Growing In Faith and Love | Week 1

Good morning everybody. Let you guys get settled in and

find your seat. We will get started.

As as Alan and Steve have both said, I just want to welcome

everyone this morning and say, a very Happy New Year to you all.

Want to just Echo that sentiment.

Yeah, the weather has been crazy.

So, welcome to welcome to Winter.

It's here. Finally, so we had a very hot

and humid Christmas and New Year's.

And now, here we are jumping into snow, so that's, that's the

way it is. It do be that way sometimes,

right. So, all right, All right, so my

name is Jasper. I'm the executive Pastor here at

New Life Community Church. Again just want to say welcome,

thank you for being here this morning.

Today, we are going to be moving through a topic and some some

things that I love to talk about.

It's a new year. And so it's good to talk about

these things. I do want to kind of give you a

bit of a warning, I'm going to move fast.

Are you guys have some stuff in your bulletin today?

Some fill-in-the-blank stuff, it's a little different than

normal. So I encourage you to take notes

write things down as we go and we're going to move a little

quick. Okay, so that being said, let me

pray for us. One more time before we jump in

and we will get started. Okay, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning, God, and we bow

before you. Lord.

We acknowledge now that we are nothing without you.

And so God, we ask that you be with us in this place that you

pour out your presence on us here today.

We pray that you would speak to us through your word, we pray

that as we talk through and look through some of these things,

God that you just open our minds and our hearts that you

encourage us that you fill us with your presence.

We pray that as we do these things, we give you honor and

Glory. We pray that as we talk through

these things, Lord that we grow in our love and Devotion to you

and that they help us to walk closer to you every day.

So Lord, please be with us in this place.

Speak to us now. We ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.

So as we've talked about, it's a new year.

New Year. Just like Steve just talked

about comes with what resolutions, right?

New Year's resolutions everybody makes goals and things that they

want to change for the upcoming year or things that they want to

improve on or whatever. It's just a, it's a natural time

to look back on the previous year.

To kind of do a recap to say, okay, how did this last year,

go? What were the highs and the lows

of the year? And then we look forward and we

say, what are some things I want to do different in the upcoming

year? What are some Goals or some

resolutions. It's just a natural time to

reflect on these things. There are different things in

life that that come up and happen like this, that make us

do this, you know, going to a funeral having to deal with,

that makes us reflect on life. And so this is just one of those

natural times when it's okay to think on these things.

And so I want to talk about that a bit today.

Now, when we begin to think through the upcoming year and

look back, we always have Tendency to focus on the

physical right? That the external Earthly things

we think about as far as resolutions go want to, Let's

the number one New Year's resolution lose weight.

I want to lose weight. I want to get the new job.

I want to get a raise, maybe want to buy the house or finish

that project. I've been working on at the

house. There's all these things.

These goals that we set, but we very rarely take the time to

stop and evaluate our spiritual well-being and our spiritual

health, we Rarely set goals for ourself as far as that's

concerned. If we do it usually looks like,

well, you know what, I'm finally going to read my Bible this

year. And then like Steve said, we get

about into January February, when we start getting into, as

Kyle mentioned, like numbers and some of that and then it just

tanks. You know, that's about as far as

we get. But I want you to listen to what

scripture says about this in Colossians 3, 1 through 2.

It says, so if you have been raised with Christ, seek the

things above where Christ, Iced is seated at the right hand of

God, set your minds on the things above, not on Earthly

things. Then again, listen to what

Matthew 6:33 says, seek first, the kingdom of God and his

Matthew 6:33

righteousness and all these other things will be provided to

you. And he had been talking about

food and clothing in that text. So he's saying, don't worry

about that stuff. Seek God seek the kingdom of

God, first, all that stuff will take care of itself and then

once again in 1st Timothy chapter 4, we read train.

Yourself in godliness for the training of the body has limited

benefit, but the but godliness is beneficial in every way since

it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to

come. You see the reality is life is

short. Amen.

Life is short. We have been reminded of that

recently and our community, we never know when life is going to

end. Psalm 90 says the years of our

life 70 or even by reason of strength. 80 yet their span is

but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly

away. James 4:14 says, yet, you do not

James 4:14

know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

You are a Mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes

and not only are our days here on this Earth short.

