Growing in Grace

00:01 Greet you this morning in the name of Jesus. Appreciate the songs that have been sung this morning. They dovetail very nicely into the theme of the message this morning. If you have your copies of the Scriptures, please turn in them to the book of 1 John. And we're going to be looking at several passages of Scripture this morning, 00:22 one in 1 John and the other in 2 Peter. But we've been thinking recently about the subject of grace, God's grace, and how it is available to us for the various needs of our lives at any given time. What we need is available to us from God. Grace for our station in life, 00:43 grace for our salvation, grace for strength, grace for service, grace to overcome temptation. Just whatever we need, God's grace is customized, tailor-made, and applied to that particular need at that particular hour. And we've seen that in Scripture. 01:03 And then the second message we preached on grace was about accessing grace. And how do you allow grace to flow freely in your life? And how do you fall from grace? Or the Bible Scripture talks about falling from grace. 01:23 It talks about receiving the grace of God in vain. And it talks about the grace of God having worked, now not working in your life. And we saw that the root of that is pride. Because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So as we humble ourselves before God, 01:42 He is able to open His floodgates of grace and to pour it out into our lives. Now this morning I want to share with you about growing in grace. 2 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Grow, 02:02 grow, grow in grace. James, He giveth more grace. So how do we receive that more grace? How does He give that more grace? It's through humility. It's through activating the resources of Christ and receiving the resources of Christ that we're going to look at this morning. 02:21 And God's grace is available. It's real, folks. God's grace is real. His divine enablement, enabling us to come to salvation, enabling us to walk uprightly, enabling us to have strength and to become the person that God wants us to be and serve Him in an acceptable way. 02:42 And so we're thinking this morning about what the songwriter P.P. Bliss said many years ago. It's found in your Purple Books on page 702 when he wrote, "More holiness give me. More strivings within. More patience in suffering. More sorrow for sin. 03:03 More faith in my Savior. More sense of His care. More joy in His service. More purpose in prayer." And we're thinking about that this morning in the sense of growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 03:19 Because there are a variety of levels in the Christian life 03:26 that we attain to and we desire to attain to. So in 1 John 2, he says in verse 12, "I write to you, little children, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. 03:48 I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. 04:03 I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one." In just a moment we're going to unpack these four levels of spiritual maturity. 04:19 But I summarize it like this, that there's at least four levels and you could divide it up a number of different ways of spiritual maturity. The first one is, and we have to say first of all, that these levels of spiritual maturity are not determined by how long you've been a Christian, but by how much you have grown as a Christian. 04:38 See, there are people who've been Christians for many years and they love the Lord and they're genuinely born again. But they've never really grown in comparison with their age. They may be a Christian for a long time, but they're still functioning as a baby or as a young Christian in knowledge and in experience. 05:00 So it's not determined by how long you've been a Christian, but by how well you have activated grace in your life to take you from one degree of grace to another, from grace to grace, from glory to glory, and from faith to faith, and from strength to strength. And so we have the levels of Christian growth. 05:21 One level would be a new or young Christian where they're learning the basics of the faith. And it's always wonderful to see babies born into the kingdom of God. It's wonderful to see young people come to know Christ, even older people come to know Christ, and receive Him as their Lord and Savior and commit their lives to Him, 05:43 follow Him as a disciple, and have the new assurance of sins forgiven. And learning the basics of the faith. 05:51 And we are, as parents, instructing our children in the basics of the faith and in the elementary things of the Word of God and helping them to gain an understanding of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to serve the Lord, what it means to serve others. 06:13 So we start out with that basic understanding and then we must grow, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we come to a place where we're a little bit more mature, where we know the basics of the faith and we're accessing grace and we're walking and living a consistent Christian life. 06:34 And that's good to see. I appreciate seeing people take leaps forward when it comes to revival services or things like that. But I appreciate even more when there's just a steady, steady, steady increase in the spiritual walk. And sometimes we need a jump start. 