2019: Grow Together

God has given us everything we need to live a godly life, through knowledge of Him, granting us his great and precious promises and is calling us to increasing faith and love demonstrated by Christlikeness in our lives. Lets resolve to respond to this call this year letting God do a new thing in us.

Reading of Scripture

2 Peter 1:1–13 NLT

1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. 2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. 13 And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live.

Where are you headed in 2019?

VIDEO - Groundhog Day trailer

Have you ever stopped during a normal weekly routine and thought I am just reliving this week over and over, this day over and over, this month over and over this year over and over? What if you were given the chance to relive 2018 over again? How can we make 2019 into 2019 rather than 2018. Would it be more money? What about Power? What about more vacation time? What if you had less of any of those things? It seems to me to be an indicator of problems in our soul that we can only think more stuff better, less stuff bad. I believe there is a way, a truth and a life that can lead us toward true departure from the rat race. I believe the the measure of stuff is not the measure of life. I believe the way out is not to pursue more of the same, but to turn and pursue something other. I propose that true change for 2019, beneficial life giving change, is attainable to any who would pursue it. I believe God has promised us the opportunity and power to change. You can change. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” Peter

Foundation for growth? vs. 3-4

Mark 4:26–29 NLT

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”

Time and again the scripture gives us this analogy of Growth of a seed.

VIDEO - time laps of seed.

This analogy is so important here because I want to encourage you today to embrace and pursue growth. God chose you to bear fruit. However this cannot happen apart from God’s work it is a matter of faith on our part.

2 Peter 1:1–4 NLT

Peter is writing to those who share the same faith he has so he knows what he is talking about. One can look at the story of Peter and see the growth and development. In one instance from a man who one minute is claiming he will fight and die with Jesus to the next, being scared of a little girl pointing out he was Jesus disciple, and cussing her out. Running from the scene weeping bitterly and then standing on the day of pentecost in front of 3000 people to proclaim that he does still follow Jesus who has risen from the dead. Peter knows the power of the faith he is talking about.

Peter assumes growth. He says as you grow. Peter has grown and knows that people who know Jesus will grow. They will have more grace, and peace as they grow in knowledge of Him.

Here Peter uses the word knowledge not just as head knowledge but as a bigger idea. It is the whole knowledge of God, Jesus, the Spirit and the plan of salvation. It is an understanding of our place in the kingdom and how one gets into the kingdom. It is also hope, a confident understanding and trust in God’s ability to fulfill his promises.

This knowledge Peter is referring to is not just knowing in the head, but a thorough going head, heart, and hands understanding which is evidenced by a different life, hope and love.

Think of having a car problem, and asking a friend do you know about cars? They would say yes I “know” about cars. Or asking a mechanic who works for the dealer who manufactured the car itself do you know about cars. His knowing is an order of magnitude different from your friend who understands that cars go when you push on the right pedal and have cup holders.

Peter is talking about coming to know someone, this takes time. Getting to know someone so well you can discern how they will respond to situation or if you hear a report about them you would be able to say That doesn’t sound like them. Or if hey promised you something you would either expect it to happen or know they only mean well. God has made a way for you to know him and it starts in his story culminating in the life of Jesus. Jesus couldn’t be any clearer in answer to the question what is God like?

John 14:8–11 NLT

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

Back to the seed and soil. It is God who has prepared, the place, the power, and the purpose for us to grow. This happens by faith in Jesus work on the cross where we lay down our self righteousness and self reliance, our guilt our shame our condemnation and receive forgiveness of sins, and new life infused with the empowering presence of God. This is Peter’s starting point.

Attempting to know Jesus on our own terms is as futile as trying to lift ourselves from the ground. God has come down to give you a divine nature and lift you out of the corruption caused by human desires.

God has prepared the foundation for growth. What next? GROW!

Here is the secret to growth… What God has done, knowledge of Him, and His promises. God is the first mover our response cannot be a means to being made right. God is saying I have made you mine, I declare you right and you will be with me. This is the first step toward growth being transformed by God. Respond to God today because what we do has to be based on who we are, not the other way around.

Think of this. you have been driving a car for your whole life and now God gives you an airplane as well as the ability to fly and is sitting in the pilots seat. (you are to co pilot) He say take it for a spin, and many of us start taxiing down the runway as if we are still driving a car which is a slave to gravity when we have been freed from the bondage of gravity and given a new identity, we have been transformed but continue to put along thinking this sure drives weird.

How do we get this new life off the ground so to speak? How to get growing?

Process of growth, pursuing growth.

2 Peter 1:5–9 NLT

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

So this process of growth has a crucial first step - Faith in Christ and the knowledge of God and his promises Peter talks about which transform us.

Next we can begin to walk. Life in Christ is a process which actually takes time. Like being a baby for a while we need to be fed milk but eventually we can begin to feed and clothe ourselves. Babies naturally begin Making every effort to walk once they get it in their heads. God is like a great parent encouraging us forward. And because of the cross he does not give up on us when we fall rather like a perfect father he heals and helps us get back up.

But also like a great parent he will encourage us to walk on our own. Zoe wanted to walk everywhere while holding onto our hands and would pout when we took our support away, but we wanted her to learn to walk on her own.

In view of all this, or for this very reason, make every effort or apply all diligence to growing. I want you to put these ideas into your resolve this year. Understand who you are and what God has done.

Expect great things from God; Attempt great things for God! William Carey.

It is all by faith what will growth look like? it will look like growing trust in God which enables more and more Christ likeness or godliness in our lives.

Faith - active trust in God, what does that look like?

What comes next is like a staircase of spiritual growth, This is not a legalistic todo list for self righteousness. It is a chain of ideas building on one one another each supplying the next .

I want to recall the picture of a plant growing The picture taken above ground might lead us to believe all the growth is happening there. However the seed falls in the ground and “dies” (God’s design.) We experience new life but it doesn’t immediately happen it is a pushing out of roots which continue to grow which supply the foundation for fruit.

This chain of growth indicators is predicated on the subterrainian work in our hearts. That our roots are growing down into Christ’s love and we are strengthened by the spirit then these leaves or flowers so to speak begin to appear.

First lets understand the idea here. It is not that faith needs something added to it. It is not that faith will not show up without something else. No we know that faith without works is dead and so we expect faith to supply growth and change.

Faith Brings Virtue

Virtue -

“by means of your faith supply virtue,” i.e. each virtue is the means of producing the next. But it is difficult to capture this nuance in an English translation which can also reproduce the form of the sorites without awkwardness. The usual English rendering, “add to your faith virtue” (AV) is not what the Greek says. - Bauckham, Richard J. 2 Peter, Jude. Vol. 50. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998. Print. Word Biblical Commentary.

So it is “by means of your faith supply virtue.”

The Bible has very little to say about the secular or catholic idea of virtues sort of based on ancient Greek philosophies. The people of God are meant to look like Christ. Virtue here is a hard word to translate then what this scripture is not saying is add a bunch of “good” behaviors to your faith. Looking at it’s use in another passage gives us a more clear picture. As to how this works and fits in the chain of growth metrics here.

1 Peter 2:9 NLT

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

You are God’s own possession - So that or as a result you can show the (virtues) of God- or the excellencies of God. So then let your faith, your trust in God provide you with opportunities to show others the goodness of God. Whether by word or deed. Pray for co workers, neighbors, enemies. Give generously, share your time, invest in people. This is saying let your faith show! Let the idea that you trust Jesus and not the God’s of our culture show through. James teaches us that faith is demonstrated by what we do not just what we say we believe.

Please understand Faith is not holding onto a set of beliefs without evidence, rather faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith shows the goodness of God.

Pray and plan this year to walk out, to show off, to demonstrate faith in every aspect of life and let God lead you to opportunities to show others His Goodness. It has been said that you might be the only Bible People every read. Let your faith be an open book.

Moral Excellence Brings Knowledge

Here Peter speaks not of the concept of salvation like above where he uses a difference form of the word. Peter is talking about practical knowledge or wisdom. Street smarts so to speak. These are the lessons you pick up while walking out your faith. The Hands on training living out faith provides. More and more we grow in knowledge of Chris as we learn to walk in obedience through practice. Most of all because Jesus is with us. We learn from him as we work with him.

