What Tools do I Need to Grow?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
Boudreaux & Thibidoux, two government maintenance workers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A woman walked by and asked what they were doing. “We’re supposed to find out the height of that flagpole but we don’t have a ladder.
The woman said, “Hand me that wrench out of your toolbox.”
She loosened a few bolts, and then laid the flagpole down. She then took a tape measure and measured the pole and announced that 18’6” and walked away.
Boudreaux shook his head and laughed. “Well aint that just like a miss know it all? We need the height and she gives us the length.
Boudreaux and Thibidoux are still working for the government, but now they are congressmen and are hiding from Doge...
We don’t want to be like them, we want to grow in our intelligence… and in our walk with the Lord. So I want to talk about growing in our walk with the Lord.
It’s especially true in our culture today. We must have a faith that is based on God and His Word, not on what our culture says or believes. There are so many issues today that are actually moral issues, but have been made political for some reason.
Too many people are touched by the power of God, but not changed by the power of God.
10 lepers… only two came back…
I just heard a report this morning that more children in LA are born out of wedlock and to married couples. This destines most of these children to grow up in extreme poverty.
The whole LGBTQ… thing. God made male and female and no matter how hard someone tries, or wishes they could change that, you can’t. Men were meant to marry women and vice versa.
Boys or men playing girls sports.
So it’s important to know what we believe and to grow in our relationship with Jesus and his word.
Growth has to be intentional and most of us don’t get that. We just thing growth happens, but it doesn’t. Growth is often painful, and none of us like pain.
Tonight, I want to make sure you understand how God can help us to grow and show you the resources you need to grow.
One of my favorite verses is Phil 2:12-13
12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
God begins the work in us by drawing us into a relationship with himself. Then he works in us to change our desires and then gives us the power or strength to do.
Someone once said that you have to stop doing all those things you want to do… drinking, gambling, carousing… lying… stealing… if you become a Christian. You can still do all of that, but you will not want to once you come to faith in Christ… because…
God changes our want too’s
God changes our want too’s
We can still do anything we want. He just changes our want too’s. The devil will try to convince you that if you follow Christ that you can no longer have any fun, but that’s a lie because the devil is a liar. Your idea of fun changes.
God not only changes our want too’s, but He gives us the power to do what those new want too’s are.
When it comes to your growth, You have a part and God has a part.
When it comes to your growth, You have a part and God has a part.
God gives us tools, we just have to use them. And that’s kind of the direction we are going to be heading on Wednesdays. Look at Phil 2:12-13
12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
I want to give you three tools that God gives us to grow and then three choices that we have to make to see the kind of change in our lives we want to see
God’s Tools for Growing
God’s Tools for Growing
There are three tools that God uses to help us grow, and I want to go over those now.
1. God gives us the Bible to help us grow.
1. God gives us the Bible to help us grow.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
The Bible is not just a book, it’s the Word of God. It is inspired by God, so it’s right in every instance. It teaches us what is true, helps us realize what we are doing wrong in our lives and helps us to correct it.
It also equips us to grow and to do every good work.
The Bible is the only book that’s alive. There are other great books to read, but the Bible is alive.
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
It’s also powerful enough to change our lives. It will change the way you think, the way you talk, the way you act… it will change your life.
We need to Read it. Study it. Meditate on it. Memorize it Obey it… The more of the WOG you get in you, the better.
God uses the Holy Spirit to help us grow.
God uses the Holy Spirit to help us grow.
When you become a Christian, He puts His Holy Spirit inside you and that is where our power comes from. Jesus sent the HS to take his place.
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
Paul reaffirmed that in Romans 8:11
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
You and I have the same power living in us that created the world… that raised Jesus from the dead…
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
The Holy Spirit’s job is to make you and I more and more like Jesus. Write this down.
God’s plan is for you to become more like Jesus.
God’s plan is for you to become more like Jesus.
He will do this through His Word and through the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, he wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit… check this out…
2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
You can read all through Acts what the spirit filled life looked like. He gave people power to be witnesses, to perform miracles, to endure hardship and even persecution.
Living life full of the Holy Spirit should be the normal Christian life. Look what Paul said in Eph 5:18
18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
IOW, Don’t let yourself be controlled by anything but the HS. We are to be filled with the HS. The HS is not goofy. He is God, the 3rd person of the Trinity.
I know we have seen many examples of goofy, but he is not. He is powerful and wants you to walk in His power. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is about walking in power and being able to be a witness of Jesus. Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The HS will give us the power to make a difference in our world by sharing the Gospel of Jesus.
3. God will use circumstances to help us grow.
3. God will use circumstances to help us grow.
This is like the hammer. We didn’t listen to the word, or the Spirit, so a little pain is needed to help us to change. Sometimes we need a little pain to change.
There are natural consequences that begin to occur when we step out of God’s Will for our lives. We step out of his blessings, his protection, and his provision. Then the problems just start to pile up. Even when we miss it, God will take what we have done and gone and use it for our good and His Glory. Look what Paul said in Romans 8:28-29
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God doesn’t cause troubles to come our way, even though often people tend to blame him. We live in a world where God gave us free will to make choices and often times, we make the wrong choice or someone else makes a bad choice that impacts us negatively. God can take those and bring good out of them.
Here is an attitude changing statement I want you to write down
Nothing can come into your life without God’s permission.
