Training Grace (January 6th, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

Well you can go ahead and uh and take your seat.

And uh as I have uh I've already said this is the the first Sunday of uh of our new year, uh which means that uh pastors everywhere are talking about New Year's resolutions, right?

Kind of classic move, right?

And probably uh to some degree making everybody in the congregation feel a little bit uncomfortable about how they're doing with that uh so far.

Like, oh man, I wonder what he's gonna say, right?

Like I knew I should have had some spiritual goals too, not just you know, weight loss goals or whatever it might be.

Okay, but no, nothing, nothing like that.

I'm not trying to make you feel awful or guilty or shady or anything like that.

Not at all my intention, but personally, and I don't know if you're like me, but personally, I I love this time of year.

I I I I love it.

I do appreciate it, right?

Because we we get to do a little bit of a reset.

Do you feel like that?

Right?

It's kind of like the, I mean, we know this, right?

It doesn't, you don't just have to set goals and stuff like that in January only.

Right?

Like January 5 happens and your goals are all you know blown to smithereens.

We're like, oh well, I gotta wait till 2020.

No, like we can do it any time.

We know that, right?

But of course, it's this kind of the main time of year where people are really, really thinking about this, right?

Where we can, you know, turn over a new leaf.

It's it's time for a fresh start, however you want to put that.

But it's establishing some goals and and trying to think through and come up with a you know a game plan to establish those goals and then and then getting after it.

Right.

I love that.

I love that.

Well, in my own time uh in God's Word, over the last, I don't know, a couple of weeks or so, I've just been working my way through the book of Titus, and I've been uh really encouraged by, well, honestly, all of it.

It's been so good for me, but uh especially I think maybe the verses that we're gonna be looking at here today.

Okay, because they give us uh another all-important reminder that our our development, our growth as Christians, uh it comes not by just grits and determination on our part.

It's not just about setting goals and and resolutions and then and then executing by sheer force of willpower.

We see in these verses here that our progression from brand new baby believers, new Christians, which we all are, right, when we first get saved, to you know, to spiritually mature, seasoned disciples, okay, all of it happens by way of grace.

A grace.

Meaning that God Himself, by His Spirit, through His power and the awesome truth and reality of the gospel, He transforms us.

Right?

He transforms us into the image of His Son.

Okay, so from start to finish, from justification, which is what happens at the moment we get saved, that's where we're declared righteous, to our glorification, which is when we receive our new bodies in heaven forever.

And everything that happens in between that, the sanctification, the hard, messy, gritty work, all of it, all of it is a gift of God's grace.

I mean, just take a look here at verse 11 here in chapter in chapter two.

Follow along with me here.

What does it say?

It says, for the for the grace of God appeared, bringing salvation.

He's gonna pause for a second right there.

You know, now that part, I think we we understand.

I think generally speaking, we we kind of get that.

Right?

We know that God saves people by grace.

It's a gift of God.

It's offered to us, and and we we simply receive it by by faith, by by believing in him and what he has done.

Right?

We can't earn our salvation by by being good little moralists, right?

We we we can't do that.

Neither is our salvation, neither does it operate kind of like a like a loan, praise the Lord, right?

Where God gives it to us and then and then we gotta pay him back throughout the rest of our lives by by trying to behave as as best we can, or by you know, trying to be the best version of myself, or or however you hear it.

No, that's not what it is.

Okay, for sinners like you and I to be declared righteous and be forgiven and escape the wrath of God and his judgment and bypass the terrors of hell and and all of it, it requires simply admitting our complete spiritual depravity, right?

And then accepting God's gift of salvation that Christ Himself earned for us on the cross.

Now, again, that part of it, I think, generally speaking, we understand.

We we get that that's from grace, we we get that part of the gospel.

The part that you and I, and so many Christians, constantly stumble and trip over is how do we proceed from there?

Right?

Like how how do we how do we actually grow now?

How do I, practically speaking, become holy?

How do I grow in godliness?

How do I change?

How do I become more like Jesus?

I get that that when I'm when I'm when I'm justified, God declares me righteous.

But all it takes is like two seconds of living in this world to know that we're still a broken disaster, practically speaking, right?

So how how do we do this?

How do we how do we move forward?

Okay, it's it's maturity and the wrestling match of that.

Well, I love this passage because right there in verse 12, take a look at it, it shows us, shows us the key.

Okay, and keep in mind it's it's still talking about the grace of God that appeared, right?

The grace of God that appeared.

Look what it says.

God's grace is now, what's the word?

Training us.

Now I'm looking, I see a couple of pens like starting to underline, circle.

That's perfect.

You need to be like underlining that, drawing arrows, smiley face, look, whatever.

You need to highlight that.

God's grace is training us.

See, you and I, we understand the concept of training.

Right?

Our New Year's resolutions are often all about training.