06:54 Sometimes we need to take a leap of faith into the depths of God's love. But we also need to just continue on growing and growing and learning to walk consistently. 07:10 And then after we've grown from there, we become maybe a discipling Christian where our faith is meaningful enough and real enough and experienced enough that we now are in a position where we can help others and we can help others win their victories. And we can help others come and overcome their sins. 07:30 And it's exciting to see in the church, and here we have it here at Living Water, where people have gained victory in various areas of their lives and they're reaching out to others to help them gain victory in their lives as they reach out to others. And there's mentoring happening and there's discipleship happening and there's freedom happening. 07:51 And that's an exciting thing to see. 07:54 And then God wants us to go on to be fathers, to be fathers in the faith where we can not only be leaders ourselves, but where we can equip and train and influence other leaders and where we can encourage one another with the depth of maturity that 08:13 comes from the years of experience of serving the Lord in victory. I had a young man, a younger man, tell me the other week down at another church down at Lamb of God, he kind of put himself on the spot. I think he embarrassed himself. He said, "Brother Todd," he said, "I just feel so encouraged when I'm around you. 08:32 It's good to see older men." Whoa, wait a minute. Who's he talking about? Where's this older man he's talking about? He said, "It's good to see older men who are being faithful and steadfast." And I thought, "Well, okay. Praise the Lord. And let's be faithful, steadfast, and let's keep growing, keep growing." And so he said, 08:52 "Where do you see those four levels of maturity, Brother Todd?" Well, first of all, he says in verse 12, "I write to you, little children, 09:00 little children." That is a word that can mean little babes, babes in Christ, an infant or a darling or a recent convert. 09:13 The characteristics of these little children are that they're so excited that their sins are forgiven and they've come to know Christ and Christ has given them a new purpose for living and a new freedom from sin and a new cleansing of their conscience. Things are new in the faith and there's an emphasis in their lives on forgiveness and conversion. 09:35 They have a new family and they begin to recognize their family and they're like babes in Christ. And I love to see little babies. We've got seven grandchildren now and I love to see the younger ones. I love all of them in their various stages. But it's exciting to see the little ones when they start recognizing you. 09:54 And of course they recognize mom and dad and they recognize their brothers and sisters. And then they come to grandma's house and you can kind of see it for a while. They're kind of wondering, "Well, where am I at and who's this?" And especially grandpa takes a little bit of while, "Who is this guy?" But then all of a sudden the lights begin to come on as they interact with you a little bit more and more. 10:14 And they recognize not only their immediate family, but their extended family and the people that are near and dear to them. And the strengths are that they're excited about new things. 10:25 And as they grow, they get to know new things and the world takes on a changing dimension to them as they learn to recognize sizes and shapes and colors and words and the alphabet and people and relationships and cousins and nieces and nephews and grandparents and aunts and uncles. 10:48 And everything's new and exciting and they're changing. You see them from week to week and they've changed some more. And there's an excitement and a world of discovery. And that's the way it is in a new convert's life. 11:00 There's just a world of discovery out there to discover all the good things that God has for us and how to walk the Christian life and how to get your balance and not fall down all the time and how to feed yourself and how to put your clothes on and comb your hair spiritually. It's just a lot of new things and that's good. 11:21 Those are the strengths. The weaknesses, and every stage in life has some weaknesses. The weakness of the baby stage is they're oftentimes unaware of the dangers of life. They're just pell-mell, just hammer down, just run across the yard and out into the street and boom, fall down and get hit and hit somebody. 11:42 And they're just unaware that life is full of dangers. And then they're dependent. They're always needing help. They need help to change their diaper. They need help to put their clothes on. They need help to feed themselves. And oh, then they think they don't need help, but they really do. And so those are some of the weaknesses. And we see that happening in the Christian life as well. 12:04 People unaware of the dangers. They're just happy to be in Jesus. And that's good. That's good. But they also need to be aware of their surroundings. And babies are somewhat limited in their usefulness. 