What is the Only Goal of a Christian?

 

Saints, I follow this pastor online by the name of Jamie Walden. He is former Green Beret, I believe, and has been in firefighting and rescue, etc. before becoming a pastor, He now has a church in Colorado. Anyway, I don't always listen to him but the first 10 minutes of his sermon last week just touched me so very deeply and his Holy-Spirit inspired words truly healed many wounds on my soul that I wanted to share it with you. I thought I could just put a link to the video but if you're like me, I get sent a lot of links for videos and I often just ignore them. So, I transcribed (yes, I did!)  the first 11 minutes of his sermon below just for you. Please take the time to read and if you would rather see and listen to him, here's the video link on You Tube.    

To me, this message is one of the most important messages any Christian can hear. He cuts down to the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. What does it look like? And it's so very simple!  And in its simplicity, everything it takes to be a Christian just falls into place.  

Jamie Walden: Sermon entitiled Forged For Battle, Given on July 3rd 2025 

The hallmark of maturity and a true regenerate heart in the faith is the fact that all I want is the Lord's presence. Like that's it. You know, we talk regularly about Psalm 131, right?

David says, "My heart is not proud. My eyes are not haughty as you know. Oh Lord, I don't concern myself with great matters with things too wonderful for me to understand. But like a child weaned from its mother is my soul within me. My soul is stilled and quieted within me like a child weaned from his mother."

Like your presence is enough. Right? And then you got Isaiah 30:15 which says, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, and in quietness and trust will be your strength, but you'll have none of it." 

He's saying My presence should be enough, it's quietness and trust and in that you're so secure. My presence should be enough for you but it's not.

Then Isaiah 42, don't quote me on that, but I believe it says "and the fruit of righteousness will be peace and its effect will be quietness and confidence forevermore"

Because the reality is that when the Lord's presence is the sufficiency and the desire of all your heart, the only thing that you ever want is actually just his presence. You hear me say all the time about lifting the hem of His garment and sleeping at the feet of your true and better Boaz, right? When the Lord's presence alone is all that you want, nothing else in this life matters.

Like that's why you're able to bless those who curse you. You're able to pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. You're able to do good to those who hate you because you actually don't care. You don't care about the validation. You don't care about the need to be proved right. You don't care about the justice. You don't care about the whatever.

You don't care about the money. You don't care about the hot mess drama. You don't care about the toxicity in your workplace. You don't care that your body is failing you. You don't care about anything. Everything melts like wax before a furnace when the only desire of your heart is actually his presence alone. And that is where the quietness and the confidence and the peace resides forevermore. Amen. 

And so that's what is called progressive sanctification, one of these fun theological words. You guys know I have very little respect for theology and doctrine. To watch the disgustingness of people hide behind doctrine and theology but have no concept of the heart of the Lord.

Yet this progressive sanctification is to get you to that place where you realize that there is peace forevermore in his presence. That actually all you want is Him and Him alone. He'll let you feed the flesh. He'll let you run after the men or run after the women or run after the money or run after the validation. He'll let you feign being a victim for 30 years. He'll let you fight and kick and claw and scream for validation. He'll let the curse of a woman try to rule over a man and wreck her marriage for 40 years to realize that it didn't satisfy. He'll let the man get all kinds of accolades and atta boys and whatever cool guy status possible to realize that didn't satisfy. He'll let all the churchianity go and go and go and all the serving and all the whatever to be validated among your peers and realize that didn't satisfy either.

He is so faithful and loving and merciful and kind and patient and forebearing to let you run it out as long as it takes for you to come to the simple revelation that actually all you ever wanted was him. You just want him and you're totally content and you don't need anything else. You don't need all the little emotional healing bomb whoopies. You don't need dogs to fill the void in your life. You don't need people to fill the void in your life. You don't need stuff to fill the void in your life. You don't need vindication to fill the void in your life. You don't need any of that.

You just want him, quietness and confidence forever more. The fruit of it, the fruit of righteousness will be peace and its effect will be quietness and confidence and evermore. The pride goes away, the haughty eyes go away. Like a child weened from its mother, your soul is stilled and quieted within you. You just want him.

The Lord is set about to deconstruct you and all your idiocracy and your carnality and all these things that have been put on you, these different yolks of slavery. You come into the faith and instantly you forsake your first love. And just as Eve was led astray from a pure sincere and pure devotion to Christ, somebody comes in right away as soon as you give your life to the Lord and they go, "Okay, here put this back on you. This is what it looks like to honor the Lord. Here, take this on. This is what it looks like to honor Lord. Hey, study this. Hey, know this. Hey, do this. Hey, do that. Hey, don't do this. Hey, don't do that." And all the doctrines of men, doctrines of demons of men, they start putting this yoke of slavery and bondage back on you. And Christ is going, "No, dude. Don't you know my word? I said unless you become like one of these children, you can have no part of my kingdom. Zero.

That is one of the most fearsome verses ever. Think about the power of what Christ just said. Unless you become like a child, you can have no part in the inheritance of Jesus. 