I needed to get into the gym and I need to train, I need to start running, I need to train myself to eat better or to be more of a reader and a studier.

I, you know, I need to train myself to like put my phone down and be more present with my family, right?

All of that, all of that is training, training ourselves towards some kind of transformation that we want to see.

Okay, well, verse 11 and 12 tell us about the Christian life.

Um it's that we're not self-made people.

It's not about us doing the work of transforming our hearts.

It's God's grace that trains you and I in holiness.

That's what it is.

He does the heavy lifting.

I mean, there should be like immense relief in that.

When you realize, oh yeah, it's it's it's God that that really that really does this.

There should be hope, there should be joy welling up as we consider all of that.

That our Christian life isn't just about you and I like buckling down and and and you know, kind of adopting that that gym rat or or fitness freak mentality of I gotta dig deeper and you know, I gotta do more, and I gotta grunt it out.

No.

Rest in the fact that that God Himself accomplishes this in you.

Now listen, we're not we're not advocating for the pendulum to swing so far the other way, where you know, where it's some kind of you know, laziness and and do nothing, you know, stick it in the autopilot version of Christianity, either.

We're not going for that.

It's not about zero effort and and God does everything, and I just you know kind of lay by the pool and do nothing.

That's not it either.

Our laziness kind of wants that.

But no, effort is absolutely required.

And how our effort somehow, you know, melds with with God's grace as he changes us is one of those, you know, kind of wonderful, not fully explainable realities for us that we just marvel at.

We don't know how our effort and and God's grace all comes together, but but it does.

And it's amazing that that God makes it happen.

Right?

He will do this in you and I, those whom he has justified, he will sanctify, he will grow you.

Uh I find that to be, again, just it's relief.

Because I mean, I don't know about you, but I have no interest in starting off another year with some kind of misguided spiritual New Year's resolution where I approach my growth as though it all comes down to me.

It all comes down to my my strength, my ability to make it all happen.

Right?

That mentality, and if you've ever done that approach, which so many of us have, it's it's just so deflating.

It's exhausting.

There's nothing enjoyable about it after a while, and it just feels so hopeless.

You know why?

Because it is.

We can't change ourselves.

And so thankfully, you and I can take refuge in the fact that God's grace not only saves me, but it also trains me.

And that's what we're talking about here today.

Here's the first thing it trains me to live more godly than I was before.

Okay, that's it.

Now take a look at verse uh 11 here.

We're gonna go through this again.

It says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, or making it available for all people.

And then it says, training us.

Okay, so we've read all of that.

Training us to do what, though?

Well, look what it says.

It says to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

Okay, so so pretty clear that that God's grace, based on that verse, God's grace trains Christ's followers, you and I, to do two uh very uh very crucial things.

Okay, real simple.

Uh stop being ungodly, start being godly.

Okay, that that's it.

That's right, that's right there.

Pretty straightforward.

Okay, so if you've surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus, okay, then you've probably noticed, you should have noticed, a transformation beginning to take place uh within you, inside of you, in your heart and and in your desires and and in your motives.

Where before, before you got saved, you you wanted things of the world, worldly desires.

Okay, you wanted things that God and and the Bible, as you begin to read it, the Bible clearly calls a sin.

Okay, but all of a sudden, when your eyes, your spiritual eyes were opened and you realized your need for a savior, and that your sin is against God, and that you needed forgiveness found only in Him, once that light bulb kind of turned on for you, you realize like everything started to change.

And now I've got these new desires.

And so some of the things that you used to do, some of those desires that were sinful and and and selfish and violated God's commands and just ended up hurting yourself and hurting other people, those old desires, some of them seem to have all but vanished.

Have you seen that in your life?

I remember my dad talking about this.

My dad got saved uh when he was uh in his mid-twenties.

Okay, I was like a year old, and uh he came to Christ and he was telling me that uh one of the first things that just the Lord just took from him was his like trucker mouth, right?

His language.

He used to curse like a sailor, and and he said whatever.

He never thought about it.

And then he got saved, and that was one of those things that the Lord just took it all away.

There's no more desire to do that.

It wasn't a grind, it wasn't a struggle for him, it all just kind of went away.

And maybe you've seen that, that that instant change that's happened for you, and you've maybe you've experienced it in some of your uh sinful areas.

Maybe it's been in the areas of addictions, things that you were just you were a slave to, and I can't pull myself out of this, and and then I get saved, and all of a sudden it's like it's gone in a flash.

It was some other kind of sinful bad habit.

Now that being said, other areas of sin don't disappear quite as easily.

Have you seen that?

Hey, but now maybe you've noticed that as God's grace is at work in inside of you, yeah, we we we kind of feel more and more uh uncomfortable and and conflicted when we do sin.

Right?

We we feel we don't we don't like it.

It doesn't satisfy maybe the way that it once did.

We feel that sting of of conviction and that that heaviness, the heavy hand of the Lord uh kind of on us.

I've had people wonder, and let's be honest, I've wondered this too.

You know, why why why does the Lord just take those areas away as as easily as he took one or two of the other areas away?

You ever wondered that?

Like, why is this just so brutal?

And I know it's wrong, and I and I don't want to do it, and and and God help me, but I have this fleshly desire in me, and and and I desperately want to have this cleaned up, but but for whatever reason, it's difficult and it's going on and on and on.

I thought I'd be, I thought I'd be done with it by now.

Why doesn't he change us like that as quickly?

Well, because God is often accomplishing far more in us that we can't see in the present moment.

You realize that?

What God is working to do, I think, in many ways, is humble us.

He's working to create humility in our hearts.

See, pride, it is the core of all sin.

Pride is just saying, I want what I want, not what you want, God.

That's pride.

And so when you start to realize every sin has that at its root.

And that pride, those roots, they go so deep.

And it takes us, because we're dumb, right, a long time to be able to realize it and to see it.

We're very slow to learn.

Okay, and so the Lord takes it just takes time for him to point that out to us and for us to realize it.

And so experiencing great difficulty in the battle for godliness, it it teaches us bit by bit to depend on him and depend on his grace.

If God took away all of our all of our sin immediately, we would just take the glory for it.

We'd be like, wow, look how awesome I am at changing my life.

You know, and we've we've still got that kind of running deep in us.

Have you seen it?

Where you look at other people and you're like, why haven't they figured that area out?

I have.

Right?

And that and that suggests that we still think we're, you know, we're the ones that have done it.

But but but it but it's Jesus and it's and it's his grace.

And and when our when our sin doesn't go away, it's because God is humbling us and he's teaching us to depend on him.

He's trying to show us just how it doesn't sound nice to hear this, but he's teaching us just how how truly rotten and and broken and spiritually unable we are deep down uh to change ourselves.

Which the more you start to realize that and you're aware of all of it, you realize, well, well, I need more of you, God.

It gives us that that urging, that longing for more of his grace, and it produces more of a hunger for him and and a love for him that slowly, over time, over a lifetime, forges a deeper humility in our hearts that we otherwise wouldn't have.

So listen, if you've grown weary in your pursuit of godliness, listen, we all do it times, right?

We all get kind of like beat down by it and all of it.

Listen, take this opportunity today to not not to psych yourself up to I'm gonna be better this 2019.

I know I tried last January, but this January is gonna be different.

Okay, don't psych yourself up for you to do better.

Instead, cry out for more grace.

God, I need more of you.

I need more of your presence, more of your spirit.

God, help me.

Lord, train me to do exactly what this verse says, to to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.

Right?

In deeper ways, Lord, than I've than I've ever experienced before.

Help me to grow to love you more this year than I did last year.

Help me to truly tire of going back to that same old pile of garbage that is my sin over and over again because I get I get a little bit of temporary pleasure from it, but it always ends up being a bitter pill that I swallow.

Lord, help me to be done with that.

More grace so I stay away from that.

I realize it's not me that does it.

I realize that I don't have enough strength in me to do this.

I need more of yours in me.

More of yours working through me.

God, would you please, please, please do it.

Where it's real.

It's not an act.

Where my growth in you and my my maturity, it's not just like a smoke in mirrors, vegas-like performance.

Right?

I'm just trying to look a certain way to certain people.

Authentic godliness.

Where God's spirit and God's grace is doing the real work in me and he's producing lasting fruit.

God's grace not only saves me, but it also trains me, second thing here, to live with the end in mind.

Okay, we see this starting in verse 13 here, which continues the thought, of course, of what we've been going through.

Okay, we're, it says, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, over and over again, the New Testament authors remind us to get our attention locked on to how this whole life ends, how the story ends.

That Jesus is returning, right?

He's coming back.

It says the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

See now, naturally, this is not at all our focus.

Okay, instinctively, our our attention fixates on the temporal, on the on the here and now, things like our like our troubles, right?

On our failures, even, on our needs, on how hard and disappointing and difficult and painful life can be.

This, those are the things that tend to take uh take our focus, and we zero in on them.

And so we need God's grace in this.

To turn our focus, uh, the focus of our hearts, the focus of our uh of our thoughts and our emotions and and our will, our volition towards the victorious certainty of how it all ends.

No matter what's happening now, no matter how difficult, no matter how things are.

Why?

Well, because Jesus is returning.

He's coming back in glory, he's gonna right every single wrong.

Now, please understand, that's not to be some kind of empty platitude.

Like, oh yeah, it's gonna end well.

Whoopee.

What about now?

Right?

That that that's not to be it.

In fact, it's supposed to be the opposite.

It's supposed to give us, it's supposed to give us joy now.

It's supposed to have bearing, real bearing on our outlook on life, on our on our circumstances today.