12:19 They absorb a lot of resources and they take a lot of resources intending. And that's okay. That's wonderful because as they have received, then they can learn to give. And then they can be somewhat demanding. Babies can be pretty demanding. They want it now and they need it now. 12:39 They don't have a sense of time, that there was life before you and there'll still be life after supper. And you can wait a little bit. And you don't need everything just right. I think you get the point. The baby stage is a fascinating stage, but it has its limitations. Now, if you've been a Christian for 20 years and you're still a baby, there's something wrong with you. 13:00 There's something wrong with you. Even though it's not measured by the length of time, you should be keeping in step with your spiritual growth. 13:10 Then he says in verse 13, he says, "I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father." Now, the English word here is still translated little children, but it's a different Greek word. It's a word that can mean a large different, a stage, different stages of the Christian life. 13:31 But it has the idea of a little youth, of a little youth. In fact, Young's translation, literal translation, translates this as, "I have written unto you, little youths, little youths." And so this implies that this isn't just a babe anymore, but this is kind of a half-grown child. 13:52 They're growing or similar to the English use of the word lad. This is a young lad. And the characteristic is that they're growing in relationship with their father, with the Father. 14:05 Now, it is true that in the baby's life, that his primary nurturer and the primary teacher and the primary feeder and nourishment comes from the mother. But there is a period of transition where that loyalty transfers or includes the Father. 14:24 And the awareness of the Father needs to become more and more increasingly aware in the Father's goodness and his relationship with the Father. And I love to see children growing in relationship, not just with mom, but with dad as well. And dad entering into their lives. 14:44 And the characteristic of this age is they're growing in relationship with the Father. And so he says that, "I have written unto you or write to you, little children, because you have known the Father." Now, the strengths of this lad station and calling in life are they're discovering much about the world around them, things that are less obvious. 15:06 And they're learning more important things and deeper things. And they're being able to now put two and two together and begin to process life and to draw some initial conclusions. They're less dependent. They can feed themselves. They can dress themselves. They can comb their hair and brush their teeth. 15:26 And they can get themselves to bed and they can get out of bed. And they can get themselves to church. And they can get themselves to Bible study. And they can start in Sunday school. And they can begin to to to to interact with the truths that they know. And it's amazing. I get amazed at my children, 15:45 grandchildren sometimes when I hear the stuff that they know. Wow. This is neat. They're in school. They're learning. They're growing. They're knowing things. I thought, "Man, I wish I'd have known that." And some of the things we've forgotten along the way. And so there's excitement. But there's a discovery of the world around them. 16:06 They're less dependent. They're learning and they're full of energy, full of energy. The downside of this stage in life is that they run in circles. And I don't know if you've ever seen the Family Circus comic strip where there's this set of foot tracks all over the community. That's their day. 16:25 That's their way of getting from point A to point B is all the way through the neighborhood, the farm, the church, the house. And they just got lots of energy, but it's not spent very wisely sometimes. They vacillate. They vacillate between things. One day they want to be an astronaut. 16:45 The next day they want to be a firefighter. The next day they want to be a doctor. The next day they want to be a baseball player or a football player or a homemaker or a... They're just always different and strong-willed. Oh my, this age can be a time of being strong-willed and headstrong and needing of discipline and needing instruction. 17:05 And they still don't see clearly all the dangers in life. And so they just kind of with reckless abandon just enjoy life. He said, "That describes some of you." And then the third stage, he says, "I write unto you, young men. I write unto you, 17:25 young men." And then in verse 14, he says, "I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you. 17:35 I write to you because you have overcome the wicked one." Now, this young adult stage is also exciting, exciting when you can see young people developing convictions and understanding the truth of God's Word and actually learning 17:54 to pray and learning to the spiritual disciplines and memorizing God's Word and becoming able to do some spiritual battle and some spiritual warfare. 