Growing In Grace Series Part IV
The Evidence of Growing In Grace
Spiritual growth is
impossible to disguise. If you and I are
growing in grace there will be some very obvious manifestations of God’s
working in our lives.
Spiritual growth is
evident in a variety of ways…
A. Roots
1. Speaks of
Stability
·
1 Thessalonians 3:13 To the end he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ with all his saints.
·
2 Thessalonians 2:17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in
every good word and work.
·
2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish
you, and keep you from evil.
·
James 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh.
·
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
2. Speaks of
Sustenance
Spiritual growth is
evident when a person learns to “feed themselves”.
They no longer have
to be spoon fed to survive.
Their roots are in
God’s word and they can draw strength and nourishment throughout the week on
their own.
·
Colossians 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
3. Speaks of
Spirituality
·
II Peter 1:4-8 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And
beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue
knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
B. Resilience
·
re·sil·ient - adjective
1. springing
back; rebounding.
2. returning to
the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched.
3. recovering
readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant.\
Paul gave a short
list of some things that God’s people will have to deal with.
·
2 Timothy 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness,
·
2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the
elect’s sakes,
·
2 Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure
afflictions,
·
Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening,
·
James 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure
·
1 Peter 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief
We live in a
generation of Christianity that seemingly is short on resilience and endurance.
Growing in grace
means being able to survive; overcome; bounce back, rebound!
1. To
Warnings from the Word
·
Psalms 119:165 Great
peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
·
Matthew
13:21 Yet
hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Show me a person
that can take strong, Bible preaching and I’ll show you a person that is
growing in grace.
In this generation,
pastors have to “tip-toe through the tulips” to keep from offending Christians.
I’m not talking
about lost people or new converts; I’m talking about seasoned believers are so
sensitive.
It’s amazing to me
how resilient people in the world can be.
We daily see and
hear of people that overcome difficulty and obstacles in order to accomplish
their dreams.
·
Employees
can get chewed out by their boss, and they work harder to please him.
·
Athletes
can get dressed down on national television by their coaches and they strive
harder to achieve.
·
Soldiers
receive insults and negative remarks from their superior officers and continue
to improve.
But let a Christian
get a strong warning or a rebuke from the Scripture and they bail out; looking
for a break.
·
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears;
2. To Wind
from the World
·
Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
·
Psalm 1:3, 4 And he shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also
shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not
so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
C. Reach
1. Upward
·
Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
·
Colossians 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
·
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
2. Outward
·
Hebrews 5:12-14 For
when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such
as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness:
for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and
evil.