Right?

It's it's the truth that that revs up our joy and our attitude in the present life.

Right?

And going forward in the future.

Now, two things I think that we can really notice from this text here.

First of all, you see that word waiting?

It says waiting for our blessed hope.

In a sense here, the original language is that God's grace trains us to become more and more eager, right?

Eager for Christ's return.

Okay, less less eager for today, less eager for the temporal things of this world and investing in what happens now, but but eagerly looking forward to, and the word is waiting for Jesus to come back.

I'm so longing for the culmination of his redemptive plan.

Do you sense that growing inside of you as you grow in Christ-likeness?

Right?

I I can't wait for him to make all things new.

I can't wait to be done with this body of death.

I can't wait to be done with sin and the pain and the trials and the difficulties.

I can't wait for relationships to be restored.

I can't wait for heaven.

I can't wait for Satan to finally, finally have that death blow.

I can't wait for that.

That should be growing in us as disciples.

And it all happens by grace.

God graciously develops that in you and I.

That's not something, that eternal perspective where we're looking forward to all that.

That's not something that you and I can turn our minds towards, not really.

It's not something we can get our hearts aiming in that direction.

We need grace for that.

The second word there that kind of jumps out at me is the word hope.

It says we're waiting for our blessed hope, which is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Okay, so understand, this is not that we're waiting for hope as though we don't currently have access to it.

I'm waiting for hope, and I wish God would just stop being so stingy and just, you know, you know, throw me a bone of hope.

Right?

I, you know, why we're waiting for that.

No, we're waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, which is our hope now.

Right?

That is our hope now in the present.

And again, something that God trains us by grace to have, to experience, to enjoy, to have capture our focus and to be enamored by.

Right?

Christ's return, the victory, it's it's guaranteed, it's sealed, it's happening.

Take it to the bank.

I think there's joy in that now.

It gives perspective.

Perspective in the the ups and downs and the all-overness of of this life.

So, hey, if if you were to do sort of just a quick three-second analysis of your life right now, okay, and you just think through, you know, what are my what are my life goals in general?

You know, what what is my what is the aim of my life?

Could be you know spending, relationships, whatever it might be.

Okay, would you say that that that your life is a picture of somebody living with the end in mind?

Does that does that is that you?

Are you eagerly waiting for Jesus?

I want him to come back today, now.

Are you filled with the hope of that final victory as you endure awful trials?

If not, it's great to admit that.

You know what?

No, I'm not there.

I'm I'm too tied up in the cares of this world.

I want what the world offers.

I don't have that joy, I don't have that hope.

I'm not really even thinking about how this all ends.

I'm just thinking about now and today.

It's great.

We love to admit and just be brutally honest about all of that.

And if that's you, are you willing to ask the Lord to do that work of grace in you?

Are you willing to ask him to transform you in that way?

Because I mean we've been we've been kind of dancing around it already this morning, but but a huge part of our responsibility in all of this and in God's grace working on us uh in us is prayer.

Right?

Crying out to the Lord in prayer, pleading with him.

God, would you would you shower us in this training grace so that I am made new?

Would you help me to adopt this eternal perspective on life that your script that the scriptures point me to?

Because when we do that, as we do that, and as his training grace works, our entire outlook on life, on the here and now, begins to change.

Now, I mean, only if we had some, you know, if only, right, some kind of practical outlet to do outlet to do this, right?

I'm just kind of spitballing here, but let's say we had, if only uh a comfortable office space, you know, with you know, couches or something set up and a significant amount of time soon to devote to prayer.

24 hours even.

I mean this Friday, Saturday would be great, right?

No, this is exactly why we would have something like this.

This is why we would do our 24 hours of prayer.

It's to draw near to God and his grace.

You know, as you and I, as we get together to pray for things like God's presence in us, in our church, God's glory to be revealed in in our marriage, in in our small group, in in the town of Newmark, in surrounding area, in our in our loved ones and our our our neighborhoods.

You know, as we as we ask for these things, God begins and continues to create this dominant and singular passion for his glory, his reign, his will, and and ultimately his appearing.

Right?

I want you to be you come back, Lord.

God's grace moves through through the prayers of his people.

He trains our attention and and our affections on to the security and joy and and victory and the fact that he's coming back.

This is some of what we want to see God do this Friday and this Saturday of our 24 hours of prayer.

But really, if you think about it, this is what God does anytime we pray.

Every time you pray with your kids before they go to bed.

Anytime you pray in the car on the on the way to work, God's grace is training your heart in these things.

And so let me encourage you to make the most of prayer this year again.

And a couple of just really practical ways that we do that in our church is a prayer up front right after the service.

Right?

We should have a lineup all the way out the door of people just like, I need prayer.

Right?

I you know, I want I want to pray with somebody.

I want to, I want, I wanna, you know, plead with the Lord for his grace to work in my life.