Colossians 1:29 NLT

29 That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

Paul describes this process of striving with all his might because Jesus is at work within him. It is in this process we grow in our practical knowledge of walking with Jesus.

Knowledge Brings Self Control

Self Control - associated with sexual restraint, but generally ability to control oneself. “Get ahold of yourself” Knowledge of Christ and understanding who you are gives self control. However it is not only up here, head knowledge. It is not conceptual theories. It is practically applied understanding in relationship with Jesus. It is by His Spirit we have this self control. Knowing that there is spiritual power available to us. Have you ever learned something new which was available to you for a long time you just didn’t know it was there?

New Living Translation Chapter 1

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

God’s empowering presence, the Spirit of Christ empowers us toward self discipline.

Self discipline brings Patient Endurance

Romans 5:2–5 NLT

2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 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. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

As we grow we can endure the troubling times which face us. We can stand the storms of life without crumbling or running to other gods to save us. We are not shaken from the great and precious promises we have in Christ because they were never the promise of health and wealth. The prosperity Gospel is a sad lie which sets you up for a fall. We can face the storms of life with patient endurance knowing that Jesus is with us and at work in us to bring about Christlikeness. It is our Faith in these times which shines out to others leading them to ask what reason for hope do you have in these troubles. Think of Paul singing hymns while locked in Jail.

Patient Endurance brings Godliness

Romans 8:28–31 NLT

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. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

This is to look like Christ in your actions. To live, to sound, to celebrate, to work with a christlikeness. Godliness is not just personal piety it is to demonstrate Christ to others. Godliness again is the practice of Following Christ and showing what He is like through your life. This is God’s purpose for you His aim, to bring about Christ likeness in you, through the unique person he made you to be.

Godliness brings Brotherly affection

John 13:34–35 NLT

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

This is to truly see those Christ as put around us as brothers and sisters. Make allowance for each others faults. To truly believe and act as though the Church is your family. This is Jesus greatest commandment - love one another and the way we can demonstrate that we are Christ disciples to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Love as Christ loved. Brotherly love is interesting because brothers are not friends in the sense you do not pick them. They probably do not share all the likes and dislikes but they are brothers, they are sisters, they are connected with a god given bond intended to help us learn to love as God love.

Brotherly affection brings Love

While there is a special connection for the body of Christ, a brotherly love. The word love at the end of this list is the word you might have heard in English as Agape. This is the self giving love demonstrated by Jesus toward us. The love which sent him into the world, humbling himself, walking in obedience, and ultimately obedience to the point of death on the cross so that humans could be reconciled to God. Jesus ransomed us from the slavery to sin and death and adopted us into his family. This kind of love we didn’t even understand until Jesus demonstrated it for us, this is how we know this kind of love that he gave his life for us. Romans makes it clear it was while we were still sinners, while we were still rebels he made a way for us to be made new. While we nailed him to the cross he prayed forgive them they do not know what they are doing. This love comes from God, it is the fruit of the Spirit in us working in our new heart the newness of life a love without condition.

Not virtues but attainable spiritual growth.

How does a tree bear fruit? Does it struggle with all it’s might pushing out fruit? It just bears fruit as it is connected to strong roots, to nourishment, even to the elements and winds which strengthen it’s roots and branches. This process of growth outlined for us is not a list of pick and choose virtues. This is to help us understand that Spiritual growth takes time and will happen when we embrace what God is doing in us.

2 Peter 1:8–11 NLT

8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Hebrews 10:19–25 NLT

19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Lets resolve to make 2019 a year of spiritual growth. Where do you need to start this year? Maybe is it knowledge of Him. This comes by the word and prayer, in a community of believers who practice these things in word and deed. Maybe your faith is established and you are wondering where to from here? Engage in supplementing your faith, the way to strengthen faith is to apply it, to obey God, to put it into action, otherwise it remains conceptual. This is subjective and can be worked out in 1000 different ways ask God, your group, and your church where to start. Perhaps you are walking in these things and just needed a reminder, an encouragement to keep on.

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