The Keys to a Firm Foundation
Transcript
Hello, I’m David Cerullo. Thanks for joining me. I’m continuing my series I call, “30 Keys to Your Spiritual Growth.” Today I’m going to talk to you about the importance of a three-legged stool.
Many people I talk to who have made the decision to become a Christ follower ask me, “David what’s next? What do I do now?”
Well, I’ve prepared these studies to try and answer some of those questions to help you grow and mature in your relationship with the Lord.
I don’t know about you, but I love the game of football. I played football as a young boy growing up. I helped coach our son Benjamin’s Pop Warner football team for five years. I love to watch the game and of course I have my own favorite teams.
I heard a story once about Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest NFL football coaches of all time. He coached the Green Bay Packers to several championships. His teams were always known for their careful execution of the fundamentals of the game.
Although Lombardi was coaching some of the best athletes in the world, he always reinforced the importance of the fundamentals. The story is told how in the locker rooms, Lombardi would hold up a football and he’d say to his players, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
I’m sure some of them probably thought Lombardi was crazy.
“What’s wrong with this guy?”
“Of course we know that’s a football. We’ve been playing the game since we were kids!”
But Lombardi had a very important message for his team—a message that we all need to listen to. In essence, Lombardi was saying, “Men, no matter how skilled, no matter how talented you think you are, it’s time to get back to the basics. We’ll win football games, not by being clever, not by being complicated, but by focusing and concentrating on the fundamentals of the game.”
You know, just like there are fundamentals to the game of football, there are fundamentals to growing and maturing spiritually in your life and in your relationship with Jesus. And I like to compare these spiritual fundamentals to the three legs of a footstool. Something similar to what I’m holding here in my hands. This three-legged stool—it rests upon three different legs and to me, spiritually, these legs represent the Word of God, prayer, and worship. They’re essential keys to a strong and balanced spiritual life.
If you take away just one of these three legs, you’ll have a hard time balancing yourself on the stool. If you take away two of these legs, the best you’re going to hope for is to somehow balance yourself against the remaining one leg so you don’t fall. If you took away all three of these legs, you’d find yourself flat on the floor, wondering what happened!
You know, it’s the same way many Christians today are missing one or more of their spiritual “legs” in their spiritual “footstool,” and they wonder, “Why am I struggling? Why is my spiritual life struggling to remain balanced?”
You know, it’s not going to function the way it’s designed to function unless all three legs are intact. Balancing your spiritual life is just going to be difficult, if not impossible. Reading and studying God’s Word, prayer, worship – they’re all three indispensable habits and lifestyle characteristics of a person who wants a deep, personal relationship with the Lord.
If you want to grow and mature spiritually, if you want Jesus to become your Lord and not just your Savior, if you want to become a disciple and not just a convert, make sure to invest time every day reading and meditating on God’s Word. Spend time talking to your Heavenly Father…spend time worshiping Him. These are three basic fundamentals that form the daily foundation of your growth in the Lord.
And if all three of these are in proper relationship to each other, your life and your will, will become spiritually strong and balanced. You’ll be able to deal with the circumstances of life that come your way.
But if you take away even ONE of these essential spiritual “legs,” you’ll soon find yourself out of balance.
A lot of believers are searching for some “deep” spiritual truth to make them more spiritual, when their real problem is a failure to do the fundamental disciplines of the Christian life.
You know, this three-legged stool illustration—it, it may seem silly to you, but the deeper life in Christ Jesus comes as a result of learning to live a balanced spiritual life of prayer, of worship, of reading His Word.
Don’t skip these essential foundations for your spiritual growth.
Whether you’ve been a Christian for a long time or are just in the process of exploring a relationship with Christ, make sure you take time to learn how to do the basics…take time for the three-legged stool. Taken together, they will help you experience greater spiritual strength, a more intimate relationship with the Lord, and a powerful new sense of God’s presence and purpose.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow as I continue to talk to you about the important choices that you make every day. God bless you.
PAUSE AND REFLECT
Many Christians are satisfied with only praying in church on Sundays and saying “grace” at the dinner table. If this pretty much describes your prayer life, God wants to take you deeper!
Of course the devil will fight you on this each step of the way. He knows the awesome power you have in Jesus’ name! If the enemy can discourage you from praying, he has neutralized much of your effectiveness as a warrior for God’s Kingdom. You become like a soldier who has been stripped of his weapons and rendered powerless.
Don’t let the devil or the busyness of life distract you from a powerful, daily time of prayer! Find a set time of day or night when you can be alone with God without the concerns of the day whirling around in your mind. For some, this may be the first thing in the morning. For others, it may be the last thing before going to bed. The key is to make a daily appointment to meet with God!
RELATED SCRIPTURES
You can print this page to read for encouragement. Eventually, you might even try to memorize some of these verses!
“Jesus answered. ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours’” (Mark 11:22-24).
“All things are possible with God” (Matthew 19:26).