January 5, 2007
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Condensed from John MacArthur
Lesson 1Keys to Spiritual Growth: Introduction
Selected Scriptures
Summary of the six lessons:
1) We glorify God by confessing Jesus as Lord -Philippians 2:11.
2) We glorify God by aiming our lives at that purpose - I Corinthians 10:31
3) We glorify God by confessing our sin - Joshua 7:19 says,
4) We glorify God by trusting Him- Romans 4:20
5) We glorify God by bearing fruit - John 15:8
6) We glorify God by praise - "Whoso offers praise glorifies me."
7) We glorify God by being obedient out of love - John 21
8) We glorify God by prayer - John 14
9) We glorify God by proclaiming His Word - II Thessalonians 3:1
10) We glorify God by winning others to Him - II Corinthians 4:15
11) We glorify God by maintaining moral purity - I Corinthians 6:19
12) We glorify God by unity with other Christians - Romans 15:5
13) We glorify God by serving with spiritual gifts - I Corinthians 12
God commands us to grow. There's really nothing more tragic than a stunted believer, a Christian who has passed along time in his spiritual experience without coming into maturity.
First, spiritual growth has nothing to do with our position in Christ. Becoming a Christian is an instant miracle, not a process. There may be a process involved in being exposed to the Gospel, but the actual point of salvation is a miraculous moment when you pass from death into life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." When you become a believer you are placed into Christ, Christ comes to live in you, you receive all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, you have all things that pertain to life and godliness, and you are complete in Him. Positionally, everything is taken care of.
Secondly, spiritual growth is not a matter of God's favor love. God loves us no matter what we do. According to Romans chapter 5, God loved us when we were sinners, when we were enemies, and when we were alienated from Him before we ever came to Christ.
Thirdly, spiritual growth has nothing to do with time. There are people who have been saved a long period of time and grown very little. There are people who have been saved a brief period of time and grown very much. It is the commitment to the principles of growth that makes the difference.
Fourthly, spiritual growth is not a matter of knowledge only. Knowledge has a tendency to puff up, and pride impedes spiritual growth. Having a knowledge of facts cannot be equated with spiritual maturity. Only when those facts conform us to the image of Christ does our knowledge relate to our growth. Spiritual growth has nothing to do with activity. Some people think that if they've been very active in the church they must be spiritual. Nobody was busier in religion than the Pharisees and no one was further from the truth.
Fifth, spiritual growth has nothing to do with prosperity. Many people equate their economic situation with the favor of God. God may have blessed you but that is not necessarily any indication that you're spiritually mature.
It's an important concept that growing in grace is equaled with giving God glory. The key to spiritual growth is understanding what it means to glorify God. We exist to glorify God and as we do so we begin to mature.
Romans 1 shows how important this is. The ultimate condemnation of man in history is because he doesn't give God glory. Man invented idolatrous human systems of religion and abandoned the concept of the glory of God and cut himself off from spiritual life and spiritual growth. The history of man is a descending history, it is a degradation, he cannot ascend. He cannot grow because he refuses to glorify God. Throughout Biblical history God has wanted men to see His glory.
In Genesis chapter 3 Adam and Eve lived in the presence of God. Now the Hebrews had a word that meant presence, to dwell or to reside, and the word was shekinah. So that Adam and Eve lived with the shekinah of God, the shekinah glory. God is a Spirit, right? John 4:24. So God didn't have a body in the garden. How did God manifest Himself? Well I believe God manifested Himself in a glowing, glorious, shekinah glory of light; an almost, incandescent and yet gloriously, brilliant kind of light. I believe that God appeared in that way because that's the way we see Him appearing in other places in scripture. And so there was this glow, this representation of God's infinite and eternal glory. But when they sinned, cut off from the shekinah glory of God. Fallen man cannot experience the glory of God, cannot dwell in is presence, cannot give God glory and cannot identify with God in His glory.
In Exodus 33 the Israelites are being led from Egypt to the Promised Land by a great man, Moses. God wants them to believe and know that He is a God of great glory. He wants to go back as it were before the fall and again bring His presence to them and have them acknowledge Him for who He is. Moses asks to see God's glory, and God hides Moses in a cleft of a rock, an as He passes by Moses catches a glimpse of the embodiment of all of His attributes in some blazing representation of light. It got all over Moses' face, and he was lit up like a light bulb. God was using Moses to say people, people of Israel will you see My glory?
As the people moved into the wilderness they were led in the daytime by a great white cloud, and they were led at night by a pillar of fire. Do you know what that was? That was nothing but the glory of God. God put the glory on the face of Moses, God put the glory in the sky in the day and the sky in the night, and what God was saying was see My glory, see My glory, the fullness of what I am, the fullness of My attributes and blazing light. The sad part of it is that even though they had seen the glory on the face of Moses they murmured, complained and disobeyed, even though they saw the glory everyday and very night as it led them through the wilderness they were so unbelieving and so faithless that the whole generation died in the wilderness. And God had said, "See My glory," and man again had turned his back.
In Exodus 40 when the tabernacle was built it says, "A cloud covered the tent o the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." The tabernacle was a place of worship, and the tribes all had a place around the it. They saw when it was completed how the glory of God came down and stayed in the tabernacle when they were to camp and when the glory of God left and want into the sky it became that cloud and that pillar that they followed. God had revealed His glory on the face of a man, in the sky and in the midst of the tabernacle. But in each case they complained and never really gave God the glory He was due.
Finally they entered the promised land and God said in I Kings 8, "I want you to build a temple." "It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of he LORD."
Jesus was the glory of God in a body, the embodiment of the shekinah. On the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9, He showed them who e really was. What did the world say? We will not have this man to reign over us. Again they turned their back on His glory, tragically. Matthew 24:30 says that Jesus Christ s going to return with power and great glory, and there won稚 be any options then. All of creation will sing, glory to the Lamb, glory to God. Ultimately He will have His glory.
I John 2, speaks of three levels of spiritual growth, little children, young men, and fathers. What is a spiritual little child? I says, verse 13, "I have written unto you, little children, because you have known the Father." The first thing a child recognizes is its parents. A spiritual child realizes that he or she is a child of God, Jesus loves me; this I know for the Bible tells me so. They just know God, they just know Jesus, but they don't know the Bible very well.
A second level of spiritual growth: "I write unto you, a young men, because you have overcome the wicked one, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you've overcome the wicked one." A new Christian needs to be grounded in the Bible. A spiritual young man knows the Word, is no longer a victim of false religion.
A third level of spiritual growth: He says "I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from he beginning." It's one thing to know you belong to the family of God, it's another thing to know the Word of God, but it's another thing to know God, intimately and deeply.
Spiritual growth then, goes from knowing you're a Christian, to knowing the Word of God, to knowing God, in fullness, so you go from knowing to whom you belong, to knowing what you believe, and finally to know in whom you believe, God Himself.
Lesson 2Confessing Jesus as Lord and Glorifying God
Selected Scriptures
Glorifying God is the key to spiritual growth. First, we glorify God by confessing Jesus as Lord and focusing our attention on the Lordship of Christ. The humiliation of Jesus Christ in Philippians 2 was an act of obedience to the Father. In response the Father glorified Jesus Christ, and exalted Him, and then He calls on everything in the universe to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and then gives this closing statement, "to the glory of God, the Father." The reason then that we are to confess Jesus as Lord is because it glorifies God, the Father.
The basic principle of salvation is that we are to confess Christ as Lord for the glory of God. Many people think we should be saved for other reasons than the glory of God. The major reason for people to be saved is not to avoid hell. Another reason that we share the Gospel with others is because God loves them and because I love them. Others speak the Gospel because they say they are commanded to. These are good reasons, but the major reason to preach the Gospel or to become a believer is for the glory of God.
To choose to live in unbelief and to deny Christ is the greatest offense possible to God. It is the one sin that is unforgivable, because that is to say, that He is not God, He is not the Savior, He is not to be worshiped, He is not to be Lord. And to say that is to dishonor the Father.
In John 5:23, Jesus says, "All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father, who sent him." You cannot give glory to God unless you give glory to His Son, who is the fullness of His glory.
