God's Miracle Grow
PPT 1 Message Title
Suppose there was something I could share with you that would produce incredible growth and increase in your spiritual life?
PPT 2 video
I want you to watch an incredible video.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAYIErVY84A
(Note to Pastors, the video shows several plants some were just watered, some were given miracle grow, the difference is amazing.)
Imagine if there was something that could produce results like that in your spiritual life? Wouldn't that be awesome? Is there such a thing? Yes, I believe there is.
I am talking about God's miracle grow.
I want to show you an amazing scripture which is going to be the blessing I am going to close the service with for the next several weeks.
PPT 3 Text
Ac 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Grace is God's miracle grow.
Notice the text says that the word of His grace is able to build you up. That reminds me of
Rev 1:3, which says Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time [is] at hand.
There is a blessing in reading the word, and here in Acts we are told several specific blessings that hearing the word of His grace will do. I believe while I preach on grace this morning God is going to sprinkle His miracle grow on you, because that is what God said He would do!
Build up in our text means grow big spiritual muscles.
God often declares what He wants to do and then tells us the means by which He will do it.
I will show that to you in another scripture in a second, but first, let me show you what God says the word of grace will do:
1. Build you up
2. Give you an inheritance
Both of these things: being built up, and an inheritance can be had in varying levels.
Being builded up is easy to see. Some people are bigger and stronger in God than others.
But this inheritance thing has me scratching my head a little bit.
Let me share with you why?
The bible says in several places if we are born again Christians we have an inheritance:
PPT 4 Text
Ga 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Ga 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Ro 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Ro 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.
Re 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
How can I get more of an inheritance than all things?
Illustrate with 2 infinities. Twice as much at the same time.
God can make more things than whatever all things already are. We will inherit all things. God is able to make more all things.
Ok, I'll take some of that, so how do I get it?
How do I get this miracle grow that will get me more inheritance?
As I said earlier often in scripture God tells us what He will do, and He also tells us how it is done, or the means through which it can be accomplished. Let me illustrate that from another passage, and then we will get back to God's miracle grow.
PPT 5, 6 text
Ezekiel 36:33 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt.
Ezekiel 36:34 "And the desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passed by.
Ezekiel 36:35 "And they will say, 'This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified [and] inhabited.'
Ezekiel 36:36 "Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places [and] planted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it."
Ezekiel 36:37 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.
Ezekiel 36:38 "Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they will know that I am the LORD."'"
Imagine in your mind the scene in Jerusalem at one of the 3 required feasts that all men had to come to. Imagine the crowds, imagine the multitude of sheep, the city would have been jam packed. That is the picture of increase God had in mind for the nation. The prophecy was given at the time of the Babylon captivity and was a promise to the Jewish people. Many people in Israel see much of this passage fulfilled in the fact that they have turned desert into farms, and there has been an incredible reclamation of lost land back to arable land.
God says He will fill the land, then he states the means He will use to do it: 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.
In other words this would be done in answer to prayer.
The end is increased men the means is prayer, get it? That text is one that I have been hearing echoing in my spirit for a while now, will you join with me in praying that God does it? He has already told us what the results will be. I thank God for all the men that already attend our fellowship, but I believe God wants to do a work of grace especially among men.
Getting back to Acts 20:32 builded up is what God intends to do, the means He will use is the word of His grace.
PPT 7 Text
Ac 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Let's look at a portion of scripture where I can illustrate this truth.
PPT 8 Text
2Ti 2:20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
2Ti 2:21 Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these [things], he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
(This text is next weeks message - Increase!)
That text seems to indicate we have to purge ourselves (and it does) if we want increase. Let me show you where grace comes in.
PPT 9 Text
2Ti 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
So before Paul tells Timothy about purging or cleaning yourself up, he talks about grace, and not just grace, but being strong in grace.
Be strong in grace doesn't mean you are going to clean yourself up, but that you believe God is going to give you the grace, the desire, the energy and the hunger to be a better and more honorable vessel, and He will bring it to pass. Grace means you are believing in Him, not yourself.
Grace is not the absence of effort, but the power to do what God wants.
Illus: Finding God's best, by Dr. John Hunter. In the early 70's Dr. Hunter was working with a mission organization and he was a popular conference speaker in Europe. He spoke at a conference in England very near to where England's first nuclear power plant was being constructed. During a break in the conference he spoke with the assistant director of the plant. Interested in the mechanics of this technology he asked, "How do you produce power?" The administrator stated we don't produce power, which he said with a twinkle in his eye. Dr. Hunter said, OK, I'll bite, what do you mean by that. The director replied, "we don't produce power we just release the power that is already there." That was an aha moment for Dr. Hunter. Grace is the message of releasing power, not trying to produce it. Works is man's attempt to produce it, grace is God saying here it is just accept it.
