Growing to Spiritual Maturity - Part 2

I'm doing a continuation today on what I spoke of the last time of here, which is spiritual growth. So it's actually going to be a link in some ways unintentionally, but it's nice when that works between what the sermonette talked about as well. But I'll start by giving you a little bit of a fast-forward from some of the items that we chatted about. So in the last message, I discussed how God consistently works in patterns. And we see that in a lot of places throughout the Bible. But one of those patterns is that all things God has made are intended to grow. That's one of the requirements, and there was even elements of that mentioned in the sermonette. We see it, of course, in plants, right? We see it in animals. We see it in humans. And we even see it in the universe. And we even see in prophecy that this will happen in the kingdom. I mentioned Isaiah 9.7 that says, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. So that's, again, an example. Everything that God has made is intended to grow. Now, a key difference we discussed is how physical growth tends to happen by default. Right? You just feed that boy, and the boy's going to get bigger.

But spiritual growth does not. It happens by choice.

Kind of like physical maturity, spiritual maturity occurs only when we choose to grow, when we choose to live the way that God says we're supposed to as a daily choice in what we do.

So with that as a setup, have you ever thought about just how chaotic life would be if people with critical responsibilities didn't strive for perfection in everything they did?

For example, if you think about the medical profession, what if 99.9% was good enough?

If 99.9% was good enough for nurses, 12 babies in the U.S. every day would go to the wrong parents.

If 99.9% was considered good enough by cardiologists, 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly every day.

If 99.9% accuracy was good enough for pharmacists, 20,000 prescriptions would be filled incorrectly every day. So obviously, mediocrity for the medical profession is not something that we would find acceptable because there's this unreasonable cost that we and others would have to absorb, right?

Imagine a doctor performing an operation on you and leaving it where you accidentally left an instrument inside you and then he goes to take it out but didn't get it all out and he says, hey, I got most of it. You know, concepts like that are so ridiculous they're silly, but I mean, that's the example of what it would be like. But the point is this. We don't accept mediocrity in many areas of our life, so why do we accept it when it comes to our spiritual life?

Why do we pick that? In my first message, I didn't have time to get into a couple items.

One of them is pitfalls that we need to keep an eye out, what I'm going to call danger zones towards spiritual growth. And the second is this concept of how do we spiritually grow? So those will be what I'll focus on as the complement to the last message. A key point we discussed was how the human mind won't stay stagnant and is always growing in some direction. And that's an important part to think of when you think of these danger zones, right? When you think of the danger zones, that settling for growth of just any sort is not acceptable because Satan's influence is such where if we lead to that default, the default is going to take us down the wrong way. God is only interested in us having growth in the right ways. If you will turn to Matthew 13 and verse 15, what we're actually finding is Jesus quoting Isaiah. But what Jesus is pointing out is this verse is showing that God is not interested in seeing hearts that grow dull, that lose their spiritual focus or their fire. And that's one of the danger zones that we have to keep an eye out for. Matthew 13 and verse 15, for the heart of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. So in essence, he's showing that these people have grown, but they've grown in the wrong direction. The mind's not stagnant. And they found themselves in a condition that's hurting them spiritually.

Another example, which you don't have to turn to, you know it, but Matthew 24, 12 says, when iniquity abounds, what happens? The love of many will grow cold. Same concept, right? Grow dull, grow cold. We become, in those situations, cold or heartless, indifferent to things that God says are important. And in return, we start to covet the things of the carnal world because that's the influence that Satan is bringing on us all the time. We're not to grow, you could say, in a corrupt form of conduct. And there's a lot of compromise. There's a lot of corrupt conduct in today's world. Turn next to Galatians 6 and verse 9, and we're going to see another danger zone. As humans, we jump ditches. It's just inherent in what we do. So this is this classic example of if we're not one way, we're in the complete opposite way. We can move from having a heart that has grown dull to growing weary and doing the right things. Galatians 6 and verse 9, and let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So if we don't do spiritually right because of the right motivations, even that can fatigue us. And I would argue the tendency is that we humanly treat life as a sprint, right? We don't realize that life is a marathon. And I guess an example we can have most of us have likely experienced when you do something physically strenuous and you just work so you're you're just exhausted. You're totally spent. And at those times you tend to think, I don't want to ever work that hard again. That just was overwhelming. Well, that's our nature. We want to relax. We want to coast. But if you think about that fact that we're always growing in something, the danger of that, if we relax, what does relax by nature tend to mean? Well, coasting, I should say, is probably coasting is a better example because coasting to keep going, you're going downhill, which is exactly what Satan would like us doing along the way. If we're coasting, we're probably going into a negative direction. So it's easy to forget where our true spiritual strength comes from. I think that's one of the most important lessons about spiritual growth. It comes from God's power. It comes from His Holy Spirit working within us to do what our personal strength and resolve cannot.

If you're trying to do it all on your own, even trying to do the right things, you can grow weary in well-doing because remember, we're being remade into God's nature. We're being remade into His likeness. And that starts with Him working through us. It's a complete remaking of ourselves. It's not just tweaking the edges of the frame where we're going to build out this house. No, this is a complete tear down and rebuild is what God is doing in each of us.

So when we lose sight of the fact that it's God that is working within us, then we can slip into the danger zone of getting exhausted doing right things because we are trying to either do it on our own or we're not being filled enough by God's nature. So two extremes, right? Two different areas. And falling into these danger zones can lead to the type of growth which is which is cantress to a Christian life. Two things to keep in mind. So do we see those around us? Are we watching for those? Have we been only dabbling at being a Christian by just letting things slide?

Or are we trying to live as a Christian based on our own strength? Both of those are not the path to spiritual growth. Please remember, we're talking today about living our lifetime filled with the kind of spiritual growth that reflects the spirit of a converted mind. That's why it's a lifelong journey. It takes time. And when it comes to our walk with God, which is what spiritual growth is, I have a question for you. How good is good enough for you? When it comes to spiritual growth, how good is good enough for you? Another way I guess you could say is, what is your goal in this Christian life? God wants us through His Spirit to be the best believers we can be for the glory of God. And as a teaser for those who aren't at the Ladies Weekend, I'll be talking about the glory of God next week. But that's what God wants. His desire is for us to continue to grow, to mature in our faith every year that we're to be alive. But I would argue if we are being honest, most of us have to admit our personal spiritual goals are not as ambitious as our Lord would like for them to be. And why would I say that? Well, does our effort toward spiritual growth match how hard we strive to become—now fill in your blank—acceptable to your mate or your partner, doing great on a job, having great success, achieving any physical area that makes you feel good about yourself? Is it something that you put the same effort to be a smart student, to be a great parent? You know, you fill in your own space of whatever it is in your stage of life. Are we exerting the same effort to growing in Christ's likeness?

It's interesting, isn't it? It's interesting that we often see the value of growing in physical ways, right? We can make great investment in studying courses, getting degrees, reading books, doing all these different things, but often when it comes to our spiritual growth, we're kind of happy with status quo. That is, again, why we can't fall to a default nature and why God wants us to focus on growth. Turn to Hebrews 5, verse 11 through 14. Hebrews 5, 11 through 14.

Christians in the Bible are really sternly rebuked if they do not grow. And in this situation, the writer of Hebrews had just finished talking about the new high priests, Christ, and then he pivots to the maturity of the believers he's writing to. He openly starts calling out some of the believers, Hebrews 5, starting in 11. Of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. So kind of make an analogy to children. Children are naive, right? They can fall for almost anything, and it's not because they're stupid. They simply lack maturity. And these believers were being described that way spiritually. They were being described as immature in the things of God.

Sure, they possibly were older physically. Sure, they possibly had been decades in the church.