We give glory to God when we give glory to Christ by confessing Him as Lord. When you are saved you confess Christ as Lord, that is salvation. Romans 10:9-10 says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Salvation is a matter of personally confessing the Lordship of Christ, that He is God, that He is king, that He is Lord. I accept Him on His terms. I don't redefine Jesus as something less than He is and take Him that way. No one can glorify God until they start right there.
In Romans 1 Paul says that we don't preach the Gospel for their sake of the lost, we preach the Gospel for God's sake so that He might be acknowledged as Lord. If one has never confessed Christ as Lord, there is no capacity to live to His glory. You cannot say, I deny Christ, He is not my Savior, He is not my Lord, and then proceed to try to grow spiritually or proceed to try to glorify God in another way, because you are slapping God in the face at the very most vital point. Glorifying God then begins as Paul says in Philippians 2, with confessing Jesus as Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Salvation is a necessary beginning for spiritual growth. The fact is you can't grow until you're born. When we open our hearts and receive His Son, He is glorified. When His Spirit takes up residence in our lives, He is glorified. When we call Jesus Lord, He is glorified.
The second truth is that we aim our lives to obey His Lordship. I Corinthians 10:31 it says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God." No matter what I do it is to the glory of God that my focus must be made. This is the way that Jesus lived, in John 8, Jesus says this, "I seek not mine own glory." Jesus said that he was here for one reason, not for His own glory but for the glory of the Father. A hypocrite tries to steal the glory of God for their own. We must beware of self worship, we must always aim at God痴 glory.
This means giving God glory no matter what the cost. This is what it means to submit to His Lordship. We must learn to live content to do God's will at any cost and to glorify Him no matter what the price.
When someone is aiming their life at God's glory, they will react when God is dishonored. When you have identified with God the things that break your heart will be the things that dishonor God. You are consumed with how things affect Him. You will not be able to tolerate evil, because it insults the holiness of God and His will. Many Christians are so consumed in their own will and with their own comfort, and so absorbed in their own problems, that they don't feel pain when God is dishonored. They feel it mostly when they are dishonored, and that's the wrong focus.
You are aiming your life at the glory of God when you are content to be outdone by others. Jealousy is a factor in the Christian life, because we're more concerned about who gets the credit than that God be glorified. When you can rejoice that somebody does something for the Lord better than you do it, then you're aiming at His glory. That is a level of spiritual maturity. When you confess Jesus as Lord that's the beginning. When you bend to His Lordship to the point where you are content to give Him glory no matter what it costs, when you begin to feel the things that dishonor Him and when you don't mind being dishonored if He is honored, you are aiming your life at His glory. You are moving toward maturity.
One of the characteristics of new life in Christ is that it reproduces, it matures, it progresses. If I have confessed Jesus as Lord and I'm redeemed, born again and am alive spiritually. Now I want to grow, and I focus on that growth from the viewpoint not of how am I going to grow but how is God to be glorified. As I am content to be outdone by others as long as He's glorified, as I am content to bear His own anxieties and reproaches, as I am content to suffer no matter what the cost will be living to His glory. This means is you're going to run head on into the system. You cannot grow spiritually and be comfortable in the world.
We live in a day when everybody wants to make Christians lovable; God wants Christians who confront, cross, fight and antagonize the system. Christianity must be so distinct that it points out sin before it can bring about a remedy. We want to confront an evil world, and there's a reproach to bear.
Lesson 3Confessing Our Sin
Selected Scriptures
To summarize previous lessons, we grow by the Word of God, the Spirit of God and in response to the command of God. We only grow when we are living to the glory of God. When we live for ourselves we flatten out and nothing positive happens in our lives. Growth only takes place in the times when we are spiritual not when we are carnal.
When we're saved we have the principle of new life in us; we also have the old sin that's around us, the sin that's in our flesh, that thing which is no good that's part of being human. We find that a little bit of our life is given to God and a little bit to sin, and we kind of balance it off. But as we mature, there is an increasing frequency of righteousness, and a decreasing frequency of sinfulness.