18:05 When temptation comes along their way, they know how to use the Word of God and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan." And they know how to bring down principalities and powers and are learning how to bring every thought into the captivity of Christ and taking every thought captive and learning how to put on the armor of God, the belt of truth, 18:24 the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, of the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, 18:30 the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. And they learn how to pray. And we had that in Bible school. And so to experience their strength that's growing and increasing as they master the Word, they master the Word. 18:48 The time of the adolescent is the time when you learn to master the Word. You're memorizing, you're reading, you're applying. And you have some wins under your belt as you defeat the devil in your personal life. 19:02 Oh yes, you can get beat up and make some bad decisions, but you get back up and you got enough strength and energy to know dust yourself off and go to the cross for cleansing and then keep moving forward. The strengths of this are that there's optimism, there's idealism, there are goals, there's productivity, there's work. 19:23 And they can begin to reproduce as husbands and wives and go on and take on the world for Jesus. That's exciting. But that stage also has some weaknesses because they can tend to be so self-sufficient that, "I'm going to do this. 19:43 I've got this figured out. I know what I'm doing. And don't bother me with anything else. I've got my way and I've got it. I know what I'm doing." And sometimes they're too self-sufficient. Sometimes they're impatient. Sometimes they're impatient. Sometimes they're a bit naive. Because they haven't experienced everything that older people have. 20:04 But they've got, like somebody told me when I was back in early years of ministry almost 40 years ago, said, "The young people have the fire and the old people have the wisdom." Well, you get that together in a church, the fire and the wisdom. And it's a beautiful combination. And some of you, some of the older folks need a little fire. 20:25 And some of you younger folks need a little wisdom. But you're growing. We're growing. We're growing. Always growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes young people can be a little reckless. You go out to drive too fast. 20:44 You cut the corner too sharp. You jump off something a little too high, a little bit reckless. That's the way it is spiritually sometimes. But thank God for those people that are willing to take risks for the kingdom of God. And so every stage has its strength. Every stage has its weakness. 21:03 And then he says, "I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning, from the beginning. You've known Christ for a long time. You've walked with Christ. You've talked with Christ. 21:22 You have a track record of wins and some losses that you've learned from and moved on and put behind you." And he says, "I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning." He says it twice. 21:41 There must be something here that speaks of some longevity. You have known from the beginning and it has impacted your life. And you now are able to focus, refocus on relationships, your relationship with the Father. 21:58 You see what happens when you're out winning souls for Christ and you're out young and defeating the devil. Sometimes you kind of go out and you forget about refocusing on relationships. 22:12 And sometimes then as you get a little bit older in the faith, you recognize that, "Hey, some of those relationships that I kind of laid aside because I was out conquering the world, now they're meaningful. I need to cultivate those relationships." And we refocus on relationships. The relationship with the Father. 22:32 Older people tend to look back on their roots. And we want others to know where we came from and why we exist and some of the stable stability things in life and faithfulness. Those are characteristics of a father, focusing on relationships, looking back on roots, 22:51 building a sense of identity and connection. And faithfulness. Some of the strengths of this stage in life are we tend to look at life a little bit more realistic. You've seen a lot of things come and go. I've seen a lot of things come and go in the last 40, 50, 60 years. 23:12 And it gets more less worked up about things that come and go, whether in a good sense or a bad sense. And wisdom, there's a sense of wisdom. There should be a sense of wisdom and experience and stability and solidity and depth and ability to train others. 23:33 But then there's some downsides to this father stage. And that is sometimes fathers get tired. And they get so tired, some fathers just quit. They're going to sit on their spiritual rocking chair and kick their feet up and just let the world go by. 23:53 And that's not good. That's not good. Sometimes they fear. They're driven by fear. So they hold on too tightly. Some fathers get cynical. Some fathers get irritable. Some fathers change is hard for them to see. And some fathers, 24:12 it looks like maybe they're not growing as much because they're certainly not growing physically like you do when you're a child. Boy, if you kept that rate of growth up, you'd be 10 feet, you'd be 20 feet tall by the end of your life. So it changes. You don't grow so much obviously in your basics, but you're growing in the nuances of your faith. 