the word, you start
feeling okay. Here's another message. I hope it's short. I
hope it's not hot. I hope the chairs aren't because
(14:25):
you're not putting it into practice. And so people that learn.
People that grow, they learn quickly because they're eager to grow.
They're hungry to grow. Have a desire to grow. Secondly,
write this down. People that learn and grow are people
(14:47):
that build on the foundational truths and begin to teach others.
Notice what he says next. He says. In fact, though,
by this time you ought to be teachers. You need
someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word
(15:08):
all over again. You need milk, not solid food. The
writer of the Hebrews is saying, you've been Christians long
enough at this time that you should know the basics
of Christianity. In fact, you should be teaching others the
basics of Christianity by this time. But what has happened?
(15:31):
Although you should be teachers by this time, not only
are you not teachers, but the basics that you should
be teaching, you don't even remember the basics because they've
grown fuzzy in your own life. So therefore, even though
you should be teachers by this time, you need someone
to teach you the elementary basic foundational truths all over
(15:55):
again because you started to forget them. You say, well,
how does that happen? Well. If you don't use it,
you lose it. If you don't use the basic knowledge
that you have, you begin to lose it. It becomes
(16:15):
it becomes rusty to you. When I was 16 years old,
I wanted to work somewhere to make some money. I
had a friend that had a connection in, in in France,
in a town in France. I lived in northern Spain.
And France wasn't all that far from us. And so
he got me a job as a dishwasher and a
(16:37):
room cleaning person. And so my brother and I and
someone else, we went up to this hotel in southern France,
and I washed dishes and learned how to scrub these
big pots and learn how to clean rooms. And we
worked in room service and dishwashing at a hotel in
northern France for, for for three, two and a half
months to three months. And then we slept in the
(17:00):
basement with all the other people that were down there.
And then we worked hard, but we were in France,
so we we were submerged in the French culture, the
French language. The next summer I went there again to
make money. It was pretty good money. I worked in
southern France and since I was in France there enough time,
I actually learned to speak some French and I could
understand pretty much most of what was being said to me,
(17:23):
and I could speak enough to be dangerous. And so
after I got out of there, I felt like I
in fact, I picked up a a French New Testament
and I would read my Bible in French and, and
je parle and petit des Francais, mais pas beaucoup. Mais
je travaille en France do it. Yeah. So I thought,
(17:43):
you know, I know French pretty good. I mean, I
can understand. And so this a few weeks ago we
were in northern Spain and I decided, hey, I'm going
to take my kids to show them where I worked, uh,
get a little incentive in their bones, show them where
I worked for the summer. So we drove up to
2.5 hours away, Drove up to this little town in France.
And what I discovered is that the basics of French
(18:06):
that I thought I knew so well suddenly, because I
haven't used it in a long time, I've gotten rusty.
Those basic words that I used to know real clearly.
I was struggling to remember those words that back then,
20 some years ago, came to me very easy. And
(18:27):
I realized that, hey, my French isn't as good as
I thought it was. It's rusty because I haven't reviewed it,
I haven't used it, I haven't gone over it. So
therefore if I haven't used it and reviewed it and
gone over it, I start to lose it. Now some
of you are tracking where I'm going with this, right?
(18:50):
You see, the Bible says that by this time you
ought to be teachers. You say, well, pastor, I'm not
a teacher, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a preacher.
It doesn't matter. Let me tell you this. Every single
follower of Jesus Christ. If you have become a follower
of Jesus Christ, we are all called to make disciples.
