WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:04.080 Um, so we have been talking about these past three weeks. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.879 What does it mean for us to grow as Christians? 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:08.640 How do we grow as Christians? 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:09.759 What does that look like? 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:20.399 And so, what we say is like, no, not guilt on you or fear on you, you better, or else, and you better do these things, or you'll never be, or if you don't do these things, you're not in God's favor. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:27.280 What we've been saying is in Jesus, God's delight in you is fully secured. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:31.280 All of your sin is put upon him, all of his righteousness is given to you. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:33.039 God's delight is secure. 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:36.399 So we are free from earning God's love. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.479 Earning is over. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:39.920 Now, effort is not. 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:41.840 So we are free from earning God's love. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.920 So, how do we grow in that lavish love? 00:00:47.439 --> 00:01:02.479 This reminded me of a few years ago, Adam Sandler was a guest host on Saturday Night Live, and he played the travel agent Joe Romano, who tells brutal truth about what their trips could do for you and what they cannot do for you. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.920 And so we're gonna watch about two minutes of this sketch. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:16.640 People love it, but every so often a customer leaves the review that they weren't, they were disappointed or didn't have as much fun as they thought. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:25.680 So here at Romano Tours, we always remind our customers if you're sad now, you might still feel sad there, okay? 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:44.400 So that's not just gonna be new. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:33.599 We can thank you to the fine Riviera. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.039 We cannot make you feel comfortable in a we can provide a display. 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:42.719 We cannot give you the ability to say winky and make it. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:44.479 We cannot get this. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:50.479 We can provide you with a wine-tasting tour of Tuscany. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:56.560 We cannot change why you drink what you do, okay? 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:58.560 I'm sorry, but it's true. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.840 And our friendly tour guides are happy to take your pictures. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.800 But remember, the pictures you're in are gonna have you in them. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:13.520 And if you don't like how you look back home, it's not gonna get any better on a gondola. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:22.479 So it's easy to think, and we all get tricked into it, that Italy will solve our problems. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:28.240 Or a new pair of Nike Air Maxes, or two weeks ago I got a new pair of fishing waiters. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:30.800 I can't get anything better in my life than that. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:31.680 And you know what? 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:37.439 The same sad me in my old waiters is the same sad me in my new waiters, right? 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.199 It's the same person. 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:42.800 But if you're like me, you get tricked. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:44.319 Like you get tricked into this. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:50.000 Like if only, if only I go to Italy, if only I get that, that thing, right? 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:55.280 But these weaknesses in me and life problems aren't solved in that way. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:00.960 A change of location, a change of car, a change of spouse, a change of hair color, a change of haircut. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:05.280 These things don't change the inside of us. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:07.520 There's nothing wrong with a new haircut. 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:10.800 There's nothing wrong with moving to Jackson, Wyoming. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.919 If I win the lottery this week, I will not be here. 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:15.520 I will be in Jackson, Wyoming. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:16.800 And you know what will be true? 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:21.759 The same sad me that lives in Marietta will be in Jackson, Wyoming. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.959 Because the issue is on the inside. 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:34.160 Preacher Paul Walker says it this way: life's deepest problems are bound up in our human propensity to keep messing things up. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.600 See, this is why Jesus says the problems are in the heart. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:41.040 This is why Jesus drives us to the inner life. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:44.319 The primary problem is inside of us. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:47.040 So, where do we go for change? 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:48.079 How do we grow? 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:49.120 How do we change? 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:55.920 The past two weeks we've said it this way: we grow as Christians as we grow deeper in Jesus. 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:02.000 And then this week, I want us to take a step further and talk about spiritual practices. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:06.959 Let's begin with the 1 Peter 2, 1 through 3, which Katie read for us. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:14.079 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:23.680 Long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:31.519 So, point number one is that God desires to grow us towards humility and love for each other. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:38.160 If you want to know what Christian maturity actually is, it's humility and love for each other. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:48.560 The five sins listed in verse one: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, all very relational, all coming out of a heart that's not settled in Jesus. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:51.360 Tons of destruction come from that. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:57.519 And it's contrary to the call to love each other, which we get in chapter 1, verse 22. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:03.360 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:07.040 Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.759 My friend Lee, who's a pastor in Athens now, when I was at the Church of the Apostles as a young pastor, I worked under him for two years. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.639 He is a brilliant Bible teacher. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:28.560 And he said over and over and over again, if you want to know how to grow as a Christian, if you want to know how to grow as a Christian, well, just think about how you grow full, healthy zojagrass. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:30.879 He says the same thing. 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:36.800 To grow full, healthy zorzagrass, you don't obsess about pulling every single weed. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:42.560 You turn your primary attention to growing full, healthy grass. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.120 And the full, healthy Zorzia grass will begin to choke out the weeds. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:07:02.240 And it was his way to say, which is a great point, is that a Christian life shouldn't be an obsession about every little sin and get that weird, self-righteous faith where it's like a paralysis through analysis. 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:12.480 Our primary attention, our primary attention is to grow full, healthy Zoija and let it choke out the weeds. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:18.160 And if you're like me, if you're into your grass, guys, usually guys, maybe ladies, are you into your grass? 