Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. 2 Peter 1 5-7 says to make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and add to perseverance godliness and to godliness mutual affection and to mutual affection love. In today's message, Pastor Rich reminds us that all of these qualities are directly tied to our attitudes and our affections. We cannot develop these qualities through personal willpower.
It's not about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. No, only Christ can work such change in us. As we know and remember the riches of his grace, he transforms our attitudes and our affections so that we can live fully for him, not out of duty, but from a free and grateful heart.
Let's listen in. This is part two of a message titled Effective and Fruitful Faith. It was first preached on June 11, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The natural expectation is that one who is following Jesus is in fact becoming more like Jesus. It makes sense, doesn't it? That's the biblical assumption. You do not drift in a positive direction. If you're not following Jesus in his steps and you're not becoming more like Jesus, you're not just stagnant. You're not just settled on a plateau. You're drifting and you don't drift in a positive direction. There's no such thing as a Christian walk on cruise control.
We'd love for there to be that, wouldn't we? I've got my ticket to heaven. I'm just going to cruise through life and bless God when that time comes, I'm going to go to heaven.
That's not why Jesus was nailed to the cross for you, so that you can just cruise through life. It's intended that your life is productive, useful and productive for him. I want to talk about three aspects of spiritual growth. Then we're going to talk about what spiritual atrophy looks like.
Then I'm going to give you homework. I'm going to give you a spiritual workout to develop those spiritual disciplines for spiritual growth. Useful and productive. Three aspects of spiritual growth. Number one, relation. Your relationship with Jesus Christ. He says, if these qualities are yours, they keep you from being ineffective and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, they keep you from being unfruitful and unproductive. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is what you know of him from studying him and following him. Do you study Jesus?
You should. If you're going to follow him, you should be studying him. We'll talk about that in illustration a bit later, but we are called to walk in his steps.
Peter mentions that, doesn't he? To walk in his steps. Listen, the knowledge of Jesus is not just information about Jesus. It's being captivated by him. It's you surrendering yourself to him.
That's the knowledge of Jesus. Are you captivated by him? Are you studying him?
Are you walking in his steps? That's the first aspect of spiritual growth. We'll talk about the second one. The second one is transformation. First is relation, your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Are you communing with him? The second one is transformation in Christ. Are you, in fact, becoming more like Jesus Christ?
Can you measure that at all? Do you see evidence of that? Do those who are in your world see evidence of you becoming more like Jesus Christ? It's climbing the steps of verses 5, 6, and 7. It's you being captivated by Christ and your surrender to him changes your affections and your attitudes. What you love and how you think. You, let me say that again, you being captivated by Christ and your surrender to him changes what you love and how you think. Is that happening in your life? This is what Peter is calling us to.
It's a transformation in Christ. Do you, can I say, I ask myself, do I delight in him? Do I desire him? You know, it's so easy for us to desire his stuff. But do I desire him?
Because he is my highest good and my deepest satisfaction. Do I desire him? Do I desire what he desires?
Do I love what he loves? So that my aim is to please him. This is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5. Whether present or absent, my aim, our aim is to be pleasing to him so that I am walking as he walked. The name Christian in the CCA group. What is our title? We are Christian.
What does that mean? Christ-like. When I walk and people see in my walk, can they see Jesus? Here's the third aspect of growth. First is relation, your relation with Christ. Second is transformation in Christ. The third is reconciliation to Christ.
What do I mean by that? The ministry of reconciliation. You are in ministry. Grace, Grace, Grace Bible Church people, are you ready? Vianna, this is something we do. How many of you are in ministry? Thank you. Sean and Dwight and Bobby and I are not the only ministers in this room.
You with me? If you are in Christ, you are a minister. Here's 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. If you are in Christ, you are in ministry, and yours is a ministry of reconciliation. What does it mean?
It means it looks something like this. Let me use an illustration. How many veterans do we have here today? Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So cool. And people who have served active duty, who have been in combat. There are people who get left behind in war situations, and they're called POWs, prisoner of war. Before you were in Christ, you were a prisoner of war. As you surrendered to Jesus Christ, he rescued you.
Colossians 1 13 says this, you have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the son of his love. You are a rescued POW. Now, you look back at those that are still prisoners of war. Do you look at them with judgment and contempt and disdain?
Absolutely not. You look at them with what? Compassion. I want to see you rescued also. You know what that is? That's the ministry of reconciliation. That's the ministry that is ours. Because I am in Christ, I want others to be in Christ also. Because I have been rescued, I want others to be rescued also. The ministry of reconciliation.
Your delight, it's really easy, okay? Some people think, oh, ministry of reconciliation. That means I'd be out on the street, corners preaching at people. That's not what I'm saying. If that's what you're called to do, if that's your gift, then by all means do it. But that's not what the scripture is mandating.
Let me make it simple for you. Your delight and satisfaction in Christ points others to him. Your delight and satisfaction in Christ points others to him.
That's the ministry of reconciliation. So three aspects of spiritual growth. Relation, your relation with Christ, your interaction with him, your communion with him. And secondly, your transformation. Are you in fact becoming more like Christ? And then thirdly, reconciliation. You are a rescued POW.
As one who has been rescued, am I searching, am I finding ways to reach out to those who still need to be rescued back to Jesus? Something that Peter talks about in these verses here is what is called spiritual atrophy. I have experienced spiritual atrophy. I've experienced it in this muscle right here. I have no idea what it's called, but it has hurt. I've experienced it here and here because I lay on it wrong at night. I'm sleeping on it wrong. And so you know what happens when it hurts?
What do I do? I protect it and I don't use it. And then you know what happens? It gets worse. It's called atrophy. When you don't use your muscle, your muscles shrink and you lose muscle tissue. You walk with God.
The great and precious promises. If you're not walking in them, you lose track of them. You lose sight of them.
That's spiritual atrophy. And some might say, I will make excuses for my sore shoulders and stuff like that. Some people say people who need to be working out, they ought to be working out and are not. They'll find excuses like, hey, I do sit-ups. I sit up in bed every day. I do pull-ups.
I pull up to the table. We can do that. We are so easily self-determined.
We make excuses for ourselves. I was transferred spiritually now. Am I growing? Am I walking with Christ? Am I becoming more like Him? Do others see my satisfaction in Christ because I'm captivated by Him? All that spiritual growth. And if I'm not exercising those muscles, I'm getting weaker.
I'm getting weaker spiritually. It's kind of like, remember that truck illustration I've given? You're salvation in Christ-ish. It's like going down to North Point Dodge Ram. You get this shiny new truck.
It's got all the accessories on it. You take it in. You park it in the garage. You're so proud of that thing. The next day, you've lost the key fob. You have no idea where it is. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.
