Growing in Christ: Word, Church, Gifts, and Prayer

It is amazing to realize that those who shouted those loud hosannas and praise for the king who is coming and the king who has come there on that colt, they had no clue that this king of glory was also the lamb of glory. We have that perspective today. We can look back on all that was accomplished on the cross and, the joy and rejoicing and the celebration, the hosannas on that Palm Sunday, only were a a prelude, just a small, small, small little glimmer of the accolades that will ultimately be heaped upon our savior as every knee ultimately will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is lord, that he is king of kings. [00:14:39] (59 seconds)  #PalmSundayPraise

Look. If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus and you have life within, the spirit of god will grow you in the grace and the knowledge of the lord Jesus Christ. But he's not going to do that apart from the means of god's word, God's church, God's gifts, and God's ear, you're praying. Let's grow together. Our father and our god, we thank you for this challenge. All of us, come to points in our lives where we get distracted, we get, taken off the path a little bit, and we get stymied in our growth. Lord, I pray that you would use these means of growth as we use these means of growth to grow us up, we pray. We ask this in Jesus name and for your sake. Amen. [01:20:51] (63 seconds)  #GrowThroughGodsMeans

We need a healthy perspective on life, don't we? The kind of perspective where we we realize we we we really truly realize that we're not gonna be here forever. We're not here indefinitely. My days are numbered. That's a healthy perspective on life. And some people think, well, that's a morbid way to think. No. That's a realistic way to think. That's reality. And and, you know, we don't like to think about that in our culture. We don't like to we don't like to admit the fact that our days are numbered, but they are. Now why is that healthy? Because that helps us grow us in wisdom. [01:15:04] (44 seconds)  #LiveWithEternalPerspective

And I give you my mind that I might think on things that are true and just and noble and pure and lovely, things that are of good report, things that are virtuous, things that are praiseworthy. I give you my body. As I do that, consecrating myself to the Lord, it ends up having a revelatory effect. I I I it is revealed what god's will is for me. And the expression of that will this isn't talking about, you know, the the career that I might go into or the spouse that I might marry or something of that nature. If you look at the the the continuing context here, you discover that that revel the the revelation of God's will is God's will in the exercising of your giftedness. [00:56:15] (58 seconds)  #ConsecrateMindAndBody

And and you can you can you can start amusing on these things. You can get you agitated, and it can get you worried and frustrated over the financial challenges of life. You can be thinking about your summer plans. You can be, considering job opportunities. You can do all of that meditation and leave God completely out of the picture. And here's the question, is God pleased with that? No. So what the psalmist is asking for here, and this is a prayer for our growth, isn't it? That the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, the musings of my heart would be acceptable in your sight. [01:13:52] (40 seconds)  #MeditateWithGod

If anyone ministers or serves, this is a general term for any kind of service in the church, let him do it as the ability which God supplies. There is a God dependence in the exercise of our gifts, whatever that may be. But as we depend upon the Lord who has gifted us, as we depend upon the Lord in the use of our gifts, he is glorified. He's glorified through the speaking gifts. And there are a variety of them recorded in the New Testament, but, you know, again, Peter is just speaking generally here. If anyone speaks, speak as the oracles of God so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs glory and dominion. [00:45:31] (46 seconds)  #ServeToGlorifyGod

But I wanna remind you that if there is no life within, if you haven't been born again, if you haven't trusted Jesus as your personal savior, you haven't received him, you haven't called upon him to save you from your sin, If there is no life within, then you can go through all kinds of spiritual exercises and there's not going to be spiritual growth. It they will all all those exercises would profit you nothing. It's like Jesus said in John six sixty three, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. [00:33:37] (45 seconds)  #OneBodyManyGifts

And then back in Romans chapter 12 in verses four through eight, we exercise those gifts by employing them diligently, employing them diligently. You notice the interconnectedness of our collective giftedness? As we have many members in one body but all the members do not have the same function. My thumbs don't function the same way as my pinky, etcetera etcetera. So we in the local church body being many are one body in Christ and individually, we are members one of another. There is an interconnectedness in this giftedness and the exercise of those gifts. The point being that you you individually have a unique important role to fulfill within the body to which you are committed and connected. [01:05:35] (73 seconds)  #AllOfMeToGod