I love looking out, you know, before the service, after the service, and some of you are just got kind of gathered, huddled in your seats in these little areas and you're and you're praying together.

Or you're out there in the lobby and you're you're praying together as conversations are coming up and you're sharing what's going on in your life, and the person next to you just says, Hey, look, can I just pray for you right there in that moment?

I love that stuff.

It doesn't have to be formal, it's prayer.

I would also love to encourage you, maybe, if this is something the Lord is stirring up in you, to join our prayer team.

We have a group of people that that pray every single Sunday morning here at the school.

They pray for you, they pray for our services.

That's the primary thing.

God, work.

Lord, protect us from the enemy.

God, by your spirit, in your grace, transform your people, save, sanctify.

Join that team.

We would love to see that grow.

Again, it's about tapping into prayer every chance that we get.

Final thing here.

God's grace not only saves me, but it also trains me to live fueled by the gospel.

Fueled by the gospel.

Verse 14.

Okay, speaking of Jesus, of course, it says, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous, excited, passionate for good works.

Okay, I know I just read that kind of quickly there, and maybe you're just sort of absorbing that for the first time.

But if you look at it even, you know, just remotely carefully, you notice, well, wow, that's just the gospel.

Right?

That's just the gospel message.

Okay, Paul, Paul tells Titus, look at it again.

Paul tells Titus that Christ gave himself for us, right, to redeem us from all lawlessness, sin, to to purify us for himself, a people for his own possession who are who are zealous for good works.

Now, now wait a sec.

Doesn't Titus already know this?

Right, after all, isn't he uh he's a leader in the church?

He he's probably he probably knows this the best out of anybody in the church.

So so why would Paul go back to this?

Well, because Paul understands what so many of us kind of struggle with and seem to not understand.

That our biggest problems in life come as a result of forgetting and and and neglecting and having a shallow understanding of the powerful re powerful reality of the gospel.

You want to see God's grace at work in your life now and and and then going forward?

Well then you then you you must learn to not just look ahead and and forward to how the story ends, but but to also look back to your salvation and and what what Christ has done uh through the cross.

I love that.

Recount with joy as as Paul seems to hear how how God, what does it say, gave himself for you.

That he redeemed you from all lawlessness, he purifies, he's actually doing that.

He's purifying you for his own possession, it says.

Isn't it amazing to know that that we belong to him?

Listen, you you learn to revel in Jesus' work through the gospel.

You better believe that by God's training grace, you're you're gonna grow to be a disciple zealous for good works.

Right?

Like I just want to serve him, I just want to I want to live for him, I will do whatever he calls me to.

I won't see this merely as a burden, I'll see this as a joy.

Right?

Gospel truth is the fuel in our tank.

Right?

If you and I we we forget to fuel up our car, pretty soon it doesn't exactly operate as intended.

We know that.

Well, you neglect fueling your heart and your mind and your days with the sweet truths of the gospel, don't be surprised when you don't operate as intended.

So, how do we do this?

How do we become more fueled by the gospel, where that is, you know, our hearts have latched onto it and it's transforming our motives and our desires and our joy.

How can we see God's grace train us more in this?

Well, the answer is it's it's so simple.

Get into the Bible.

Right?

We we've we've got it, we've got to read it.

We've got it, we've got to know it, we've got to study it, we've got to, we've got to get into God's word.

I mean, you just look at at this one verse we just looked at and how and how rich it is.

You know, look what the gospel reveals to us in in verse 14 alone.

Right?

You could spend a lot of time, you know, mulling that over and and and meditating on that and and and thinking through that and thanking God for those things.

This kind of thing is on every single page of the scriptures.

I mean, I just said that that Paul was writing this to Titus as a guy who who already knew it, but but it's kind of amazing that that just a few verses later he does it all over again.

Okay, take a look at verse 3 here, starting in verse 4.

I'm simply gonna read it.

It says, but but when the goodness and and loving kindness of of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

That's just the gospel.

Right?

He's just casting in a slightly different way.

He says, verse 6, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So that being justified by his, what's the word?

Anyone reading with me?

Grace, there it is.

That by being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Again, it's all re it's all the same stuff over and over again.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to, I love that.

Insist on these things.

Don't move on from the gospel.

Don't think it's for little kids and that's it.

Insist on this very thing.

I'm gonna continue to bring you back to this because this is the source, this is the well, this is what produces the joy, this is how God's grace works in you.

Insist on this in your life and in the life of the people in your church.

So that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

Amazing, it's just the gospel on every single page.

And much like how neglecting prayer and not exercising that muscle, we've already talked a bit about that.

When we neglect God's word, we suffer for it.

We really do.

Now, listen, this isn't news to probably anybody in the room.

Right?

You've heard me talk about this, but you've heard lots of other people talk about this.

We know that we need to be in the Bible.

