January 26, 2025 • 47 mins
Tyler Lynde explores how God provides everything we need to grow deeper in faith, using a vivid illustration of his grandfather’s transformation of a barren Wyoming valley. Much like the reservoir system that brought water to dry fields, God’s grace flows into our lives when we recognize that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. In 2 Peter 1:3-10, the Apostle Peter describes the virtues—faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love—that form a road map for believers to grow spiritually and remain fruitful.
Tyler shows that these qualities aren’t meant to be passive; they require our active participation. Spiritual growth happens when we cultivate the “soil” of our hearts through prayer, study of Scripture, and daily reliance on the Holy Spirit. It also involves real-life application—choosing love over indifference, practicing self-control when temptation strikes, and persevering in the face of challenges. Through these acts, we discover that God’s power empowers us to overcome the corruption of the world and live with renewed purpose.
Far from being a rigid list of moral requirements, these virtues flow from Christ’s presence within us. Tyler reminds us that sanctification is God’s work in our lives, but we have a role in it, too—similar to how a farmer cooperates with the natural elements to produce a healthy crop. By drawing on God’s promises, we find the strength to live in a way that honors Him. Those who neglect these qualities, however, risk spiritual nearsightedness and forget the cleansing they’ve received.
Tyler also highlights the impact of love, the final and supreme virtue in Peter’s list. This kind of love transforms not just our inner lives but also our relationships with others. Real stories of steadfast believers, like Miss Jean Wright, remind us that love is more than a concept; it’s a powerful expression of Christ’s character at work in everyday life. As we learn to practice this love, our faith communities become life-giving places that encourage deeper growth and wider influence.
By the end of this message, the takeaway is clear: growing deeper in Christ directly influences how we reach farther in our families, churches, and communities. As we cooperate with God’s Spirit, we’ll find ourselves equipped with everything we need to remain steady, bear fruit, and share hope with a world longing for something more.
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Tyler Lynde (00:03):
We've been talking about for the last couple of
weeks, something that we feellike as an elder team, that the
Lord spoke to us for this year,and it's just a simple phrase
together, growing deeper so thatwe can reach farther.
Together, growing deeper so wecan reach farther.
Last week, we spent timetalking about what it means to
(00:25):
belong together.
We belong together and we knowthat Jesus, because of his
sacrifice, made a way for us tobe made right with God and to be
a part of his family, and alsoa part of that great work that
Jesus did is that he put ustogether with the body of Christ
to be a part of each other'slives, and we also, so we belong
(00:46):
to God and we belong to eachother, and we talked about the
importance of that, and thismorning we're going to focus on
the second value that TCC holdsdear, and that is the word grow,
grow.
We as an elder team want eachone of us, including ourselves,
to grow in God in such a waythat, no matter what we face in
(01:09):
this life, we will not fall.
Can you say that that's theprayer of your heart as well,
that no matter what comes, nomatter what we face, no matter
what is in front of us or behindus or around us, we will
continue, having done all tostand.
To stand, therefore, just asRodney's word was this morning.
We need, we want that.
We have that ability because ofthe grace of God that's been
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given to us.
So the title of today's messageis growing deeper, growing
deeper.
Let's turn in our Bibles tosecond Peter, chapter one.
Second Peter, chapter one, andwe're going to be reading verses
3 through 10 together.
The words will also be on thescreen if you need those.
His divine power has granted tous all things that pertain to
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life and godliness, through theknowledge of him, who called us
to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us
his precious and very greatpromises, so that, through them,
you may become partakers of thedivine nature, having escaped
(02:15):
from the corruption that is inthe world because of sinful
desire.
For this very reason, makeevery effort to supplement your
faith with virtue, and virtuewith knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control, andself-control with steadfastness,
and steadfastness withgodliness, and godliness with
(02:35):
brotherly affection, andbrotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities areyours and are increasing, they
keep you from being ineffectiveor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ, forwhoever lacks these qualities is
so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was
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cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all themore diligent to confirm your
calling and election, for if youpractice these qualities, you
will never fall.
Let's pray, father, in Jesusname, it is our desire that we
would not just enter the racethat you've called us into, that
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we would not just run it wellfor periods of time, but, lord,
that we would finish the racethat you have called us into,
the race of this life in servingyou and following you, in
pursuing you.
And so, lord, we ask that today, that you would help us to lay
aside old ways of thinking, oldhabits, perceptions that we
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might have that are wrong.
And, father, would you help us,by your grace, to see that
you've given us everything thatwe need to be able to accomplish
what you're asking of us.
Lord, we desire to grow deeper.
We desire to grow deeper in youand because of you, and so we
ask that you would help that tohappen this day and beyond.
(04:01):
In Jesus name, amen.
Let me make one thing abundantlyclear this morning I am not a
farmer.
Any farmers in the house.
There's some of you that wouldthat could be qualified as that,
or at least what.
You maybe consider yourself ahorticulturist right Fancy word,
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whatever it is.
But yeah, I'm not a farmer.
But my grandfather on my mom'sside was an amazing farmer, and
he and my grandmotherhomesteaded in a valley in
Wyoming that had a lot ofpromise.
The soil was very rich, veryconducive for growth, and the
sun hit the valley in suchsplendorous ways that it was
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just ideal for growing produce.
But here there was one majorproblem.
Can you imagine what it was?
So we have good sun, we havegood soil.
What are we missing?
Water?
In the summertime in Wyoming,in this valley, they have very
little rain, and whenever itdoes rain, it rains so much that
it just washes everything out,so it's not very helpful for
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growing things, right.
So my grandfather's consideringokay, well, we're living in
this place, this is our home,we've got to figure out how to
make this work.
And I believe he had arevelation from God.
And what did he do?
He found a low spot and he duga hole.
And he dug the hole bigger andbigger and bigger.
And what happened is in thespringtime, when all of the
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hills and mountains that weresurrounding them had snowpack
that was two or three feet tall.
When all of that began to melt,guess what happened to the hole
?
My grandfather dug it filledwith water, and off of that hole
, which we call a reservoir, hebuilt canals that flowed down
through all of the differentfarms.
And they put gates on each oneof those farms so that the
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farmers, during the summertime,when there was no rain, could
open that gate for certain timeseach week.
And there was kind of a systemon how they did all of that and
the water would flow throughtheir fields so that they would
get the water that was neededfor growth.
And that valley became the mostfertile valley in all of
Wyoming, to the point that theyactually, after my grandfather
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passed away, people actuallybuilt a monument there in the
valley representing mygrandfather and the work that he
did there to increase andimprove the value of that place.
So again, I am not a farmer, butI understand farming a little
bit, just from that perspective,and I want you to know that, as
good of a farmer as mygrandfather was, we have a
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farmer, father, who's muchbetter than anybody here in this
life, and he desires for us tobe cultivated, for us to have
everything that we need toadequately grow in the way that
he desires for us to grow.
Isn't that good news?
And that's what we're going tofocus on here this morning.
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So in our Bible passage today,peter is communicating about the
importance of a much moreimportant type of growth.
So what did my grandfather grow?
He grew alfalfa and barley.
Those were the crops of choiceand actually he would take hay
all the way down to Arizona andNew Mexico and distribute it in
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a lot of different places, andit was some of the best hay that
they got.
But we're not talking aboutthat kind of thing this morning.
We're talking about spiritualgrowth.
This book that Peter wrote waswritten towards the end of his
life, and he wanted to make surethat Christ's followers were
focusing in on what reallymatters, what was most important
.
So let's dive together intothis passage and learn from it.
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Are you ready to learn?
Amen, all right.
First point God has given useverything that we need to grow
deeper.
Isn't God a good God?
Come on.
He's given us everything thatwe need to grow deeper.
And let me just read that firstparagraph again and think about
it in terms of this statementthat I've just made.
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His divine power has granted tous all things that pertain to
life and godliness, through theknowledge of him, who called us
to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us
what does the word granted mean?
He's given to us, granted to us, his precious and very great
promises so that, through them,you may become partakers of the
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divine nature, having escapedfrom the corruption that is in
the world because of sinfuldesires.
Now, the early church spoke alot about something that they
called union with Christ.
And where did they get thisidea?
Did they just come up with itone day?
No, they got it from the wordsof Jesus, and also from the
epistles, and especially fromthis letter in this section that
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we're talking about.
This was one of the letters andone of the sections that they
got this concept out of, andit's something that has a
two-pronged reality.
For believers, what is unionwith Christ?
It is the simple fact that I amin Christ and Christ is in me.
I am in Christ and Christ is inme.