Glorifying God becomes the key. As we focus on the Word of God, and as we obey its principles we are seeing in this the mirror of Gods glory. And then Paul says, as we see that glory, we move from one level of glory to the next level of glory to the next level of glory, conforming to the very image of Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual growth then is not just seen in the Bible as a baby and a young man and a father, it is seen as going from one level of glory to the next level of glory to the next, and that happens when we focus on glorifying God. As you and I live to the glory of God we are growing, we're progressing toward Christlikeness. The times of our lives we live for self and the flesh are times when that does not happen.
First, we glorify God by confessing Jesus as Lord, and second we aim our life at His glory. Third, we glorify God thirdly by confessing sin. The greatest expression of humility is to confess sin, but most people don't do that, and thus miss the glory of God.
Joshua 7 tells the story of Achan, a man who sinned by disobeying God. God was going to teach Israel a lesson that disobedience would have consequences. The consequence was that Achan and his whole family, who evidently were implicated in the crime also were all stoned to death. Why did God want Achan to confess his sin? Because God could have looked cruel if He had taken the life of this man and his family without the real reason being known. When Achan confessed his sin he was saying, "God, You as a holy, righteous God are free to punish me because I deserve it."
God is a holy God, and God reacts against sin, He cannot tolerate sin, or let sin go unpunished. If He could have allowed sin to go unpunished, Jesus never would have had to die. God must deal with sin, and God will look unjust, and God will look unfair if we do not admit that everything that God does to chasten us is deserved.
Whenever you excuse your sin, you're really putting the blame on God. In the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned, they blamed the serpent and each other, but they were not willing to admit that they had been at fault. By not being willing to blame themselves they in the end blamed God. Giving glory to God means that I accept the responsibility for sin. I don't blame it on God, other people or my circumstances. If I sin it is my fault and mine alone. If God chooses to chasten me He is free to do that. I cannot deny responsibility.
In I Samuel 5 the nation of Israel is religious in a formal ritualistic sense here, but are actually paying little attention to God. The people get into a battle with the Philistines, and they are overpowered militarily, so they decided to bring the Ark of the Covenent, the place where God's presence was, to the battlefield. The Philistines were afraid of the God in that box, since they had heard the stories about how He had mopped up the Egyptians.
But Israel lost the battle, and the Ark was captured. This was not the result that Israel had expected. They had to learn that God is not a genie that followed their commands. The Philistines also learned a few lessons of their own. They put the Ark in the temple of Dagon, the idol that they worshipped, thinking it would be comfy there. Dagon fell over three times bowing down to the Ark of the true God, and the last time he was broken in pieces. God will not tolerate any other gods or any idols being compared to Him.
The Philistines also developed tumors as a result of having the Ark. They decided to send it back with a trespass or votive offering, which is an admission of sin. The Philistines were admitting in effect that the God that they dishonored had every right to do what He did. Votive offerings were symbolic replicas of the problem brought on by the desecration of a god. For example, under some pagan systems one would assume that a physical problem was the result of one's having dishonored a god, and one would bring a replica of whatever bodily part was affected as an offering. By doing so one would admit that the problem was a result of having failed to do the will of that god. What the Philistines did was very normal, and they were saying that God had every right to afflict them because they had defiled Him. So, you glorify God when you recognize that He had every right to do what He did because you defiled Him.
As long as you are making excuses for your sinfulness you will never grow spiritually. You will grow spiritually when you are humbly acknowledging your sin and doing something about it. You acknowledge that you are responsible for it. You blame yourself and nothing or no one else. Every time sin occurs is an act of the will, and you are responsible. That is where confession begins, by acknowledging the sin is your fault.
The word confess in Greek is the word homologeo, logeo from which we get logos means to speak. We talk about logic, that means a discussion of principal. Homo means it is the same and that is exactly what the word means, to speak the same. To confess your sin is not to beg for forgiveness. it is simply to say the same thing about your sin that God is saying. God says that sin is sin and it's your fault, and to confess means to agree with God on this point. When you became a Christian, God forgave all off your sin, so you don't have to beg for forgiveness. Forgiveness is there and you just accept it. Confession is agreeing with God that you are at fault. (I John 1:9)
After confession comes repentance. We agree with God that our sin is indeed sin and that we are responsible. Then we have to be willing to let go of it, and truly will never to repeat the same sins again. We say, "Lord, thank You for forgiving those sins, I know they did not please You, and I never want to do them again." Sometimes we don't say that because we want to do them again. We just want to take care of the past. We don't want to eliminate the future because we kind of like the sin. That shows a lack of spiritual maturity. If there is one thing in the universe that does not glorify God, it is sin, and it will hold us back. Somewhere in your prayer life, there ought to be confession of sin and a willingness to accept whatever chastening God brings, because that's how He keeps you from doing it again.