But we live in evil Wicked times, Ephesians, 5:15 Through

16 says, look carefully, then how you walk not as unwise, but

as wise making the best use of the time because the days are

evil and so life is short. The days are evil.

We're supposed to be focused on the spiritual things, not just

Earthly things. So when considering passages,

like Ephesians 5, that says to look carefully, how you walk?

When we're looking at this, we're thinking about how we walk

and how we live our lives and we're considering how to make

the best use of the time. We have to remember that we have

a purpose, we have a mission as born-again Believers on this

Earth. We have to ask.

Am I fulfilling that purpose? Am I pursuing that mission?

What am I doing to work toward that?

We can't know if we're doing this.

Well, if we don't even know what that Person, that mission is

right. We need to know what our purpose

in life is what our mission is on this Earth while we're here.

So what is our purpose? What is our mission?

What is the meaning of life on this Earth?

Well, theologians pastors the early church, fathers of all

tried to put the answer in, two words, in different, various

forms, and I want to read a few of those to you.

Now, the Westminster Shorter Catechism the very first

question, a cat. Schism, many of, you know, this

from our kids classes, a catechism was a classic way to

teach children the basic tenets of the faith.

All right, so this is the almost like nursery rhymes but it was

question and answer. So they would ask a basic

question and answer it according to scripture.

And in this catechism, the very first question is, what is the

chief end of man or what is the chief purpose of man?

And the answer is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

That is the, the purpose of Kind.

That's the meaning of life. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says to fear

Ecclesiastes 12:13

God and keep his Commandments. For this is the whole duty of

man. Micah 6:8 says, he has told you

Micah 6:8

o, man, what is good? And what does the Lord require

of you? But to do justice or to do the

right thing to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

And then in Matthew 28, of course we have the Great

Commission that Jesus himself gave us to go and make disciples

of all Nations. Jonathan Edwards, who was a

great, Pastor, Theologian in the 1700s, he helped spark the Great

Awakening. Arguably, the greatest

Theologian ever to live in America wrote what he called his

resolutions from 1722 to 1723. Now, this was 70 different

resolutions, different things that he resolved to do in his

life and he was only 18 when he wrote this.

Now this is if you can look this up online, you can print it out

in a PDF format, a highly encourage you to do that and

read through those this year. These are great things for all

of us to be working toward as Christians but I want to read

you how he opens this up in his resolutions just the preface

before he ever even begins with his first resolution.

He says, this being sensible that I am unable to do anything

without God's help. I do humbly entreat him by his

grace to enable me to keep these resolutions as far as they are

agreeable to. His will for Christ's sake.

So Jonathan Edwards, acknowledged that right out of

the gate, I cannot do this apart from God enabling me to, I can't

do this apart from the help of the Holy Spirit.

And I only want to do it if it's going to align with God's Will

and bring glory and honor to Christ.

That's what he said, right before he ever even started his

resolutions. And then once he jumped in on a

read you, the first two that he wrote?

Now, I don't know if any of you guys remember this from from pop

culture back in the early 2000s, there was has a movie that came

out called Fight Club. Awful movie, don't watch it.

But there was a line in that movie that everybody knows.

The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of Fight Club is.

Don't talk about Fight Club. They stole that from Jonathan

Edwards. All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna

prove it Jonathan Edwards and his first resolution says this

first resolution that I will do that, which I think to be most

for God's glory and my own spiritual profit, all of my days

to do, whatever I think to be my spiritual.

Ability and most for the good of humanity.

I will do this regardless of whatever difficulties might

arise. In other words, I'm going to do

whatever I can to bring God glory to grow spiritually and to

love people and help people no matter how difficult and

inconvenient it might be. Now listen to his second

resolution. I also resolve to Endeavor

continually to discover things that will help me promote the

first resolution. So he's saying, this is my goal

in life, glorify God grow. Spiritually, love others.

My second resolution, figure out ways to be doing that.

And so even Jonathan Edwards, recognized the need to be

growing spiritually glorifying God in all that we do our whole

purpose in life is to glorify God in everything.

We do the way that we love our spouse, the way our marriage

goes, can glorify God the way we raise.

Our children can be done in a way that glorifies God, the way

we conduct ourselves. I work in the way we work, how

we work can glorify God even down to the way we eat and drink

can glorify God. Now, just like anything, God

creates for good man, can take these things and twist them and

abuse them and do them in a way that doesn't glorify God.

That's the very definition of abuse is to take something that

was intended for one purpose and use it for another purpose.

So just like, food and drink that can be used.

In a way that does not glorify God, but we are called, as

Believers to bring honor and glory to God in everything.

Everything we do every corner of our life is meant to glorify

God. So, how do we do this?

Well, at New Life Community Church.

We've tried to Define it this way in our mission statement.

It's the first thing you see. When you walk in the door, it's

painted on the wall. Real big.

So that we all know why we're here, what we exist, For this is

in your worship guides and I invite you to fill in the blanks

as we go through. Also, invite you all to learn

this by heart and to live by it. We exist to glorify.

God let's just stop right there. So far, so good, right?

We exist as a church to glorify God.

That's the chief goal. That's the ultimate purpose.

Now, how do we do that? How do we glorify God as a

church by making disciples. Great.

Okay, line up with the Great Commission.

Everything's going good so far. But what kind of disciples are

we trying to make here? Are we making disciples of Kyle

Jones or Jasper Jack? Are we making disciples of the

Arkansas? Razorbacks or the LSU Tigers or

the mule Riders? Know we're here to make

disciples who are growing in their faith in Jesus their love

for one another. That's the kind of disciples we

want to make. That's the kind of people we

want to be here at New Life Community Church.

These are the distinguishing marks of who we want to be

people growing in our love, for the Lord, and growing in our

love. For one another.

And I say growing because we recognize that we will never be

perfect at this. This is an ongoing process that

we are growing in. It's called sanctification,

okay? So over the next two weeks, we

are going to do a two-part miniseries on how we can do this

as a people and as a church, how can we be growing in our faith

in Jesus and our love for one another?

So that as we go into a new year, we can do it with a

renewed purpose or renewed vision of what we're trying to

do as a church and as a people and with a revived passion for

the Lord. Okay, so that's what we're going

to be doing the next two weeks are going to be looking I'm

through this today. We are going to look at and

focus on how we can be growing in our faith in Jesus.

What are two primary ways we can be growing in our faith in

Jesus. So, as we get ready to jump into

this, I want to give you a little disclaimer, the things

we're going to talk about over the next couple of weeks have a

name. These are also known as

spiritual disciplines, okay? You can write that down if you

want to spiritual disciplines or means of Grace, is another way

to put it habits of Grace. Spiritual habits guy last week

in his sermon mentioned streams of Grace, channels, of Grace,

whatever you want to, however, you want to word it.

They are called this because there's called spiritual

disciplines because they require discipline these things.

Don't just come naturally, they're not easy.

They take work and dedication. We have to commit to do these

things. They're called the means or

streams of Grace, because they are God's chosen means by which,

Which he sanctifies us as a people.

These are the ways that God pours out his grace upon us in

our lives through these means. So that's what we're going to be

talking about over the next couple of weeks now, apart from

these very basic, fundamental things that we are going to talk

about. We cannot grow as Christians.

We cannot grow in our faith or in our love for people if we

aren't practicing these things. So they're that important.

These are beginner Christian things.

Very, very Basics that we should all be doing as Believers.

These are not optional. So how can we grow in our faith?

What are these spiritual disciplines?

Okay, let's Jump Right In the very first way that we can grow

in our faith in Jesus is through, Through the word

through the word, the holy scriptures, the Bible, God's

word, the traditional Orthodox Christian view, throughout

history has been that God's word is inspired inerrant and

infallible, it's inspired because God wrote it through

men. He used men to pin the words,

but they were his words. He inspired it.

It's inerrant because it is without mistake, and it is

infallible because it is incapable of failing.

Isaiah 55 says that his word will not return void, it

accomplishes, what he seeks for it to accomplish.

So we have here, the very words of God, this is God's word to

us. This is God's way of talking to

us, it is alive and active. According to Hebrews 4:12, we do

Hebrews 4:12

not need a new sign or a new revelation or new prophecy.

We have everything we need right here in the Canon of scripture

that God has spoken to us once and for all this book.

And what's contained in? It is all sufficient, for all of

life, we don't need anything new.

We have what we need. Right here, one My very favorite

illustrations of this. I don't know if any of you have

ever seen it. There's a cartoon, just like a

comic strip. It's just two little frames and

it's a man down on his knees praying saying, God, please

speak to me and then the very next frame, it's God's arm

sticking down through there. Handing him a Bible.

And it just puts it into perspective for me that for so

long. I used to just pray to God to

speak to me or make me feel something or something.

And I think what I was trying to do is just say that I want to

experience more of the Holy Spirit.

What I didn't realize is that I wasn't spending time in God's

word, say he has spoke to me and I wasn't listening, I wasn't in

this. I wasn't seeking to hear what he

had to say. I wanted him to do it some other

way. Spurgeon.

Said it very well when he said visit many good books but live

in the Bible, Because this is God's word.

It is our ultimate Authority in all of life.

Commentaries study notes and study Bibles podcasts.

Other books are great. They are great ways to grow in

our knowledge of what scripture teaches, but they do not take

the place of the scriptures. They are only beneficial to us

so far as they help us better understand what this book says.

And if they aren't pointing us back to scripture, they're

useless. They cannot and should not take

the place of God's. Holy word.

So, because the Bible is the actual words of God.

It is the primary means by which we are Sanctified.

It is the main way. God grows us is through hearing

is word. Preached studying his word

hearing it. Teach this right here is the

primary way we grow as Christians.

John 17:17 says sanctify them in your in the truth, your word.

John 17:17

Is truth. So we are Sanctified by the

truth. God's word is the truth.

So we are Sanctified through God's word.

It is through the regular intake of scripture that we grow and we

are Sanctified as a people Through it.

We are made complete. We are equipped as Christians

2nd. Timothy 3:16 through 17, says,

all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching

for reproof correction, and for training in righteousness.

That the man of God, may be complete equipped for every good

work. David Mathes in his book habits

of Grace, which is on this, very topics of fantastic book.

I highly recommended he says this, the fundamental means of

God's ongoing grace through his spirit in the life of the

Christian and in the life of the church is God's self expression.

In his word, in the gospel, by his word, he reveals himself and

expresses his heart to us. So because the Bible is God's

words written to us. It is the primary way we grow

and it goes without saying that we should be in this thing as

much as we possibly can. We can't read it too much.

This is our food, our spiritual food as Christians.

Matthew 4:4 talks about this. Donald Whitney in his book

Matthew 4:4

spiritual disciplines of the Christian Life says, there's no

such thing as a healthy Christian apart, from the steady

diet of the milk and the meat of scripture.

So we have to be have to be feeding ourselves of God's word,

daily constantly as much as we can.

So let's talk about some practical application here.

How can we, what are some tools we can use in our tool belt to

help us in this. Firstly the Blindfolded point is

not the best way to study your Bible.

You don't do that, that's not the way to study your Bible

because what will happen is you will find the text and you will

read It out of context, okay, it's better to work your way

through books, work your way through sections, where you're

getting the full context. Secondly, as mentioned do not

just read, all the supplemental helps.

So, daily devotionals are great. That shouldn't be the only means

of Bible intake, because what you're going to get is one

passage and then a man's thoughts on that passage.

That's great. But that doesn't need to be the

only way you read your Bible commentaries and other books.

Need to be the only exposure to scripture, you get need to be in

this word and letting it speak for itself.

So, let's talk about the right way to study our Bibles.

What's some good practice in Bible?

Study will first do it daily? Okay, if you're taking notes,

write this down, do it daily. Secondly, do pick a time and a

place that is as distraction-free as it can

possibly be and this is going to be different for everybody.

For me, it is early in the morning.