But their spiritual formation wasn't like stage one, a little infant stage along the way. There was no maturity. And then we see in verse 12, and then I'm going to read verse 13. And both of those, the writer is saying they can only digest milk. They can't digest solid food. Verse 13, For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So these people were still digesting the elementary principles of the faith. You could say, like babies, they could only digest milk. I mean, think about if you had a little baby here and you give him a big juicy steak. He's going to starve. He can't chew that. He doesn't have any teeth. It's what are you able to digest? Well, in this situation, we find that there's also a change of expression that's happening. He's now starting to describe living only on milk. You see that being referred to there. And that's important because only what? Maybe babies and very, very sick adults solely live on milk. Now, one characteristic of spiritual maturity is now laid out in the next verse. Verse 14, But solid food belongs to those who were of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So an indication of our spiritual growth is if we're able to do that. But again, put it back to the physical example. If you were to see a 35-year-old man here and all he did was drink milk, you would say, well, that's a little bit odd. Right? But that's the analogy. And the fact is, these Hebrews who should be mature, mature. Solid food for the mature is when you have the senses trained to distinguish good from evil. How are we doing on that?

You know, by this time, the readers were being, you know, was being pointed out, they should be accustomed to the words of righteousness. They should have been able to judge between righteous behavior and foolish behavior, in a sense. How long had they been there and not gotten there? But I guess reflect that on us. How long have you been a Christian? And how deep is your knowledge of God and His Word? And if it's lacking, then we need to realize that a lack of spiritual maturity can be our downfall. And that's where we need to start growing. Okay, so now I'm going to pivot to how we grow spiritually. But I will tell you, I don't have the magic one or two ingredients of spiritual fertilization to help you out. That was something when I first gave this. Somebody said, you're going to tell us in part two about fertilizer for you spiritually. And I was like, what a weird... No, I don't have magic spiritual fertilization. But because if you think about it, every single command in the Bible could be used to answer the question, how do you spiritually grow?

Every... We can start with the Ten Commandments. We can go to everything that Christ said. This is what you should do. We could look through the entire Bible and find those. But then let's flip that. We could take every example of what not to do and say, well, there you go. Don't do that.

In a sense, I could say pray, study, fast, meditate. And we could go down that path. Every sermon you could ever hear almost could fit into that analogy along the way. I could say, hold up your Bible and let's just go through that. And that's what you should do. So I'm not going to go trying to glorify a couple... to do magic bullets and say, if you do this, you've got it down.

But what I'm going to do instead is I'm going to have us focus on some key principles, some key perspectives to guide and bring success to our spiritual growth. If you'll turn to 2 Timothy 1 verses 6 through 7. 2 Timothy 1 verses 6 through 7. A key perspective that I hope you're gaining at the core is spiritual growth is about what we prioritize daily in our lives and in our minds.

That's a very summary way of evaluating how you're doing.

Life is this rehearsal for the future. And we have to see what is ruling, what is taking priorities in our life. You could look at a professional athlete. Even in their off-season, they're practicing, right? They're working. Well, what about us? The first point to our spiritual growth is that we need to stir up the gift of God's Spirit. We need God's Spirit to actively reign in our hearts. 2 Timothy 1 verse 6. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but notice of power, of love, and of a sound mind. The Holy Spirit is interesting here because it's likened to a fire. Well, we've been cold weather. You probably have all had some fires that you've had at your house. Physical fire consumes itself. It burns out. If you don't add another log to that thing, your fire is going to go away. And even there, if you put the wrong type of fuel, it can actually snuff out a fire. So you're having to work with it for it to grow. And this same analogy applies spiritually. Stirring up the Holy Spirit helps us think as God does.

I'll just pick on one of the examples in this verse. Those last couple words which is sound-minded. Having sound-mindedness is where spiritual growth can take place.

When a person is sound-minded, then they're reflecting the spiritual growth and the fruits. Remember we talked about God expects us to bear fruits. That's an example of growth. The fruits of a converted mind. We won't be spouting out radical non-biblical concepts. We won't look at things that are inconsistent. For example, you're here today and I commend you for that. You wouldn't say something like, the Sabbath is done away because that's inconsistent to listening to Jesus Christ who said, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Who kept it every Sabbath along the way? Who said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. We don't worship a day, but rather we worship the God who gave us the Sabbath for the purpose he gave it to us.

You build on things logical and cumulative and the Holy Spirit helps us to love God, to love Christ, to love our neighbors in this spirit of truth that we're supposed to. Okay, let's move on to another principle of how we grow spiritually. And I'll admit when I plagiarized and steeled a good concept from somebody along the way, but back in a 2017 sermon, Steve Myers defined this next principle as the power of zoom.