Confessing and believing what God says He will do in and through you is what releases the power. Grace is God's superabundant favor given and released not to the deserving but to those believe.
Be strong in Grace. When Jesus came do you remember what the angels sang of? Glory to God in the highest peace on earth, good will towards men.
Grace is understanding that God has good will He wants to unleash in your life. Believing in His goodness (grace) is what unleashed that good will. Not performance, believing.
Believing in grace means I believe more in God's good intentions than in any reason I might have to be denied.
Many people go through life and think I am going to be successful if I work hard. That is performance based success.
Grace based success on the on the other hand, acknowledges that performance is a part of the equation, but that God is incredibly motivated to empower you to do what needs to be done.
The difference is subtle, but the results will be incredibly different just as in the miracle grow illustration.
Take fasting for example.
In performance based fasting, if you eat anything more than you should, or don't go as long as legalism tells you, you should, or you don't read your bible for 10 hours a day while you are fasting, the fast won't work.
Can I tell you a secret, I have hard time reading the bible when I am fasting. But I don't worry about it, because I am believing in God, not in me. I believe in grace based fasting, not works based fasting.
Sometimes I will be on a fast and it will be Sunday and I will tell my wife let's go out and eat, and she'll be like, "I thought you were on a fast." I am, today is the day of rest. Grace based fasting.
In grace based fasting I am doing with God's help, and it doesn't have to be perfect, in works based fasting I am hoping for God's help and it has to be perfect to work. Do you see the difference. God always responds more favorably to grace than He does to works.
Grace based performance means that I am not relying on myself to do it, but the grace of God doing it through me, and even if I mess up, I am trusting Him to do for me what I don't deserve.
The word of His grace is that when I am at my worst, He will be at His best, if I but believe Him.
Grace is God's good favor given to those whose personal merits don't deserve it.
When a person first comes to Christ we have a great big view of grace, because we know there is no way out of our sinful condition without grace. But it seems as time goes on we expect more of ourselves, and grace becomes smaller because we should do more. And you should.
But the reason you should do more or better, is for the exact same reason as when you first came to Christ. You don't deserve it, but if you will let God in, He will clean you up and do it through you.
The longer you are a Christian the more grace you need. Growing in Christ, doesn't mean you need less grace, but more!
PPT 10 (look at slide)
2 PE 3:18 But grow in grace, and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Grow in grace. If you believe grace means unmerited favor, which it does, but it also means so much more, then growing in it means, when you deserve it less you accept it more.
We are not trying to produce power, but to release power that is bound up in the grace of God.
The more you fail, the stronger you have to be in grace.
Here are a couple more scriptures I want us to look at and then we will close:
PPT 11
Ac 15:40 But Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
1Pe 5:12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard [him]), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!
Finally, one of my favorite grace verses.
I heard a sermon preached on this text in Rock Hill SC. Back in 1979 and I heard it at a time in my life, where I was trying to good, but no matter how I tried it seems I never got to where I felt I needed to go.
I was a miserable Christian, trying the best I could to be better, which is not a bad thing, but what made me miserable was that I was doing it to try and be more accepted in God's eyes. The sermon that day changed my way of thinking, took a load of bricks off my back, and brought me great spiritual joy. Here is the text:
PPT 12 text
Ro 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
You want to reign in life, stop trying to be good start accepting God's goodness in spite of your lack of deserving. What do you think Paul meant when he said, "...receive the ABUNDANCE of grace."? Abundance of grace is something we usually say applies to new believers. Guess what, it is more applicable to saints than it is to the lost. To whom much is given, much will be required. If you have been saved any length of time, you have been given much, the standard is higher, and all that standard does is show you that you need grace as much if not more than when you first began this journey.
Listen to Paul, "in my flesh, dwells no good thing." The good I want to do, I don't do, the bad I don't want to do, I do do. When you are an apostle, how high is God's standard for you. Let not many of you become teachers knowing that you will have a stricter judgment. So what does Paul do? Try harder to be better? No he throws himself at the foot of the cross, just as he did when he first came to Christ. Freely admitting his need for grace. Ro 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
God's miracle grow is the word of His grace. Sprinkle liberally several times a day.
As I close I want to give you an idea for an experiment that you can do this spring and summer as something to remind you to be strong in grace.
Get two plants and give one miracle grow, see what happens.
God's best version of you is that you walk in abundant grace.
Close: I have been struggling and I want to rest.
Ac 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