I like to get up early set, my alarm, 30 minutes, early, get up

and read my Bible. Then now, I don't roll out of

bed with pajamas on, and go sit down and try to read it.

I don't do that. I get up, take a shower, get

dressed, get some coffee in me. I sit down and I study before I

ever do anything else for some of you this is impossible.

And I understand that. Some of you it's going to be

late at night for some of you it might have to be on a lunch

break, some of you, it might be in the car on your way to Take

the kids to school, you're listening to an audio Bible.

Maybe the point is find a time and a place that you can get the

word in your ears and be as distraction-free as possible.

Now again, I know seasons of Life are going to vary for

people. But so some good ways number

three is some good ways to read scripture, you do want to be

reading scripture. Again, not just books and

supplemental stuff. Some good sources are a Bible

reading plan. We just put a new one on the

way. Website, if you need a good

Bible reading plan, check out our website.

We have one there. You can also pick up the

one-year Bibles that work your way through the entire Bible in

a year. You can pick up a chronological

Bible and then also in biblical manhood and Womanhood, we've

utilized what are called scripture Germans before.

These are just little booklets that have scripture on one side

and its blank on the other. This is a great tool to write

down notes as you work your way through, to be able to ask

questions and go back and look at that later.

And I come in really handy for using this.

Next Point. Number four is using a method to

study your Bible. So again, we don't want to just

open and point and just read and that just be it.

We need some basic tools on. How do I read this?

What am I supposed to be doing as I read this?

Well, there are several different kinds.

Most of them are all utilizing, what's called Observation,

interpretation and application. You're going to observe what the

text says. Look at the grammar.

What are words? You don't understand what a

Heated words, things like that, you're going to interpret it,

what's being said here and then you're going to apply it.

So some different ones. There's one called Ransom

stands. For read asked, note, summarize

obey, and meditate. These are pretty

self-explanatory but it's just different things to be thinking

through as you're studying that scripture and you can write that

out on the blank piece of paper as you do it.

A second one, is the ABCD method we've used this Biblical,

manhood and Womanhood, it stands for analysis, basic commitment,

and difficulties, you're going to analyze the text, get the

basic Point, commit to how you can do it and write down

difficulties. You might have or things, you

don't understand, really basic stuff but good things to do as

we think through a passage of scripture.

Now I know I can hear, I can just hear the thoughts.

I know a lot of people say, I just do not have the time to

study my Bible. It's impossible.

This season of life is just too crazy, there's no way that's

going to happen. Well, if we're being real with

ourselves our phones, have a thing called screen time, you

can go in there and click that and see exactly how much free

time you have. In a day, you can get in there

and see how much time you spend on various things, okay?

Whether it be social media, or checking, emails, or whatever.

And look, I'm not even going to say, I'm not guilt tripping, you

here like I get it. Some of that is just

entertainment and it's fun, but Go in there and figure out your

top two or three that you spend the most time on and just take

five minutes away from each. Even if you don't completely

give up Facebook, just take an extra 10 minutes away from it

and the cool thing is you can set limits.

Now you can go in and set limits on those apps to where you will

not be able to access it more than 20 minutes a day, 30

minutes, a day, or whatever. I was at a restaurant this past

week and I was overheard a conversation at the table beside

me it was a Roop. And I will say it was a group of

teenagers, so I get it, you know, it's a little different

but they were talking about their screen time.

And I heard them one girl said, I'm I'm right now at nine hours

a day on my phone and the other one said, six hours a day.

Now I get it. I know, you know, it's they're

not adults yet and I get that but even us adults spend too

much time on our phones. All right, and so the point I'm

trying to make, I don't want to be pharisaic all about Facebook

or phones or any of that. I'm just saying, we make time

for the things that matter. Okay, we make time for it and so

Make some sacrifices, maybe it is going to be a little

difficult at first but make the time and carve out time for it.

If you read your Bible, 12 minutes a day. 12 minutes a day,

you can read the whole Bible in a year.

That's a bathroom break for most of us.

Okay. If you read your Bible, 25

minutes a day you can read the whole thing in six months that

doesn't take that long. I think we can carve out that

much time in a day for the Lord. Amen, let's study the word.