And I just like that concept, that phrase, the power of zoom. We have all used the power of zoom. Any of you used Google Earth. Remember the first time when you did that, when you put your home address or wherever you're living and you got that first satellite view and you're like, whoa, it zooms all the way down to your little roof or whatever. The power of zoom. Well, we have all sorts of amazing cameras these days.

We have fascinating things that we can do. We can panoramic. You could do slow motion. You can see in the dark. You can do infrared. You can pick the subtleties of temperature, all these unique things that are there. If there was a camera that could take a picture of your spiritual growth, what would it look like? More importantly, if you could take a picture of where you're at today to where you were at a year ago, would you see a difference?

Something to think about. Has your attitude towards spiritual growth changed? And are you satisfied with the amount of change that you see as you compare that picture back and forth? So we were talking a little bit about being childlike, right? The writer of Hebrews, and I got a kick out of this for your parents. You can get a kick out of this one. Someone once said, a baby is a digestive apparatus with a loud noise at one end and no responsibility on the other.

That just made me laugh whenever. But are you still a babe in Christ, or are you engaging in the process that's moving you toward maturity? Are you taking responsibility for your spiritual growth? See, our spiritual role models from the Bible set us an example, and what they do is they zoomed in on God's Word, on fulfilling God's will, looking toward His way.

They set the example, if you look at the Bible as this concept of zoom, they focus exclusively on God's will and avoided getting their vision distracted along the way. And that's the focus that we need to have, focusing on what's most important. So what is it that you're focused on? God has got to be our primary focus. And then the danger zones is where I started, because what takes you away from the right focus. Important to keep those things in mind, too. Our primary focus can't be on our career, or our job, or recreation, or even our family.

That can't be what we zoom on instead of God. Work with me here. That doesn't mean those things don't have their place. But we've got to be careful that our primary focus, what we zoom in on most, is what's most important to God, because He knows what's best for us. With God as our primary focus, then we can correctly view, put in perspective, fill in the the dots there, engaging in our career, being loving in our family, the recreation we do.

But it's the vantage point of what is our primary focus. Turn to Galatians 2 and verse 20. Galatians 2 and verse 20. If Christ is not risen, right, we know the Bible says, well then our faith is futile, because our hope, and for anything and everything that happens outside of this lifetime, is useless. We're still in our sins. The power of zoom focuses on the fact that we have the chance to live forgiven.

We have the chance to live in a new way. And you see Paul writing to that. Galatians 2 and verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

See, so it's not this old person. It's not the old ways, the old sinful nature that should guide our lives. Rather, it's Christ living his life in and through us. That's the part that we can reflect on a lot. And the only way that's possible is by faith in the Son of God, who loved us, who gave himself for us. And when we do that, we celebrate what a great God we have. What an amazing opportunity we are blessed with.

Turn now to Ephesians 4 and verse 15. Ephesians 4 and verse 15.

God has given us the means to grow in the way of Jesus Christ. We must commit ourselves to obey, to follow the model, to follow the example of Jesus Christ. We must keep our focus on God's way and living in it. Ephesians 4 and verse 15. But speaking the truth in love, and I'll come back and focus on that word speaking. We're heard in the sermon head about the tongue in James.

Interesting that that was what was linked here. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things with what is a goal, what is an objective, into him who is the head Christ. So this verse starts by talking of speech and focusing on our words. Focusing on our attitudes behind them helps us grow in all things into Christ's image to know how we should be. Think about that. Trying to understand not just who and what Jesus was, but what made him tick. How he operated in living his life daily. That's something we can look at. And when we do and start trying to act that way, we become more like him. Then when God the Father looks at each and every one of us, he should see we're demonstrating and becoming that stamped image of the character, the virtues, the behavior pattern that he sees in his Son. And at a core, that should be where our lives revolve. Doesn't mean we don't have all the other stuff. We've got to do that. We've got to make a living. We've got to live. We've got to enjoy things too. Perspective. Where is our perspective? What do we zoom in on? A lot of times in the Bible, you see these areas where Christ talked about the oneness between him and the Father. Well, that is what is desired for us. God is looking to see that we're growing in spirit and in truth and in oneness with him in Christ. And it will be seen because God can see Jesus Christ in us, in you, and in me. If you'll turn next to 2 Peter 1 and verse 8. 2 Peter 1 and verse 8.

