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 5 of a message titled, Effective and Fruitful Faith. It was first preached on June 11, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear the whole message, you can visit www.delightingrace.com You are headed for a particular goal, and that particular goal is when you are face to face with Jesus Christ, and you are from then on exactly like Him. That's God's purpose for you. Keep that goal in view, because if you lose sight of the goal, you start to wander. So, train your vision. Exercise your memory for the grace that has been lavished on you. Train your vision for the grace that is laid up for you. Keep the big picture in view. Keep the finish line in view. Live for the line, not the dot. Know the promises of God and purpose to actively remember them.
Here it is. Engage today. Here's how you train your vision. You engage today in light of what God has prepared for you and promised you. Let me give you an example of that.
I'm borrowing this from Tim Keller. Two women working in a factory. It's just the kind of factory I used to work in.
In fact, it's a food production plant. It's just repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. You know, pulling out bad product, whatever. Two women. It's very just monotonous.
Long time. The owner of the company comes to both women separately and says to the first woman, he said, you do this for a year and I'll pay you $10,000. He comes to the second woman and he says, you do this for a year and I'll pay you $10 million. So, the two ladies are working, right?
The first lady is only going to get $10,000 after a year. She says, this is such a drudgery. I am not enjoying this. This is so not worth it.
What do you think the second lady is saying? I think this is absolutely worth it. I am really enjoying this.
You see the difference? What you believe about the future impacts how you experience today. Exercise. Exercise your memory. Train your vision. God has revealed to you what is stored up for you. Train your vision. This is a spiritual discipline. Exercise your memory. Train your vision.
Number three. Walk with Jesus. Now, some of you, especially some of you guys here are like, ah, yeah, okay, I get it. Listen.
No, don't do that. Are you walking with Jesus? You might very well say, you know, I know everything I need to know about Jesus. Fine, but are you walking with Him? Are you walking with Him? He's not a concept.
He's not a force. He's a person who died for you so that you can be reconciled. To Him, walk with Him. That's your highest function, people, is to walk with Jesus.
Jesus said it Himself. I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in Me, for without Me, you can do what?
Nothing. And it's far too easy to be a Christian and act like a vine, a branch, completely separated from the vine. Walking with Jesus is that vital connection of that branch grafted back into the vine, drawing life from it.
This is not a glib thing. I'm not just filling this point in here because I need another point. You don't want to be ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ means I am walking with Him in His steps. I am studying Him.
Are you studying Jesus? Here's what you can do. Practice Psalm 23 with Jesus. The Lord is my.
I shall. It means I lack nothing. Are you satisfied in Jesus Christ? You cannot be if you're not walking with Him. Walk with Jesus.
This is a spiritual discipline. I don't care. I don't care how much you know about Him. I don't care how deep your theology is. I don't care how well you can argue His deity and His resurrection. I'm asking, are you walking with Him?
It's not about knowledge. It's about knowing Him and walking with Him, delighting in Him. W.E. Adams was C.S. Lewis's spiritual director for a season. Here's one thing he wrote down. I found this in Alan Fadling, his book An Unhurried Life. Here's what W.E.
Adams wrote. We can advance along the road to perfection only by walking closely with Jesus. As we watch His way of dealing with the countless problems and troubles that beset His life, we achieve wisdom as to how to meet our own.
Now listen to this. But to walk with Jesus is to walk with a slow, unhurried pace. Hurry is the death of prayer and only impedes and soils our work.
It never advances it. So some of you are saying, okay, I'm going to get out of here and I'm just going to walk with Jesus. Right? I appreciate the passion. But I want to see you walking with Jesus a week from now, a month from now, a year from now. And not just as a result of some high coming out of church.
Are you walking with Christ? So the workout, number one, exercise your memory for the grace that has been lavished on you. Train your vision for the grace that is laid up for you. Thirdly, walk with Jesus.
Practice Psalm 23 with Jesus. Number four, climb the steps. Climb the steps. Verses five to seven.
Look at them again. Verse five, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness. Climb the steps. Listen, you won't arrive on this side of eternity. You will and should always be growing. There may be some times where you trip up and you fall down a step.
Whatever. But so long as your trajectory is in an upward motion because you're living as people who remember. Here's my challenge to you this morning. Resolve to become more like Christ. Are you becoming more like Christ? Can you define yourself as, do you feel like you're just, I'm just kind of drifting through this spiritual rock. I'm on cruise control. If that's the case, you're drifting.
You don't drift in a positive direction. Resolve to become more like Jesus Christ. Exercise your memory for the grace that's been lavished on you. Train your vision for the grace that is laid up for you. Walk with Jesus. Commune with him.
Walk in his steps. Practice Psalm 23 with Jesus. And then walk the steps of 2 Peter 1 verses five through seven.
It gives, it defines every step right there. Will you resolve to do that this morning? Let me tell you my responsibility because I take it from the Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter 2.
My responsibility, I have a part of responsibility in your maturity. What I'm doing here this morning is equipping the saints. The task as one, as an elder who watches for your souls. My task is to see that you are walking daily, becoming more like Jesus Christ. Okay, would you let me do that with joy?
Would you let Pastor Shawn do that with joy? Would you resolve to become more like Christ? Would you bow your heads with me this morning please? You've heard the message this morning, the challenge from the word of God.
I've given you some homework. Exercise your memory, train your vision, walk with Jesus, climb the steps. Would you please, just before Christ, your head bowed, your eyes closed and say, Father, I confess I need to grow in Jesus. I confess that you expect me to grow in Jesus.
You expect me to become like Jesus. Father, thank you that by your grace I can become like Jesus. Father, teach me to live as one who remembers the precious and very great promises. To set my hope fully on the grace that is to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. To walk with my brother who is my brother the king, the one who died for me and rose again. And to walk in the steps of Jesus, climbing up the steps of spiritual maturity. Father, rescue me from complacency and drift.
Forgive me for my negligence or disobedience. Father, I ask that you would listen to the hearts and prayers of your people this morning as they are humbly before you. Father, we thank you that it is your purpose, your desire, and your plan for us to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Find us, your people, faithfully walking with you in that direction. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 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.
