Growth--We Are In It Together

Good morning.

I believe and you've heard me say it before that part of the beauty of scripture is what it reveals to us about God and when you look at the beginning of scripture in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27, the plural is used when God talks about creating Humanity. Let us make man and woman. Let us make beings in our image which speaks to this beautiful deep relational Fellowship that is at the heart of the universe that the father Son and Holy Spirit have this relationship with one another this beautiful fellowship with one another and out of an overflow of that low. They said let's expand this circle. Let's create other beings in our image so that they can know what we know that they can know fellowship and relationship and beauty. And so we made men and women in His image. That's the beauty of creation from the beginning and related to that. God has designed spiritual growth to be something we Together we're in a sermon series called the wisdom of one another and ultimately it's about this truth that God has designed fellowship and relationships with with Christian friends healthy deep relationships with Christian Brothers and Sisters in Christ. That's one of the Prime mechanisms God uses to help us grow spiritually and to bless us and so spiritual growth is something God has designed that we pursue together throughout the New Testament UC vs like this therefore encourage one another and build eachother up just as in fact you are doing that idea of the plurality is just peppered. It is the dominant theme throughout the New Testament that were called to be Brothers and Sisters in Christ together that there's no real following of Christ in the form of isolation. There's no I'm going to be a Christian but I'm not going to get involved in the church or I'm not going to get involved in relationships are Brothers and Sisters in Christ is organically connected that Play God calls us to follow him and the way he wants to bless our lives and help us Thrive is by drawing us into healthy relationships with Brothers and Sisters in Christ so that we can Thrive and grow that's the nature of the body of Christ not mated Lee we do that imperfectly. I know that some people look at the church. And so I want to know, you know, I've seen enough you can only have to be in the church and go. Okay. I'm not but that's the nature of God's grace that he invites all of us in perfect people to be covered by his grace and the strive to follow him and such a way that he enters our lives and blessing until were called to follow him into grow together spiritually a second kind of foundation on something that I want to share is that spiritual growth is becoming like Christ. That is the biblical definition of what it means to be a mature Christian. Someone who is like Christ to become mature is to become fully like Christ. That is absolutely explicitly what scripture teaches Ephesians 4 is a prime example of that that God's desire and design from the beginning. He created us in His image and then sin entered and we fell away and that image became corrupted and as falling people as I said, we're imperfect we don't get it right. Sometimes we hurt each other. Sometimes we hurt other sometimes we hurt God. Sometimes we were Jack God that's why the world has all the things that it has in it that we see on the news that that break our hearts, but God calls us back through the Redemptive work of Christ to be cleansed and redeemed and walk back toward that image that he created us in and soak spiritual maturity is all about becoming christ-like. It is not necessarily about being the world's greatest church member it is not necessarily about being the world's greatest biblical scholar. It is not necessarily about being the world's greatest activist all those things coming to play but they have the Value and their relevancy in the context of being like Christ. Paul says that in Romans when he says from the very beginning God decided that those who came to him and all along he knew who would should become like his son so that his son would be the first with many brothers. That's God's design from the beginning that he would call us and forgive us and restore us through the work of Christ and then transform us more and more back into that original image we had in the garden being made in God's image God is Christlike. And Christ is the full revelation of the image of God Scripture says those go together until his work called toward christlikeness. We're turning back to that God like image that we were given the garden Were Made In His Image. So those are two broad assumptions. I operate with when we're talking about. How do we grow? Spiritually that one God has called us to grow spiritually together as a body and not in isolation from one another and that spiritual growth is defined as christlikeness an hour to talk on a super practical level about how can we bring more of that into our own lives as those who gather together to follow Christ? How can we encourage one another and help one another grow in our relationship with Christ a foundation for growth is affirming each other divinely given worth That's a little bit of what I've already just said but a foundational truth of scripture is that God is the maker of everything Heaven and Earth and everything under Heaven and Earth and every person under Heaven and Earth. God has made