Remember, we're only received by the Father. I'm sorry, we only receive the Father by receiving the Son. So, mirroring the Son becomes this very important aspect of us growing spiritually. 2 Peter 1 and verse 8. For if these things... Now, I'm not going to read through the whole things, but he's speaking about this progression he did between verse 5 and 7, where he said, when you add to your faith virtue and your verse, your knowledge, all the way to love.

For if these things, this progression of spiritual traits, are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, notice that word about abounding, being fruitful. Growth is expected of us. Bible covers it in so many places. Abounding means we're having this continual growth pattern.

And if that happens, then we will neither be barren nor unfruitful in our knowledge of Christ or how we live like Him. Turn now to Matthew 11 and verse 28. Matthew 11 and verse 28.

The Bible is a very straightforward, pulling-no-punches book, and so often the Bible shows that growth requires work. It requires labor. It requires suffering, right? Those are just... You can't read the Bible and not see a lot of that along the way. But the requirement to grow doesn't have to feel heavy. Heaviness comes when we feel we are carrying the load by ourselves. Or you can even think in your relationships, you're carrying more than you're able to, than you can sustain. That's when we feel heaviness. Matthew 11 and verse 28. Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy-laden. So again, notice that the laborer is mentioned that it's going to be involved in life. He didn't start by saying, come to Me those who don't want to have to labor. That's not what it says. And sometimes we may feel heavy-laden. Didn't say that wouldn't happen either. So many of you are facing a lot of problems, a lot of challenges, health issues, a lot of things can be going on. Christ is where we go not only to find resolution with our sins, but also regarding our spiritual growth. So regardless of what you're going to do, to you Christ says, and I will give you rest.

Growth only comes when we get closer to Jesus Christ. Because He has that ability in our lives to give us an inner peace that we can't generate ourselves. Doesn't mean we're not lifting something, right? He will keep a person in perfect spiritual peace if their mind stays on Him.

The Bible does not promise a health and welfare gospel. Nowhere in there does the Bible say that obedience guarantees success in easier times. That's not what the Bible says.

But it says when we focus our minds on what really matters, there's this renewed resurgence of spiritual growth that we'll see in our lives. And we're coming closer to the Passover. And I pray God helps us all to really embrace those words with this deeper understanding and appreciation of God in us and how we become more like Him. Because as the times get tougher and the influences spread in evil ways, more and more people are going to be tested by, are we spiritually growing? Because we stay firm if we are. All right. That naturally leads to another point that I'm going to steal from Steve Meyers. You'll see this naturally, the two go hand in hand. And that is we need to put on spiritual blinders.

So you need to have the right focus, right? The power of Zoom.

Blinders. So we've all seen blinders on horses, right? There are these little leather things that are on either side of their eyes, and it stops them from looking to the side and looking behind them. All they can do is look forward. They look toward and they press toward their finish line. Well, we can see that humanly, before we even go spiritually, right? We see physically people who succeed by setting goals, establishing boundaries, focusing in on where they need to go. And when we do that, we can overcome all sorts of obstacles, including our past, including our mistakes, things that have previously limited us. Understand, no matter where you come from, you are not perpetuating you are not perpetually flawed by your background or your past. You have the ability to move forward. We all have the ability to not let our negative past define our future. Well, that's what Satan tries to do. And frankly, that's what Satan tries to do with us spiritually. He tries to have us focus there or the poles around us. Those are the little distractions. You can only say the little squirrel moments where you're like, I'm focusing God on the powers of whoop. Oh, okay, the power of focusing whoop. We get our squirrel moments spiritually. We should consider God's standards in our life as a right kind of blinder to guide and to alter our behavior. Because when we rely on God's Spirit, and we live by the standards, then it helps in what we do. It should help us to modify day by day if we're making the little things. Like we heard in the sermonette, little things were like, oh, that's not a path. I should be going down and make the next right decision. Of course, correct. That's what guides us. And when they don't align with God's standard, then we say, I'm not going to focus on that. My blinders are pointing me in the right direction. I'm staying focused on what's everlasting. That's what God wants us to do. Turn over to 1 John 2 and verses 15 through 17. 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17. So again, context is always good. In this next verse, John is reminding us of the kind of spiritual blinders we need.