God has put in us a system of guilt. Guilt is a little bell, or a buzzer that goes off when you sin, and it should bring you immediately to the point of confession, when there is a sin and you feel the guilt and you sense the reality, that is God's way of saying, that's pain to your soul. And there at that point you confront it, you say, God, I know it is sin, I know it is against You, I realize it is my fault, I do not want to do it again, I turn, give me the strength to walk in another path. Now as you live like that, you're going to find yourself in a pattern of spiritual growth.
Lesson 4Trust, Praise, and Bearing Fruit
Selected Scriptures
A fourth way to glorify God is by trusting in Him. Now when God says something and you don't believe it, you're dragging Him down. Either you believe it or you don't. If you say you believe it but you don't manifest that you believe it, then you're really doubting God and doubting God is to say that God doesn't really live up to His reputation. That dishonors God. I John 5:10 says that if you don't believe God you are calling him a liar.
To believe God gives Him glory. God's glory is the sum of all of His attributes, the fullness of all of His majesty, and if He is who He says He is then He is a God to be believed. You're going to grow spiritually when you live a life that functionally trusts God. When you say, if Your Word says it, I'm going to do it, if Your Word promises it, I'm going to claim it, if Your Word commands it, I'm going to obey it. We greatly dishonor God when we claim to believe in Him and yet we can't cope with life.
We can see example in the Bible of many who glorified God by trusting Him. Abraham is praised for his faith in Romans 4. Daniel 3 shows how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego glorified God by their faith. In Genesis we see the example of Noah, who obeyed by faith when God told him to build an ark.
Do we glorify God by believing Him? When you live in a state of faith you grow. The Bible says that we walk not by sight, but by faith. Do you want to live to His glory? Believe Him in everything that happens, everything that He says, every promise He gives, and walk by faith and that is the progress of spiritual maturity.
Let's go on to a fifth principle. We glorify God by fruitfulness. (John 15) Jesus says, "In this is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Fruitfulness glorifies God because it is allowing God's power to be productive in our lives. As we have received Christ, aim at His glory, deal with sin in our lives and walk by faith, God produces in us fruitfulness.
It's very important that you produce fruit because how do people know that you're a believer and that you belong to God if they don't see any product? God wants to produce something that radiates Himself in your life. He wants to do more than, than what your, your flesh can do, more than what the world can do. There ought to be something of the nature of God hanging on you, so that it's evident that He's at work in your life.
In Matthew 5:16 Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven." Do you think God went to all of this trouble to pour His very life in you, His very eternal life, and that He made you one who was a recipient of the very power of Christ to produce nothing? We are to be fruitful.
What do we mean by fruit? Philippians 1:11: "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." When you produce, God is glorified. What is righteousness? Doing right. When you do right that glorifies God, when you do wrong that dishonors God. II Thessalonians 1:11 says, "Wherefore, also, we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power." People should be able to look at your life and say your life is different. You affect people differently than others. Now you have a certain attitude that's different, your behavior is different, your influence is different, your affect on things is different, there is a product to your life that's unlike any other life.
There are two kinds of fruit in the Bible. The first is called action fruit, or converts. In Romans 1:13 Paul says that he wanted to come to Rome to win some people to Christ. Action fruit is winning someone to Christ, giving a gift, thanking the Lord with your lips, or doing any good work. Spiritual growth will always be manifest in fruitfulness.
Another category is called attitude fruit. Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self-control." They are all attitudes. If you have action fruit, without attitude fruit that's legalism. If you have the right attitude you automatically have the action, and that's true spirituality. It is a matter of yielding the control of our life to the Holy Spirit .
