Journey to Spiritual Maturity Through Love and Grace

It says of God, for you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. You know, sometimes we can get so busy in our lives, and the daily hustle and bustle kind of leads us away from that sensitivity to God who we're with. And Pastor Andy reminded us of this last week when he taught and shared on Sabbath, that we get an opportunity here today to come into the church. We get an opportunity to come into the presence of God, to practice resting in that, and to respond to that presence here this morning. [00:04:31]

This is Revelation 15, starting in verse 2. I saw before me what seemed like a glass sea mixed with fire, too magnificent for words, and on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and the statue and the number representing his name. They were all holding the harps that God had given them. And they were seeing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb. [00:05:37]

The love which our Lord requires in all of his followers is the love of God and man, of God for his own sake and of man for God's sake. But the reality is that, many followers of Jesus find themselves in a place where love in practice is more difficult than love in theory. [00:41:36]

In the Nazarene church, we preach what's called holiness or sanctification. It's this idea that God doesn't just want to free us from the consequences of our sins, but like pastor was praying, he wants to free us to abundant life. Translation, salvation, we don't have to live in sin anymore. [00:42:52]

But even with this optimism of grace as holiness people, we have here, we believe that there is a marked distinction between a pure heart and a mature character. The former is obtained in an instant, the result of entire sanctification. The latter is the result of growth in grace. Translation, our hearts can be pure, but our lives. Our lives can still be messy. [00:42:54]

And the un -messying of our lives is this lifelong growth in grace. And it's not fueled by, oh, I just need to do better. I just need to act better. But it's fueled by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit and the entire sanctification that he brings. So time back in. [00:43:28]

A very real part of following Jesus is maturing in the ways that we see one another clearly. You know, we live in a world where it's very rare that people are seen clearly. We're not seen face to face, we're not fully known, and often, if we're honest, we don't seek to fully know one another. [00:57:00]

It's part of our human immaturity that we look to others to fulfill our needs. And we may be in a relationship with someone else, and either consciously or unconsciously, we expect something back from them in exchange for the relationship that we're giving them. Thus, you know, transactional relationship, right? Where the name comes from. [00:57:42]

But these kinds of transactional relationships don't do so well in our personal lives. In our personal relationships, this can take on an unhealthy and a very immature dimension that I might do a favor for somebody with the expectation of, you're going to do me a favor too, right? [00:58:04]

But seeing others as thou's, seeing others clearly as fellow image bearers of God, requires that we check out those expectations. It requires giving that God -given grace to orient ourselves, not inward, towards what do I need, but outward, to the world around us. It means putting our own agenda on hold when we speak with others. [01:00:24]

What would it look like if as a church we were full of people, humble, and patient enough to check our expectations and see one another clearly? [01:01:27]

A pure heart is no guarantee of mature character, but a sure mark of a pure heart is a Holy Spirit -given desire to grow in grace. To mature. But if there's a piece of�� in your heart that says God's holy word, then …. and so for our next steps this week we're going to have to let Jesus do some work on our eyes we might come out with some glasses that we would see one another clearly [01:01:52]