And Satan's legions want to use distractions. Satan wants to use a lot of variety of things. It doesn't matter what it is. As long as pointing us from the power of Zoom to the right thing, all other paths lead to where Satan's happy with.

John lived this long life. This was toward the end of his life. He's one of the last, well, he was the last of the apostles alive. And who knows how, you know, what it was like in the 90s AD when this was written. And so he's pleading with the people. And so to try to get the feel of it in a common vernacular, I'm going to read these verses in both the New Living Translation, as well as the message, which is a transliteration. But I think it gives an interesting way of putting the passion being shared. So I'll start with the New Living Translation. 1 John 2 and verse 15. Do not love this world nor the things it offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasures, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does or please God will live forever. Now let me read this from the message, which again is a transliteration. It's not a word for word at all, but it's conveying a thought here. Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world, wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important, has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting, is on the way out, but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. Interesting wording along the way. We can't wait until the point of Satan's attack to decide, oh, I need to put on some spiritual blinders that are based on God's standards. It's too late. If we wait, we're going to lose our temper. We're going to act out of envy. We're going to act out of lust or pride.

So we need to have God's standards set in place around our heart and work on it daily so that before a challenge or a temptation comes, we're ready. What standard do you have in place now?

And where are you at in that? Where are the standards or the guardrails you can put to help yourself spiritually grow? Something to think about this week.

When God's standards are already in place, then temptations take on a different power over us.

We focus instead on doing what the Lord requires, and then you can take the path to all the commands, but just do justly. Do right. Love mercy. Walk humbly. We place our focus in the right area.

All right, if you will turn to 2 Peter 3 verses 17 through 18. 2 Peter 3, 17 through 18. I said I wasn't going to go into the house of spiritual growth one by one, but this is probably the verse that comes to mind first when you think of spiritual growth, so I didn't think I could do this topic without taking this verse on. So we're about to read the last words of Peter.

Peter was this old man who lived his life on the principles that he was taught.

And again, I think it's anytime you see somebody near the end of their lives, I remember with my parents, they really want to convey points that really matter. They're focused here. I've learned these lessons. This is what Peter was doing, encouraging people to live this new life motivated by God's revelations. And he then was saying God has everything under control. He was martyred shortly after writing this. He said, and then he started going to these warnings and saying not to get sidetracked by people wrestling with different interpretations of God's word. 2 Peter 3 and verse 17. You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware. In other words, I'm warning you ahead of time. Beware. Lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow. That word is literally keep on growing, is the tense in Greek. So again, we see this spiritual growth is necessary.

Physical growth comes by default. Spiritual growth is different. It requires daily choices.

Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. It's a beautiful verse. Many people who this is their favorite verse in the Bible. But what we see in 2 Peter 3 18 is he said believers or disciples are called to this two-part growth process. So the first thing is believers must grow in grace. All right, what does that mean? God is this giver of grace and it relates to this special favor that God has given to us. I heard a phrase or read a phrase in this one that I thought it was not provoking, so just I'll read it twice to you. But when we're baptized, we achieve a new birth, which is our spiritual beginning. Growing in God's grace is our becoming. Say that to you again. When we're baptized, we achieve a new birth, right, which is our spiritual beginning. From there, growing in grace is our becoming. That doesn't mean we're more saved. Rather, growing growth shows God we earnestly and we deeply commit to our calling. For those we have some young kids here, it's not like you're using Jesus Christ as this cheat code to say, whoop, I'm going to zoom to the end and win the race, win the game. That's not what it's about. We're not here to win salvation without being willing to exemplify our faith by living in obedience. Growth is us practicing because it means that much to us. Our lies are basically in conformity to the character of God, which He revealed in Christ. And grace and love are capstones of us that show through us if we're exemplifying that. If that's who we're becoming. Next believers are told they must grow in knowledge. But notice it's not just any kind of knowledge. It's in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Knowing the person of Christ is not the same as knowing books. Now that we've tasted of the Lord's kindness, we're to crave spiritual food. We're to crave becoming like Him. And again, we can go back example of a child and use that in a positive way. In this one, you've all heard a child cry for food. I mean, where they're hungry. Everybody in the room knows that baby is hungry. It wants something. Well, do you cry out to God to be nourished by His knowledge so you can grow? I don't like a baby.

