New Life - Growing God’s Way
11/4/12 Ready, Set, GROW!!Don’t Recycle Old Life - Len Sullivan, Tupelo, Mississippi
In the late 1920s my grandparents married and moved into Grandpa’s old family home. It was a clapboard house with a hall down the middle. In the ‘30s they decided to tear down the old house and build another to be their home for the rest of their lives.
Much to my grandmother’s dismay, many of the materials of the old house were re-used in their new house. They used old facings and doors, and many other pieces of the finishing lumber. Everywhere my grandmother looked, she saw that old house—old doors that wouldn’t shut properly, crown molding split and riddled with nail holes, unfinished window trimming. It was a source of grief to her. All her life she longed for a new house.
When God brings us into the kingdom, the old way of living must be dismantled and discarded.
Len Sullivan, Tupelo, Mississippi
http://www.preachingtoday.com/search/?searcharea=illustrations&type=keyword&keywordid=4627&start=11
Jesus didn’t die on the cross to save us to simply rearrange the old life we had. He didn’t come to just take the mess and move things around. He came to make us completely new. The old things are passed away and all has become new. He came to help us grow HIS WAY.
I like a thought expressed by a well known author, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Going Beyond What You Know
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
God takes new believers and makes them something they have never been. They experience spiritual growth. He takes people who have been following Him for a long time and continues to shape them and make them more and more like Him. We will continually be experiencing New Life - Growing God’s Way.
The theme that we have talked about much this year: Ready, Set, GROW!! We have looked for growth as a church and also personal spiritual growth. Today I want to talk about our personal spiritual growth using starting out with passages from Proverbs.
Proverbs 14:12 NKJV
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 16:25 NKJV
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
I always find it interesting when I read these chapters to find these two verses exactly the same. God must want us to get the point. Things that seem right in the eyes of humans, things that SEEM right only lead to death.
Seems right. Humanistic wisdom and reasoning (based on individual satisfaction and benefit as its highest goal) is a poor basis for determining what is true or false, right or wrong, worthy or unworthy. No matter how convincing or well-intentioned our ideas and actions may be, if they are not in line with God’s plans and standards they will likely lead to unexpected consequences and disaster. In the end, doing things our own way (which is one of the definitions of sin, Isa 53:6) will lead to spiritual death. God’s written revelation—his Word as recorded in the Bible—is the only infallible (i.e., perfect, reliable, unfailing) source for determining the right path of life. The human way leads to death; God’s way leads to eternal life.
Fire Bible.
Isaiah 53:6 NKJV
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Romans 6:16 NKJV
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
□ Obedience leads to righteousness
□ Sin leads to death.
Here, the Apostle Paul gives a solemn warning to Christians who think they can sin without consequence. Some believe they can sin and, since they have already repented, they are OK. However, they are missing a point. Those who continue to actively sin become a slave to sin. This leads to spiritual death.
Romans 6:21-23 NKJV
21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What are the results, the fruit of continuing to sin? Spiritual death. Believers have been set free from sin and are slaves to God. This leads to fruit of holiness and eternal life. Sin brings death, God brings eternal life.
Proverbs 14:14 NKJV
The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above.
Where is your heart? Is it focused on God?
The faithless, the backslider describes people who turn away from God with their hearts and affections. They become selfish and reject what God wants. Eventually they will experience miserable consequences of their choices. Faithfulness to God will bring the rewards God promises. This reminds me of:
Proverbs 13:15 KJV
Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
Actions bring results. As we serve God we will be SATISFIED. In our Bible Study Wednesday we talked about the fact that the evil one continually tries to make us think that we are missing something by being faithful to God, by obeying His Word. Yes, we are missing something. To quote a silly old song, we are missing:
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
Deep dark depression, excessive misery.
If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
Proverbs 14:34 NKJV
Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.
Do our actions make any difference? Does righteousness mean anything? Does it really matter?
Righteous: characterized as honest, generous, steadfast and courageous, merciful and just, covenant keeper, committed to God and living justly among His people.
**Righteousness is grounded in the character of God.
**People are not naturally righteous.
**God credits righteousness to those who exercise faith in Him. In Christ one becomes all that God requires.
**The Christian is to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
**Timothy was exhorted to flee youthful lusts and call on God from a pure heart, and pursue righteousness.
Thoughts from Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Our trip to grow in righteousness is a process. Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, was traveling with him one day when they came to the end of road construction. There was a sign that said, “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”
God is continually working in us to see our righteousness grow. Whether a nation or a person, righteousness exalts, and sin destroys. Let God continue to construct you till He has completed His task.
Proverbs 21:2 NKJV
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts.
This verse is a great wrap up to this topic today. It is so common to think that I have it all figured out. My own eyes. But, God deals with and checks out the heart.
Discussion questions:
Why is the first part of this verse so true?
What is the result of people who insist on being right?
What is the implication of the second part of this verse?
New Life - Growing God’s Way
The Stories We Love Will Shape Our Character
Professor Daniel Taylor notes that as a child Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian leader who was executed for resisting the Nazis, was greatly moved by reading a book entitled Heroes of Everyday. It was filled with stories of courageous young people who, with selflessness and clear thinking, often saved others’ lives, sometimes at the cost of their own. And, apparently, shortly before his execution, Bonhoeffer was also reading Plutarch’s Lives, a book that explores the courageous character of ancient figures. Based on Bonhoeffer’s example, Taylor asks:
Can we doubt that Bonhoeffer’s reading shaped his acting, including his decision to risk his life to save others? Ethics are more formed by the stories with which we surround ourselves, than [just] by the rules that are drilled into us. Tell us what stories you value, and we have a good start on knowing who you are and how you will act in the world.
Daniel Taylor, “Story-Shaped Ethics,” Daniel Taylor Blog (8-8-11); source: Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer (Thomas Nelson, 2010), pp. 18-19
What do we fill our minds with? The Bible is a good resource to use. It will shape us.
LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
Ready, Set, GROW!
What are the key points of this message?
How can we apply this message?