That means what you know you need to share with
someone else that knows less than what you know. We're
(19:10):
all called to make disciples. It means that the basic
things that you know, you start to you start to
share with other people that know less than you. How
many of you know there's always people that know less
than you? There's always people that know more than you,
but there's always people that know less than you. You say, well,
I don't know a lot, but guess what? You know
more than what other people know that have never been
to church, never opened a Bible, never looked at verses,
(19:33):
never saw, sat under teaching. You know more than some
other people know. So what you do know, you start
to share with people that know less than you. We
have baptisms every month, every month as people get baptized,
everybody that gets baptized, we take them through three basic lessons,
three elementary lessons, faith, repentance, and baptism out of some
(19:55):
blue books. Guess what? Guess who does those mentoring people
in the congregation take a new believer and begin to
teach them the basic things they need to learn. This
is what Jesus said. Jesus said, I will make you
fishers of men. Matthew 2819 and 20 says, go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit,
(20:15):
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the world. Jesus basically said, if you're a
follower of mine, then I want you to begin to
share what you know about me. As you begin to
share basic things that you know, you will keep those
(20:40):
things fresh in your mind. If it's been a long
time since you shared, a long time since you've mentored,
a long time since you've helped someone grow. Then the
very basic things that you knew a long time ago
will start to become fuzzy in your mind, Because you
(21:00):
have not used your knowledge. By this time you ought
to be teachers. But yet you're not a teacher. And
now someone's got to come back. Back to you and
teach you the basic things all over again. You need milk,
(21:21):
not solid food. Now, this is huge. Because what happens is,
I believe that God wants all of us to grow.
And I believe that we grow the most when we're grounded. Okay.
(21:42):
The third thing I want you to write down, I'm
talking about people that grow. The third thing, third characteristic
about people, people that grow is this people that grow,
they move out of the role of a receiver and
they become givers, he says. By this time you ought
(22:05):
to be teachers, but you need milk, not solid food.
You know, there's a time frame. Milk is not bad.
Milk is good. I still drink milk. But if all
I could handle was milk, if I went over to
your house and I said, you know what? Sorry, I
(22:26):
can't eat God tacos yet. Because, you know, I just
haven't developed a system to handle that yet. Well, how
about some cereal? No, no, no, just milk please. Milk
and milk is good if you're a baby. But if
you're four years old and all you can handle is milk,
there's something wrong. If you're 15 and all you can
(22:46):
handle is milk, is something wrong? If all you can
eat at 20 years old is milk and a little
baby food, then there's something wrong with your system. It's
okay when you're a baby to eat milk, but you
need to graduate beyond milk. You need to be able
to handle the stronger stuff, the tougher stuff, the stuff
that gives nutrients to you. And the writer of the
(23:10):
Hebrews is saying, hey, it's okay that you have milk,
but by this time you should be beyond milk. You
should be eating stronger stuff, healthier stuff. You should be
able to be chewing on meat that can digest stuff that's,
that's that's more solid in your system. Here's what the
(23:31):
Scripture says. It is more blessed to give than to what?
UU (23:36):
Than to receive.
S1 (23:41):
Learning to become givers instead of receivers. That's the takeaway
of today's message from Mark Jobe on Bold Steps Weekend.
You can learn more about Mark, our teacher and this
ministry when you go online to Bold Steps. Org. These
daily messages are made available because of our partnership with listeners.
Just like you. We call them bold partners. And here
at the beginning of this exciting new year, we're looking
(24:03):
for followers of Jesus to join the team, come alongside us,
and partner with us as we share the unfiltered truth
of the Bible with people across the country and around
the world with authenticity and bravado. Signing up is simple
and easy when you visit Bold steps. Org or when
you call us at 800 D.L. Moody, that's (800)Â 356-6639. Now,
(24:26):
if it's easier, you can also send your gift in
the mail by addressing your envelope to bold steps. Weekend
820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. And when
you give a gift today in support of this ministry,
we'll say thanks by sending a book titled Winning the
War in Your Mind. Pastor Craig Groeschel exposes the lies
(24:47):
that lead to toxic thinking, and he reveals how to
experience the peace of mind that comes from Christ. Request
this powerful resource today and break free from the negative
thought patterns. Renew your mind and truth when you visit
us online at Bold Steps. Org or call for the
book (800)Â 356-6639. And before we end today, we want to
(25:09):
encourage you to join us on social media and get
connected with our growing online community. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
and YouTube by searching for Bold Steps Radio and let
us know when you're there. Also, be sure to subscribe
to our podcast for easy listening on the go. Open
up the podcast app on your phone or smart device
and search for Bold Steps weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Well,
(25:32):
that's our time for today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you
to join us next time when Mark explains why growth
and change are an important part of our lives. It's
part two of our message from the same title, and
you'll hear it next time on Bold Steps Weekend with
Mark Jobe. Bold Steps Weekend is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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