Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Good morning!

Last Sunday, we talked about the importance of “Having the Mind of Christ.”

We’re going to have a follow-up sermon this morning, entitled “To Be More Like Christ: How Do We Grow?”

We’re going to put the emphasis on the “HOW.”

Last week, when we talked about “Having the Mind of Christ” from Philippians 2, we talked about the “WHY.”

WHY do we grow?

Well, to be more like Christ as we obtain the MIND of Christ!

The humility, the joy, the obedience, the unified goal of serving the Father.

We need to have the same mindset of Christ.

The question now becomes, HOW do we go about doing it?

So what we’re really going to do today is follow-up from last week and show some practical application for Christian growth.

1 Peter 2:1-3 says:

The first thing that we have to realize this morning is that in order to get rid of bad things from our lives, we have to not only get rid of those things (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, etc.), but we also have to REPLACE those things with good things in our lives!

(Otherwise, the bad things that we are trying to get rid of are going to find a way to creep back in and refill that void!)

So we have to desire the pure milk of the word so that we can grow, so that we can learn the things from God’s Word NECESSARY for Christian growth!

The very next verse, if you keep reading in 1 Peter, says, “Coming to HIM as to a living stone … ,” and it goes on to say a little bit later that we also are “living stones … being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God THROUGH Jesus Christ!”

Christian Growth is all about HIM!

And it’s all about His WORD!

And by way of illustration, we could bring up the fact that, let’s say, there’s an elite athlete that you want to emulate, that you want to be just like!

What would you do?

You would watch training his videos, you might go to his training camps, and you might read books that he might have written!

Well, that’s one thing when it comes to trying to emulate an elite athlete (or musician, or whatever) …

But it’s so much more important when we’re talking about emulating CHRIST!

We’ve got to get into His Word, and we’ve got to put it into practice in our lives!

Let’s now turn to the book of SECOND Peter and talk about …

The Christian Graces:

We’re going to go fairly quickly through this section because I’ve got something else I want to cover in a little bit.

But camp out here in your own studies later on.

This is an EXTREMELY important section of Scripture!

2 Peter 1:1-2

This is the introduction of the book, but it’s got some crucial information in it.

Pay special attention to “those who have obtained like PRECIOUS faith,”

“BY the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Without Him, we’d all be without hope!),

and notice where grace and peace is multiplied — “in the KNOWLEDGE of God and of Jesus our Lord!”

Again, KNOWLEDGE of God’s Word is critical!

(That’s one of the key words in 2 Peter).

2 Peter 1:3

This is a great verse to memorize!

It shows us that God has given us EVERYTHING that we need for life AND godliness in His Word!

And again, its through KNOWLEDGE of Him through His Word!

Without knowledge, people are destroyed!

(Hos.

4:6)

2 Peter 1:4

Talk about being more like Christ! “That through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust!”

Peter also mentions exceedingly great and precious promises!

That goes all the way back to the promise made to Abraham in the book of Genesis — God promised to him that “In thee, all nations of the earth shall be blessed!”

And that blessing came through the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

Those of us who have ACCEPTED that gift are Christians!

And now, we in turn, are to grow more and more like the One Whose name we bear, every day!

2 Peter 1:5

Notice, “for this very reason,” in light of the fact of all that Christ has done for us, we should “give all diligence” to grow!

It should be our number one aim in life, to grow to be more like Christ, so that we will one day be with Him in heaven, and help as many other people as we can get there too!

So how do we do it?

Here begin the Christian Graces, as they’re often called.

2 Peter 1:6-7

If you ever wanted to think of Christianity in terms of a math problem, here you go!

Notice the word “Add.”

A complete Christian is equal to faith + virtue + knowledge + self-control + perseverance + godliness + brotherly kindness + love.

You remove any one of those things, and we must ask ourselves, “Do we still have a complete Christian?

I think we all know the answer to that rhetorical question …

2 Peter 1:8-9

This is serious business!

If we don’t experience any continuous growth in these areas as Christians, it should come as no surprise that we will instead become barren and unfruitful!

And that is a deadly place to be, because Jesus said that the unfruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt.

3:10)!

2 Peter 1:10-11

This is a diligent, constant process of humble self-examination to make SURE that we are living faithfully for Christ and His cause.

If we do these things, we will never stumble from the way!

Lastly this morning, as we think about HOW we grow as Christians, I want us to spend some time looking at some of the “one another” passages that are in the New Testament … and there are a lot of them!

The “One Another” Verses:

If we get this right, we can make sure that we truly are being more like Christ, because how we are told to treat ONE ANOTHER is exactly how Christ would treat us as well!

Now, we don’t have time to go through all of these this morning.

There are a lot of them — 43 of them in the New Testament!

But we’re going to look at some of the highlights!

And as we look through all of these, keep in mind: How would Jesus Christ act in these matters?

This first one, we know exactly how Jesus would act, because He did exactly the same thing He tells us in John 13:14

Likewise, John 13:34

In essence, SERVE one another (John 13:14), and LOVE one another!

If only the world would get these two things right!

Jesus expressly states again that we are to love one another in John 12:15 and 17.

But what about Romans 12:10?

Romans 14:13

(Now context is extremely important there!)

He’s talking about not judging one another in matters of opinion!

Here are a couple of similar ones from Romans:

Romans 15:7

Romans 16:16

But also don’t forget:

Romans 15:14

Tell me, did Jesus ever admonish anybody?

Did Jesus ever rebuke anyone?

Did Jesus ever show righteous indignation?

We have to remember to admonish one another from time to time as well.

We have that DUTY to one another to hold one another accountable!

There are four really good ones in the book of Galatians:

Gal.