A sixth principle in glorifying God is praise. Psalm 50:23 says, "Whoever offers praise glorifies me." Proud people don't praise God; they're too busy praising themselves. Humble people do, people who are in awe of God, people whose focus is on God, and in their humility they ‑ they pour out of their hearts praise. This is so much apart of God's pattern for His people that He literally gave them a hymn book filled with praise that we call the Psalms. There was a sense of awe, respect, and humility in light of the majesty of the infinite character of God.
Biblically, praise involves three things. First, praise is a recitation of God's attributes. You see praise is the expression of the character of God, who He really is. There are many reasons to study the Old Testament, one of which is that it reveals so much of the character of God. Habakkuk 1 starts praising God for His character, praises Him that he's holy, almighty and eternal; he praises Him that He is a covenant keeping God.
When you recite the character of God, you are exalting His virture and you are putting a backbone into the midst of your weakness. Habakkuk's problem never got any better, it got worse, but his God defined was strong enough to handle his circumstances. I know in my own life this is a very important thing. You have these little things in your life and you got some, some problem you can't solve and you...instead of saying, oohh, what a terrible problem, how are we going to get this done we, we just don't seem to have the resources Lord, we need this thing you know, we don't have any money or whatever it is and then you stop and you say Lord, You are bigger than history, Lord You own everything in the entire universe, God You can do anything You want to do, God You said You loved us and You promised we'd never be without the things we need, that You would take care of us, if You take care of the grass of the field, God You are One who has promised that Your character is at our disposal, Your power is amassed in our behalf, etc, etc, you see how much better you're going to feel? An you're going to glorify God. That's the first element.
The second one is this, glorifying God and praising God is not only a matter of reciting His attributes, but reciting His works as well, because His attributes are on display in His works. "God You did this, and You did that." The Old Testament is loaded with history that assures us that God is always faithful. We struggle in our lives because we don't truly define our God, and we don't record for our own edification the record of His performance in the past. Praise is not only glorifying to God for its own value because it speaks truth about Him, but it is glorifying to God because it affirms our confidence in Him. And thus do we glorify God.
A third aspect of praise is thanks for God's attributes and His works.
Lesson 5Obedience, Prayer, and Proclaiming the Word
Selected Scriptures
A seventh way in which we glorify God is by loving Him enough to obey Him. There should be in the life of a believer a willingness to obey. Jonn 21 shows Jesus asking Peter if Peter loved Him, and Jesus used the greatest Greek word for love, agapao, agape. Peter told Jesus that he liked him a lot, but would not use the word "agape." Peter couldn't claim that kind of love because he didn't give any evidence of it.
Jesus can't use anybody doesn't love Him, and living to His glory means loving Him, and maybe your love isn't all that it could be. Maybe it isn't agapao, maybe it isn't supreme love, but if it's good solid phileo Christ will use you. He'll take you where you are and build you from there. He wanted Peter to minister but He knew there was a prerequisite and that is that Peter had to love Him enough to obey Him, because following Jesus was going to cost Peter his life.
Peter loved Jesus enough to die for Him, and that glorifies God. That is a principle of spiritual maturity people, you glorify God when you love Him enough to obey Him. God is glorified in the willingness that we have to made a sacrifice for His sake. You grow as you willingly obey His will no matter what it costs. As long as you're intersecting His will with yours, and you're not willing to take steps here or there unless they meet your conditions you're retarding your spiritual growth. Simply stated spiritual growth is an abandonment to the will of God.
An eighth point: we glorify God by prayer, and that means that prayer is a vital element in spiritual growth. John 14:13-14 says "And whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do." Do you know why God answers prayer? People think that God answers prayer in order to give us what we want. God answers prayer because He has to, He made a promise. The real reason God will answer your prayer in the name of Christ, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The reason God answers prayer is not for your sake, it's for His sake. It's because He benefits, and He puts Himself on display.
Some of us are reluctant to pray because we're not too sure God is going to answer. But we miss the point, God will answer because God wants to put Himself on display. So when I pray I glorify God because I give Him the opportunity to work, and as I give God opportunity to work He manifests Himself and receives glory. Prayer is a vital element in spiritual growth, you will not grow unless you interact with God and see His power on display. It'll increase your faith as you do it.