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:20.639 I go out in the evenings and just like just stare at it. 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:33.600 Just looking at it, seeing what's going on, just but it has a great lesson for us because we should be turning our primary attention to the better love. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:38.240 That's why verse 2 calls us to long for pure spiritual milk. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.600 That's where our primary attention should go because the Lord is good. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.800 Look at how these verses teach us, lead us through this. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:49.439 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:55.519 That by it you may grow up into your salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:02.240 So point number two is this we grow and change by God's goodness, nourishing our souls. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:04.639 So that's our growth in grace. 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:08.160 And verse two, we are the infants. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:12.800 This week I got to go see three little babies in our church. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:14.879 We're just birthing some babies in our church. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:20.560 Three little babies this week is a baby tour, and I got to hold them and pray for them, and they're so cute. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.920 I mean, some people call our church Christ the reproducer. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:26.000 I'm not sure if you're aware of this. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:27.680 Y'all are very active. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:28.800 Good job. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:37.360 Being called an infant is not an insult, it's a term of endearment. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:42.879 That you are the child of a loving Heavenly Father. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:54.000 Because at every stage and every age, 45, 25, 65, 85, very mature in Jesus, less mature, we're always the infant. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:02.320 Because we're always the one that is endeared to the Heavenly Father, adored, loved, held, nurtured. 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:04.799 We are dependent on Him to grow. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:06.559 So we get point number three. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:13.919 In growth and grace, our role is to cultivate a longing for the thing that actually nourishes. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:17.440 Our role is to cultivate the longing. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:19.919 What are you cultivating? 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:26.000 On a daily and a weekly basis, what is nourishing your soul? 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:34.320 Dane Ortland in his book Deeper writes, We grow in Christ no further than we enjoy his embrace of us. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:38.639 We grow in Christ no further than we enjoy his embrace of us. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:42.960 Your growth in Christ will go no further than your settledness. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:47.840 Way down deep in your heart that God loves you. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:51.840 Last week we had new insulation put in our attic. 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:55.039 Very exciting midlife expense. 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.840 So these guys show up, three guys, big truck, hose comes out of the truck. 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:06.240 It's gonna be a spray foam insulation. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:12.320 So this hose runs up the driveway in the back door, up the attic, an August Georgia attic. 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:16.559 These guys go up there fully zipped up, masked, everything. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:17.360 Here's a picture. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:18.559 That is definitely not my attic. 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:20.240 It is not that beautiful and clean. 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:22.639 But they that's what they look like, all dressed up. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:26.000 So that hose is about 130 degrees. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.480 The spray that comes out of the hose is 150 degrees. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:35.679 Then they are zipped up in my August attic spraying this stuff. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:50.320 So very quickly their bodies hit 102, and then they worked at 102 degrees until they can take it no longer, and then the three of them just sort of rotated, the other two just like laid out on the Zorzurgrass in the backyard. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:57.279 They worked at a fevered state, and they had to rotate, they had to take breaks. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:10:59.600 I think life's a little like this. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.519 It's easy to live in a fevered state. 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:08.480 And we have to take breaks to get our core temperature back down. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.240 That's kind of what spiritual practices are. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:29.600 In the book, The Spirit of Discipline, theologian Dallas Willard teaches, a discipline, this is a paraphrase of some teaching, a discipline is something we can do that places us somewhere to receive power and change beyond ourselves. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:33.360 Our disciplines connect us to a power greater than ourselves. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:44.240 So Willard is sort of saying this: spiritual disciplines place the dry and thirsty soul, the infant, mean you, under the waterfall of God's nourishment and goodness. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:50.000 Meaning the disciplines open you up to growth. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:56.480 They don't cause it, and you don't cause it, but they open you to the growth. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:01.600 Willard explains it this way: Grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:12.080 The disciplines are activities of the mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:31.519 They enable us more and more to live in a power that is, strictly speaking, beyond us, deriving from the spiritual realm itself, as we yield ourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and are members as instruments of righteousness into God, as Romans 6.13 put it. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:35.440 So just a couple book recommendations if you're looking to go further. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.200 A couple just about growth and grace. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.720 I've been quoting the last three weeks, the book Deeper by Dane Ortland. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:45.200 As well as the book Because He Loves Me by Elise Fitzpatrick is wonderful. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.000 A couple books about spiritual disciplines and spiritual practices, if you want to dig in there. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.799 Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace is a classic. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:54.720 It's a wonderful book, very readable. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:58.080 And John Ortberg's The Life You Always Wanted is wonderful. 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:03.759 A more recent book about spiritual practices is practicing the way by John Mark Comer. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:20.720 And he lists these as spiritual practices for us: silence and solitude, hospitality, Sabbath, fasting, serving, Lord's Supper, community, prayer, teaching, Sunday gathering, scripture, and simplicity. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:25.279 Now I don't know which discipline you will connect with. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:35.519 My guess is you'll connect with some more than others, and then your best friend or your spouse or your sister, whoever will connect with some that you don't connect with, and that's okay. 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:38.720 My wife wakes up long before I wake up. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:47.919 And she wakes up and she goes and sits in a chair in our living room and she reads scripture and reads a devotion and she journals and she prays, and I wake up at like an hour, an hour and a half. 