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Again, brooke had no idea what Iwas going to say this morning,
and what was the last song thatwe sung?
In Christ alone.
And it was the last.
The last verse of that songtalks about not only are we in
Christ, but Christ is in us.
This very song, again speakingto what we were going to share
with you this morning, I believethat Peter is alluding to these
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two truths in this firstparagraph, in the opening
paragraph of our text thismorning.
So let's look at I am in Christ.
What does that mean?
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness
because of the saving knowledgeof Jesus Christ.
What does that mean?
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness
because of the saving knowledgeof Jesus Christ.
How many of you know that wewere lost and outside of the
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realm of his kingdom?
We were lost and we needed help.
And Jesus came and lived aperfect life and died on the
cross for our sins, and he alsorose from the dead.
We know that he ascended intoheaven and is seated at the
right hand of the father.
And if we will put ourconfidence, hope and trust in
what I just said to you, then webecome a part of God's family,
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and when we become a part ofGod's family, he grafts us in.
Now again, I'm not ahorticulturist.
I don't play one on Sundays soI'm not going to pretend, but I
know that there are processes,there are ways that you can
cause growth to happen byplacing a branch into a root,
into the tree itself right,there are ways to do that, and
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so that's what it's talkingabout.
Our dead, lifeless, fruitlessbranch has been grafted in to
the vine of Jesus Christ.
Remember what it says I am thevine and what?
And you are the branches.
We have been grafted in.
We are in Christ.
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We have been grafted in.
We are in Christ as a believer.
God has chosen us by his divinepower and he's made us alive to
him.
The technical word for that,the theological term, is
regeneration.
It's when he makes us alive,when that dead spirit that we
have on the inside of us is madealive to God and we're able to
acknowledge our need for him.
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Thank God, how many of you haveresponded to the gospel call and
have put your faith and hopeand trust in Jesus Christ?
All right?
How many of you want a hundreddollars?
I'm just looking for a responsethis morning.
Are you with me?
All right?
Amen, it's important.
I don't have a hundred dollarsto give you all, but, lord, you
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can provide right.
So when we put our faith andtrust in Jesus Christ, the
father welcomes us into hisfamily.
We think about adoption.
What a beautiful thing it iswhen a family there's a family
in our church right now that hasbeen caring for a young child
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and the young child had beenabused and a very drug addicted
mom and dad that was notinvolved and they've been
fostering this child and caringfor her and and now she's doing
so much better.
She had so many sensory issuesand and developmental issues
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when she came into their homeand and, by God's grace, and
because of their love thatthey've shown her and the fact
that they've treated her nodifferent than their own, very
own children that they havebirthed, god's done some amazing
things in this child's life andthey're in the process, by
God's grace, of adopting thischild to be theirs and I
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guarantee you there's going tobe no distinction in that
household when this young ladytakes a new name.
How many of us have taken a newname?
We're no longer.
We no longer belong to the Godof this world.
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We belong to God.
We are his children and we'vebeen grafted in.
We abide in him.
Christ is the anchor of ourlives.
Now that in itself is prettyrevolutionary, isn't it?
We could land there, and thatshould be enough.
We could spend the rest of ourlives focusing in on that, and
it wouldn't be wrong to do so.
But as good as that is, godwants to add to it.
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He wants to make it even better.
I feel like I'm doing aninfomercial right now.
But wait, there's more, right?
No, thank God, god's not asalesman in that way, but man.
It's true, there's more,because not only am I in Christ,
but Christ is in me.
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Think about that for a minute.
Think about that for a minute.
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness,
because the divine nature of Godis living inside of me.
I don't think we believe thatfully, or at least we don't
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recognize it, but it's true.
These are not my words.
These are the words of Godfound in scripture over and over
again.
Remember, jesus continued toencourage his disciples about
what.
What was the promise that theywere waiting for?
He said it's.
It's important for me to leave,it's important for me to go
away.
It's to your advantage that Ileave and that I go away,
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because what's going to happen?
I'm going to come again.
But in between what's happening?
I'm going to send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he will
be with you and he will dwell inyou, in you.
What was it that gave Peter theability to go to the cross and
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to ask if he could be crucifiedupside down To not take any
honor or glory away from hisSavior?
It was God in him, christ inhim, the Spirit of God in him,
christ in him, the spirit of Godin him.
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We partake of the divine natureof God.
Wow, hard to fathom, hard toimagine.
You know, we say this all thetime, but think about it in
terms of this concept.
The same spirit that raisedJesus Christ from the dead lives
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in us.
Wow, I was talking to somebodylast week and I said what's the
Lord speaking to you about thenew year?
And he said he's talking to meabout the Holy Spirit.
And I said we'll explain whatyou mean.
And he said did you know?
The Holy Spirit was the one whodid the work of creation.
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If you think about it, if youread back to Genesis 1, god the
Father had the design and Jesusspoke the word and the Holy
Spirit was hovering over theearth in order to do what To
cause the words of Jesus to cometo pass?
Light be and the Holy Spirit.
Whatever he did, light wasright and he said what I want
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people to realize is that thesame Holy Spirit who is a part
of creation lives inside of them.
He happens to be a preacher, sohe's interested not only in
understanding that for himself,but he wants other people to see
it, other people to understandit.
How would your life change ifyou really believe that?
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How would my life lookdifferent if every day, I walked
around in this life believingthat that was true?
Going on in John 15, 5, westarted there it says whoever
abides in me and I in him, I'min Christ and Christ is in me,
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he it is that bears much fruit,for apart from me, you can do
nothing.
How many of you tried religionbefore you got saved and how did
that work?
For you Doesn't work.
Religion doesn't work.
It waves a carrot in front ofyour nose but you're never able
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to catch it.
We need, we need, we don't needreligion.
We need a relationship with theone who's living on the inside
of us as believers in Jesus,knowing that we've been given
everything that we need to beable to grow deeper.
We now turn to our part of theprocess.
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Let me talk to you about thistree.
So a lot of times when theyshow imagery and drone footage
after a tornado or after ahurricane, the devastation is
incredible, right, it's reallyhard to even fathom.
But sometimes I focus not onthe devastation, but I look for
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the few trees that are stillstanding and I'm like what in
the world made a difference withthat tree?
How could all of the treesaround it be completely wiped
out?
And yet this one tree continuesto stand.
God wants us to be that tree.
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He wants us to be that tree.
And why do we need to growdeeper?
Because what's deep?
The water that we need forgrowth, and there's also
stability that comes as our rootsystems grow deeper and deeper
into good soil, and so when thewinds come and when the storms
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come, and when difficulty comes,or even when good times come,
we will continue to stand.
So, now that we know that we'vebeen provided by God everything
that we need to be able to growdeeper.
Now's the part that's fun.
We must actively pursue growingdeeper.
We must absolutely, absolutelyactively pursue growing deeper.
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Let's read again the secondparagraph.
For this very reason, makeevery effort to supplement your
faith with virtue, and virtuewith knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control andself-control with steadfastness,
and steadfastness withgodliness, and godliness with
brotherly affection, andbrotherly affection with love,
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with love.
God's work in the life of thebeliever does not end at the
moment of conversion.
It's not.
I'm born again and I'm justwaiting for heaven.
I'm just waiting for glory.
That's it.
It's over with God's finishedwith me.
How many of you know the work isfinished as far as the
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completed work of salvation andredemption?
Absolutely, it's finished.
But how many of you know Godstill intends for us to grow?
He still intends for us to betransformed, to be changed.
He still intends for us tobecome more and more like Jesus.
The new birth is not the end,it's a beginning.
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How many of you know?
When there is health, growthnaturally happens.
I'm going to take a littlemoment for myself and my wife
and our family today andacknowledge the fact that our
youngest granddaughter, nora Joy, and Shelly and Neil as well,
nora Joy is one years old today,today, and I still look at her
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and I think she's so tiny, she'sso tiny and yet look at
pictures when she was born andguess what?
She's not so tiny anymore.
How many of you have a room inyour house, a doorframe
somewhere in your house, wherethere's a bunch of pencil marks
on it?
Yeah, why is that?
You notice?
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I never, we never do the pencilmarks this way, this way, yeah,
should we start a new trend?
No, no, get that image out ofyour head.
We don't need to think aboutthat.
But we're growing deeper today,not wider, okay, but anyway,
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what are we recognizing withthose marks on that doorframe?
Growth happens.
Marks on that doorframe Growthhappens.
Growth happens when there'shealth.
It's a natural part of healthylife and, like I said, god gives
the children all that they need, but the children us.
We must apply ourselves and bediligent to use the means of
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grace that he has provided forus.
We're in Christ and he is in us.
Spiritual growth is notautomatic.
How many of you?
When I was younger, I reallywanted to be close to God, and
so I had been studying aboutosmosis.
You guys know this and so Iwould literally, at night, take
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my Thompson chain referenceBible, my leather bound Thompson
chain reference King JamesBible, because that's what we
had and that's what we used,right, and I would place it over
my head as I was going to sleepto somehow, you know, absorb
the words on those pages.
Now today, I know there'sthings like Alexa and all of
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that that make it a little bitmore, a little more conducive to
actual growth, right?
So I'd wake up with a neck ache, or anyway.
I only did that like once ortwice.
Don't judge me.
Okay, it's not automatic.
It doesn't just happen becauseyou're around it.
Just because you have a familybible in the living room doesn't
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mean you're growing, right.
It requires cooperation withgod and the application of
spiritual diligence anddiscipline.
This process that we're talkingabout is sanctification.
Sanctification what does thatword mean?
It means being made holy or setapart for a special purpose.
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Did you know that God chose usto be his children so that we
would be set apart for him, tobe holy and to become more and
more like Jesus?
That was his idea, right?
It's a theological termsanctification.
That describes this process.
It's a cooperative effort.
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God does his part, he gives useverything that we need, but
then he asks us to do what, toyield, to pay attention.
Somebody said it like this it'sa cooperative effort between
the Holy spirit and our bornagain Will.
We can choose to participatewith the growth program of God
and we can also choose,unfortunately, to what to resist
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it, and we'll talk about thattowards the end.
The result of this process ofsanctification is to bring us
into spiritual maturity where welook more and more like Jesus.
Where we look more and morelike Jesus.
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I was thinking Jack.
I was reminded today's, twoyears since Miss Jean passed
from this life into glory, andsorry for how difficult that is
even now, but, man, if there wasanybody who represented Jesus
well, it was Miss Jean Wright.
She really understood what itwas like to understand that
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Christ, that she was in Christand that Christ was in her, and
she continued to grow.
I loved the fact that she wasalways so hungry for the word of
God, even when she was at herweakest moments.
You know what her heart's crywas I want to be in church, I
want to be there, I don't wantto miss anything.
89 years old or whatever, 87,whatever, it was still crying
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out for more Lord.
I hope I grow up to be likeJack and Jean Wright.
I sure do.
If faith in Christ remember itstarts out.
This section starts out withsaying that we add to faith.
So faith in Christ is the giftfrom God that all of the first
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paragraph highlights.
This is the gift that God hasgiven us, the gift of faith, the
gift to believe, the gift tostand Again on Christ and on a
solid foundation.
All of the othercharacteristics are built upon
that.
So think of faith like the rootball.
You've all seen probably maybeyou've seen it yourselves or
seen it on TV a large tree beingtransported.
And what do you have to have inorder for that tree to thrive
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in its new location?
You have to have a good, alarge root ball, right, and that
root ball is planted into theground and then, out of that
root ball structure begins tohappen, and it's most of it's
under the surface.
At first you don't even see it,you don't even recognize it,
but it's all happening.
Everything's growing andshifting and changing and
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forming, and before long thattree that had been ripped out of
the earth and placed in a newhole is now strong again, right.
So think of faith like the rootball, and we're going to add to
that this morning.
So let's look at the first rootstructure that we need to grow
deeper in, and that is virtue.
What is virtue?
Displaying exceptionalcharacter.
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You know anybody like this thatis virtuous.
A virtuous person makes theprogression from knowing what is
right to do to doing what isright.
He or she intentionally chooseswhat to say, what to do and
what to value, aiming beyond thegood toward the best.
Is that the cry of our heart,that we would be virtuous people
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, that we would be people whowould move beyond mediocrity and
aim for exceptional character?
Again, god's given useverything that we need to grow
in this, but we get to cooperatewith him.
We get to yield to the spiritof God.
How many of you know how doesthis happen?
How many of you know whenyou're grieving the spirit of
God by a word that you're saying, by a choice that you're making
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, by something you're doing ornot doing?
You feel it on the inside,don't you?
It's cringe worthy.
When the Holy Spirit cringes,we should cringe as well.
So if we want to grow in virtue, we need to pay attention to
that.
We need to tune in more.
We need to feel that andexperience it and hear it when
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it's first occurring in ourhearts and recognize it and
yield to it.
Right then Grow in virtue.
Virtue looks like honesty andfaithfulness and trustworthiness
and humility and so many otherthings.
Here's the good news.
In every one of these, I wantto give you a statement that I
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want you to hold, and that isfirst, with virtue, jesus is
virtuous.
How virtuous was he?
Is he?
He humbled himself to the pointof death on the cross.
He laid down his life for us.
Jesus is virtuous.
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He does all things well and heempowers us to grow in virtue.
Remember he lives on the insideof us.
If you want to be more virtuous, which is what we're supposed
to desire, lean in, yield towhat's on the inside of you.
Pay attention to what the HolySpirit's doing.
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Second one is knowledge.
What is knowledge in this place?
In this I'm looking for theright word application.
There it is it is pursuingspiritual truth.
Do you have a hunger and athirst for righteousness?
Do you desire to know more, tocontinue to pursue spiritual
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strength and truth?
Do you love the word of God?
Do you love reading the word ofGod and studying the word of
God and meditating on the wordof God and singing the word of
God?
Do you want more?
If you want to know more, weshould.
Knowledge itself, by the waycan't be the ultimate goal.
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Remember what Paul saidKnowledge what Puffs up.
So you don't want to just beable to walk around and spew
facts, as amazing as that mightbe.
We want our hearts to betransformed, we want to be
changed.
We want to know what we know,what we know so that we will
stand in the evil day and thatwill help other people to do the
(30:26):
same.
Our purpose for pursuingspiritual truth must be so that
we can know Jesus and his heartwell enough, so that we can
better discern God's will andlive according to God's will.
Remember the words of Paul.
This should be inspiration toall of us.
Oh, that I may know him and thepower of his resurrection.
(30:51):
Yes, stop right there, I canland right there.
I want to know the power of hisresurrection.
Yes, stop right there, I canland right there.
I want to know the power of hisresurrection, absolutely Today.
Lord God, deliver me, save me,heal me, strengthen me, give me
money.
Sorry, I just threw that one inthere because maybe one or two
people are thinking that, or twopeople are thinking that Paul
(31:16):
doesn't just stop there, does he?
Oh, that I may know him and thepower of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his sufferings, that I might be found worthy
to suffer with him.
I have to be honest, it's not apart of my daily prayer routine
(31:36):
, but should it be?
Jesus is filled with allknowledge.
He is the word and he empowersus to grow in knowledge.
You know, it's reallyinteresting If you read Luke 2,
52,.
It says that Jesus grew inwisdom and stature and in favor
(32:01):
with God and man.
God and man, even Jesus.
God and man chose to know, toglean wisdom, to understand, to
pay attention, to listen toother people, to.
He went to church.
(32:22):
Next is self-control, and we'llskip right over that one.
Next is self-control, and we'llskip right over that one.
We'll be disciplined enough toavoid this topic, right?
No, self-control is resistingtemptation.
Resisting temptation.
God calls every Christian to alife of discipline.
Someone has defined this as thecontrolling power of the will
(32:46):
under the operation of thespirit of God, the two working
together, the spirit of God andthe will of men connecting and
working together.
There must be discipline.
In what areas?
In prayer, in Bible study, inthe use of our time, in
resisting the lust of the fleshand the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life, discipline insacrificial living, being
(33:07):
willing to give of ourselves andnot just receive.
We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are called to represent Christ
, and he lives on the inside ofus to enable us and to help us
to live disciplined,self-controlled lives.
How would your world change ifyou stopped getting angry?
(33:27):
I mean sinful, sinfully angry?
Here's one thing I'm going totell you You're not going to get
any self-control from thisworld.
Going to get any self-controlfrom this world Since when has
(33:53):
the F-bomb become every otherword and every phrase and every
statement.
It's sad.
Do not, christians, do not fallinto even the initial, using
the initial.
Let's exercise self-control bythe power of the spirit on the
on the inside of us.
Jesus is self-controlled.
(34:13):
It says of him that he wastempted in every way, as we are
yet without sin, and he lives onthe inside of us to give us the
grit and the power and thestrength that we need to say no
to what he says no to and to sayyes to what he says yes to,
because just as much as it isresisting the negative, it's
(34:33):
also pursuing the positive.
That's what self-control isabout Steadfastness.