Let's get in it. There's no excuse again, not

trying to be pharisaic well, but as Kyle talked about last year,

our last year last week, sorry it was last year actually.

Didn't mean to do that, but there we go.

Our Union with God and was Christ is not dependent on our

communion with him. We are Justified once and for

all upon placing our faith in Christ.

But guess what? Our sanctification does depend

on these things. We need to be growing in our

faith. This is a progressive thing that

happens throughout our lives. We need to commit to be in the

word of God to study it and to Make it a love of ours.

And once you do like Steve talked about, once you begin to

carve out this time study, God's word regularly, it becomes a

part of your day that you just don't feel whole if you don't do

it. So, spend time in God's word,

the second way that we grow in our faith is through prayer.

Through prayer. So if the Bible is God's way of

speaking to us prayer is our way of speaking to God.

Now, it wasn't always this way in the Old Testament, we read

about the temple, and the way it was constructed, they have the

Ark of the Covenant, which God's presence was there all the time.

So, when they built the temple, they built these different

levels and and rooms in it. And there was this place in

there called the holy of holies. Where the ark dwell?

That's where the presence of God stage.

And it was divided by these big, huge, thick curtains.

Now only the high priest could go into the holy of holies.

They would go in once a year and make atonement for the people's

sins. They would offer sacrifices, but

the common people had to stay out in the outer Courtyard and

things like that when Christ was crucified that Veil that curtain

was torn. And for the longest time, I

didn't understand the significance of that.

But what that means is that There is no longer any divider

or barrier between us and the presence of God as New Testament

Born Again. Believers, we have God's

presence living here. Now, we have the helper, the

Holy Spirit living inside us. And we have open communion with

God through his word and through prayer.

Jesus is now the once and for all ultimate high priest who

sits at the right hand of the father making intercession for

us, we can now take our petitions directly to God, we

don't have to go through High priest.

Who's going to go behind a curtain?

Into the holy of holies and offer a sacrifice.

That's been taken care of Jesus. Handled that he is now the

ultimate high priest. So this has huge implications

for us as far as prayer and talking to God, this is the way

that we now can. Daily can every hour every

minute, be confessing and repenting and communicating with

the Lord with God himself with Jesus as our high priest.

So this being the case, it prayer is a great treasure for

us as Believers. It is a phenomenal tool that has

not always been available in the way it is now So our

relationship with God is just that it is a relationship, okay?

He talks to us, we talk to him, we grow in that relationship.

If the only time I ever talked to, my wife, Sherry was on

Sunday mornings. It's okay.

I'm going to get dressed up in my best Duds.

I'm going to drive to this building across town and then

I'll listen to what you have to say for a few minutes.

And I'll talk maybe for a minute or two, maybe 30 seconds to you

and that's it. One day a week for like one hour

on Sunday mornings that is not going to be much of a

relationship, right? It's not going to last long at

all, likewise our relationship with God, needs to be ongoing

prayer. Needs to be an attitude and a

lifestyle. It's not just a checklist thing

that we pray, before we go to bed.

And before we eat a meal, like this is our way of talking to

the creator of the universe. We need to be listening to him

soaking this in as much as we can.

Trying to understand the riches of it in the depths of it.

And we need to be talking to God.

We need to be bearing, our hearts to him, crying out to

him. This isn't just a Sunday morning

thing, and it's not just a public formal thing that has to

sound a certain way. Scripture is full of commands to

continued steadfastly in prayer to pray, without ceasing to

Rejoice. Always pray constantly.

Give thanks in everything for this is God's will for you in

Christ Jesus. This is God's will for us that

we be constantly praying to God. So again, I can I can hear the

thoughts, like I'm not good at praying, I've heard that before.

I'm not too good at prayer. Will you might not be good at

public prayer, but the only way to be bad at prayer is to

neglect it. You're literally just talking,

you're just talking to God and public prayers different, I get

it, some people have stage fright, and that's a thing and,

you know, all that. But, but just praying to God is

not something you can be bad at. Romans 8:26 says because we

Romans 8:26

don't know what to pray for as we should the spirit himself

intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

So even when you don't know what to say, or maybe you can't think

of the words to express what you're feeling and here you

don't have to, you can just you can you just talk to God?