Right?

We feel pretty guilty about it when we're not.

We feel pretty bad about it.

We know we should be in it, but it's kind of amazing how so many of us do struggle with it, right?

We have a hard time and we get out of it, and at the back of our minds, we know that if I was just in it more, I'd probably, you know, experience more of God's grace and I would see more victory over sin, and I would see all that.

I know that's the answer, but I'm gonna continue to not go over there.

Right?

We know, isn't it maddening when you think about it?

Like I get driven to the brink of insanity sometimes when I start to wrestle with that and I get away from God's word.

I'm like, I know that I should.

Am I the only one going crazy here?

Thank you, we're all mad.

And it's not news to us.

Most people I've talked uh I've talked to, and again, it's me too.

The struggle, the temptation, the boredom that we sometimes have in our faith, or just the the weariness is just simply because, you know, we're not in it.

So many times I'll hear somebody talk and just say, yeah, I'm really struggling with my faith because of this, and I don't really care, and I'm super, I'm dry.

You know, and when the question is, well, you know, what have you been reading in God's word lately?

It's it's always like a sheepish.

Right?

It is.

So listen, we know, I mean it's I'm preaching to the choir here, right?

It's we know that consistent Bible study, Bible reading, intake, it we know that it's not easy.

Okay, for lots of different reasons.

We could list them all, we don't need to.

But we have to recognize that if we don't take concentrated effort to tackle this mountain and develop good habits and rhythms here, we're far less likely to have that rocket fuel passion from the gospel that motivates all of Christ-like living.

So, what's your plan?

What are you gonna do to grow in this this year?

Starting immediately if you haven't already.

Right?

To make Bible intake core to your way of life.

Getting your face into the pages of this book regularly, consistently, daily.

That's how we absorb the gospel.

Well, the gospel, you know, it doesn't seem to fire me up all that much.

Well, get into the Bible, it'll start to as God's grace works, as it trains you, as you be f you'll be fueled by it.

In your heart, in your emotions, and in your mind, your motives, and your good works.

If you're struggling to make all of this routine, or you know, you need to shake things up, and I need to try something different, or I, you know, what I've been doing, it's it's just become a little bit too shallow, and I need to go deeper in all of this.

I I don't know, I just want to take the next couple of minutes here as we kind of finish off to just point to some practical resources that might help you out this year.

These are real simple, these aren't exhaustive, and by the way, you're gonna have your own resources and own ways that it works for you that help you get into God's word, and and we should be talking about that with each other and sharing those resources and talking about what's what's worked and what and what you do.

I love I love having those conversations with people.

First one here, and we got some pictures to go along with this, and if you don't want to get carpal tunnel syndrome writing these things down, you can just whip out your phone and take pictures of the screen and order these books or whatever later.

But the first one here is uh New Morning Mercies.

Okay, some of you are looking for like I need a devotional.

I I don't know where to begin in the Bible, I I'm not really sure where to start.

I need I need like a primer to kind of help me with this and and point me in the right direction and and and and teach me.

Okay, there's all kinds of them out here.

Here is just one.

Ange actually got this for me a year ago, and because I didn't get into it right away, she commandeered it, and it's now hers.

Okay?

And so she tells me it's it's amazing.

And Paul Tripp's one of my favorites, and he's all about, he's just amazing at communicating the gospel in a way that transforms our lives.

And so each page is just a new day, and just a couple of like very brief thoughts that he's got, and then it points us to a scripture passage to read.

It's it's amazing.

If you would find that helpful, order it.

Get it.

It'll help you.

Doesn't mean it needs to take two hours out of every single day to get going.

No.

Take 15 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it takes.

That's one really great option.

Another one, I've said these kind of this kind of thing before, is just commentaries.

Okay, start to collect uh a bookshelf or a hard drive full of commentaries.

Okay, I throw this one up on the screen because this is uh one that I just bought.

We're gonna be starting out uh the book of Jonah next Sunday, four weeks in the book of Jonah, and uh this is the one that I got that I'm gonna be working alongside with as I'm studying and as I'm working and as I'm preparing the sermon.

And I know that there are some in the in our church, and I love it.

Uh some of you like to know what what's the preaching calendar like for the year, and we talk about that from time to time.

What's the preaching calendar like?

Because you you like to purchase a commentary to study alongside throughout the week so that you can prepare yourself for Sundays and have a little bit of supplementary help.

Now, if you've got like a prime subscription, you could probably order this and have it by the end of the day or tomorrow and be ready to rock for next Sunday, which would be unreal.

Amazing.

Okay, but maybe it's a it's a commentary, it's a hard copy book, you like that, or maybe it's just something on your computer, E version.

Here's the next one.

Uh a Bible reading plan.

Some people you're like, I don't know where to begin, and I'm just craving structure and and I want something that's gonna hold me to like a daily regiment, and you need that.