Steadfastness is about enduringhardship In this world.
Jesus said you will havetrouble.
(34:54):
We, as believers, are to followChrist's example of
perseverance.
No matter what we are facing.
Endurance is exceptionallydifficult.
Can we be honest?
There are times when enduranceand it wouldn't be called
endurance if it wasn't, if itdidn't come out of difficulty,
it would just be called livinganother day.
But endurance speaks of effort.
(35:18):
It speaks of sweat and bloodand tears.
It speaks of not my will, butyour will be done, especially
during times of illness,prolonged illness and broken
(35:39):
relationships and financialpressures and persecution.
Those who endure to the endwill be saved.
We need to grow deeper inendurance.
I'm going to be honest with youright now.
There's going to be atemptation that comes over the
body of Christ in the next fouryears.
(36:00):
To just take it easy.
Please understand these fouryears are a gift from God that
we do not need to take forgranted.
This is a time for the churchto get strong.
This is a time for the churchto be to grow deeper than we've
ever grown before.
This is a time of preparationbecause, how many of you know,
even though we we feel likewe've can breathe a little bit,
it's not the end.
(36:20):
We know that scripture teachesus that there are dark days
ahead of us, and I'm not sayingthat as a negative confession,
I'm saying that like we need tobe ready.
We're actually going to start anew sermon series in two weeks
on the book of Nehemiah and it'scalled the passion project and
(36:43):
it's going to be all aboutmaking sure that our passions
align with God's passions, andespecially when you're living in
a time where there seems to besome good things happening right
.
So Jesus is steadfast.
It says that for the joy thatwas set before him, he endured,
(37:03):
endured, endured the cross,shame, All of it.
And he empowers us, because helives on the inside of us, to
grow in steadfastness.
Cry out to him, cry out to thespirit.
Help me, I need, I cannot dothis without you.
(37:25):
God loves an honest prayer.
And next we go to godliness.
Godliness is simply living toglorify God.
Living to glorify God when ourlifestyle reflects a holy
reverence for God, christ ismost glorified.
(37:46):
When's the last time that youconsidered the fear of the Lord
in a healthy way?
God, I know that there areboundaries and there are things
that you've set up in my lifeand, lord, help me to not even
desire to put one little toeover the line, little toe over
(38:12):
the line.
Help me keep a holy reverenceand a fear of you and what's
important to you.
When we live for an audience ofone, things get much simpler.
All of the other things andattributes and characteristics
we're talking about affect otherpeople, and so does this one in
a lot of ways, but really allof them.
Our purpose, our motivation,should not just be for the way
that other people will perceiveus.
It should be way down the line.
(38:33):
This should be about ourrelationship with our heavenly
father and representing him well.
If you, if you've taken on anew name, have you taken on a
new nature?
Have you taken on a new way ofliving?
Let's represent him Well.
The Westminster Catechismcorrectly states that the chief
(38:55):
end of man is to glorify God andenjoy him.
How long Forever.
We were built and made to bringglory to God.
Jesus glorified his father inJohn 17, 4.
It says in this high priestlyprayer I glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the workthat you gave me to do.
And guess what?
(39:17):
He empowers us to grow ingodliness.
Two more Brotherly affectionCaring for believers.
This isn't just referring tothe act of caring for other
believers.
It's also about the attitude ormotivation that proves a
genuineness of care.
So, in other words, you carefor them in front of their face
(39:39):
oh I'm so sorry.
And behind their back.
You're what Accusing thebrethren?
Don't they know better thanthat?
Brotherly affection speaksabout the heart, attitude, the
motivation behind why we do whatwe do.
Imagine the early church in thebook of Acts.
How did they prove theirbrotherly affection?
(40:01):
They did whatever it took totake care of each other.
If it meant selling propertyand bringing the funds from the
property in to provide the needsof others, they would do that.
If it meant this guy needed togo help this other person in
their work or something that wasgoing on, they did that.
They did life together.
(40:22):
They cared for each other inpractical ways.
Together they cared for eachother in practical ways.
John 13, 35,.
By this all people will knowthat you are my disciples.
If you have what Love for oneanother, that brotherly
affection, you want to reach theworld for Jesus.
Love each other.
You take just a minute and lookat somebody next to you and
(40:42):
just say I love you.
Now you got to mean it.
No sarcasm, I love you.
Some of you want to be ultrahonest and you say I'm learning
to love you.
If you say that I'm notguaranteeing the result, okay,
(41:06):
all right, let's finish this up.
Love, loving unconditionallythis is a crown of all the other
characteristics that we'resupposed to possess in ever
increasing ways.
It's easy to have affection forfellow believers.
It's easier, right, but lovingunconditionally looks like
loving the unlovable and thedowncast and the broken.
It looks like loving in thesame way that we want God to
(41:29):
love us.
Isn't that interesting?
Like we want God to treat us incertain ways, but we have a
hard time transferring that toother people.
We can grow in that.
We can grow in love.
Jesus is love, isn't he?
In fact, we love him.
(41:50):
Why?
Because he first loved us andhe empowers us to grow in love.
Now, here's the thing If youare not a believer in Jesus
Christ, you can do some of thesethings to a certain extent.
You can be virtuous in some ways, or you can show amazing
(42:12):
self-control and endurance, buthow many of you know?
The only thing that happens inthose scenarios is that those
virtues point to me, what I cando, what I'm accomplishing.
That person gets any glory thatcomes, but when God produces
the beautiful nature of his sonin us as Christians, god
(42:36):
receives all of the praise andall of the honor and all of the
glory, because not only does hechange our actions, but he first
changes our hearts.
So, finally, if we grow deeper,we will be fruitful and won't
fall.
I'm not going to read the wholepassage, but it says if these
qualities are yours and areincreasing, they keep you from
(42:58):
being ineffective or unfruitfulin the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
And later on it says therefore,brothers, brothers, be all the
more diligent to confirm yourcalling and election, for if you
practice these qualities, youwill never fall.
(43:18):
Next week we'll look at what itmeans to be fruitful.
I'm excited about that.
When the roots grow deep, then,no matter what may come, by
God's grace, we will not fall.
Fail to do these things,failure in our lives to pursue
growth in these areas leads tobarrenness, unfruitfulness,
(43:41):
blindness and forgetfulness andforgetfulness.
Now I could stand up here allday and attempt to read your
fruitfulness scale and to listthese seven qualities or
characteristics that it saysthat we're to grow in and to
rate.
Try to rate you based on thoseseven things.
(44:03):
But how many of you know that'snot what I'm talking about here
today.
Now we can help each other.
We can help each other growTriads and all different ways
like that.
Community groups, right.
But I need to look at me, myheart, lord.
Show me my heart, my life.
(44:26):
So in what does it look like togrow at TCC?
It looks like training.
It looks like discipleship.
It looks like family ministry.
Tcc kids in the forge, in thegathering place, in men's and
women's.
It looks like a Bible readingplan.
It looks like Trinity ministryapprenticeship program.
It looks like the Timothy team.
It looks like freedom ministry.
It looks like foundationsclasses.
(44:48):
It looks like coming soon to achurch near you, a Wednesday
night Bible study.
So we're going to call it the30-30, and it's going to be 30
minutes of teaching and then 30minutes of discussion.
Interesting, can't wait.
(45:12):
All right, let's stand orphe.
It's the weirdest thing.
As somebody who again has theprivilege of sharing the gospel
of Jesus Christ, I walk awayevery week feeling like I wish
(45:33):
there just feels like there's somuch more.
This feels like there's so muchmore.
But guess what?
You have the right and theprivilege and the ability to
glean those things for yourself.
We help set the table for you.
We help prepare the way for you.
We help lead you into placeswhere you can eat, but guess
(45:55):
what?
You have the privilege, asindividual Christians, of
pursuing growth for yourself.
We want to encourage you to dothat, amen.
So let's pray for help in thatarea.
Lord, we ask you this day forhelp, father.
I pray first of all for thosewho are not yet in you and
(46:18):
you're not in them.
I ask that today that you wouldreveal your son to them and that
you would open their hearts,regenerate their hearts, so that
they could put their faith andhope and trust in Jesus Christ
and be converted.
This day, in Jesus name andfather, I also pray for us who
(46:38):
find ourselves lacking inseveral of these different
categories of growth.
Father, I pray that you wouldhelp us, that you would
encourage us, that you wouldhelp us, that you would
encourage us, that you wouldstrengthen us, that you would
give us even the desire to grow.
Would you restore the desirefor growth in each of our lives?