"But you need to do these things." And Christ is going, "No, you need to deconstruct." And what does He say to the church in Revelation 2? He says, "Repent and do the things you did at first." But if you don't, I'm going to come remove your lampstand. Uh, whoo. Do you understand what he's saying? I'm going to remove your lampstand from my presence. He goes, "Do the things you did at first. Return to your first love. I know you have a reputation of being being strong and being mighty and being all these things. I'm telling you, you're not. I know you say you're wealthy and needing nothing. I'm telling you, you're not." He's like, "I'm telling you, you're not. You're not."

You've got to repent. And you have to deconstruct all this garbage that life has put on you, especially the church, to come back to a child that goes, "My dad said," That's what we were talking about on Wednesday, right? My dad said, "My dad said he's going to kick that dude's butt if he bullies me again." And my dad's got old man strength. He's gonna work that dude. My dad said that he's going to take care of me. My dad said, "When it's time to go to sleep, he'll let me know." My dad said, "We'll eat soon, son."

I don't have to be fearful of when I'm going to eat next or what I'm going to drink next. My dad said, My dad said, and it should be that simplicity that goes, "Dude, and all I want is His presence. That's all I want." Right? Amen. Amen. This is the power of what Christ is trying to draw us into is this understanding of maturity.

Maturity is not growing in a knowledge. This neognostic nature of the Christian truther movement and all this other filth out there of learning all these spiritual gifts and learning all this stuff and blah blah blah and blah blah. And it's like, dude, you've already been given all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Why would you have to learn it? What he wants you to learn is the sufficiency of his love and his faithfulness. That's what he wants you to learn. He wants you to actually believe that he is who he said he is to you. To you intimately. He wants you to believe that what he covenanted with you, He is never going to fail you. It's never going to fall to the ground. He wants you to believe when he said, "I won't leave you or forsake you," he wasn't lying.

So why are you striving? And why are you in so much fear? And why are you a hot mess? And why are you shaking your fist in His face as if He's not good? That He doesn't have your best interest in mind. That's what He wants you to arrive at, not all this other garbage that the church has put on you and the world has put on you and your family of origin and your crappy parents put on you and your spouse puts on you with all the constant disapproval. None of that stuff is going to stand up at the end of time.

And that's not going to be what's left standing. That's all. It's going to be "My dad said." That's right. That's all that's going to be left. My dad said I will surely not die. My dad said I have eternal life. My dad said I was covered in filth and my sins were like crimson red, but he made them white as snow. My dad said he removed my sins as far as the east is from the west. And though he were to try to recount them, he couldn't even find them. My dad said that he will crush all my enemies under the souls of my feet and I will overcome and sit with him at his right hand just as he overcame and sat with his father's right hand. My dad said, is there anything left to guess about this life and how to navigate this life? Your dad already said. So he goes, "So we deconstruct you. Unless you become like unless you become a dopey toddler bumbling around touching hot flames and picking your nose, but totally content for the day.

Content. And it's fine when you have a little temper tantrum. You know that your mom still loves you and your dad still loves you. You're fine when you're hungry because you know eventually you're going to eat. You're fine because you're just a little dopey toddler that feels secure within your home. And maybe some of you didn't have that experience as a child. I get it. So, it may be hard to conceptualize what it looks like to be a child who's at peace with no fears. I get that. But now in Christ, you have been adopted and you have a new family and a new family name.

Amen. You have a new dad. Hallelujah. a good one where maybe you never had one before. Amen. And so this is what the Lord wants to get us to.. So let the earth give way. Let the mountains be moved from their place. Let the sky be rolled back like a scroll. Let whatever happen! My God is sovereign and my dad said when I begin to see all these things I should stand up and look up because I'm about ready to share a meal with him. I can't wait to sit down and have supper with my dad. Amen. Pretty simple, right? 

MaryLu Here:  After I prepared this to post, I was reading the Bible and the Lord lead me to Philippians 3 where the Apostle Paul is saying the exact same thing!

Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly. Philippians 3:8

I'm using the Amplified Classic because it expounds on the word "know" or "gain" with many versions use.  

Then a few verses later in Verse 10:  

For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death.

This is the true purpose of the Christian life. If we achieve this, then everything flows out from "knowing" Jesus.  

As I was praying over this, the Lord gave me a vision of a child who is deeply loved by a father who raised and cared for her, but this child only comes to him once a day with a list of requests of what she wants. After she asks for everything, she thanks him and just gets up and leaves. And other than that quick time in the morning, she never spends any time with him, at least no quality time. She may text a request now and then about something she needs or send a picture of what she's up to. But she doesn't really want to get to know her father, not personally. She doesn't want to hear his stories, ask him about his life, his dreams and hopes and listen to him share his life with her. 

I've experienced this recently in my own life with my own children and some of you can probably relate. One thing it has done for me is help me understand how the Lord Jesus feels when so many of his children treat Him like this day after day. So, don't treat your Father in Heaven like this, the only One who has never left you, the only One who loves you unconditionally, who suffered and died just for you!  Spend time in His presence. Make it a priority to get to know Him and to yearn to know Him more each day!