Growing Grace

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Sermon Series

All Have Sinned–But, There's Grace! – Part 7

"Growing Grace"

Pastor Jerry

Ephesians 4:17-24

 

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This is one of the hardest messages about Grace that I have prepared in this series. The reason it is so difficult is because the title combines two normally contradictory terms. Well let’s get back to the point of this message. How do Growth and Grace fit together? It’s what we think when we hear an oxymoron. Do you know what an oxymoron is?  It’s a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Let me give you some examples of oxymorons: pretty ugly, serious fun, boneless ribs, sight unseen, nonworking mothers, less is more, agree to disagree, almost finished, barley dressed, clean dirt, discovered missing, drip dry, drive-thru-window, fighting for peace, freezer burn,  growing smaller, hell’s angels, inside out, known secrete, numb feeling, running in place. I think you get the picture. Growth is not how many. It's not how many times you attend church. It's not how many verses you memorize in the Bible. It's not how many minutes you spend in a devotion time each morning. It's not how many Christian books you read this last year. It's not a matter of how many. A lot of time we make the mistake of thinking that just because I'm involving myself in what may be a growth producing activity I'm automatically going to be growing. Many people have thought through the years that if they just attended church more that somehow they would automatically grow. It doesn't work that way. Growth is how much. It's the quality of life. It's how much closer I am to God than I was at this time last year. It's how much more I love my family because of God's grace. It's how much my character is being changed by God's power. It's not a matter of quantity it's a matter of quality. Jesus didn't say, "I came to give you more things to do in your life." He said, "I came to give you an abundant life. A new quality of life." God gave us His grace so we may grow. God's purpose in our lives is to help us to change. It's what His growth is all about. Today we're going to talk about how God grows us. We're going to find out that just being a Christian doesn't guarantee this change. There is a process of growth that God wants to work in our lives. I know some people who've been Christian a long time but haven't grown a lot. God has a process that begins by grace -- it's a gift -- but it also continues as a gift. We grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We're going to look today at a simple three part process God gives us. It's simple but it's powerful. Here's the process. One of the places it's written for us in the Bible is Ephesians 4:22-24. Listen for the three parts. "You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."  First of the Three parts:

1. YOU PUT OFF THE OLD. The old is what used to be. The old is my life without Christ and everything that had to do with that. First, let’s focus particularly on old ways of trying to grow, old ways of trying to make myself better and focus on three of them that don't work according to what Jesus had to teach us about real, genuine personal growth:

1. Trying to grow by doing good. If I could just do enough good things then I'm going to grow. Jesus gave His disciples then and now a great picture of why this doesn't work. He talked about wine and wineskins in Matthew 9:17 "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." What's He talking about here? In that day they would pour the new wine into a leather wineskin and as the wine fermented it would expand and the wineskin would expand with it. Outside, the sun would beat down on it and the wineskin would harden, then they'd pour the wine out. If you took new wine and poured it back into that old hardened wineskin it would burst as it began to expand.

What Jesus was saying was you need room for growth, for expansion. There's no room for genuine change in doing more things. I can't grow just by doing more and more good things. Increasing the means doesn't improve the result.

2. You don't grow by keeping rules. Hebrews 13:9 "Your hearts should be strengthened by God's grace, not by obeying rules." It's not by obeying rules that my heart's strengthened. It's by God's grace. Rules cannot produce growth. What's the place of rules in the Bible? It helps you to focus on God. When you use rules to try to produce growth, all you get is religion. That's what religion is. Trying to make a bunch of rules about my relationship to God thinking somehow that's going to produce growth. It never has worked, it never will work. Growth comes from grace.

3. Trying to grow by feeling bad. Doing good things can’t produce growth. Rules can't produce growth. And guilt can't produce growth, but we think sometimes, "If I just feel bad enough about myself, maybe I'll get better." Just logically, you can see what that wouldn't work. If I feel bad about myself, I don't get better, I just feel bad. Look at the promise He makes to those who put faith in Him in Romans 8:34 "Who then will condemn us? Will Christ? No. For He is the one who died for us and came back to life again for us." If God doesn't condemn us, why do we spend so much time condemning ourselves as if that's going to work, change us. It doesn't change us.