And, lord, I also ask that youwould help us to find new
(47:02):
rhythms of communication withyou and of us understanding the
grace that's provided for us andcooperating with that instead
of being resistant and weconfess we can't do any of this
without you, but we also thankyou so much that you provided
for us everything that we needto accomplish what you're asking
(47:25):
of us.
And, lord, I bless your people.
I ask that you would bless themand keep them, that you would
cause your face to shine uponthem and be gracious to them.
I pray that you would lift upyour countenance upon them and
give them peace In Jesus' name,amen.
Amen.
We've been talking about for the last couple of
weeks, something that we feellike as an elder team, that the
Lord spoke to us for this year,and it's just a simple phrase
together, growing deeper so thatwe can reach farther.
Together, growing deeper so wecan reach farther.
Last week, we spent timetalking about what it means to
(00:25):
belong together.
We belong together and we knowthat Jesus, because of his
sacrifice, made a way for us tobe made right with God and to be
a part of his family, and alsoa part of that great work that
Jesus did is that he put ustogether with the body of Christ
to be a part of each other'slives, and we also, so we belong
(00:46):
to God and we belong to eachother, and we talked about the
importance of that, and thismorning we're going to focus on
the second value that TCC holdsdear, and that is the word grow,
grow.
We as an elder team want eachone of us, including ourselves,
to grow in God in such a waythat, no matter what we face in
(01:09):
this life, we will not fall.
Can you say that that's theprayer of your heart as well,
that no matter what comes, nomatter what we face, no matter
what is in front of us or behindus or around us, we will
continue, having done all tostand.
To stand, therefore, just asRodney's word was this morning.
We need, we want that.
We have that ability because ofthe grace of God that's been
(01:32):
given to us.
So the title of today's messageis growing deeper, growing
deeper.
Let's turn in our Bibles tosecond Peter, chapter one.
Second Peter, chapter one, andwe're going to be reading verses
3 through 10 together.
The words will also be on thescreen if you need those.
His divine power has granted tous all things that pertain to
(01:54):
life and godliness, through theknowledge of him, who called us
to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us
his precious and very greatpromises, so that, through them,
you may become partakers of thedivine nature, having escaped
(02:15):
from the corruption that is inthe world because of sinful
desire.
For this very reason, makeevery effort to supplement your
faith with virtue, and virtuewith knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control, andself-control with steadfastness,
and steadfastness withgodliness, and godliness with
(02:35):
brotherly affection, andbrotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities areyours and are increasing, they
keep you from being ineffectiveor unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ, forwhoever lacks these qualities is
so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was
(02:56):
cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all themore diligent to confirm your
calling and election, for if youpractice these qualities, you
will never fall.
Let's pray, father, in Jesusname, it is our desire that we
would not just enter the racethat you've called us into, that
(03:18):
we would not just run it wellfor periods of time, but, lord,
that we would finish the racethat you have called us into,
the race of this life in servingyou and following you, in
pursuing you.
And so, lord, we ask that today, that you would help us to lay
aside old ways of thinking, oldhabits, perceptions that we
(03:40):
might have that are wrong.
And, father, would you help us,by your grace, to see that
you've given us everything thatwe need to be able to accomplish
what you're asking of us.
Lord, we desire to grow deeper.
We desire to grow deeper in youand because of you, and so we
ask that you would help that tohappen this day and beyond.
(04:01):
In Jesus name, amen.
Let me make one thing abundantlyclear this morning I am not a
farmer.
Any farmers in the house.
There's some of you that wouldthat could be qualified as that,
or at least what.
You maybe consider yourself ahorticulturist right Fancy word,
(04:22):
whatever it is.
But yeah, I'm not a farmer.
But my grandfather on my mom'sside was an amazing farmer, and
he and my grandmotherhomesteaded in a valley in
Wyoming that had a lot ofpromise.
The soil was very rich, veryconducive for growth, and the
sun hit the valley in suchsplendorous ways that it was
(04:43):
just ideal for growing produce.
But here there was one majorproblem.
Can you imagine what it was?
So we have good sun, we havegood soil.
What are we missing?
Water?
In the summertime in Wyoming,in this valley, they have very
little rain, and whenever itdoes rain, it rains so much that
it just washes everything out,so it's not very helpful for
(05:06):
growing things, right.
So my grandfather's consideringokay, well, we're living in
this place, this is our home,we've got to figure out how to
make this work.
And I believe he had arevelation from God.
And what did he do?
He found a low spot and he duga hole.
And he dug the hole bigger andbigger and bigger.
And what happened is in thespringtime, when all of the
(05:27):
hills and mountains that weresurrounding them had snowpack
that was two or three feet tall.
When all of that began to melt,guess what happened to the hole
?
My grandfather dug it filledwith water, and off of that hole
, which we call a reservoir, hebuilt canals that flowed down
through all of the differentfarms.
And they put gates on each oneof those farms so that the
(05:50):
farmers, during the summertime,when there was no rain, could
open that gate for certain timeseach week.
And there was kind of a systemon how they did all of that and
the water would flow throughtheir fields so that they would
get the water that was neededfor growth.
And that valley became the mostfertile valley in all of
Wyoming, to the point that theyactually, after my grandfather
(06:14):
passed away, people actuallybuilt a monument there in the
valley representing mygrandfather and the work that he
did there to increase andimprove the value of that place.
So again, I am not a farmer, butI understand farming a little
bit, just from that perspective,and I want you to know that, as
good of a farmer as mygrandfather was, we have a
(06:35):
farmer, father, who's muchbetter than anybody here in this
life, and he desires for us tobe cultivated, for us to have
everything that we need toadequately grow in the way that
he desires for us to grow.
Isn't that good news?
And that's what we're going tofocus on here this morning.
(06:57):
So in our Bible passage today,peter is communicating about the
importance of a much moreimportant type of growth.
So what did my grandfather grow?
He grew alfalfa and barley.
Those were the crops of choiceand actually he would take hay
all the way down to Arizona andNew Mexico and distribute it in
(07:19):
a lot of different places, andit was some of the best hay that
they got.
But we're not talking aboutthat kind of thing this morning.
We're talking about spiritualgrowth.
This book that Peter wrote waswritten towards the end of his
life, and he wanted to make surethat Christ's followers were
focusing in on what reallymatters, what was most important
.
So let's dive together intothis passage and learn from it.
(07:42):
Are you ready to learn?
Amen, all right.
First point God has given useverything that we need to grow
deeper.
Isn't God a good God?
Come on.
He's given us everything thatwe need to grow deeper.
And let me just read that firstparagraph again and think about
it in terms of this statementthat I've just made.
(08:03):
His divine power has granted tous all things that pertain to
life and godliness, through theknowledge of him, who called us
to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us
what does the word granted mean?
He's given to us, granted to us, his precious and very great
promises so that, through them,you may become partakers of the
(08:26):
divine nature, having escapedfrom the corruption that is in
the world because of sinfuldesires.
Now, the early church spoke alot about something that they
called union with Christ.
And where did they get thisidea?
Did they just come up with itone day?
No, they got it from the wordsof Jesus, and also from the
epistles, and especially fromthis letter in this section that
(08:49):
we're talking about.
This was one of the letters andone of the sections that they
got this concept out of, andit's something that has a
two-pronged reality.
For believers, what is unionwith Christ?
It is the simple fact that I amin Christ and Christ is in me.
I am in Christ and Christ is inme.
(09:10):
Again, brooke had no idea what Iwas going to say this morning,
and what was the last song thatwe sung?
In Christ alone.
And it was the last.
The last verse of that songtalks about not only are we in
Christ, but Christ is in us.
This very song, again speakingto what we were going to share
with you this morning, I believethat Peter is alluding to these
(09:33):
two truths in this firstparagraph, in the opening
paragraph of our text thismorning.
So let's look at I am in Christ.
What does that mean?
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness
because of the saving knowledgeof Jesus Christ.
What does that mean?
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness
because of the saving knowledgeof Jesus Christ.
How many of you know that wewere lost and outside of the
(09:54):
realm of his kingdom?
We were lost and we needed help.
And Jesus came and lived aperfect life and died on the
cross for our sins, and he alsorose from the dead.
We know that he ascended intoheaven and is seated at the
right hand of the father.
And if we will put ourconfidence, hope and trust in
what I just said to you, then webecome a part of God's family,
(10:19):
and when we become a part ofGod's family, he grafts us in.
Now again, I'm not ahorticulturist.
I don't play one on Sundays soI'm not going to pretend, but I
know that there are processes,there are ways that you can
cause growth to happen byplacing a branch into a root,
into the tree itself right,there are ways to do that, and
(10:43):
so that's what it's talkingabout.
