Thank you for listening once again to the Cultivating Growth podcast. Each and every week, John and I pick a topic and we discuss how it is that we can grow in that topic, ultimately putting us in a position to grow closer to God and to each other. So this week, we have chosen the topic of grace, cultivating growth when it comes to grace, our understanding of it.

From God's end, our understanding of it, what it means from our end. And I'm looking forward to this discussion as we get right to it.  Jeremy, I'm in the midst right now of teaching through the topic of grace in the high school class. And it's, it's a class that you and I have both taught to the adult classes here over the last several years. 

And it's a, it's a class that  both very challenging yet very fundamental when we talk about what grace means to us as Christians. But one thing that I've been maybe a little bit reminded of, as I've taught this to the high school class,  grace is a challenging topic to really wrap your mind around  because especially as you get older, You recognize how frequently and how many times you've fallen short and how many times you've messed up, how many times you have sinned, and it becomes a little bit, or it can become a little bit overwhelming. 

And grace is really the answer to that problem of sin that mankind faces. Where God looks down upon us. And God sees what we've done, and the just consequences of what we've done is death.  But God says, I'm going to pay that price for you so that you don't have to. And you can be free from those consequences, and you can be free from that sin. 

That's grace in a nutshell. And that is a lot to take in. And I think the older I get, the more appreciative I become of that. Which is why I think, This title of the podcast this week, growing in grace is really true. The older we get, the more mature we get, the deeper we get into scripture. And the closer we grow to God, the more we grow to appreciate grace.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I want to start in 2 Peter 3 because it almost, you know, fits the exact same, you know, kind of idea that this whole podcast is centered around, as you know, at the end of, you know, Peter's epistle, where he has so many interesting things to say in just these three chapters, the literal last verse is that idea where he's leaving with these readers and ultimately us, the idea, but grow In the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to Him be the glory.

You know, it's interesting, you know, I was sitting there, you know, listening,  and, and thinking what, you know, why that is. Why is this something that we struggle, you know, so much with? And, you know, I think, and, and, We struggle with this, I think, all the time. You think about just the definition of it. We often will use, you know, a definition like unmerited favor or, you know, or something like that.

Goodwill, loving, kindness, favor. Those are the words that you're going to see.  If you just look up this word, but taking the spiritual aspect out of it, just for a second,  those kinds of things, someone giving you a gift out of the blue for no reason whatsoever. We're all uncomfortable about that, right?

Every, every single time that's happened to me, it's not happened very often, but you know, every time that that may be the case, you're always thinking about, well, what's the motive? What's the ulterior motive? What? You know, what did I do? What did you do? What are you looking for? I mean, we always feel awkward and uncomfortable when something like that happens.

And so now when we think about it in the spiritual sense, we almost carry all of those feelings in. And so when we read passages, like I'm sure we will, and it talks about God's grace and the fact that He did it simply out of His love for us,  We at times almost feel awkward. You know, where it's like, well, you know, since you've done that for me, well certainly there's gotta be something behind that.

And when we read scripture and we come to the realization that the only thing behind it is his love,  if we can grab hold of that, and I think you're right, The older I have gotten, the better I have gotten with that. It, man, it changes your whole perspective, certainly in your relationship with God. And so for us, being able to grow then in that understanding  can have a profound impact.

on your relationship with God. And so that's why I like that passage there in 2 Peter 3, because he makes mention of growing in the grace, and ultimately where does that lead? Giving God the glory, both now and forever. That's a pretty simple idea, but ultimately that's where it's supposed to get us to.

You know, the, passage that we've really tried to focus on in our class thus far is in Ephesians chapter two. And I think it goes hand in hand with what you were just talking about in the first couple of verses there, Ephesians chapter two, Paul is kind of making the point that there was a time in which You were dead in your trespasses and in your sins.

And, you know, he says, we were, you were walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. There was this time where, you know, you were walking in these evil and wicked ways.  Verse four, but God, and I've got that underlined in my Bible because that is such a powerful transition that Paul makes from chap from verse three to verse four, here's the situation that you found yourself in, but God, and then it goes on to say, but God who is rich in mercy because of his own great love.

With which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved and that is such a powerful passage of scripture because it points to God, it points to Christ. Not to us, it points to God. We were dead in our trespasses. That's, that's our contribution to this.

We were dead in our trespasses.  But God loved us so much, but God was so merciful that he sent his son Jesus to make us alive together with him through grace. That, that is what he has done. He has saved us by his grace. We didn't deserve that. No, nothing about this passage points to us earning that in any way or being worthy of that in any way.

What it points to is God loved us.  God wasn't going to leave us in this helpless situation that he found us in. And that is really where I think  the, almost the overwhelming appreciation of grace really starts to grow within us. And to your, your, your analogy used earlier about someone giving you a gift. 

Sometimes when that happens.  It's awkward because I don't really know what to say, you know, you've given me something and thank you doesn't really seem like enough Right. I feel like I should do more Well put that now now make that infinitely bigger because what God has given us is salvation and it's overwhelming What do I thank you?

I don't even know what to say to a gift so great like that Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's When we think about grace, I think in a lot of ways, at least what has helped me  kind of grow in my understanding of what God has done for me and the grace that he has shown  is to really couple that with my understanding of the importance of being humble. 