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:53.039 I am not into the early morning spirituality, I'm much more mid-morning spirituality. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:56.159 And I have my own thing that I do. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:04.320 I like to read scripture, I like to go for walks, I want to pray, but I also like to pray and walk, because then I don't get sleepy, anybody else gets sleepy, some of us get sleepy. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:06.639 I like to worship and walk. 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.559 That's just a way to say, you're gonna work this out. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:13.519 And that's your relationship with Jesus. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:15.919 That you get to do that. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:20.320 Some practices are public, some practices are private. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:23.840 Here's how Jesus says we should practice any of our practices. 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:25.679 Matthew 6, 6 through 8. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.159 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.120 And your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:40.639 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:42.080 Do not be like them. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.519 For your father knows what you need before you ask him. 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:48.480 I mean, this really sets us free, right? 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:53.279 Like you don't have to pretend to be something you're not, you don't have to use certain words, you don't have to sound churchy. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:54.559 He already knows what you need. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:15:04.320 This really sets you up to have relationship and communion, that you're not trying to twist his arm for him to have favor on you or to get something from him. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:08.960 He goes on to say, hey, by the way, when you fast, don't do it to be seen. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:19.279 So Jesus assumes we're gonna have spiritual practices, and then he says, Hey, when you do these, make sure you're not doing them to look a certain way or for your image or performance. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:25.679 Twenty-one years ago, Christy and I went to premarital counseling with Ronnie and Deborah Brassfield. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:27.440 Here's a picture of us. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:29.679 Look at that skin. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.000 Beautiful, golden, smooth skin. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:34.799 Unbelievable. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.639 Never again will we have skin like that. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:44.559 Ronnie and Deborah talked to us about money, sex, communication, future parenting. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:52.559 One of the greatest practical lessons we learned was to keep having a weekly date night, like over and over and over again. 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:54.320 So we've always done that. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:57.679 We like to get tacos and margaritas, we like to go on hikes together. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:08.000 And there's been times in our lives where we were so poor, all we could do was pay the$30 to the babysitter just for us to go walk in the park by ourselves. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:15.519 Like there was no other, just pay the babysitter to get away from our children so we can be by ourselves for a couple hours. 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:21.679 But the point was never, and the point is never what we're doing. 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:24.639 The point's just that you're together. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:33.679 Now imagine that uh we're getting tacos and a margarita, and imagine I start telling Christy my resume. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:40.879 I tell her what I where I graduated from and what I've done and who I know. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Imagine I tell her uh you know what I do at my church and how I help people. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.000 Imagine I tell her my bench press. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:49.840 Well maybe not my bench, not my bench press. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:51.840 That would not that's not impressive. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:56.159 It'd be ridiculous. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:01.600 Because pretending and performing just have no place in a relationship. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:04.400 We've been married 20 years. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:14.160 My wife has seen me poor, depressed, angry, distant, so sick I can't get off the bathroom floor. 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:17.920 She doesn't want my resume. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:21.119 That would be silly. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.759 Jesus doesn't need your resume. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:26.160 He just wants you. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:33.599 Like whatever you have to bring, even your weakness, to be honest and vulnerable. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.599 My mentor Scotty says this about relationships in general. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:43.599 He says grace plus time plus vulnerability equals relationship. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:56.720 So if Jesus already knows you, and on the cross, if all your sin was forgiven, and all his righteousness given to you, and you're fully beloved, and God's delight in you is secured in Jesus alone. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:04.880 If all that is true, if you are fully known and fully loved, no matter what, where does that leave you? 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:07.839 Oh, it leaves you quite free. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:09.759 We could say this. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:14.400 If you are free in Jesus, it means you are free to grow in grace. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:24.000 If all of your change is growth and grace, it means you can be honest in your spiritual practices. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:33.680 Which means there's no guilt or condemnation when you do your practice, and it also means there's no guilt or condemnation if you don't do your practice. 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:35.839 Last point. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:37.039 Point number four. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:45.920 In Christ's secure love, we are free from pretending and performing, free for honesty and growth with Him. 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:48.720 Beloved, you are fully loved by Jesus. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:51.759 Fully known and fully loved. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.240 And God is interested in you. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:59.200 He's interested in you long before he's interested in what you can do for him. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:01.680 And this is good news. 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:10.960 In growth and grace, our role is to cultivate a longing for the theme that actually nourishes. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:12.720 Let's pray together. 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:18.079 Heavenly Father, thank you that you know us and you love us. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:26.240 Would you help settle our souls even more in your love for us? 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:34.319 Help free us for the ways we perform and pretend, the ways we live out of guilt and shame and condemnation. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.440 Free us in the forgiveness we have in Jesus and free us in the righteousness we have in Jesus. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:47.519 Would you free us to trust all the more that all the delight we ever need for our heart satisfaction is your love for us. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:56.000 Jesus, I pray this morning that you would minister to our hearts as we slow down and we listen to you. 00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:58.079 For you are enough for us. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:19:59.680 In Christ's name we pray. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:00.240 Amen.