every human being and he's made every human being in His image. And so even our prodigal lost Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if you think our brothers and sisters if you think of Luke 15, Jesus tells the story that there's a father he has to something one leaves and then comes this prodigal but the father still Longs for him to return any challenges the older brother at the end to love his brother who's been gone away. Those who are in Christ already know the good news and I are on our way to that gift of Salvation that God has provided through Christ, but those outside the church those outside of Christ those who don't know him yet. They are our brothers and sisters. They are our lost brothers and sisters. They are our prodigal brothers and sisters but they are our brothers and sisters. They have the same father and so every person that we interact with a foundation for being who God wants us to be and to bringing the gift of helping them be who God wants them to be a foundation is affirming each other's divinely given worth and we do that with our kids pretty easily and pretty quickly. We teach them that their special that God made them that God loves them. If our kids come home from school and somebody said something mean to him it breaks our hearts and we just want to put them up on our lap and say that's not true. God loves you. God made you you are special and that is true and good when we do that and we are challenged to do that with each other. inside the body of Christ to affirm every person's value and worth as somebody that God loves and die port and cares for and two part of that love is to invite them and challenge them to become christ-like in their character in their behavior. And it's also something we do for everyone. everyone the the church in many ways in the past decade has given itself a black eye in our culture because we've divided people into different categories and label them based on politics or anything else out of the Sun and depending on the label we decided you're not viable. You're not worth listening to I'm going to call you names. I'm going to yell at the TV set when I see you on there. I'm going to wish you ill and we've exchanged our Birthright if you know the Old Testament for a bowl of soup of cultural preferences that we wish the culture was a certain way or we wish politics was a certain way and we've given away our credibility of representing the god of everyone. Everyone there's only one maker of heaven and Earth is only one true God. Is the father of Jesus that's a part of our challenges to bring that truth to live it out in our life to treat one another with value to treat our families with value in to treat every person with that sacred value that God is their maker and not say wipe your problems are all of your own making, you know, you you got in trouble that way you made your bed now just lying and just kind of distance herself. It's so easy to do that and it's walking away from what the gospel calls us to do. So I'll Foundation of growing spiritually is having that truth in our heart and our lives and striving to live at now again, we do it in perfectly and every morning scripture says God's mercies are new every morning to forgive us and cleanse us and restore us and then we get right back up and strive to do it again better that day. Look at what the song that says in 139:14. He says I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful. I know that full well. So not only do we need to see an affirm the value of every other person because they've been created in God's image. We need to remember that. We're one of those people too. And so when we look in the mirror and just put ourselves down repeatedly we're going against scripture also and even the song I must acknowledge that before God and this is Tom where he's in the midst of confessing his own sins and yet even the mister feeling contrite over his own sins Pig knowledge's I know that you made me God and I know that you made me wonderful you're my Creator not have value because you're my creator. A couple of practical ways that we affirm someone's value number one is through affection. Now, I'm I know it's you know flu and cold season and we're tempted to say we don't want to spread the germs but I still believe we don't want to let go of the fact that a fundamental way that we affirm someone's value is through physical touch shaking a hand through patting him on the back through giving a hug. That's the nature of affirming someone else's value Tamara fact, if you don't affirm somebody's value, sometimes you will physically turn your back to them. Sometimes you won't bother to shake their hand. I haven't shaken a few hands this morning because my daughter has been sick and I'm afraid I've got germs that are contagious. So it's actually an act of kindness for me to resist taking answer for those of you. Who am I forgot? I'm sorry, you need some hand sanitizer if you took my hands this morning, but I still believe fundamentally that that's one way we affirm. It's very practical way to live out this truth of affirming. Someone's value is physically showing them. Affection and concern Romans, 12:10 says love one another with brotherly affection as members of One family giving preference in showing honor to one another and then look at 2nd Corinthians. 13:12 greet one another with a holy kiss. Now. I want us to do that right now.