Well, this is one version.

I just Googled it and found like one of the first images I found.

There's the picture.

And so that's just like one of many plans of how you can work through the entire Bible, read the entire Bible in in 52 weeks.

Right?

Pretty, pretty cool.

You can find those uh really uh really anywhere.

All right.

So that's one thing.

Some of you need that structure, you want it.

Some of you, you know, you're not really all about that structure, you want to be able to do what you want and go where you want.

That's totally fine too.

Here's the next one.

I've said this before ESV study bible app.

Okay, anybody got like the huge study bible, like the big ESV one?

Yeah, that thing, you could like, you could kill a man with that if you swung it.

Right?

Well, I actually love this because it's it's really thin, like really simple, right?

It's just all on your tablets, all on your device, it all syncs, and you have that massive Bible right there on your phone.

I use this all the time.

This is really the it's really simple.

It doesn't, it doesn't do references for every single verse in here, but but it does point you in the right direction, a lot of different things.

It gives you some of the history and some of the background and the dates behind things and maps and different things like that that can really help you and just be a an added uh resource to you.

It's kind of the probably the main thing that I just look to.

It's just really simple in my own study.

Um, you can get that, I think I don't know what the cost is.

It was like 20 bucks when I got it.

I think it's maybe 40 now, but I mean, pretty reasonable uh when you think about uh all of that.

It's the ESV Study Bible app.

You can look that up on your phones.

Do that now even.

How about this one?

Accountability.

We just need accountability in this.

Right?

Some of us, you you're gonna go through yet another year of like, no, I just need to, I just need to be better at this.

I don't need to like engage help from anybody else.

I'm still fine.

And you know that you're gonna fall apart, but you're not willing to admit it.

You need accountability.

This is what our small groups are so great for.

Our small group has been really kind of ramping this up in the last little bit.

You might be like, what's what's Telegram Messenger?

It's just a a supreme, well, it's a supreme version of WhatsApp.

You can tell that I've had issues with WhatsApp.

Okay?

And so our small group guys were on this as a as a group chat, and and we've done um, you know, we've checked in like kind of as a group daily.

Hey guys, what are you guys reading?

We interact with all of that, and we've done that uh as a group.

Um it's not just sarcasm and ripping each other, which we do a lot through that as well, um, but we actually try to edify each other once in a while.

And so we do that uh through Telegram and we hold each other accountable to that.

We've often now we're at the point where we pair off and we're just kind of one on one doing that through uh through that.

But it's it does you don't have to do it through a through an app or through your phone.

Accountability who's gonna be the person to hold you to this?

Who you can can work through some of the things that you've been studying and reading.

Okay?

These are just a few ways that you might be able to implement one of these five things into your life that can really kickstart your time in God's word this year.

But listen, to take it all a step further here, we as parents, we have to remember that we're not responsible just for ourselves.

Our kids too.

So how are we discipling our children in this?

How are we discipling our children in the gospel?

So the gospel of grace motivates them as well.

And they don't become just a bunch of performance Pharisees.

How are we training them to get into the gospel and to love God and to love his word?

Are you doing that?

Parents, if you think that coming to harvest kids once a week is enough, and it's the church's job and they're gonna do it, or it's the youth group's job and they're gonna do it, listen, you are already far behind.

Right?

Our kids happen to go to a Christian school.

They're learning and being taught a lot of great things.

Not enough.

And at the end of the day, it's my responsibility to do it.

Do you know that?

So, dad specifically, you gotta own this.

If you've not been doing it, repent and then get going.

Lead your wife in this too.

Figure out how what we can do as a family to train and disciple our kids.

Now, Angie and I are so far from perfect in this, right?

It's it's hard to even suggest that you maybe do what we do at times.

Okay?

But I'll attempt to do that anyways.

Here's kind of how we're doing this these days in terms of discipling our kids in the gospel and and what our plan has been lately and what we're trying to do this year with us.

We got some pictures up on the screen for you here.

Here's the first one uh that might help you.

This is especially if you have younger kids.

Okay, the Jesus Storybook Bible.

I know some of you have this uh at your home.

It's by Sally Lloyd Jones.

This is this is a masterpiece.

I gotta tell you, it is unbelievable.

I'm reading this and I'm like, I kind of just zone out.

I'm like, I'm not even teaching the because I'm like, I'm learning so much from this.

It's amazing.

She has an amazing, she's very like, she's like the She-Paul trip for kids.

Like she's a she's amazing, has an amazing way of describing the gospel and explaining it and linking the gospel from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

Here's how we see Jesus in it.

Here's here's the overall narrative of how the scriptures work and what Jesus was doing.

Incredible.

It's not just the Bible, it's it's her version, her way of teaching in a simple, easy kids' way to understand what the scriptures are.

Love it.

We've used that.