If I don't grow by feeling bad about myself, if it doesn't work just to have a list of rules, and doing good things doesn't cause it, what does? Here’s the second part of the process of growth:

1. I PUT ON THE NEW. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come." This is a promise for those who are in Christ, for those who have trusted their lives to Christ and His leadership. It's an incredible promise. The promise of the Christian life is the old has gone, the new has come. A couple of things about this new life that God wants to give to us.

1. We don't have to achieve our new life. I don't have to make it work on my own. Newness is a creation of God. We don't have to make ourselves new. We just have to put on the new life He's given us.

2.  We don't have to keep our new life. I don't have to hold onto it. Colossians 3:3 "Your old sinful self has died and your new life is kept in Christ in God." Christ, in God is holding the key and He's never going to give up on you. That the security of this new life that God has given to us. I don't have to achieve this new life. I don't have to keep this new life.

3. I do have to put on this new life. There is a decision that I get to make, that I'm allowed to make everyday of my life about this new life that God wants to give. I do get to put it on.

It's a constant decision. Stop worrying about my life, start trusting God when it comes to taking care of me. Sometimes it's a decision made dozens of times the same day. Take off the old, put on the new. It's God's new way of living. The way Jesus talked to people becomes more and more the way I talk to people. The way Jesus dealt with relationships becomes more and more the way I deal with relationships. There's ups and downs in it. It's not perfect but it's growth and you're moving ahead. That's the process of taking off the old and putting on the new. The empowering step is number three in the process. That's why the third step is so important. III. BE RENEWED IN YOUR MIND. This step of God, renewing our mind, empowers us to take off the old and put on the new. Romans 12:2 "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think." That's where the power is. God wants to change the way we think. A renewed mind. God's changed the way we think so I can see things as He sees them. I've often thought if I could just see life as God sees it, really see it as God sees it, it would change me. I would see how, and why and what to do.  Being renewed in your mind is starting to think about God in a new way, in His way. He's the one who empowers our grace. A renewed mind is not just determination. It's determined dependence on God. Galatians 3:3 "You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolish." It's grace all the way through. What I'm saying to you today is the Christian life is not a life of rules. The Christian life is a life of new power. You're living a new way because you have a new power in your life. Real faith in Christ is built on God's grace. There's two questions people have about this thing called growth that I've heard come up again and again. The first is this: "Why does it take so long? I want to change and I change a little but why is it taking so long?" When something is valuable, it's worth a lot. Growth is a process that points toward eternity. When God changes your character, it's not for a few months or years, it's for the eternal life He has for you. The changes that are happening are eternal. They're going to effect and impact eternity. That's why it takes so long. God has a long term plan in mind for your life. The second question that comes up is "Where do I start in this thing of growth?" One word: TRUST. Start with trust. Start by believing in God's ability to accomplish this growth goal in your life. The motivational power for growth isn't found within you. It's found within Him. The motivational power is this: God wants and is willing and is working for us to grow everyday of our life. The minute I come to Him and give my life to Him, He's working for me to grow. Growth is not accomplished by trying hard. It's accomplished by trusting Him. That's where growth comes from. There's two unforgettable promises from the book of Philippians about how we can trust God to grow us once we come to Him as Christians. Those of you who are Christians, listen:  Philippians 1:6 says "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." That's a promise. Others of you who may not be a believers, listen: Philippians 2:13 "For God is at work with you, helping you want to obey Him and then helping you do what He wants." Did you hear that promise! Not only does He help me want to do the right thing, He helps me do the right thing. It's not that I never want to do the wrong thing because I do and you do too. But God's never going to give up on helping us do the right thing. That's what grace is all about. He's not going to give up. Today, what I want to close with is an opportunity for you to pray and ask God to make all things new …to Grow you in His Grace.