"You shall ask in my name," Now is more than a formula. Some people think that at the end of every prayer you have to say, in Jesus name, Amen, or the prayer won't get through. What does "in my name" mean? The name of God or the name of Christ is a concept that embodies all that He is. "My name is, I AM THAT I AM." God's name is the embodiment of all that He is, and Christ's name is the embodiment of all that He is. "When you ask consistent with who I am and what I will, I will do it." Instead of ending prayers with "in Jesus name, Amen," say, "This I pray because this I believe to be the will of Christ."
That is what it means to pray in the Spirit. Romans 8 says, "That we know not what to pray for as we ought; so the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." In other words, in a nonverbal language between the Spirit in us and the Father on the throne, He always prays for us and His prayer is always answered because He knows the mind of the Father. And so praying in the Spirit is lining my prayers up with the will of the Spirit and the will of Christ.
A ninth key to spiritual growth, is that we glorify God by proclaiming the Word. II Thessalonians 3:1, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified." The Word of the Lord is really the expression of God; He is synonymous with His Word. His Word in the Old Testament, out of His mouth, His Word in the New Testament in the living Christ, is synonymous with His person, and God is glorified when His Word is proclaimed.
Anytime you proclaim the Word of God you're giving Him glory, because you are acknowledging that it is the truth, that it is a life giving Word, that it is a life changing Word, a life transforming Word, a life sustaining Word, a powerful Word. When you proclaim the Word of God as the absolute source of truth you are honoring and glorifying God because He says the same thing about His Word that you are saying when you hold it up as the standard.
There is no spiritual growth without the taking in of the Word. You don't come to church on Sunday and take in your message and say, "Oh, that was a wonderful message I hope it hangs in there and holds me till next week" anymore than you eat dinner on Sunday and pray that the single meal sustains you throught the week. There must be a daily feeding on the Word, and as you proclaim the Word and give it out you have a way of cementing it in your own life. I have found you as a teacher that the things I teach I remember, the things I read but never pass on I forget. When you are silent about the Gospel, and you are silent about the Word of God you'll retard your spiritual growth. The Word of God never works as well in your life as when you're teaching it to somebody else.
We glorify God then by proclaiming His Word, and as we proclaim His Word, and as we pray, and as we praise Him, and as we aim our lives at His purposes and His will, and as we love Him enough to obey no matter what it costs, as we do all these things which give Him glory we are moving in progression toward Christ likeness. There's no other way to define the Christian life than as a progress to glorifying God.
A tenth way in which we glorify the Lord is by bringing others to Him. This is the natural outgrowth of proclaiming the Word. In II Corinthians 4:5 , Paul says that the purpose of his preaching has been "In order that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God." In other words he wants to add another voice to the thanksgiving choir, he wants to add somebody else who can glorify God. If I can glorify God with my life and win someone else to Christ then that makes somebody else who has all that potential too. God is glorified when we bring others to Him. And frankly, that too is apart of spiritual growth, one of the keys to spiritual growth is winning people to Christ, because that adds another voice to those who praise and thank the Lord.
Spiritual growth is not some mystical thing for somebody way off in some spaced out spiritual distance. Spiritual growth is very simple, it's a matter of obedience, a matter of loving the Lord, it's a matter of praying, praising, believing, confessing sin, proclaiming the Word, bearing fruit, all of these things, and winning people to Christ.
Lesson 6Purity, Unity, and Using Our Spiritual Gifts
Selected Scriptures
We glorify God by moral purity. You cannot be growing spiritually with an impure lifestyle. I Corinthians 6:19 says "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? We are commanded to glorify God in our body and spirit, both internally and externally we are to live to the glory of God. Paul is speaking against fornication, in Greek porneia from which we get pornography. It is a big word, like a blanket covers every possible sexual sin. Paul is saying we are not to be engaged in sexual sin and he gives three reasons.
Number one, it harms. I redeemed eternally and free to do what I want, but even though I have that freedom there are some things I don't do because they will entangle my feet. Immorality will never help me, it will only bind and harm me. Fornication is sinning against one's own body. We are free, but we are not free to do things that harm. Proverbs is full of warnings about the harmful effects of fornication. We can also see the devastating effects that David suffered as a result of his immoral relationship with Bathsheba.
