The author of the Book of Hebrews makes the case that we simply can’t stay with the basic, elementary teachings about faith and spiritual growth. We must move forward to a deeper and more mature understanding of our life in Christ. This makes sense, doesn’t it?

Main Points:

1. Here’s an important truth: God wants you to grow spiritually. He wants you to mature and develop a strong faith. He wants your understanding of his Word to grow so that you can move past the elementary stages and move on to deeper doctrines.

2. We grow by being diligent in our pursuit of knowing God. We read and study His Word. We develop a consistent prayer life. We grow as we regularly gather with other believers and we share our faith together.

3. If you want to grow in your faith, begin to take small steps of obedience to Jesus. With every step, you move away from the basic, elementary teaching and advance to maturity.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Hebrews 6:1 New Living Translation - “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.”

2 Timothy 2:15 - “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

James 1:22 - “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

Jesus paid our debt on the cross. He bore our sins upon his body. He suffered and died in our place, as our substitute. Jesus took the shame, condemnation, and pain we were to bear. He carried our cross and paid the ultimate price. It was a very high price to pay for our forgiveness.

Main Points:

1. Forgiveness comes at a cost. If you forgive someone, you bear the cost rather than insisting that the wrongdoer does. And that is what Jesus, the Mighty God, was doing when he came to earth and lived as a man and died a criminal's death on a wooden cross.

2. Here is an important understanding about our forgiveness: Jesus didn’t have to do it. He was not obligated to take our penalty. He was not forced to do so. He did not have to love us. We are not worthy of his love. Yet, Christ chose to love us. He chose to take our place. He chose to lay down his life for us.

3. What a great and awful price was paid for our freedom. Let us never forget there was a high cost to our forgiveness, but it was a cost Jesus was willing to pay.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

1 Peter 1:18-19 - “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

John 10:18 - "No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord.”

Galatians 2:20 - “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

There is a struggle that all of us face, and it is the struggle of submitting to God’s will. Why is this so difficult for us? Because we really want to do our will. We have our own desires, dreams, goals, and ambitions, and often these desires conflict with God’s will for our lives.

Main Points:

1. But I have discovered that the more we know Jesus and the closer we are to Him in relationship, the more our desires align with God’s desires. The more our will lines up with God’s will.

2. We should first focus on the will of God that is clearly revealed to us in Scripture. Sometimes we are focused on knowing God’s will for our future, but we are not paying attention to what He has already revealed.

3. Trust that God wants to lead you every day in his perfect will.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

1 John 2:17 - “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

Matthew 26:39 - “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Romans 12:1-2 - “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

Joy in the Biblical context is not an emotion. Joy is an attitude of the heart. It is not necessarily based on something positive happening. Joy is something that lasts; happiness is temporary. When happiness fades away, joy remains. Joy is something God deposits into us through the Holy Spirit.

Main Points:

1. In these verses, Jesus actually gives us the key to living our lives with joy. We also see that God intends that His joy would remain in us and that our joy may be full. Imagine being full of joy! How would that change your life? Your outlook? Your attitude and your words? Being full of joy would change a lot of things in our lives.

2. But here is the key. It’s found in “abiding with Jesus.” What does that mean? It means living your life in a close relationship with Christ. It’s daily spending time with him. Pursuing a close and intimate relationship with God daily. The result of this relationship with God is a joy that only He can give.

3. If you find yourself living a joyless life, recognize that it can change today. Begin pursuing more of God. Press into God. Seek Him. Abide in Him. His joy will be yours.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

John 15:9-11 - “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Psalm 16:11 - "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group

There is one key that is absolutely necessary for a relationship to be restored. It requires forgiveness. I’ve never seen a broken relationship restored without forgiveness.

Main Points:

1. A relationship can break down from neglect. A relationship can break down from conflict. A relationship can break down from misunderstanding. The world is literally filled with broken relationships. We see it all around us. It’s possible you have some broken relationships in your life.

2. I know God can heal the pain in our hearts and enable us to offer forgiveness to others.

3. Let’s put our faith in the God who can do the impossible. Let’s ask him to do miracles and to restore our relationships, and let’s be willing to do the hard work of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Romans 5:10-11 – “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Colossians 3:13 – “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group
• 5 Minute Discipleship on Instagram

Loving our neighbor is not simply a good idea or an admirable ethic; Jesus called it the second greatest commandment. We first love God, and second, we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Main Points:

1. The idea of loving our neighbor is beautiful to think about, so long as it remains an idea. But the concrete reality of loving our neighbor, the difficulties and the challenges, strips the beauty away.

2. If God is not the love of our lives, there is no way that we will truly love our neighbor as ourselves. Something happens when you experience the love of God and then begin to love God in return.

3. God desires you and me to love our neighbors. Let’s let his love shine through our lives to those we meet. Let’s make it more than a theory; let's get practical and put love into action.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

Romans 13:10 - “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Galatians 5:14 - “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

John 13:34 - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

1 John 4:20 - “…For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group
• Loren Hicks on Instagram

What a tragedy it is when there is a loss of spiritual identity. I believe you can lose your true identity, give it away, forget it, waste it, or change it for better or worse. It’s also possible that some individuals go through life searching for their true identity and never find it.

Main Points:

1. If you don’t know who you are, then you are vulnerable to other people telling you who you are. But the concrete, solid, gospel truth is that as a follower of Jesus, you are who God says you are, and no one else has a vote in the matter.

2. The phrase “in Christ” is used about 140 times in the Bible. We are said to be “in Christ.” It is the most used term to describe a follower of Jesus. God’s Word is saying to us that if you are trusting Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord, “You are in Christ.” This is your new identity! This is who God made you to be. This is the real you!

3. Reject any label the world tries to give you. As a believer in Jesus, your Heavenly Father has given you your true identity as a child of God.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

John 1:12 - “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Galatians 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group
• Loren Hicks on Instagram

Can I ask you an important question? What do you do when you become discouraged? You need an answer to this question. You need a plan, and you need it now. Discouragement comes to us all. Everyone will face it. Everyone will battle it.

Main Points:

1. Discouragement will make you want to quit. Maybe even right now, as you listen to this podcast episode, you have been fighting the feelings of wanting to quit.

2. There are going to be times when you have to encourage yourself in the Lord. No one else is around. The pastor is not there. No friends are around to help you. Your family is not there. Do you know how to encourage yourself in the Lord? Have you done this? Can you grab God’s Word and feed your soul? Can you find a place of prayer and pour out your soul before the Lord? Can you worship in times of trouble?

3. If you are discouraged right now, remember God's past faithfulness and begin to thank Him for what He has already done. As you worship, watch the discouragement disappear.

Today’s Scripture Verses:

1 Samuel 30:6 - "David encouraged himself in the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9 - “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Quick Links:

• Donate to support this podcast
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
• Get a copy of The 5 Minute Discipleship Journal

Connect on Social

• Join The 5 Minute Discipleship Facebook Group
• Loren Hicks on Instagram