Our dead, lifeless, fruitlessbranch has been grafted in to
the vine of Jesus Christ.
Remember what it says I am thevine and what?
And you are the branches.
We have been grafted in.
We are in Christ.
(11:04):
We have been grafted in.
We are in Christ as a believer.
God has chosen us by his divinepower and he's made us alive to
him.
The technical word for that,the theological term, is
regeneration.
It's when he makes us alive,when that dead spirit that we
have on the inside of us is madealive to God and we're able to
acknowledge our need for him.
(11:26):
Thank God, how many of you haveresponded to the gospel call and
have put your faith and hopeand trust in Jesus Christ?
All right?
How many of you want a hundreddollars?
I'm just looking for a responsethis morning.
Are you with me?
All right?
Amen, it's important.
I don't have a hundred dollarsto give you all, but, lord, you
(11:50):
can provide right.
So when we put our faith andtrust in Jesus Christ, the
father welcomes us into hisfamily.
We think about adoption.
What a beautiful thing it iswhen a family there's a family
in our church right now that hasbeen caring for a young child
(12:11):
and the young child had beenabused and a very drug addicted
mom and dad that was notinvolved and they've been
fostering this child and caringfor her and and now she's doing
so much better.
She had so many sensory issuesand and developmental issues
(12:33):
when she came into their homeand and, by God's grace, and
because of their love thatthey've shown her and the fact
that they've treated her nodifferent than their own, very
own children that they havebirthed, god's done some amazing
things in this child's life andthey're in the process, by
God's grace, of adopting thischild to be theirs and I
(12:56):
guarantee you there's going tobe no distinction in that
household when this young ladytakes a new name.
How many of us have taken a newname?
We're no longer.
We no longer belong to the Godof this world.
(13:17):
We belong to God.
We are his children and we'vebeen grafted in.
We abide in him.
Christ is the anchor of ourlives.
Now that in itself is prettyrevolutionary, isn't it?
We could land there, and thatshould be enough.
We could spend the rest of ourlives focusing in on that, and
it wouldn't be wrong to do so.
But as good as that is, godwants to add to it.
(13:38):
He wants to make it even better.
I feel like I'm doing aninfomercial right now.
But wait, there's more, right?
No, thank God, god's not asalesman in that way, but man.
It's true, there's more,because not only am I in Christ,
but Christ is in me.
(13:59):
Think about that for a minute.
Think about that for a minute.
I've been granted all thingsneeded for life and godliness,
because the divine nature of Godis living inside of me.
I don't think we believe thatfully, or at least we don't
(14:21):
recognize it, but it's true.
These are not my words.
These are the words of Godfound in scripture over and over
again.
Remember, jesus continued toencourage his disciples about
what.
What was the promise that theywere waiting for?
He said it's.
It's important for me to leave,it's important for me to go
away.
It's to your advantage that Ileave and that I go away,
(14:44):
because what's going to happen?
I'm going to come again.
But in between what's happening?
I'm going to send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he will
be with you and he will dwell inyou, in you.
What was it that gave Peter theability to go to the cross and
(15:10):
to ask if he could be crucifiedupside down To not take any
honor or glory away from hisSavior?
It was God in him, christ inhim, the Spirit of God in him,
christ in him, the spirit of Godin him.
(15:30):
We partake of the divine natureof God.
Wow, hard to fathom, hard toimagine.
You know, we say this all thetime, but think about it in
terms of this concept.
The same spirit that raisedJesus Christ from the dead lives
(15:52):
in us.
Wow, I was talking to somebodylast week and I said what's the
Lord speaking to you about thenew year?
And he said he's talking to meabout the Holy Spirit.
And I said we'll explain whatyou mean.
And he said did you know?
The Holy Spirit was the one whodid the work of creation.
(16:13):
If you think about it, if youread back to Genesis 1, god the
Father had the design and Jesusspoke the word and the Holy
Spirit was hovering over theearth in order to do what To
cause the words of Jesus to cometo pass?
Light be and the Holy Spirit.
Whatever he did, light wasright and he said what I want
(16:38):
people to realize is that thesame Holy Spirit who is a part
of creation lives inside of them.
He happens to be a preacher, sohe's interested not only in
understanding that for himself,but he wants other people to see
it, other people to understandit.
How would your life change ifyou really believe that?
(17:00):
How would my life lookdifferent if every day, I walked
around in this life believingthat that was true?
Going on in John 15, 5, westarted there it says whoever
abides in me and I in him, I'min Christ and Christ is in me,
(17:24):
he it is that bears much fruit,for apart from me, you can do
nothing.
How many of you tried religionbefore you got saved and how did
that work?
For you Doesn't work.
Religion doesn't work.
It waves a carrot in front ofyour nose but you're never able
(17:46):
to catch it.
We need, we need, we don't needreligion.
We need a relationship with theone who's living on the inside
of us as believers in Jesus,knowing that we've been given
everything that we need to beable to grow deeper.
We now turn to our part of theprocess.
(18:06):
Let me talk to you about thistree.
So a lot of times when theyshow imagery and drone footage
after a tornado or after ahurricane, the devastation is
incredible, right, it's reallyhard to even fathom.
But sometimes I focus not onthe devastation, but I look for
(18:27):
the few trees that are stillstanding and I'm like what in
the world made a difference withthat tree?
How could all of the treesaround it be completely wiped
out?
And yet this one tree continuesto stand.
God wants us to be that tree.
(18:48):
He wants us to be that tree.
And why do we need to growdeeper?
Because what's deep?
The water that we need forgrowth, and there's also
stability that comes as our rootsystems grow deeper and deeper
into good soil, and so when thewinds come and when the storms
(19:10):
come, and when difficulty comes,or even when good times come,
we will continue to stand.
So, now that we know that we'vebeen provided by God everything
that we need to be able to growdeeper.
Now's the part that's fun.
We must actively pursue growingdeeper.
We must absolutely, absolutelyactively pursue growing deeper.
(19:36):
Let's read again the secondparagraph.
For this very reason, makeevery effort to supplement your
faith with virtue, and virtuewith knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control andself-control with steadfastness,
and steadfastness withgodliness, and godliness with
brotherly affection, andbrotherly affection with love,
(19:59):
with love.
God's work in the life of thebeliever does not end at the
moment of conversion.
It's not.
I'm born again and I'm justwaiting for heaven.
I'm just waiting for glory.
That's it.
It's over with God's finishedwith me.
How many of you know the work isfinished as far as the
(20:20):
completed work of salvation andredemption?
Absolutely, it's finished.
But how many of you know Godstill intends for us to grow?
He still intends for us to betransformed, to be changed.
He still intends for us tobecome more and more like Jesus.
The new birth is not the end,it's a beginning.
(20:41):
How many of you know?
When there is health, growthnaturally happens.
I'm going to take a littlemoment for myself and my wife
and our family today andacknowledge the fact that our
youngest granddaughter, nora Joy, and Shelly and Neil as well,
nora Joy is one years old today,today, and I still look at her
(21:06):
and I think she's so tiny, she'sso tiny and yet look at
pictures when she was born andguess what?
She's not so tiny anymore.
How many of you have a room inyour house, a doorframe
somewhere in your house, wherethere's a bunch of pencil marks
on it?
Yeah, why is that?
You notice?
(21:29):
I never, we never do the pencilmarks this way, this way, yeah,
should we start a new trend?
No, no, get that image out ofyour head.
We don't need to think aboutthat.
But we're growing deeper today,not wider, okay, but anyway,
(21:49):
what are we recognizing withthose marks on that doorframe?
Growth happens.
Marks on that doorframe Growthhappens.
Growth happens when there'shealth.
It's a natural part of healthylife and, like I said, god gives
the children all that they need, but the children us.
We must apply ourselves and bediligent to use the means of
(22:14):
grace that he has provided forus.
We're in Christ and he is in us.
Spiritual growth is notautomatic.
How many of you?
When I was younger, I reallywanted to be close to God, and
so I had been studying aboutosmosis.
You guys know this and so Iwould literally, at night, take
(22:35):
my Thompson chain referenceBible, my leather bound Thompson
chain reference King JamesBible, because that's what we
had and that's what we used,right, and I would place it over
my head as I was going to sleepto somehow, you know, absorb
the words on those pages.
Now today, I know there'sthings like Alexa and all of
(22:57):
that that make it a little bitmore, a little more conducive to
actual growth, right?
So I'd wake up with a neck ache, or anyway.
I only did that like once ortwice.
Don't judge me.
