If our part of the Christian experience could be summarized in only one word, it very well might be “surrender.” But surrender with conditions isn’t surrender at all. In this message we explore what could arguably be the most basic, simple, essence of Christian growth.

<p>If our part of the Christian experience could be summarized in only one word, it very well might be “surrender.” But surrender with conditions isn’t surrender at all. In this message we explore what could arguably be the most basic, simple, essence of Christian growth.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

How to Grow Spiritually

Chester Clark

Knowing Better

Thank you so much for that ministry and music.

Isn't it a wonderful thing to be precious in the sight of the God of the universe?

I'm so thankful that God's love is unconditional and everlasting.

You know, last week we were talking about the ministry of Jesus, and we were talking about some of the ways He ministered physically, spiritually, socially, emotionally, and how We need to both be ministered in these same ways and also to minister in these same ways, as the Church of God here in Dalton.

I believe that if God's people are here being fed in these ways, that we'll be able to touch many lives and impact many for the kingdom of God.

So today I just want to begin a study with you on how we can grow spiritually, how we can be ministered to by God spiritually.

Now there are simple answers and there are involved answers.

I like simple answers, and I think ultimately we can boil the whole plan of salvation just down to a few words, a few thoughts, But sometimes it's good for us to sort of look at it from different perspectives, right, for us to learn from different angles.

And for some of us, the rehearsing of the gospel is old news.

For others, it may be new news, but for none of us, should it grow old or boring, right?

Because we love to tell the story of Jesus and His love.

Today we're going to look at how to grow spiritually.

I want to start by sharing a story that might help us illustrate our point.

Some of you may have heard of these before.

They're called international reply coupons.

The idea was you could buy a coupon that could be used in any of the countries that were part of the United Postal Union.

It could be sent anywhere in the world, any 1 of those countries.

They could buy stamps that was good for international postage, and they could reply to your letter or offer or whatever it was just by cashing in this universal reply coupon.

There was a man by the name of Carlo Pietro Giovanni, and Carlo was an Italian immigrant.

And Carlo looked at this coupon and he thought, you know what, back in my native Italy, I can buy these coupons cheaper than I could buy the stamps in U.S.

So all I need to do is write a letter to my friends back in Italy and have them, send them some money, have them buy a whole bunch of coupons and have them send them over to me.

I'll go to the post office and cash them in for stamps and make money.

And this was Carlo's get rich quick scheme, you might say.

He actually borrowed some money and sent them over to family members and had them send the coupons back to him.

He began then to go, well, when he went to the post office and tried to cash them and he found out there was a lot of red tape he had to go through.

It wasn't quite so easy just to walk away with the cash, but nonetheless he began to go to his friends and promise them that if they would loan him their money, he would give them 50% return on their investment in 90 days.

Now that sounds like a pretty good return, right?

And so people began investing, and sure enough, he would give them money back.

And people began mortgaging their homes to invest with Carlo.

They began to empty their life savings to invest with Carlo.

A Boston financial writer wrote an opinion that it couldn't be possible.

There's no way he could be getting 50% return on this legally.

Carlos sued the writer for libel and won a $500, 000 settlement.

The Boston Post ran a favorable article about Carlos' company and the 50% return, and just below the Post article was an advertisement for a bank offering 5% return on savings accounts.

Here's this company offering 50% in 90 days and a 5% annual interest rate, which is better.

The next morning at 6 a.m., thousands of Bostonians were lined up outside of Carlo's office, wanting to give him their money.

In fact, on that 1 day, this was in 1920, on 1 day he took in 3000000 dollars from the individuals there in Boston.

The story spread like wildfire across the country and people could not get their money to Carlo fast enough.

The problem was Carlo wasn't buying international reply coupons.

In fact, 1 astute investor began to calculate, and he calculated that for Carlo to have invested this much money in IRCs, there would have to be in circulation in all the member countries, something like 160 million investment international reply coupons.

In actuality, there were only 27, 000 in the whole world that had been printed.

And so when the fraud was exposed and the company collapsed, investors lost $20 million in 1920 dollars, and 6 banks collapsed.

Carlo's full name, your last name you may be best familiar with, Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tobaldo Ponzi.

I'm glad they just call it Ponzi schemes, right?

Ponzi's scream became synonymous with financial schemes that robbed Peter to pay Paul.

You know, the people had genuine interest, right?

A genuine desire to grow their finances, to grow their financial investment.

What was it that they didn't know that allowed them to be taken by this Ponzi scheme?

What was it that if they had known would have prevented such a catastrophe for many of them?

Well, I believe that if they had known 2 things, if they had known where their money really was, and if they had known the character of the man they trusted, they would have been spared from this type of a loss, don't you think?

If they had known where their money really was, and who the man they were trusting really was, they could have been spared of this disaster.

So today I just want to look with you at how we can know better.

How we can, if we want to grow spiritually, right?

What knowledge is necessary for us to also grow spiritually as well.

I think that we need to know 2 things as well spiritually today.

I think that we need to know who we really are, and also we need to know who Jesus really is.

So let's pray together as we begin our study.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for promising to be here by your Spirit.

We want to become the spiritual men and women that you call us to be.

