Growing in Grace II

 Growing in Grace 

  Last Sunday we talked about the word Eucharist which we saw meant good grace literally in the original language.  We are thankful if we realize that grace is our inheritance in Christ.  We realize we are to live by grace, and not our own striving.  Of course we should strive for holiness in our Christian life, " Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:  looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; " in Hebrews 12:14-15 I want to look at the question of how we should do that .

A good illustration of this is in 2 Chronicles 34 where the law of God is rediscovered in Israel by the prophets and people . Imagine that!  A re-commitment to God is made after they find it. " because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord"vs 27

1. Start with our own hearts.  Josiah was an example of a ruler and King who knew God.  He practiced his faith by getting the people to observe again Passover; he rebuilt the temple; he tore down the idols that had been set up.

But it started with his heart that was tender and humble before God. Heidelberg Catechism tells the issue, " 8 Q. But are we so corrupt

  that we are totally unable to do any good

  and inclined toward all evil?

 A. Yes, unless we are born again

  by the Spirit of God."  This is from John 3.  We must be born of the Spirit , born from above to have new life in Christ.

2.  Grow in grace 2 Peter ch. 1:5  "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control [d]perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love" NKJV

I Cor 1:21"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."  NKJV  not the act of preaching itself ( anyone can get up here and yell in other words) saves, but "The word translated preaching should rather be rendered what is preached. It is called foolishness (1) because ‘those who were perishing’ thought it so; (2) because it required no high intellectual gift, but simple faith in a crucified and risen Lord. This abnegation by man of his natural powers was the first step in the road to salvation. But we are not to suppose that after man had thus surrendered those powers to God in a spirit of childlike faith, he was not to receive them back regenerated and transfigured."  biblehub.com , cambridge school

The farmer was asked why he had one skinny cow and one fat cow.  The one I feeds the most grows the most.  True in our lives too.  Cecil Brooks, " garbage in- garbage out"

3.  Practically how do we grow through I peter 2:2 " as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"

--Plan to read and inwardly digest the pure milk of the Word?  Family prayer used to be done using a reformed book with a daily reading.  Not many do this now. Perhaps individually? or both?

One Year Bible plan may be helpful? ( I have such at home in the Bible itself KJV)

What else?  Good guidance and counsel.  “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”Proverbs 11:14

Episcopal clergyman Zac friend of mine in CA wrote, "  As I get to know more people in my new(ish) locale the two things about me that they seem to have the hardest time wrapping their heads around are:

1) I’m a clergyman

2) I don’t have a TV in my living room. 

And not necessarily in that order…"   

4.  Lastly and perhaps the hardest, do we practice forgiveness and charity in our relationships?---that is why we should say the Lord's Prayer and ask to have our trespasses forgiven as we forgive those who  tresspass against us. But it is not just to say.Matthew 18:22

In response to a question from Peter about how many times to forgive a brother who sins against him, Jesus says we should forgive someone seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22)1. This means forgiveness should be practically unlimited, without a fixed number of times2. As often as a brother injures us and asks forgiveness, we are to forgive him.

Conclusion---Hope---What we are talking about today is abiding in Christ and doing His will through the Spirit .  Our salvation is not dependent upon our growing in grace, yet if we are truly God's own He grants us help and grace that we may live in this world so that in the world to come we have everlasting life.

  "  We are challenged once again to look at our lives from above. When, indeed, Jesus came to offer us full communion with God, by making us partakers of his death and resurrection, what else can we desire but to leave our mortal bodies and so reach the final goal of our existence? The only reason for staying in this valley of tears can be to continue the mission of Jesus who has sent us into the world as his Father sent him into the world. Looking from above, life is a short, often painful mission, full of occasions to do fruitful work for God’s kingdom, and death is the open door that leads into the hall of celebration where the king himself will serve us.

It all seems such an upside-down way of being! But it’s the way of Jesus and the way for us to follow. There is nothing morbid about it. To the contrary, it’s a joyful vision of life and death."  Henri Nouwen