Because once we step out of that humility in some capacity, we start taking things away from God. You know, there's a passage in Luke chapter 17, kind of a story that Jesus is telling a parable, and he's talking about a servant who's been, you know, tasked by his master to, you know, to do certain things.

There's a lot to be learned, you know, from that one story, but there's a line in it that really, Kind of hits me when it comes to this discussion about grace at the very end of that, where he says there in Luke 17, verse 10. So likewise, when you have done all those things which you have commanded,  you say we are  an unprofitable servant. 

And what I love about that idea is that still the humility is there. You know, it isn't, you know, the idea of look at all these incredible things that I have done. So now, therefore, this is what I deserve, or this is what I have earned. When we start to think that way, we've taken the onus, we've taken the focus off of God, and now we've placed it on ourself. 

But if I can approach grace with humility  and understanding that God has done something for me that I cannot do for myself, that it is an, an incredible, as you put in an infinite kind of way, a gift that he has bestowed upon me. So yeah, thank you. Seems silly. But it is a thank you with my life. It is a thank you with my appreciation.

It is a thank you with my praise. It is a thank you in my evangelism. It is a thank you in my relationship. It is a thank you in my dependence upon God, right? You're doing all of those things because you have that understanding about what God has done, and you're humble enough to still recognize. It's all him and not me at all.

And it continues to be all him and not me at all. Even when I'm standing before him in judgment, it will be all him and not me. And to continue to kind of keep that humble attitude really makes a big difference when it comes to understanding what God's grace is all about. And, and understanding that, that God's grace impacts us right now.

I think that's another, challenging aspect to this because unfortunately, I think there is some, in some ways, a misconception that I'm going to do the best I can while I live on this earth and then I'm going to get to heaven and I hope God stamps me with grace so that I can get into heaven. And that's just not the picture of grace that we see at all in Scripture.

Grace benefits us now. Going back to that Ephesians 2 passage, you have been saved, you've been saved by grace through faith. It's happened. You are the receiver of that right now and today. And then you go to a passage like Titus chapter 2, and Paul, as he writes to Titus, he says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men in the world.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. God's grace teaches us in the present age to live this way. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously. When I grow in my appreciation of God's grace, I'm taught to live righteously right now, today, in the present age.

Amen. And so I have to then, the responsibility is to continue to grow in that appreciation of God's grace and allow it to teach me to live the way that God wants me to. And the more appreciative I become of that, the closer I, I grow to God. And the more I I'm going to recognize the grace that he's shown me, the more it's going to show me the ways to live right now.

And I'm going to see the benefits of it in my life today and not just wait one day until I die and hope God extends to me grace at that moment in time, but instead recognize that grace has been extended to me right now and it benefits me in this present age. Yeah. I mean, we, you know, the more and more that we've talked about it, you know, here over the last, you know, few minutes,  you start to recognize that.

You know, coming to grips and have an understanding of the grace that, that God has bestowed upon us, man, it has an impact on everything. I mean, it has an impact on every single aspect of the life that I live, you know, and it's not just, you know, the grace that God, you know, has given to us by the way of salvation through his son, but, you know, you start to see it in other ways, right?

I mean, the grace that God, you know, has bestowed upon us by giving us his word, you know, in a to giving us, you know, the way in which we can live in this life, which benefits man the best. You know, sometimes, you know, people are incorrectly open up God's word and see it as a, just a rule book and just kind of a bunch of rules and commandments instead of an understanding that.

It is what is best for man. It's out of God's love that he has delivered his word to us. And so you start to see all of these incredible things that God has done. And now the impact that that  understanding can have in every aspect of your life. Now it plays out in every single aspect of my life because I'm just,  Living in the grace of God and being thankful for that and praising him for that. 

And I think sometimes when we try to complicate it more than that, we're, we're, we're moving the focus off of him every single time and we're putting it somewhere else. Usually on ourself is where it's going to go or at times on others, but usually on ourself. And, you know, instead of just being able to  grateful and thankful and.

Praise Him for what He has done and  just glorify Him. And it's just that simple if we can stay focused on the grace that He has bestowed on us. And if we don't, what ends up happening then is we live such a stressful, anxious, worried life where we try to earn our way to heaven. And it's like, if I, have I done enough good things today?

Am I, am I, am I doing everything just right? Have I made any mistakes at all? And I'm not, I'm not suggesting that we don't have to give, you know, a proper amount of attention to how we live. That's not my suggestion at all. But if we go day by day thinking, Man, I don't know if I've done enough good things today to earn my place in heaven.

That's a sad place to live your life. And it's going to be a life that is never going to feel fulfilled. It's always going to be worry and anxious and concerning to us. Whereas if we live a life in God's grace, recognizing what He's done for us,  then we can truly live that life of joy and confidence that we talked about last week, and we really can find that peace that God wants us to live in today.

Well, I mean, the Hebrew writer uses a phrase in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 15, falling short of the grace of God. That should be a scary thing for each and every one of us to the point that you've just made. Well, let's end in Ephesians chapter two. I know we talked about that passage a moment ago, but really Ephesians chapter two verses one through 10 is just a great passage to go to, to kind of begin your study of grace and the understanding of what it's done.

But we'll just end with what Paul says in verses eight and nine. of Ephesians chapter two, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate it if you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast,  whatever platform you're listening, rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus widely and effectively as possible.

Thanks again for joining us this week, and we'll talk again next week.