So, Father, I just want to pray that you'll help us as we study, that your presence might be here to guide our thoughts, that He might be our teacher today, and we thank you in His name.

The first thing I believe we need to know is we need to know ourselves better.

Some people might say, well I know myself pretty well, right?

Others of us, maybe if you've been married for a long time, your spouse knows you pretty well, right?

Maybe some of you young people know that your parents know you pretty well, right?

Maybe sometimes our parents know us better than we wish they knew us.

But the point that I'm making this morning is that we need to know ourselves, right?

Here is the text that begins to make us ponder this truth.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?" Now some of us are gonna say, well I know who I am, I know how my Christian life is, I know I'm not a Christian.

Are there people that just straight up know they're not spiritually growing, they're not doing well spiritually, is that true?

Yes, there are people who are in that condition and they are very aware of it, they're very honest about it.

Now being honest about it doesn't save us, does it?

But at least they're not hypocrites, amen?

And sometimes we at least appreciate and value honesty.

There are those who will tell me, and I've had many tell me, look, I'm not a Christian.

Leaping for Joy

I'm so glad that no matter how old or young we are, we can praise the Lord, amen?

And that we can be a part of the family of God.

Today our scripture, Jesus speaking of leaping for joy, And it's not when we might normally expect to be leaping for joy.

Leap for joy, Jesus says, even when things are going wrong, even when things aren't going our way, even when things seem to be problematic, As Jesus said, even when you are persecuted for righteousness sake, leap for joy.

Don't just be happy, don't just be positive, but leap for joy.

That's a pretty high demand that Jesus places upon us.

I don't know about you, but Usually when things aren't going so well in my life, I don't feel too much like leaping.

But that's what we're talking about this morning.

Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, thank you for your children.

Thank you for the young people that made this service so special.

We just want to dedicate them again to you.

We want to pray that you will bless them, that you'll bless their parents, that you'll bless their home, that you'll bless our school.

They might be raised to be men and women of faith.

They might be raised to be productive and happy, not just in this life, but throughout all eternity.

Lord, as we open your word now, we just want to pray that you would be with us, that you will guide us, that you'll teach us through your spirit.

And the African king loved to go hunting.

Now the king had a particular friend who had this very strange habit.

The habit the king's friend had was no matter what happened in life, he would always reply with a, this is good.

No matter what happened, no matter what situation he found himself in, he would always say, this is good.

And so when they were hunting, sometimes it was a little annoying, you know, the game would get away and the friend would say, this is good.

Or when they got their target, he would say, this is good.

Well, the king sort of put up with it until 1 day The king's friend, 1 of his jobs when he was hunting with the king was to load his gun, and there was somehow a malfunction and the gun went off, and it blew off the king's thumb.

The king said, how in the world can this be good?

And he got so angry with his friend and his habit that he threw him into prison.

He was missing his thumb, but his hand healed and he went hunting again, except this time, about a year later, this time he got in the wrong place and a neighboring tribe of cannibals captured him and they took him to their village and they were lighting the fire And then they recognized, they saw that he was missing a thumb.

And because they were superstitious and they wouldn't eat anything that wasn't whole and complete, they had to let the king go.

And when they let the king go, what do you think the king thought of?

So he went to his this-is-good friend, and he visited him in jail.

He said, I'm going to let you out of prison.

I've let you suffer here for a whole year.

If you hadn't put me in prison, I'd be out hunting with you.

You see my friends We talk about the power of positive thinking and there's something to it isn't there?

There's something to positive thinking that allows us to be filled with with some Some satisfaction and joy even when things aren't going so well.

And even from a humanistic point of view, we see that there is a benefit to positive thinking, right?

Positive thinking brings its benefits through focusing the attention away from the negative and onto whatever positive that we can find, right?

But I want to present to you this morning that there's something even better than the power of positive thinking.

And that's the power of faith-filled living.

Faith-filled living is positive thinking on steroids.

Because faith-filled living is based upon the promises of God's Word, and God's Word is creative.

God's Word is eternal, and we can count on it, we can depend on it.

You see, faith-filled living sees benefits not just in the positive things of life and dwells upon them, positive, faithful living sees benefits also in the challenges of life, also in the problems of life, in the negative experiences you might say of life.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 tells us, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose, amen.

We know that, we know this is a promise of God that all things work together for good.

Even the problems we face, even the challenges we face, even the heartaches, God is able to bring something good from it and that is far surpassing even the benefits of positive thinking.

God is able to bring something good from our challenges.

Now we are going to explore this a little bit more this morning.

We're going to see what it means, what it means to have the power of faith-filled living.

First of all, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James, James chapter 1, and we're going to read a few verses here together.

Turn with me to James chapter 1, and let's look at what James had to say about the problems of life.

James chapter 1, and we're going to read beginning with verse 2.

James chapter 1 and verse 2, and I'm reading from the New King James this morning.

My brethren, he says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.'" Count it all what?

Sounds similar to what Jesus said, right?

Even when we're going through persecution, leap for joy, James says, "'Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

The testing of your faith produces patience.

Now, we're going to look a little more closely at this as we go on this morning.