24:34 And all of these, whatever stage you're in, God wants you to grow. God wants you to grow. If you don't grow, you're sick. Now you say, "Well, what about old people? I mean, are they still growing?" Well, if they cut themselves, something grows and heals the cut. 24:57 It maybe doesn't look quite as obvious. It maybe takes longer. But if you're not growing, you're dying. You're dying. Now, it would be good for us to answer the question this morning, how do we grow? How do we grow? So for that, turn over to the book of Second Peter, Second Peter chapter one, 25:18 one of my all-time favorite passages of scripture. Because here in these first four verses, we have the resources for growth, resources for growth. Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 25:38 to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God. There you have it again. Grace and peace multiplied, not just added, 25:57 but multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, here's the two verses I want us to think about and concentrate on for the next several minutes. As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 26:19 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, 26:39 add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 26:58 For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do get this promise, brothers and sisters, if you do these things, you will never stumble. You don't have to fall. 27:18 You can have the strength and depth of character and wisdom and understanding and spiritual resources that you can stand. And verse 11, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some people are just contented to limp into heaven. 27:38 They don't have to limp into heaven. You can explode into heaven. You have an entrance supplied to you abundantly, victoriously. How? Why? Because you grew in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 27:57 So I want to give you in the time that remains here very quickly five things that are resources for growth. Number one, the Word of God, the Word of God. He talks here in this passage, he says, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises. 28:18 He's speaking of the Word of God, great and precious promises, exceedingly great. 28:25 One translation calls this magnificent and precious promises, magnificent promises, very great promises, promises that God has given to us that commits Himself to this process of growth. 28:46 You see, God is committed to the process of growth in the life of a believer. He's more committed to your spiritual growth than you are, than I am. He has committed Himself in His Word. He has given us what we need in His Word. For man shall not live by bread alone, 29:06 but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. First Peter chapter two, verse two is newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Acts 20:32 says, "And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, 29:25 which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified." God wants us to use His Word to grow. He wants us to feed on His Word, to eat His Word, to meditate on His Word, to digest it, to hide it in our hearts so that we might not sin against God. 29:44 And He wants us to overcome by the Word of their testimony, by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony. And so He's given us exceeding great and precious promises. 29:56 One of those promises is in Philippians one, verse six, "For I am confident, being confident that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." So when God gave His Word, He committed Himself to everything that it takes for us to be spiritually successful. 30:18 Do you believe that? Or do you think God is withholding something from you that you should have? No, He's given to us all things. I want you to look at verse three. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, 30:37 all things, not a few things, not some things, not most things, but all things, His precious promises. But oh, how we fail to meditate and to take and claim those magnificent, precious promises, magnificent, precious promises. How can we do this? 30:59 Have a plan, have a plan. How much of a plan do you have when it comes to studying and reading and memorizing God's Word? Have a plan. I like to ask people, what's your devotional plan? 31:13 See, it's not so much important to plan, but that you have one and that you stick with it until you change the plan and adjust the plan. Have a plan for reading in the morning or have a plan for reading in the evening. I believe it was Brother Clarence Yoder who had a plan. 31:30 He had Bible verses on his dash or on his steering wheel or his dash card, dash of his car. And when he was sitting at a train waiting or at the traffic light or something, he was memorizing scripture. He had a plan, he had a plan. Have a plan for spiritual growth. 31:49 Have a plan for for being in God's Word, devotional book, a reading plan, a reading schedule, a plan for meditation, memorizing, meditating on God's Word, studying God's Word. We have all kinds of tools, brothers and sisters. 32:07 There's really no reason for us not to be in God's Word, at least some of the time and having it hidden in our heart all the time. I will be emphatic enough to say this, that you cannot grow without being in God's Word. 32:28 You can't. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The second thing that God has given to us is a new nature, a new nature. 32:44 His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, the divine nature. 33:06 Now, we need to understand that we have a sinful nature. How many of you understand that? Don't have to raise your hand, but just nod. I understand that I have a sinful nature. That is the part of me that has a tendency to go away from God and to decline spiritually. 33:23 It's the part of me that enjoys sin that needs to be put to death at the cross and allow the new man to grow forth. And we need to understand our sin nature produces sin. But there's something we also need to understand, and that is that our new nature, our divine nature, 33:42 is also put within us as a believer in Christ. God comes to live within us, and He puts His presence in us and gives us a new nature which produces new things. You want to grow? Well, that desire to grow spiritually is part of that new nature. 34:04 You want to, you desire the sincere milk of the Word? That's a sign of the new nature. You want to do good where you used to do bad? That's a sign of the new nature. You want to give blessing instead of cursing? That's a sign of the new nature. The new nature produces new things. 34:22 The nature of God produces righteousness just as sure as the nature of the old man produces sin. Sometimes it helps to give an illustration a little bit to illustrate the nature. 34:39 The sin nature, we understand that that's the part of us that just creates sin and sin and sin and more sin and more sin and more sin. That's the old sinful nature. And you don't have to teach people to sin. You don't have to encourage people to sin. 35:00 You don't have to lead people into sin, although it's possible to deepen people's involvement in sin. But it just happens. Left to ourselves, the sinful nature will produce a crop of sin and death. It just happens. It's nature. It's the natural order of things. Well, 35:18 the new nature is also the natural order of things for a believer. For a believer, you have the part of God, I call it the Jesus part in us that wants to do what's right, that desires to do what's right, that produces kindness, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, faith. 35:39 It's that part that you don't, I mean, you do have to feed it, but it's not like you have to pull levers and push buttons and really try to pull your strife up by your own bootstraps. It just begins to naturally happen in the child of God who has truly surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. 36:01 That's true. You have to feed the new nature and put to death the old nature. This is true. And to the degree you feed that new nature, it will produce new things. So therefore, if a person claims to be a Christian and there's no new things being produced, 36:22 their claim is probably suspicious at best. So the new nature, the part that God has given to us that desires spiritual things, that desires to please God. The Apostle Paul said in Romans seven that with my, 36:45 with my, he said the law of the sin and death and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus were competing within him. And he desired to do things in his mind, but in his flesh, he was having difficulty putting it into practice. Well, he had those two natures fighting against each other. And so when you have the new nature in Christ, 37:06 you can expect new things. You can anticipate new things. When a person comes to Christ, there is a newness of life that you can almost see in them almost immediately, almost immediately. 37:26 Doesn't mean they're mature. Doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes. Doesn't mean, I mean, they're in that baby stage. But immediately you see a hunger and a thirst for righteousness and for the things of God. Now, that sets up a struggle that needs to have an energizing component to the new nature. 37:47 And that is our third resource for spiritual growth. And that is the Holy Spirit. We must have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must have access into our spirit, into our lives. 37:59 It's like if you have a new nature and there's things that are going to be produced in that new nature, but it needs to be, it needs to be empowered, it needs to be empowered. And as that empowerment comes, as the Holy Spirit, the heavenly helper, 38:19 the helper from heaven, the Holy Spirit, that's what the word comforter means in the book of John, a heavenly helper. He is the one called alongside to help us in our weaknesses. And boy, do we have weaknesses. The old nature is not enough. 38:33 It must be energized by the person and work of the Holy Spirit as He empowers us, as He dwells within us, as we invite the Holy Spirit to fill us and then fill us and fill us and fill us daily. You see, there's one baptism of the Holy Spirit. 38:55 That's when we're converted, I believe, when we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. It's a spiritual action that takes place at conversion. But there are many fillings. Ephesians chapter five, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Be being filled repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly. 39:17 Allow the Holy Spirit to have access to our lives, empowering us, strengthening us. And again, how does that happen? Not by pride, but by humility. As soon as I say, "God, I've got this," and maybe I don't say it, but I think it, or I'm acting that way, "I've got this one, God," then the helper just steps back and he says, 39:38 "Go ahead." And then we fall, we make mistakes, we we we we blow it. And then we recognize, "God, I need You. I need the helper from heaven, the Holy Spirit. 