He knows your thoughts, he knows your heart.

The point is to be in communion with him and fell.

Ship with him. As Kyle talked about last year.

We will never feel comfortable praying if we don't start

somewhere and practice and make this a part of our daily lives.

So we have to start. So, some basic application for

prayer, what are some things we can do ways we can grow in this?

Okay, a great tool for prayer is to pray.

The acronym acts a CTS. Okay.

Adoration Which is just us. Adoring God, we're praising God,

Heavenly Father Hallowed be thy name.

We're praising. The Lord confession is the see

in that we're going to confess our sins to the Lord.

We're going to Bare our souls to him.

The tea is Thanksgiving. That's pretty obvious.

And then the S is supplication, supplication is just us

petitioning, the Lord or asking the Lord for something.

Now, I want to make, I want to make a side note on this.

We've talked about this multiple times, we know that the gospel

Is not a genie, okay? This is not the part of the

prayer where you start asking for a new Ferrari and all of

those things. This is the part of your prayer

life where you can go to the Lord and cry out for the souls

of your co-workers and your family members, you can ask God

to grow me in my faith, helped me to understand your word.

Better can pray scripture to God.

This is a place where we come and we humbly ask the Lord to

provide daily. What we need James 4:3 says you

James 4:3

ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend

it on your passions. So again this is not the place

to share our Christmas list. This is the place to go and

petition. The Lord for The Souls of our

brothers and sisters around us and to ask him to grow us in our

faith. Now, some good helps in this

ways and tools, we can utilize to help us Our prayer life.

There are some really great apps out there, one that I know I've

used a know. Kyle uses is called prayer,

mate. It's a great app that you can go

in and have categories for different things.

You can even bring in different little Bible readings and stuff

into that. It's just a great way to

compartmentalize your prayer. Life if you want to do that,

another great resource, an old resource is a book called The

Valley of Vision. This is a book of different

prayers written by the Puritans and it It is beautiful the way

they word, some of this, and it's broken into different

categories, for different things in life.

Nothing wrong with incorporating some of that into your prayer

life. And then, the best thing for me

is just to set reminders on my phone three times a day 9:00

12:00 and 3:00, I'm going to get a reminder to pray and that

doesn't have to to look a specific way that can be driving

down the road. I just pray, it can be super

short. Sometimes I might get down on my

knees and my office and pray. And that can look like a lot of

different things, but the point is to pray be in prayer, a

people marked by it. So, all the things we've talked

about today, Bible study prayer, it's all meant to be ways that

we are fellowshipping with God. That's the whole point is time

with the Lord, to grow in our faith, in the Lord, to grow in

our love and our affection. For the Lord, to be a people

marked by that. The point is not just to do

these things. These things are just a means to

an end, they're not the end. So, yes, they're good.

And we need to utilize them. We can't be Sanctified apart

from these things, but let's not become too legalistic and

pharisaic. All about it.

I'll say this to any of you, you ever feel distant from God at

times, my God just feels far off, maybe you pray, and you

feel like it just hits the ceiling like you just you're not

feeling it. I know I have felt that way

before and usually when I feel this way when I feel distant

from God or feel like God is silent for some reason it's

because I'm not listening to God.

I'm not in the word, not reading the way I should.

And I'm not talking to God, I'm not praying, nine times out of

ten. That's the case.

I'm not communing with God, the way I need to be.

And that's why these things are so important for us, this is how

we grow in our faith, in the Lord.

So, I want to encourage you. In that I want to encourage you

that these are just tools for us to grow in our love for the

Lord, to grow closer to God, there is no fellow Ship with

God, apart from being in his word and praying.

Now we are going to we're going to stop here next week.

We're going to pick up and talk about some more of these

spiritual disciplines and how we can be growing in our love for

others. So, we're going to stop there

for now but I do have a couple of things.

I want to say as we get ready to close out here.