Nothing can come into your life without God’s permission.
That gives me comfort, because The devil doesn’t have free reign to do anything he wants to you. If he did, he would have killed you before you became a Christian. He has to ask God to let him mess with us. Job
Now listen, it doesn’t matter where the troubles come from; yourself, others, the devil, God can and will bring good out of them.
30 Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.
Sometimes God has to allow us to become miserable so that we will get up and begin to grow. So he allows difficulties and trials to come into our lives so that we can choose to grow in our faith.
God gives us the WOG, the HS and he uses circumstances to help us to grow.
Those are the tools that God gives us, but he also has given us free will. That’s part of being made in the image of God. So we have some choices to make…
Three Choices We Have to Make
Three Choices We Have to Make
1. I can choose what I think about.
1. I can choose what I think about.
Growing in our relationship with Jesus requires us to make a decision to do so. One of the big choices we have to make is what we think about.
23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
We are what is in our heart, so we have to guard it. Our heart, or our feelings of love and desire, dictate to a great extent how we live because we always find time to do what we enjoy. Solomon tells us to guard it so that we concentrate on the desires that will keep us on the right path.
What’s in our hearts leads to thoughts which lead to actions. You might not be all you think you are, but you are what you think.
If we want change in our lives, it begins with our thoughts.
22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.
We have to choose to put off the old nature, and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds… or change the way we think… so that we can put on our new nature. This process will always be going on as we grow in our walk with the Lord.
Change always begins with new thinking.
Change always begins with new thinking.
How do we change the way we think? Look at Phil 4:8-9
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Church attendance, Bible reading, Bible study… will all help to change the way you think.
Pattern your life after Jesus, not our culture.
Pattern your life after Jesus, not our culture.
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
He says here to stop copying the world… but to let God transform us by changing the way we think.
Think → Feel → Act
Think → Feel → Act
If you want to change the way you act, you must change the way you think.
If you want to change the way you act, you must change the way you think.
Paul wrote this 2,000 years before Psychology found it to be true as well. There is no action without a thought and a feeling behind it. If you are depressed, it’s because you are thinking depressing thoughts. If you are angry, it’s because you are thinking angry thoughts.
The kind of transformation Paul is talking about is like a plane on autopilot. You can turn it manually, but it will go back to the programed course. When we allow the WOG to change the way we think, we reprogram the Auto Pilot.
Fill your mind with God’s Word.
Fill your mind with God’s Word.
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
Choose what to think about, but more than that, allow God to change the way you think and what you think about. Next, God gives us the Holy Spirit, so
2. I can choose to depend on the Holy Spirit.
2. I can choose to depend on the Holy Spirit.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
A branch is totally dependent on its connection to the vine or trunk for its nourishment. If it’s not connected, it dies.
Jesus is saying the same thing about us. If you and I are not connected to Him the same way, we will die spiritually. God has the power, so we need to stay connected to him.
God’s power requires us to be plugged into the Holy Spirit so that His power will flow through us.
When we are plugged in, we will produce fruit in our lives.
When we are plugged in, we will produce fruit in our lives.
God wants to produce fruit in you and I, the fruit of New Believers, The Fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of miracles, but fruit is an inside job. You have to have the Holy Spirit in you and be plugged in to produce fruit.
If you were to take a dead tree and try to fasten some fruit onto it, the fruit will die, it doesn’t work. That’s what a lot of people do. They are dead but they try to do a lot of good things to make it look like they are alive and growing spiritually. But they are not depending on God.
How do you know if you are depending on God?
Pray all the time.
Pray about everything.
Pray the Word.
Read the Word for what God has to say to you.
Tithing.
3. I can choose my response to my circumstances.
3. I can choose my response to my circumstances.
God gives us His word… the Bible, we have to choose to read it, study it, meditate on it…
God gives us His Holy Spirit, we have to choose to depend on Him and His leadership.
God allows circumstances in our lives, we have to choose how we respond to those circumstances.
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
We can choose grow stronger though the difficulties or we can fall away. It’s our choice. James says to choose joy… choose to grow.
I used to have a shirt that had this on it…
Life is 10% what happens to you; 90% how you respond.
Life is 10% what happens to you; 90% how you respond.
The Christian life is not a one time event. It’s a process of growing daily through trials and troubles that come our way. As you exercise your faith, your faith becomes stronger.
I always like to say it this way…
God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
We have a choice. I have seen people in horrible circumstances do well and others do not. Let God work in you.
Often when God wants to grow us in an area, he will allow some difficulties to come our way.
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Mature character is character that has passed the test and proven reliable.
Mature character is character that has passed the test and proven reliable.
Character is the goal. God wants you and I to be more like Jesus so our character has to pass some tests and then be proven reliable.
God wants to produce fruit in our lives, but… …
To learn be more loving, you have to be around unlovable people.
To have more joy, you will go through difficult times and learn that joy is different from happiness.
To develop peace, you may be in chaotic circumstances,
To develop goodness, you will be tempted to do bad things.
To learn more self-control, he will have you come to a River Church Pot-Luck
13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
God promises to give us both the desire to change and the power to make those changes.
God promises to give us both the desire to change and the power to make those changes.
ToolsGod use on us: Word, Spirit, Circumstances
Choices we have to make: what we think about; depend on HS; Choose our response to circumstances.
What is it that God may be wanting you to change tonight?