I probably should, but I mean it's an interesting analogy of that passion, that desire to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. If you'll turn to Philippians 2 verses 12 through 13. Philippians 2, 12 through 13. As God's Spirit is working in us, then we become more and more like Him. We reflect His nature more. Again, I'll read this one from the New Living Translation. Philippians 2 and verse 12. Dear friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey and the power to do what pleases Him.

I love that. Giving you the desire to obey and the power to do what pleases Him.

Where are you now when it comes to obeying God with deep reverence, with fear? We all have so much room to grow in these areas, but where do you want to be? Because the Bible is this great source of knowledge, but the book does us no good unless we put it into practice. It's like being given this great family recipe they never make it.

What's the point of that? You know, you can't just say, oh, I love God, if you don't live that way. The proof of our beliefs in the truth of God's Word is shown when we actively put His teaching to use in our lives. Spiritual growth. And then growing Christians are constantly using the gifts we've been given. God's Spirit is the one enabling our talents to be exemplified. And then you get that concept of being all you can be. If you'll turn to Matthew 25 verses 31 through 46 as we start wrapping up. Matthew 25, 31 through 46. We're all challenged in the Bible to spiritually grow up.

But humanly, we have our tendencies that we challenge that, right? And we have these things we say. We can say deceptions from Satan like, what can I do? Or, I don't have any useful skills. I'm too old. I'm too young. I don't have the health. It's someone else's job. Fill in whatever you want along the way, because we've all used a lot of those. I want to challenge you to grow in God's grace, to grow in his knowledge, to mirror his nature. Look within yourself and figure out something you want to grow in. If you can't come up with something, ask the person next to you, but then take a gulp and listen calmly. You'll probably come up with the item yourself. But change something in your routine. Matthew 25 verse 31, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his grace, I mean his glory. All the nations will be gathered, all. So that means everyone, before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hands, but the goats on his left. You all know this, but think about where you are resembling these actions. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, prepare it to you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Fruits of actions of righteousness. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Then he will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed it into the everlasting fire before the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will answer him and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did not do it on one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. If God's Spirit is working in us, we will bear fruits in more than words. We will bear fruits through our deeds.

Reflect on your day. Reflect on your week. Reflect on how things are going. Are you resembling Jesus Christ in your actions and what you do? Do you focus on connecting with other humans and being a positive influence in their lives? Because our actions will be, if we're following Christ, to extend his nature, right? His mercy, his kindness, togetherness. Those are areas that we can all look day to day this week and think about. In conclusion, I'd like you to turn to Revelation 17-9. All of the Bible, there's this spiritually or there's simplicity to the intellectual concepts taught in the Bible, the challenges in the doing, but the concepts are there's a simplicity to them. But the magnetism of the world pulls powerfully to drive us toward growing in the wrong things. Our biggest priority is to be part of a very, very spiritual wedding. Revelation 19 verse 7.

And to her it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.

God expects his bride to be ready, and God will prepare and help us to be ready. He will be there along the way. But readiness means we show fruits of spiritual growth. If not, then we can walk away from our salvation. And none of us want to do that. If you remember, I ended the last message with the analogy of a camera, and I asked you how much you have grown in the last year.

As a follower of the risen Christ, we're expected to grow in our daily walk.

The hallmark of God's people is that something has happened in our hearts, and for that to happen, we're spiritually growing daily. I encourage you to have a very good week of growth.