As we begin a new year and we do this thing where we kind of take

inventory of our lives and we look at the next year and how

what we want to become, I want you to please consider the

spiritual as those passages. I read in the beginning talk

about don't just focus on Earthly things, consider the

spiritual, okay? Alan, if you guys want to come

back up, you can and to go ahead and close out.

But for anyone in here, as we're thinking through this and

talking through this, if you were in this place, And you are

not a Believer. If you have never placed your

faith in Jesus Christ, you've never made him the Lord of your

life. You've never submitted your life

to Christ if that's you in here today.

I know that what we've talked about is probably just

pointless, it makes no sense, it's not anything you care about

reading your Bible and praying because, you know, so if that's

you, if you've never committed your life to the Lord, if you've

never played Sure. Your trust and your hope and

your faith in Christ. I want to point out a couple of

passages to you this morning. Romans 3:23 says we have all

Romans 3:23

sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23 says that the wages for that the wages for our sin

Romans 6:23

is death. But the free gift of God is

eternal life in Christ in John 3:16 Says that God.

John 3:16

So loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever

believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.

And so we're all Sinners, but we can be freed of that sin.

We can be saved through placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

So, if you've never done that and you're in this place this

morning, as we go into 2022, I want to encourage you that of

all the things you could resolve to do this year of all, the

goals you could set. Placing your faith in Christ is

the best thing you could ever do.

It is the one thing you will do in this life that has Eternal

implications. So I want to encourage you in

that, you have nothing to lose. If you feel Christ tugging at

your heart, if you know that you're a sinner and you're

broken over that sin you have you don't know what to do about

it? Turn to Christ place.

Your faith in Christ. It's only by doing that.

Can you be forgiven? Philippians 3:8.

Philippians 3:8

Says, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ. My lord for his sake, I have

suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in

order that I may gain Christ. And that is my hope and prayer.

For all of us is that we would count the things of this world

as rubbish compared to knowing Christ that I don't even care

about the Earthly things in the upcoming year.

I want to resolve to grow spiritually to know, God more to

grow closer to the Lord. So please commit to do that for

believers in this place. My brothers and sisters in

Christ. As Kyle mentioned last week,

Grace is the Ation and the fuel and our relationship with the

lord. It's not only what founds it,

but it's what sustains us and keeps us going throughout our

relationship with the Lord. We will not be perfect at these

things, we will fail. We're going to mess up.

We're going to forget to read. We're going to Wax and Wane in

our excitement about these things.

But our union doesn't depend on our communion, we've been saved,

we've been Justified and it's because of that that we want to

do these things is the Way to learn and grow in our faith.

Not because we think that following a list of things is

going to save us. Our sanctification depends on

it. We can't grow without these

things. Mureeds, you one more thing.

And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna let us worship for a minute.

Those resolutions from Jonathan Edwards that I read you earlier.

There's a man named dr. Tim pressin that made a

devotional out of it. And here's what he says about

those that first and second resolution that I read you he

asks these questions Ends are you growing in your knowledge of

God's word and thus walking more completely in his grace?

Is it your earnest desire to know Christ?

More fully? Do you live as though you've

been raised with Christ to a new life?

Do you consistently and aggressively seek growth in your

walk with the Lord? He asks those questions as he

jumps into those resolutions and I think we all need to ask

ourselves those questions today. Do I earnestly seek to grow in

my faith? If we are going to do this, we

have to be a people known for our love for scripture.

Our Love for prayer. We need to be a Praying people.

We need to be a Bible loving people.

As we do this, we do so out of a desire to fellowship with God.

To seek more of his presence. There is a Latin term for this.

It's called Quorum Deo. Is a Latin phrase that can be

translated in the presence of God it summarizes, the idea of

Christians living in the presence of under the authority

of and to the honor and glory of God.

So my petition, to you all this morning is, Let's Be A people.

Let's be a church that lives. Our lives Quorum Deo seeking

God's presence seeking to glorify God in everything that

we do. Let's be a people known for

that. Let's seek that in our lives.

This year, let's be marked by a love for the word and a love for

prayer. You please stand, as we prepare

to sing.