I want us to, by the time we're finished, I want us to understand that not all problems produce patience.

Only the problems that are testing our faith produce patience.

Sometimes we go throughout problems without faith-filled living, and then the problems don't really do us that much good.

But, verse 4, let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Aren't you glad for that added promise of wisdom?

We need wisdom, especially when we're facing trials, especially when we're facing hard times, to be able to live a faith-filled life so that those problems can bring about positive results in our lives.

1 Peter, just a few pages further in the epistles, 1 Peter 1 and verse 7.

And here we find that Peter is actually only reflecting that which is a theme found throughout the Old Testament as well.

1 Peter 1 and verse 7, Peter says that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Why is Peter expecting that their faith will be found intact at the revelation of Jesus Christ?

Because they're going through trials, and their faith is being refined and purified as gold is refined in a fire, right?

Gold is refined in a fire, not throughout, not through an easy process, but through a hot process, right?

Gold is refined through fire, And that is the theme we find throughout the Old Testament.

Well, let's look at a couple verses here.

And this is what Job had to say, and I think Job knew something about trials, didn't he?

Light in the Darkness

A number of years ago I had the privilege of going on a mission trip and as part of our trip we went to a part of the world where honestly I thought only National Geographic photographers went, you know, 1 of those trips where you just start to feel like you're in another world.

Much of the world feels much the same, especially after you've been to a few countries.

But this really felt like a different place.

I don't know if you can see that picture very well, but that's a longhouse.

This is in the jungles of eastern Malaysia near Borneo.

And these villages were composed of 1 or 2 of these longhouses.

The whole village lived in 1 of these bamboo and board structures, and 1 door after another after another was a room of 1 of the families, and that's where they lived.

And I remember as we were staying there, we actually, the young men in our group slept out on that front porch.

And they emptied 1 of the apartments for the ladies to sleep in that room.

And as we fell asleep that night, I still remember a wall of faces on 1 side of the porch watching us fall asleep and as you turn to the other side of the porch there was another wall of faces seeing how white people slept.

In fact while we were there 1 of the villages I remember going down is very hot day in the jungle the tropics you know and I I went down to the river and I took off my shirt and I was all by myself and I just was splashing myself down and washing myself down and cooling off a little bit.

And I looked up on that, the bank of the river up above me and there was just a wall of faces.

And 1 of our translators was walking by while this was happening and he said, you know what they were saying about you?

They were saying, look at that peeled potato.

Well that night, I remember it was a Saturday night, we left the village, 1 of these longhouse villages, and we were going to go to the next village.

We were doing some medical work, we were trying to help share the love of Jesus with these villages, and I remember we left this 1 longhouse village and we were going to the next village.

And by the time we left, it was already getting dark and we asked our guide, how far is it to the next village?

You see, they didn't have clocks and time pieces, so their measure of time was how long it took to smoke a cigarette.

Well, I had to decide after that trip they have some very slow-burning cigarettes.

Because as we made our way into the darkness, there was a little bit of a problem.

Our guide was leading us with some sort of a bamboo torch, literally.

He had something burning on the top of a bamboo torch, and he was walking through the jungle, and there was probably about 18 of us trying to follow.

The problem was very few of us had flashlights.

And as we went off into the darkness, and as the darkness got deeper and deeper, the problem became worse and worse.

Those fortunate enough to have a flashlight could see where we were going, and we were walking down a very muddy trail.

It was very vertical in some places, very steep.

It had rained, and so it was slippery and slick.

There were rivers we had to wade across in the darkness, coming up to our waist or so.

There were mountainsides, we were going through these rice paddies, and as we went down these slippery slopes, sometimes there were those who would lose their footing, and they would slide all the way to the bottom, at times taking out everyone who was in front of them.

And periodically you would hear the night air being punctuated, being pierced by a scream as someone stepped into something they didn't expect or fell into a mud puddle.

And 1 thing I learned very quickly, it pays to have a flashlight.

It pays to be prepared to be able to see where you're going, amen?

The reality is that all of us are along a treacherous path, and that's the path of life, right?

We're walking down a pathway which, to us, and in fact, to anyone but God, is yet unknown.

We're going into unexplored territory, and that's the future.

We're looking to arrive at our destination intact, but we don't know what's out there, and that's why it's good to have a light.

Our Scripture for today is Psalm 119 and verse 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Last week we were talking about what it means to grow spiritually.

We were talking about there's a certain amount of knowledge that we need in order to grow in the Lord, in order to be a vibrant Christian, in order to be a vibrant church, we collectively and individually need to be growing, amen?

Why would someone want to be a part of a church where people weren't growing?

We need to be growing each day, each week in the Lord.

And so we looked at some of that which is needed, and 1 of the things that is needed is knowledge, right?

It's knowledge, and a couple of different types of knowledge.

And this knowledge I would propose to you this morning is found in the Word of God.

It's only in the Word of God that we're going to see the path clearly.

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Series

How to Grow Spiritually

Giving Up, Giving All

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Knowing Better

47m

Leaping for Joy

52m

Light in the Darkness

53m

Giving Up, Giving All

40m

Looking to Jesus

47m

Sound Doctrine