Grow up (grow in grace)

October 10,210

Grow Up

2 Peter 3:18  ¹⁸But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

If God wants us to grow in grace then we need to understand what grace is and how to apply in our lives so we can grow. God doesn’t want us to stay ignorant; we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.  I can have a ton of research material, concordances, variety of bibles, all that stuff but without growing and living in grace, I would become an intellectual idiot.  A lot of people like to pat themselves on the back for how much knowledge they have of the scriptures, but that’s not God’s will. It doesn’t matter to God how much you know, but how much do you love. The only way God can reach into a person’s heart is through love, and that is grace in action.  God literally loved us so much, he saw past our shortcomings, our failures and our lack of love for him. It can be hard for our minds to grasp that kind of love.  Boy my parents didn’t like me very much when I made mistakes, and I felt shamed for a long time. I never did anything good for God, yet he loved me and continues to love me regardless. That is grace. We can stand before our beautiful, tender, and loving God without any sense of sin, guilt or condemnation. Not so with people, but it is with God, and that’s what he wants us to grow in.  We need to learn how to love with the love wherewith he loved us, how to forgive with the forgiveness wherewith he forgives and how to keep your tongue under control so you don’t’ go blabbing all the time.  It truly is sad that some people do have knowledge of the scriptures but they like to brag in order to make you feel bad.  If you really know what this means, wouldn’t you want to endeavor to build the grace of God in your minds? The importance is not in having knowledge of the scriptures but a knowing how to love with that knowledge. Growing takes time, like a child, and in stages.  We have these beautiful little kids at fellowship, Sammy has a newborn little boy, and two little girls, Taylor Rose and Clara and then we have Macie and Chloe and you wouldn’t think twice to be critical to any of them if they fell down and made mistakes. Would you criticize a newborn baby for spitting up his milk, or condemning a 2yr old for accidently breaking something? No you wouldn’t, then why do you think that when a person starts to become an adult it’s ok to criticize. Criticism never changes a person, only love.  Some people really think that the harder you press on someone the better chances you have to change them. Love is the only motivation that ever changes a person from within.  People will never see the love of God if they don’t’ see it in you. They will never see forgiveness if they don’t’ see it in you. They will not go home and read their bibles, they will read you.  People don’t care how much you know until they know you care. We are to be open books for people, we are to be their hands and feet until they are able to walk on their own. We love people into loving and it has to be by grace wherewith the grace that has been given to us.  I am so thankful that our God is so good to us, and it’s really sad to see so many religions controlling their people by guilt and sins. Teaching that God kills, that God puts you in bad situations to test you. Would you throw your baby in front of an oncoming car to see if it’s mature enough to run out of the way? How stupid, yet people are being taught that all over the world about God. I can tell you one thing for sure, their God is not my God, because my God doesn’t tempt us, or kill a loved one, or put me in disastrous situations to test me.  My suggestion to anyone who gets taught like that is to run and run fast.

The beauty of this scripture is to grow in grace. Grace is un-deserved favor from God.  More accurately it is unmerited divine favor.  Grace is God’s love in action towards us. You didn’t earn it and you can’t work for it.

Ephesians 2;4-9 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,      ⁵Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)     ⁶And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

 ⁷That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

 ⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast.

God who is rich in mercy! Mercy is withholding merited judgment, we should have our butts kicked for some of the things we do, but God withholds that judgment. Then it says for his GREAT love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead spiritually. And hath raised us up together, it’s a figure of speech, we are seated in the heavenlies and when Christ returns he’s coming back for us, we have our home in heaven being built and prepared for us. Look at Verse 7; he is not only going to show us the riches of his grace, but the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. That’s our God, that’s our father! He is kind and loving. For it is by grace ye are saved through faith (believing) and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. It’s God’s gift to us, to be saved, to be born again, to have our home in the heavenlies when Christ returns and it’s all because he loves us. Not of works, lest any man should boast. God knew the hearts of man, he knows that man loves to brag, man or woman, there is no difference to God. No man or woman can ever say God called them because they were so good and they worked harder than anyone else. Do you see the beauty in grace? This is what God wants us to grow in.  If this is all the Word you will ever learn, these two scriptures, then you can live a life more than abundantly, you can love the un-lovable, you can forgive, and you can be kind and tenderhearted. That is God’s love in action. You are what God says you are and you can do what God says you can do. Like I said, growing takes time and what an exciting life to grow in grace, to extend God’s heart to others. We need to remind ourselves over and over that God loves us. The adversary will remind you of your faults and sins, people will criticize you, they did to Jesus, and so they will so to you, so arm yourselves. Regardless of how people have treated you and will treat you, you rise up and love, you be the one to forgive.  Let them cast the stones, you be the one to love. It takes a real man or woman to love; it takes boldness and putting your trust in God. Please look at this next scripture.