Okay, it's not automatic.
It doesn't just happen becauseyou're around it.
Just because you have a familybible in the living room doesn't
(23:20):
mean you're growing, right.
It requires cooperation withgod and the application of
spiritual diligence anddiscipline.
This process that we're talkingabout is sanctification.
Sanctification what does thatword mean?
It means being made holy or setapart for a special purpose.
(23:42):
Did you know that God chose usto be his children so that we
would be set apart for him, tobe holy and to become more and
more like Jesus?
That was his idea, right?
It's a theological termsanctification.
That describes this process.
It's a cooperative effort.
(24:06):
God does his part, he gives useverything that we need, but
then he asks us to do what, toyield, to pay attention.
Somebody said it like this it'sa cooperative effort between
the Holy spirit and our bornagain Will.
We can choose to participatewith the growth program of God
and we can also choose,unfortunately, to what to resist
(24:27):
it, and we'll talk about thattowards the end.
The result of this process ofsanctification is to bring us
into spiritual maturity where welook more and more like Jesus.
Where we look more and morelike Jesus.
(24:49):
I was thinking Jack.
I was reminded today's, twoyears since Miss Jean passed
from this life into glory, andsorry for how difficult that is
even now, but, man, if there wasanybody who represented Jesus
well, it was Miss Jean Wright.
She really understood what itwas like to understand that
(25:13):
Christ, that she was in Christand that Christ was in her, and
she continued to grow.
I loved the fact that she wasalways so hungry for the word of
God, even when she was at herweakest moments.
You know what her heart's crywas I want to be in church, I
want to be there, I don't wantto miss anything.
89 years old or whatever, 87,whatever, it was still crying
(25:37):
out for more Lord.
I hope I grow up to be likeJack and Jean Wright.
I sure do.
If faith in Christ remember itstarts out.
This section starts out withsaying that we add to faith.
So faith in Christ is the giftfrom God that all of the first
(26:03):
paragraph highlights.
This is the gift that God hasgiven us, the gift of faith, the
gift to believe, the gift tostand Again on Christ and on a
solid foundation.
All of the othercharacteristics are built upon
that.
So think of faith like the rootball.
You've all seen probably maybeyou've seen it yourselves or
seen it on TV a large tree beingtransported.
And what do you have to have inorder for that tree to thrive
(26:26):
in its new location?
You have to have a good, alarge root ball, right, and that
root ball is planted into theground and then, out of that
root ball structure begins tohappen, and it's most of it's
under the surface.
At first you don't even see it,you don't even recognize it,
but it's all happening.
Everything's growing andshifting and changing and
(26:46):
forming, and before long thattree that had been ripped out of
the earth and placed in a newhole is now strong again, right.
So think of faith like the rootball, and we're going to add to
that this morning.
So let's look at the first rootstructure that we need to grow
deeper in, and that is virtue.
What is virtue?
Displaying exceptionalcharacter.
(27:08):
You know anybody like this thatis virtuous.
A virtuous person makes theprogression from knowing what is
right to do to doing what isright.
He or she intentionally chooseswhat to say, what to do and
what to value, aiming beyond thegood toward the best.
Is that the cry of our heart,that we would be virtuous people
(27:32):
, that we would be people whowould move beyond mediocrity and
aim for exceptional character?
Again, god's given useverything that we need to grow
in this, but we get to cooperatewith him.
We get to yield to the spiritof God.
How many of you know how doesthis happen?
How many of you know whenyou're grieving the spirit of
God by a word that you're saying, by a choice that you're making
(27:55):
, by something you're doing ornot doing?
You feel it on the inside,don't you?
It's cringe worthy.
When the Holy Spirit cringes,we should cringe as well.
So if we want to grow in virtue, we need to pay attention to
that.
We need to tune in more.
We need to feel that andexperience it and hear it when
(28:17):
it's first occurring in ourhearts and recognize it and
yield to it.
Right then Grow in virtue.
Virtue looks like honesty andfaithfulness and trustworthiness
and humility and so many otherthings.
Here's the good news.
In every one of these, I wantto give you a statement that I
(28:38):
want you to hold, and that isfirst, with virtue, jesus is
virtuous.
How virtuous was he?
Is he?
He humbled himself to the pointof death on the cross.
He laid down his life for us.
Jesus is virtuous.
(28:59):
He does all things well and heempowers us to grow in virtue.
Remember he lives on the insideof us.
If you want to be more virtuous, which is what we're supposed
to desire, lean in, yield towhat's on the inside of you.
Pay attention to what the HolySpirit's doing.
(29:22):
Second one is knowledge.
What is knowledge in this place?
In this I'm looking for theright word application.
There it is it is pursuingspiritual truth.
Do you have a hunger and athirst for righteousness?
Do you desire to know more, tocontinue to pursue spiritual
(29:43):
strength and truth?
Do you love the word of God?
Do you love reading the word ofGod and studying the word of
God and meditating on the wordof God and singing the word of
God?
Do you want more?
If you want to know more, weshould.
Knowledge itself, by the waycan't be the ultimate goal.
(30:04):
Remember what Paul saidKnowledge what Puffs up.
So you don't want to just beable to walk around and spew
facts, as amazing as that mightbe.
We want our hearts to betransformed, we want to be
changed.
We want to know what we know,what we know so that we will
stand in the evil day and thatwill help other people to do the
(30:26):
same.
Our purpose for pursuingspiritual truth must be so that
we can know Jesus and his heartwell enough, so that we can
better discern God's will andlive according to God's will.
Remember the words of Paul.
This should be inspiration toall of us.
Oh, that I may know him and thepower of his resurrection.
(30:51):
Yes, stop right there, I canland right there.
I want to know the power of hisresurrection.
Yes, stop right there, I canland right there.
I want to know the power of hisresurrection, absolutely Today.
Lord God, deliver me, save me,heal me, strengthen me, give me
money.
Sorry, I just threw that one inthere because maybe one or two
people are thinking that, or twopeople are thinking that Paul
(31:16):
doesn't just stop there, does he?
Oh, that I may know him and thepower of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his sufferings, that I might be found worthy
to suffer with him.
I have to be honest, it's not apart of my daily prayer routine
(31:36):
, but should it be?
Jesus is filled with allknowledge.
He is the word and he empowersus to grow in knowledge.
You know, it's reallyinteresting If you read Luke 2,
52,.
It says that Jesus grew inwisdom and stature and in favor
(32:01):
with God and man.
God and man, even Jesus.
God and man chose to know, toglean wisdom, to understand, to
pay attention, to listen toother people, to.
He went to church.
(32:22):
Next is self-control, and we'llskip right over that one.
Next is self-control, and we'llskip right over that one.
We'll be disciplined enough toavoid this topic, right?
No, self-control is resistingtemptation.
Resisting temptation.
God calls every Christian to alife of discipline.
Someone has defined this as thecontrolling power of the will
(32:46):
under the operation of thespirit of God, the two working
together, the spirit of God andthe will of men connecting and
working together.
There must be discipline.
In what areas?
In prayer, in Bible study, inthe use of our time, in
resisting the lust of the fleshand the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life, discipline insacrificial living, being
(33:07):
willing to give of ourselves andnot just receive.
We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are called to represent Christ
, and he lives on the inside ofus to enable us and to help us
to live disciplined,self-controlled lives.
How would your world change ifyou stopped getting angry?
(33:27):
I mean sinful, sinfully angry?
Here's one thing I'm going totell you You're not going to get
any self-control from thisworld.
Going to get any self-controlfrom this world Since when has
(33:53):
the F-bomb become every otherword and every phrase and every
statement.
It's sad.
Do not, christians, do not fallinto even the initial, using
the initial.
Let's exercise self-control bythe power of the spirit on the
on the inside of us.
Jesus is self-controlled.
(34:13):
It says of him that he wastempted in every way, as we are
yet without sin, and he lives onthe inside of us to give us the
grit and the power and thestrength that we need to say no
to what he says no to and to sayyes to what he says yes to,
because just as much as it isresisting the negative, it's
(34:33):
also pursuing the positive.
That's what self-control isabout Steadfastness.
Steadfastness is about enduringhardship In this world.
Jesus said you will havetrouble.
(34:54):
We, as believers, are to followChrist's example of
perseverance.
No matter what we are facing.
Endurance is exceptionallydifficult.
Can we be honest?
There are times when enduranceand it wouldn't be called
endurance if it wasn't, if itdidn't come out of difficulty,
it would just be called livinganother day.
But endurance speaks of effort.
(35:18):
It speaks of sweat and bloodand tears.
It speaks of not my will, butyour will be done, especially
during times of illness,prolonged illness and broken
(35:39):
relationships and financialpressures and persecution.
Those who endure to the endwill be saved.
We need to grow deeper inendurance.
I'm going to be honest with youright now.
There's going to be atemptation that comes over the
body of Christ in the next fouryears.
(36:00):
To just take it easy.
Please understand these fouryears are a gift from God that
we do not need to take forgranted.
This is a time for the churchto get strong.
This is a time for the churchto be to grow deeper than we've
ever grown before.
This is a time of preparationbecause, how many of you know,
even though we we feel likewe've can breathe a little bit,
it's not the end.
(36:20):
We know that scripture teachesus that there are dark days
ahead of us, and I'm not sayingthat as a negative confession,
I'm saying that like we need tobe ready.
We're actually going to start anew sermon series in two weeks
on the book of Nehemiah and it'scalled the passion project and
(36:43):
it's going to be all aboutmaking sure that our passions
align with God's passions, andespecially when you're living in
a time where there seems to besome good things happening right
.
So Jesus is steadfast.
It says that for the joy thatwas set before him, he endured,
(37:03):
endured, endured the cross,shame, All of it.
And he empowers us, because helives on the inside of us, to
grow in steadfastness.
Cry out to him, cry out to thespirit.
Help me, I need, I cannot dothis without you.
(37:25):
God loves an honest prayer.
And next we go to godliness.
Godliness is simply living toglorify God.
Living to glorify God when ourlifestyle reflects a holy
reverence for God, christ ismost glorified.
(37:46):
When's the last time that youconsidered the fear of the Lord
in a healthy way?
God, I know that there areboundaries and there are things
that you've set up in my lifeand, lord, help me to not even
desire to put one little toeover the line, little toe over
(38:12):
the line.
Help me keep a holy reverenceand a fear of you and what's
important to you.
When we live for an audience ofone, things get much simpler.
All of the other things andattributes and characteristics
we're talking about affect otherpeople, and so does this one in
a lot of ways, but really allof them.
Our purpose, our motivation,should not just be for the way
that other people will perceiveus.
It should be way down the line.
(38:33):
This should be about ourrelationship with our heavenly
father and representing him well.
If you, if you've taken on anew name, have you taken on a
new nature?
Have you taken on a new way ofliving?
Let's represent him Well.
The Westminster Catechismcorrectly states that the chief
(38:55):
end of man is to glorify God andenjoy him.
How long Forever.
We were built and made to bringglory to God.
Jesus glorified his father inJohn 17, 4.
It says in this high priestlyprayer I glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the workthat you gave me to do.
And guess what?
(39:17):
He empowers us to grow ingodliness.
Two more Brotherly affectionCaring for believers.
This isn't just referring tothe act of caring for other
believers.
It's also about the attitude ormotivation that proves a
genuineness of care.
So, in other words, you carefor them in front of their face
(39:39):
oh I'm so sorry.
And behind their back.
You're what Accusing thebrethren?
Don't they know better thanthat?
Brotherly affection speaksabout the heart, attitude, the
motivation behind why we do whatwe do.
Imagine the early church in thebook of Acts.
How did they prove theirbrotherly affection?
(40:01):
They did whatever it took totake care of each other.
If it meant selling propertyand bringing the funds from the
property in to provide the needsof others, they would do that.
If it meant this guy needed togo help this other person in
their work or something that wasgoing on, they did that.
They did life together.
(40:22):
They cared for each other inpractical ways.
Together they cared for eachother in practical ways.
John 13, 35,.
By this all people will knowthat you are my disciples.
If you have what Love for oneanother, that brotherly
affection, you want to reach theworld for Jesus.
Love each other.
You take just a minute and lookat somebody next to you and
(40:42):
just say I love you.
Now you got to mean it.
No sarcasm, I love you.
Some of you want to be ultrahonest and you say I'm learning
to love you.
If you say that I'm notguaranteeing the result, okay,
(41:06):
all right, let's finish this up.
Love, loving unconditionallythis is a crown of all the other
characteristics that we'resupposed to possess in ever
increasing ways.
It's easy to have affection forfellow believers.
It's easier, right, but lovingunconditionally looks like
loving the unlovable and thedowncast and the broken.
It looks like loving in thesame way that we want God to
(41:29):
love us.
Isn't that interesting?
Like we want God to treat us incertain ways, but we have a
hard time transferring that toother people.
We can grow in that.
We can grow in love.
Jesus is love, isn't he?
In fact, we love him.
(41:50):
Why?
Because he first loved us andhe empowers us to grow in love.
Now, here's the thing If youare not a believer in Jesus
Christ, you can do some of thesethings to a certain extent.
You can be virtuous in some ways, or you can show amazing
(42:12):
self-control and endurance, buthow many of you know?
The only thing that happens inthose scenarios is that those
virtues point to me, what I cando, what I'm accomplishing.
That person gets any glory thatcomes, but when God produces
the beautiful nature of his sonin us as Christians, god
(42:36):
receives all of the praise andall of the honor and all of the
glory, because not only does hechange our actions, but he first
changes our hearts.
So, finally, if we grow deeper,we will be fruitful and won't
fall.
I'm not going to read the wholepassage, but it says if these
qualities are yours and areincreasing, they keep you from
(42:58):
being ineffective or unfruitfulin the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
And later on it says therefore,brothers, brothers, be all the
more diligent to confirm yourcalling and election, for if you
practice these qualities, youwill never fall.
(43:18):
Next week we'll look at what itmeans to be fruitful.
I'm excited about that.
When the roots grow deep, then,no matter what may come, by
God's grace, we will not fall.
Fail to do these things,failure in our lives to pursue
growth in these areas leads tobarrenness, unfruitfulness,
(43:41):
blindness and forgetfulness andforgetfulness.
Now I could stand up here allday and attempt to read your
fruitfulness scale and to listthese seven qualities or
characteristics that it saysthat we're to grow in and to
rate.
Try to rate you based on thoseseven things.
(44:03):
But how many of you know that'snot what I'm talking about here
today.
Now we can help each other.
We can help each other growTriads and all different ways
like that.
Community groups, right.
But I need to look at me, myheart, lord.
Show me my heart, my life.
(44:26):
So in what does it look like togrow at TCC?
It looks like training.
It looks like discipleship.
It looks like family ministry.
Tcc kids in the forge, in thegathering place, in men's and
women's.
It looks like a Bible readingplan.
It looks like Trinity ministryapprenticeship program.
It looks like the Timothy team.
It looks like freedom ministry.
It looks like foundationsclasses.
(44:48):
It looks like coming soon to achurch near you, a Wednesday
night Bible study.
So we're going to call it the30-30, and it's going to be 30
minutes of teaching and then 30minutes of discussion.
Interesting, can't wait.
(45:12):
All right, let's stand orphe.
It's the weirdest thing.
As somebody who again has theprivilege of sharing the gospel
of Jesus Christ, I walk awayevery week feeling like I wish
(45:33):
there just feels like there's somuch more.
This feels like there's so muchmore.
But guess what?
You have the right and theprivilege and the ability to
glean those things for yourself.
We help set the table for you.
We help prepare the way for you.
We help lead you into placeswhere you can eat, but guess
(45:55):
what?
You have the privilege, asindividual Christians, of
pursuing growth for yourself.
We want to encourage you to dothat, amen.
So let's pray for help in thatarea.
Lord, we ask you this day forhelp, father.
I pray first of all for thosewho are not yet in you and
(46:18):
you're not in them.
I ask that today that you wouldreveal your son to them and that
you would open their hearts,regenerate their hearts, so that
they could put their faith andhope and trust in Jesus Christ
and be converted.
This day, in Jesus name andfather, I also pray for us who
(46:38):
find ourselves lacking inseveral of these different
categories of growth.
Father, I pray that you wouldhelp us, that you would
encourage us, that you wouldhelp us, that you would
encourage us, that you wouldstrengthen us, that you would
give us even the desire to grow.
Would you restore the desirefor growth in each of our lives?
And, lord, I also ask that youwould help us to find new
(47:02):
rhythms of communication withyou and of us understanding the
grace that's provided for us andcooperating with that instead
of being resistant and weconfess we can't do any of this
without you, but we also thankyou so much that you provided
for us everything that we needto accomplish what you're asking
(47:25):
of us.
And, lord, I bless your people.
I ask that you would bless themand keep them, that you would
cause your face to shine uponthem and be gracious to them.
I pray that you would lift upyour countenance upon them and
give them peace In Jesus' name,amen.
Amen.
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