Here's another one we've used: the Radical Book for Kids.

The Radical Book for Kids.

I forget who recommended this to us, but we've gone through it.

I don't think we've gone through all of it, but um this is uh this isn't really a devotional book per se, but it's um it explores biblical concepts and and and begins to teach kids uh what the Bible's all about.

It asks all kinds of questions, it deals with issues of apologetics and you know, why can we believe what we can believe?

It talks through you know different heroes of the faith and some of the church fathers and and martyrs and and you know different archaeology and and all kinds of it's amazing, it's really, really, really well done.

And uh an amazing supplement to uh your time in God's Word with your kids.

Here's another one we've looked at.

Uh Exploring the Bible.

This is actually one that we just got uh our our oldest Wyatt.

He's turning 10.

We got this for him uh just this Christmas, and so we've hardly even we haven't even done anything with it yet, but it's it's uh it says they're a Bible reading plan for kids.

It's by Donald Whitney.

Some of you might be familiar with him.

He's written a very well-known book on spiritual disciplines.

He's also got a book uh called Family Worship, which I've never read, but I love him, and he's super solid, and he's really great.

I've heard it's just an outstanding book about this whole concept of family worship and how do we do this all together.

Uh, but in this book here, it's it's really it's a workbook, it's really simple.

Here's a little passage that you can read, kid, and then here's one question to go along with it.

Easy, right?

It directs them, it gets them into God's word, or your your eight-year-old or your ten-year-old or your 12-year-old or whatever doesn't have to you know figure this out on their on their own.

You got it all there for you.

Okay, now you have to understand this: none of these books are perfect.

Yeah, I've had a lot of parents ask me, especially in the youth pastor days and and and and even now, like, what's like the best book that you have?

I I've I've never been 100% satisfied with every single one.

Right?

Other than the Bible.

Right?

That one's great.

Okay, but listen, they're all they they all do a bit.

They're all supp they're all supplementary.

All right, and so f figure out what works for you.

Talk to other people.

What do they like about that?

What did they not love about that so much?

Okay.

I've also I've been asked the question all you know, my you know, Pastor, you've talked about little kids and discipling them, but my kids are big now.

You know, my kids are getting older.

What are some you know resources for teens and and and young adults?

To be honest with you, I haven't found a lot of really great ones.

I think there's a bit of a void in that.

Now, if you know of really great ones, please tell me.

Because I'd love to let the church know about all of that.

But again, you've got to it's it's talk to people, figure out what how do you disciple your kids?

Let's just let's discuss this.

Lately, what we've just been doing is reading the Bible together.

Right?

And it's like what a novel concept.

Right?

So our our our our kids, we've we've just I I got my Bible right here in my hands, and and they've each got one of theirs.

They've got k you know, children's Bibles kind of thing.

And we just sit on the couch, and I've started with narrative with them.

So, like a lot of the Old Testament stuff, we're right now we're in the book of Acts, because it's all a story, right?

It all flows together.

And kids love story.

And so we're reading through Acts right now because I'm like, hey guys, this is the story of how the church began.

Check out all the crazy wild things that happened.

And so we just read, we'll read little passages, sometimes longer passages, and I'll just ask them questions that kind of come up as we go.

Now, I happen to have a pretty decent understanding of the book of Acts.

And so I feel fairly comfortable, you know, explaining some of that as as we go.

If you don't feel as comfortable or you're new in this, you don't need to be overwhelmed by all of that.

Just read it with them.

If they've got a question and you don't know how to answer it, just say, hey, let's look this up right now.

Let's type it into the Google machine.

This'll work great.

And you can do that, and you can and you can just just start where you need to start.

We're just reading through the Bible, we're just trying to do that all along together, and it seems to be working out pretty well.

But listen, in all of this that we've talked about as individuals, as you know, we we disciple our kids and our marriages and all of that, again, it's figuring out what works for me.

Finding that line between, you know, not being too afraid to switch things up if I need to, if something's not really working or it's getting kind of stale, but also recognizing that that part of just getting into God's word and and and growing in it and being consistent and seeing your heart grow in joy, part of it is just good old-fashioned efforts.

Right?

And stop giving up all the time.

It's gonna be it's gonna be duty at first.

It's not just gonna be like the heavens open, Shekinah glory pouring down, and your life changing and doves flowing everywhere and light beams.

It's not gonna be all of that all the time.

Sometimes you're gonna read it and it's gonna be like.

Start somewhere.

You get out of God's word, you think you don't need it, you're gonna suffer.

Build that routine, build that consistency, and God's grace will meet you in that.

As he trains us up in his word, as he fuels us through the gospel.

Lord help us, right?

You feel that a little bit?

I think that's good.

We should feel that a little bit.

I want to pray for those very things right now.

I want to pray for you, pray for us as we look for more of Him, more of His grace this year in our lives, in our church.

That's what I want.