Secondly sexual sin not only harms, it controls. Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but I'll not be brought under the power of any." This particular sin does like all other sin is that it makes people a slave.
Third, sexual sin perverts us There are three distinct purposes and designs for our bodies that get perverted by sexual sin. First of all, our bodies for the Lord. The Lord because someday He will raise our bodies. Someday as He will raise our bodies to dwell in glory, and our bodies belong to His plan. Fornication is not the reason God redeemed you and it isn't the plan God has for your body. If you're a Christian the plan God has for your body is not sex, it's resurrection and glorification, and why would you adulterate that body that has that marvelous and special purpose?
Secondly, your body is one with Christ, even here and now. "Don't you know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?" You are one with Christ, you hook up with a harlot, you've made Christ one with that harlot. A harlot is anybody who has sex outside of marriage, even if they're engaged. You prostitute God痴 purpose for sex. God has another purpose for your body.
Thirdly, he says, you can't do this because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. "Don't you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have of God, and that you are not your own? You're bought with a price." Because the Spirit dwells in us, because we're one with Christ, and because God has planned a glorification of our bodies, we have absolutely no business getting involved in this. "Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit." Internally and externally don't do it and don't even want to do it. That glorifies God.
A twelfth way we glorify God is by unity. We grow faster when we don't have to grow alone and when we are stimulated by others. Romans 15:5 tells us that God is glorified in the unity of the saints. "Now the God of patience and comfort grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus." In other words, "I want you to get along with each other, I you to feel the same about each other, I want you to have the same likemindedness in the Body of Christ so that you may with one mind (think alike) and one mouth (talk alike) glorify God." You see God is glorified in the unity of the church, in the unity of the believers. God doesn't expect us to struggle along the path of spiritual maturity all alone. But He expect us to move along in the company of one another. That痴 how we glorify one another.
In my life I have found that the closer I am to the circle of people around me, the easier it is for me to live a righteous life, because that circle holds me accountable. They keep my life in their perspective, in their view, and if something isn't right they point it out for me. If I don't have that I'll just drift away. God is glorified when there's a real loving unity, when we grab arms with each other, and love each other, and serve each other, and hold on to each other. When we have one mindedness.
Thirteenth, we glorify God in the use of our spiritual gifts. I Peter 4:10 says, "As every man has received his gift," I believe that every Christian has received a gift and that each of us are like spiritual snowflakes, none of us like any other of us. Categories of giftedness are listed in I Corinthians 12. Out of that brief listing of gifts the Lord will pull a combination that will become the unique gift of an individual believer. As you and I minister that gift we apply to the Body of Christ a unique ministry that is unequaled by anyone else. That's why we're strategic.
As you and I live to the glory of God, what do we get out of it? David said in, Psalm 16:8-9, "I have set the LORD always before me;" in other words David said, "I live to the glory of the Lord," then he said, "Therefore my heart is glad." What is the result of living a life to the glory of God? What is the result of spiritual maturity? It is joy. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. God wants, according to Ephesians 2:6, to pour out His kindness on us throughout all eternity. When you're growing, is where God gives that joy and a deep sense of contentment.
Father we thank You for these six lessons on glorifying You, as the path to maturity. And Lord we realize that in and of ourselves in the flesh, even though we may know these things we cannot accomplish them, and so our prayer must ever be Lord, You energize in us these realities. We cannot obey the Lordship of Christ apart from Your power, we cannot confess our sins apart from Your conviction, we cannot trust You unless You give us the gift of faith, we cannot be fruitful unless You produce the fruit in us, we cannot even praise You unless You fill our hearts with praise, and we cannot pray unless we're prompted by Your Spirit. Father we cannot proclaim Your Word unless the Spirit of God teaches it to us, we cannot bring others to You unless You beget them with Your power, we cannot be pure unless You clean us, we cannot be one unless You make us one. And so Father we totally depend on You to fulfill all these good things in us that we might be like Christ and know the joy that comes to those who grow. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