39:51 I need the presence of Jesus energizing me, empowering me, strengthening me, filling me with the fullness of God." 40:01 Here's another thing. You cannot grow without the Holy Spirit. You cannot grow without the new nature. You cannot grow without the Word of God. Number four, we need the church. We need the church. Now, 40:21 you say, "Brother Todd, I don't see the church in here, in this passage of scripture." Well, I do, and I'll show you where it is. Simon Peter, a bond servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. 40:41 That is the fellowship of the believers, the fellowship of the church. Verse five and six and seven, as we're adding to our faith of virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness, 41:02 brotherly kindness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, agape love. You see, you can't complete this this this building in which God wants to live and dwell without the brotherly kindness and the agape love, which is in relationship to others. 41:26 We need the church. We cannot grow properly without the fellowship of other believers. Hebrews 10, verse 24, "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." The word provoke means to incite, to spur on like in a dispute. 41:45 It's a positive way of of of using a negative word. You provoke, you spur on. Have you ever rode a horse with spurs? I've ridden a horse, but I've never rode one with spurs. But you take those spurs and you you you spur into the side of that of that creature and interesting things happen. 42:06 If they've got a, if they're a bucking bronco, they'll buck. If they're a if they're a wild bull, they'll bull. I mean, they'll they'll pitch and and throw. And and and then when you get off, you better get out of the way because you spurred it. You spurred it. You provoked it. I said in a positive way, 42:25 that's what we do in church, provoking one another, instilling urgency and motivation in others and them in us, adding to our faith, brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness, agape love. 42:45 There's one more thing that kind of ties it all together, and that is prayer. Now, we don't necessarily see prayer in this passage of scripture, but we learn from Ephesians chapter six that prayer is what takes the armor and puts it all together, holds it all together. 43:00 At the end of that passage in Ephesians chapter six, where he talks about the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of the gospel and the helmet of salvation and the the the the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of the Spirit. Then he says, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, 43:22 watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." And for me, he goes on to say, "that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I also am bonds. That I may may make Christ known, that I may speak as I ought to speak, 43:42 praying for one another." Prayer for the Spirit is like breathing for the body. You breathe out a prayer, you breathe in a blessing. You breathe out a prayer, you breathe in a blessing. Jude 1, verse 20, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost." Praying, 44:03 that's part of building ourselves up in the most holy faith. "Watch and pray," Jesus said, "that ye enter not into temptation, for the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. 44:21 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." So those five things are resources that God, they're part of the all things given to us. His divine power, the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of Him, exceeding great and precious promises, 44:42 the Word of God, the new nature, the brotherhood, the church, verse one and verse seven and eight, and prayer. Oh, coming back to that song by P.P. Bliss, "More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord, 45:02 more pride in His glory, more hope in His Word. More tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief, more meekness in trial, more praise for relief. More purity give me, more strength to overcome, more freedom from earth stains, more longings for home, 45:23 more fit for the kingdom, more used would I be, more blessed and holy, more Savior like Thee." But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. 45:43 We thank You for the church. We thank You for Your Spirit. We thank You for the new nature. And we thank You for the gift of prayer that we can pray to You and You hear and You answer. What a wonderful truth. 46:00 What a wonderful reality that we can actually touch God in heaven and have God touch us on earth. 46:11 We pray, Lord, that You would add Your blessing to this message this morning, that You will help us to grow, to grow individually and to grow as a body, growing into maturity, that we may grow up into Him who is the head, even Christ. 46:33 In Jesus' name, make it happen. Amen.