Philippians 2;13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 To know what God’s good pleasure is you must know God’s Word. And one of the things that is God’s pleasure is to love with the love wherewith he loved, the tenderness wherewith he was tender, the thanksgiving, forgiveness with which He is. It is God at work within us to will and to do His good pleasure. Can your mind grasp that? Colossians 1;27, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Just think, when you go to work, its God in Christ in you, when you go dancing, its God in Christ in all of you, his hands behind your hands, his feet behind your feet, his eyes behind your eyes. He is in you! God can direct and lead your every step, and he does it with love, grace in action.

In the Old Testament, Joshua 24, it was getting close to his time of death, he had to take over Moses’ leadership, which was a very difficult role to take. Moses for 40 years, leading over 2 ½ million people, who complained, murmured, complained some more and then some more. 40 years Moses had to lead them, he was leading them to the promise land; a land God had waiting for them. A land rich in resources and in abundance. Do you know they didn’t walk longer than 3 miles for those forty years? Pretty incredible, some time you should read it. Any way God had to remind Joshua over and over again not to be afraid, as he was with Moses he would be to him. So many years have passed and Joshua is calling in all the bigwigs, all the leadership, judges, you name it, he wanted them to all meet with him for the last time. He basically said for them to put all other Gods away from you and to love and trust the one and only true God. Even in our day and time, we may not be worshipping idols or strange Gods like they did back then, but we put our trust into our bank accounts, our houses or cars. We believe what a banker tells us more than what God tells us. There is self worship, or people worship the stocks or bonds, drugs, alcohol. There are things we need to put away, things that stop us from being our best for God and moving forward in life.  Anyway, the beginning of this chapter God is having Joshua speak for him, Joshua is doing the speaking but they are the words of God. God is reminding them of many miracles he performed for them.

Joshua 24; ¹And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

 ²And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

 ³And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

 ⁴And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

 ⁵I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.

 ⁶And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea.

 ⁷And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.

 ⁸And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

I am going to skip a few verses in order to save some space. Please go back and read the entirety when you have a chance.

 ¹²And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.  God is reminding them that these great feats was not with their sword or bow, other words, not for them to take credit because they were so smart and strong. It was Gods power and might.

 ¹³And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

Look at the beauty of this scripture. I, God, I have given you land which you did not labor for, cities you did not build, and olivyards you did not plant. God’s desire is always to supply our every need, to give us more than what we could ask for think. Its Gods desire to give. And this is grace. They did not deserve all this abundance; they screwed around and worshipped other Gods. God is grace, Gods love in action is grace. We didn’t’ deserve to be loved and called by him. He has given us a life we did not earn or work for. Boy isn’t our God magnificent.

 ¹⁴Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

Remember, we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior. We are to serve our God in sincerity and in truth. This was written in the Old Testament, but this is the same God in our day and time, and this God dwells in us.  

 ¹⁵And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!

You choose this day whom you will serve; to serve God is to serve his bread of life to those who are hungry, to love people into loving themselves, to set people free who have been incased with fears and criticized all their lives.  If God be for us, who can be against us?  If you want to grow, the only way is to take a stand for God, if you don’t’ stand for God then you fall for anything, make up your mind who want to serve. If you don’t do it, who will?  God bless all of you; grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior.