A Place Of Grace
10-25-2020
    • Role: a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individual’s status
      We are the Bride, Body, and Family… The CHURCH
      Responsibility or Responsible: moral, legal, or mental accountability / liable to be called to account… able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations
      What does God’s Word state about what we should do / who we should be
      Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. (Eleventh ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
      We don’t engage in a marriage, taking on the role of husband or wife and expect to do nothing to contribute to the relationship
      If and when we see this occur we call it an unhealthy or broken relationship
      We don’t look at our bodies and think parts to be useless or unimportant if they just exist or are there
      We consider this a bad situation, sick, unhealthy… and we seek to help it function again
      We don’t expect families to have members who just take without contribution, or have children who never grow up
      This is considered irresponsible and gives reason for concern
      The church is a bride, a body, a family… and as such we should expect that we all have roles and responsibilities in His Church!
      Today I want us to look at our roles and responsibilities in the area of Growth and Love...

      Growth & Love

      GROWTH= Producing / Progressive development / it is also a Process
      Biblical growth is a maturing process or sanctification
      Sanctification is a setting apart, purify, to make Holy...
      Sanctification brings with it an initial break with the love of sin, and with the power and practice of sin, occurs at regeneration
      Jesus prayed for this in us John 17:17 GOD’S WORD is VITAL in the sanctifying process!!!
      John 17:17 NASB95
      “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
      Paul gives us HOPE in this area… 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
      1 Corinthians 6:9–11 NASB95
      Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
      Paul mentions Justification and Sanctification
      Their nature. Justification is a change in state; sanctification is a change of the whole man.
      Their form. Justification is a judicial act by which the sinner is pronounced righteous (NOT seen righteous but DECLARED!!!). Sanctification is a moral act, or rather a series of acts, by which a change is effected in the qualities of the soul. It is also an ongoing process in the Christian life
      Their order. Justification precedes sanctification, for imputed righteousness precedes implanted and inherent holiness.
      Their properties. Justification is perfect at first and is equal in all believers. Sanctification is imperfect at first and exists in different degrees of advancement in different individuals.
      Very quickly as we pursue sanctification it is easy to become prideful and arrogant… that is why I have combined our growth with our role and responsibility of love...
      LOVE= let’s jump ahead in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a
      1 Corinthians 13:1–8a NASB95
      If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
      Let’s take just a moment to take a look at the growth and love as The Bride, The Body, The Family...

      The Bride

      “I LOVE YOU MORE” its a cute game my wife and I play. expressing why or how we love each other more. Truth is that I do love her more now, than the day I married her. Our love has grown, it is being perfected, I strive to understand her greater and deeper… 1 Peter 3:7 speaks to this…
      1 Peter 3:7 NASB95
      You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
      ​
      UNDERSTANDING= to come to an understanding as the result of ability to experience and learn—‘to come to understand, to perceive, to comprehend
      Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 381). New York: United Bible Societies.
      As His bride we should strive individually to understand Him greater, to learn who this is that we are falling deeper in love with....
      This is not a stretch, look at what Ephesians 5:28-33 says...
      Ephesians 5:28–33 NASB95
      So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
      With the same passion, effort, and commitment that we should be investing in our own marriages we should be do the same and even greater in our relationship with Jesus Christ
      Doing this will improve your marriage by the way!!!

      The Body

      Singular… there is a unity and a oneness that cannot be overlooked here.
      You don’t need to be around people long to realize this requires growth, maturity, and is part of the sanctification process
      A body that stays a baby, or maybe grows physically but fails to grow mentally is not functioning proper
      God desires His Body function at its best!!!!
      That is God’s will for you… when asked by people what God’s will is for their life I love directing them to Romans 12
      I love how Romans 12:1-18 clearly demonstrates the growth and the love that is needed as a body.
      Romans 12:1–18 NASB95
      Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
      This whole chapter is body life at its BEST!!!!
      Individual members pursuing this in their lives… PURSUING GOD see growth! AND GOD IS CAUSING THE GROWTH!!!!
      1 Corinthians 3:6-7, Ephesians 4:14-16
      1 Corinthians 3:6–7 NASB95
      I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
      Ephesians 4:14–16 NASB95
      As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
      A body functioning like that would be a family I would want to be a part of…

      The Family

      One of the first mandates given to the first family was to be fruitful and multiply… and we celebrate new birth!
      We should all celebrate and strive to see individuals come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
      Remember we have a role in this… but it is God who brings the growth.
      Do not neglect your role of sharing, planting, watering
      What a blessing to have new brothers and sisters in Christ
      Consider this passage in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 in light of our homes and family…
      Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB95
      “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
      Proverbs is loaded with instructions to be taught by parents and instruction children are to heed…
      As the Family of God the growth and maturity is essential
      As a father and husband i strive to lead well.
      In 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus we are clearly instructed on the crucial importance of the elder/pastoral role of raising up the household of faith (Family of God) to the maturity in His Word!
      1 Timothy 3:14-15 but here is the mandate I follow for the family of God 2 Timothy 4:1-5
      1 Timothy 3:14–15 NASB95
      I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
      2 Timothy 4:1–5 NASB95
      I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
      I love the bridegroom too much, and desire to draw closer.
      The Body of Christ needs strengthened and
      I love this family too much to tickle ears.
      The times are short and I will boldly preach, equip the saints with His Word
      And I will strive to do this while following the law of Jesus Christ which is
      Mark 12:29-31
      Mark 12:29–31 NASB95
      Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
      ​

        • John 17:17NASB95

        • 1 Corinthians 6:9–11NASB95

        • 1 Corinthians 13:1–8aNASB95

        • 1 Peter 3:7NASB95

        • Ephesians 5:28–33NASB95

        • Romans 12:1–18NASB95

        • 1 Corinthians 3:6–7NASB95

        • Ephesians 4:14–16NASB95

        • Deuteronomy 6:4–9NASB95

        • 1 Timothy 3:14–15NASB95

        • 2 Timothy 4:1–5NASB95

        • Mark 12:29–31NASB95

        A Place Of Grace
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