A lot of your thinking if I'd known that I'd sat beside somebody else, right? Stand up just a person not asking husband wife. Like we can do that. No big deal at all. But it's amazing that in the New Testament. You have that pattern. Where was a normal part of greeting to show this physical affection. And the reality is there might be some folks for whom your handshake or your hug on a Sunday morning might be the only physical affection they get all week. And so we don't need to be afraid to Value every other person. Because they're made by God and made in His image and be willing to express that values of a handshake or pat on the back or whatever is appropriate. We don't need to resist that instead Embrace that which scripture model we're from someone's by you through personalized appreciation. That's a second practical way to do it. It's one thing to say. We appreciate everyone. It's another thing to notice something somebody does specifically and appreciate them. Personally Dixie comes early every Sunday morning and she cleans the doors and straightens up the tables because she wants things in the 4-year to look nicer and that is a wonderful gift through the rest of us. And I appreciate that about her and that is a different thing that sang. I appreciate Hillandale. I appreciate all our volunteers to specifically notice until take the time to notice. What individuals are doing and appreciate that strength or that quality that they have. We see this in scripture now brothers and sisters. We asked you to appreciate those who work hard among you who lead you in the Lord and teach you we see in 1st Corinthians 16. They have set their minds. They have set my mind at rest just as they did yours. You should appreciate people like that. We all know that we have seasons in our life that are challenging and often times the people that come alongside us and help us through those seasons are Brothers and Sisters in Christ who come alongside and build us up to understand scripture and bear our burdens with us who speak truth and do us a shared with you last week how I've got a close close friend who occasionally knows when what I need from him when I'm struggling is a good swift kick in the seat of the pants and sometimes he gives me that I shared last week that other times he sure something that kind of puts wind in my sails because sometimes he knows when I need that and we need those sorts of friendships where we can appreciation has to be personalized. It means more when he speaks truth into my life because we know each other so well, we've shared deeply with each other and the really get that value of Christ pouring into US you've got to have that relationship built and it's got to be in the context of an actual authentic deep loving relationship that we share words of encouragement that we exchanged that that's what gives them the power to transform. Otherwise, there's just words on a paper. Minibus other words to other people but it's just like a stripper reading. There's no real relationship or death. It's the be warm and field of James that James says it can't be that way. It has to be different than that until we have to have those sort of deeper relationships that undergird speaking the truth to each other in love that deeper relationship is the love part another way and so given what I just said, I want to go deeper and how we can encourage each other to grow spiritually another way. We encourage one another spiritual growth is through biblical prayers. And when I mean by biblical is we are good at having organ recitals where our prayer time is essentially help this person's kidney and this person's foot and this person know this and we just go through these physical ailments and that kind of becomes the dominance of our prayer. But if we look at the scripture and say what the scripture model for us to be praying for one another look at some of these biblical prayers always saying he's praying may you be able to feel and understand as All God's Children should how long how wide how deep and how high is God's love really is and to experience this love for yourselves. When's the last time when you prayed for a brother and sister in Christ, that was the essence of your prayer that you were praying that they would understand the depth of God's love and experience it for themselves. He continues his love though. It is so great that you'll never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself that a beautiful prayer they will understand the depth of God's love and be filled with that love. Sometimes we rob ourselves. I think of the goodness and the flourishing that God wants to bring into our lives because we just to find what we're praying for ourselves. All of our prayers basically rise to the level of Lord, I would like to be healthy and I would like to have Financial stability and I'd like to have no drama in my relationships and that's enough for me and we never rise how often are our prayers for one another that we would understand the fullness of God and that the fullness of his love would dwell within us or this prayer and Hebrews 13. I pray that God will make you ready to obey him and that you will always be eager to do right may Jesus help you do what pleases God to Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever amen in that a beautiful example of what we should be praying for each other too often. We're asking people to pray and we might be asked him to pray to get us out of trouble that Jesus got us into on purpose and that he's trying to work in our life and sometimes we need to pray. You know, what the fundamental prayer is that this person would obey Christ that this person would see the way to glorify God in the midst of what they're going through and not just be relieved from it so to speak And I want to continue going a little deeper as we talked just a second ago a third way to help one another grow spiritually is through confession. You know, I said that I've got this friend that can speak truth into my life. And sometimes that truth is hard truth that I need to hear and sometimes it's very encouraging truth that I need to hear and the ability for him to speak that into my life is based on the depth of our relationship. And so if we want to see that spiritual growth in our life, we've got to be working on a mini do this in an excellent way already here and you know exactly what I'm talking about. But if we don't we need to be working on building strong spiritual relationships with Brothers and Sisters in Christ where we can speak truth to one another we can encourage each other we can build each other up we can affirm each other and appreciate each other. It takes that sort of relationship Ephesians. 4:25. Paul says, so you must stop telling lies tell each other the truth because we all belong to each other in the same body. It is a fundamental quality of Christian relationships is that we would tell the truth to each other. That we would confess to each other now confession. We automatically think so. Does that mean I got to pull somebody aside and say Here's my deepest darkest secret. That's not all that confession to me and it doesn't necessarily mean that immediately confession might mean that you've got a close enough relationship with a brother and sister in Christ that you're always comfortable being honest with that person. It might mean saying to that person, you know, I just I just love my wife. We've been married for 27 years and I just love her. I know that sounds a little sappy and maybe I'm not supposed to say that but I do. You see how that's confession. What he's talking about here is having relationships that are deep enough and safe enough and Christian enough that we can be honest with each other and it does mean at times that sometimes we said, you know, I like my saying sometimes I just want to strangle my husband. Sometimes that's a confession sometimes were confessing things that we struggle with but we're supposed to have this death of a relationship where we have somebody we can go to and we can share what's on Ur. Heart looking what scripture says about confession among Brothers and Sisters in Christ admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed the earnest prayer of a righteous man has great powerful and wonderful results Ephesians talks about this concept to we receive forgiveness because of the work of Christ on the cross, but there are times in which we've been forgiven for something but it still has a hold on our life. Can you understand that do you know that Christ has forgiven something in your past or maybe you've been a victim in your past but it still seems to have tendons down your heart and you struggle because of that. I believe that part of the way we get emotional healing and we make progress Ephesians 5 talks about this when we bring think about the scripture spoke about this long before psychology and counselors scripture said you need to bring those things that you're hiding Ephesians 5 talks about this things that you're keeping secrets that you're hiding down in your heart. You're not confessing. You're not telling anyone anyone else that big that creates shame and shame for UPS your heart and yourself, you need to bring it out in the light and confess it and celebrate Christ's forgiveness because you've confessed that and when you when you bring it out into the light, it says it loses its power to control you. So there's a healing that occurs in sometimes many of us playing the Forgiveness of Christ and we have it and that is good and true. So don't mishear me you call upon Christ you're forgiven his grace extends to us with the moment we Bonham our sins are forgiven. But sometimes we still live with the consequences of those sins those struggles. They still control our life. They still shape who we are because we've never gone to a brother and sister in Christ and I trusted setting and confess those things. We've never talked about it. We've never brought it out in the open and so scripture teaches that a depth of relationship that allows that helps with healing Proverbs. 28:13 says a man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes, then he gets another chance. Another powerful fruit of being at being a relationship where you you've got the depth of trust and friendship that you can confess you get a fresh start and we all need that from time to time. We all need that may be more frequently than we realize and sometimes we just kind of get stuck and we need to lean on a brother and sister in Christ and have that kind of depth of relationship to confess and get that Fresh Start James 4:10 says humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up and honor so there's this relationship according to this person James that as we humble ourselves then we receive from God this or this lifting up. It's a when we're struggling to overcome sins or struggles scripture says that one thing we do is we humble ourselves is confession and act of humility. Absolutely. And so when we have a depth of relationship for Brothers and Sisters in Christ that we can come alongside in and say look I struggle with this or I need to confess this to you. It not only brings it up hitting only brings healing cuz it brings it out into the light and it brings God's help to work through that because we've humbled ourselves before God in the midst of being obedient to scripture in 1st John 1:7 says but if we live in the light just as he is in the light, then we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from every sin. There is a deeper Fellowship when we've got Brothers and Sisters in Christ whom we've been we've built a close enough trusting in love relationship with them that we can be honest and confess our struggles. There's a depth of fellowship with their that some young said, we we do it in perfectly as a church sometimes but overall the body of Christ on the face of the earth. Is this beautiful thing? That is full of people who are following Christ and an in our life we could all do that. Couldn't we all of us could stand up and give a testimony to a time in which a brother and sister in Christ has blessed us tremendously all of us could that have reached out their hand and pulled us back from the abyss went on our own we were walking in the wrong direction and we needed a call to repentance or maybe we've been victimized and we need somebody just to give us a hug. We've all had that in our life and that's all tamale what Christ wants to multiply Among Us the body of Christ growing together spiritually. So even though there are seasons of discouragement and there are times when we don't function the way we should is the body of Christ. That doesn't change the fact that the body of Christ is always seeking to work in our lives. His spirit is always seeking to work. We're always been called to grow spiritually with one another and to come alongside each other and encourage each other and to build each other up and thank the Lord that his mercies are new every morning because we'll all get excited sound better do better at this and then by 7 p.m. That day that we're excited to do better. Like I forgot all about me afternoon when I was trying to have my eyes open to see people in pain and and be it'll be a help to them instead. I failed we can pray the Lord forgive this and get up with those mercies renewed each morning and strive to be the people that he calls us to be. That's the beauty of Christ forgiveness that we all when we lean on him when we come to him we get that fresh start and we can repent and and and strive to follow him Faithfully. About the worship team to come forward and I just have kind of one question as we close for application for you. You know I talked about I didn't do the chairs at the beginning but you see me doing the past that the father Son and Holy Spirit at least three chairs and fellowships and then in creation, they added a couple of chairs and said, let's primor beings and Raymond, you know, pull up a chair Adam and Eve and they expanded at fellowship and Sam came and corrupted that the part of our journey back to life and God worthy to redeem us and restore us is not only Christ forgiveness on the cross. But his invitation to us to have close relationships are Brothers and Sisters in Christ and to do everything that I've just talked about how to build each other up to encourage each other to confess to one another to affirm each other to appreciate each other. So my question to you is who's in your chairs.

do you have a few clothes Christian friends and they may be right here right beside you but they could be another church. That's okay. The kingdom of God Is Bigger Than This street address you will find help from Brothers and Sisters in Christ on every place on the face of the Earth. You can be in the middle of nowhere and have a crisis and somebody comes along and says, hey, I'm a Christian. I want to help you out in his body throughout the globe that way but who's who who's in those chairs for you? It can't be it can't be your preacher. It can't be your favorite TV preacher. It can't be your favorite Christian Author can't be your favorite guy on the radio or your favorite that puts out DVDs because that's just not going to be possible to have ongoing regular consistent Flesh and Blood interaction. You need somebody's in those chairs next to you. And if you don't immediately look at that picture and think I know who's in those chairs. I can name them ones in another state. But I can feel those chairs out. That's my challenge to you. That's my my this week be asking yourself who's in that chair for me and it needs to be somebody who loves you unconditionally who will encourage you and back you up and be there and also need somebody who can look in the eye and occasionally give you a good swift kick in the seat of the pants if they took can't be your mother if my mom was in one of those chairs I could do anything and she's like what that's okay, honey. I'm sure you had your reasons to Mom know I am in prison, you know, I should not have done that. I did something wrong. Well, I'm sure it was someone else's fault. It needs to be somebody who absolutely loves you, but they love you enough to look in the eye time and say you need to need to repent of that. You need to you need to turn in this direction need to grow a little bit. So I invite you I challenge you to think about that this week to think about who you can have in those chairs because it is inevitable that all of us will have seasons in which we absolutely need it to be season to wish things are going great and fine and dandy that didn't occur to us, but that we seasons in which we meet Lee site and listen, you need to have those chairs filled before you get to prices. In the Good Seasons you need to work on it. You need to do that because God wants to love you and want your life to flourish. And one of the main ways he wants to do it is to Brothers and Sisters in Christ. As we sing the song if you've never made a decision to to begin a relationship with Christ to accept his sacrifice on the cross I invite you to do that I'll be in the back after anybody who's got that kind of decision to make or just questions or just prayer I'm available I will also have both both in the front and the back for prayer. So if you got something Weighing on your heart or something you need to let the church know about so that we can help you. Please do that during during this prayer time, please stand