Principles of Spiritual Growth

What this episode covers

Blank Outline Completed Outline Philippians 3:12-14 scroll to 23:08 for beginning of sermon Philippians 3:12-14 All right, thank you for your singing. We’ll read a couple of verses from Philippians chapter 3. This is Paul telling his life story and we’re going to focus on just these three verses this morning. Here’s what Paul writes to the church at Philippi. Not that I have already obtained all this. He’s talking about his Christian Walk and knowing Christ better. Where I’ve already arrived at my goal but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All right, we are plowing our way through the book of Philippians and just a reminder, this is one of Paul’s prison epistles and he was sent to Rome because he wants a trial there and he’s a Roman citizen and he’s under house arrest for two years and what’s Paul do? He makes some good use of his time there and he writes four letters. One of them that we’re looking at this morning is really a thank you note because the Church of Philippi sent a man by the name of Epaphroditus with a gift for Paul. Paul also shared the gospel and so at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, I bring you greetings from Caesar’s household and through Paul’s witness, some people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Jesus and so this morning we’re going to look at a couple verses from Philippians chapter 3, just three verses and think about some principles of spiritual growth. I love springtime. It is spring, isn’t it? It doesn’t quite feel like it yet. It’s coming in about four or five days. Temperature’s going to warm up but I love the changing seasons and we get to spring and a little warmer temperature, longer daylight, there’s some signs of life, greener grass, budding trees, flowers that bloom and it reminds us of a basic principle that where there’s life, there’s some evidences of life. That’s true in the natural material world but that’s also true in the spiritual world and so the scriptures give us some analogies to describe what happens when we invite Jesus into our life as our Savior. There’s a tremendous change that takes place. Ephesians 5:8 says, we pass from darkness into light. That’s Ephesians 5:8, you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord live as children of light but earlier in the book of Philippians, Paul gives the reference of passing from death because Ephesians 2:1 says, before we knew Christ, we were dead in our transgressions and sins but now because of Christ’s mercy and our salvation, we have what? We have a life. We have life. Main point We’ve passed from death to life and so here’s our main point this morning that we’re going to look at. After our spiritual birth, I hope you have two birthdays. For me, a physical birthday, November 5th, 1955. I tell people you multiply the number of the month times the day and you get the year so that’s my claim to fame. 11 times 5 is 55 but I also have a spiritual birthday, November 23rd, 1963, eight years old. Now some people can’t remember a specific day when they came to know Christ and don’t let that, you know, get you a little upset. Not everyone can remember a specific time. In order to grow spiritually, I must… The important thing is to know that at some point in time, you put your faith in Jesus to be your savior and your sin bearer. So, after our spiritual birth, God’s desire for us is to grow, to grow spiritually. If we’re not growing spiritually, there’s two possible reasons. We’re either still dead spiritually or we’re dormant or stagnant and that’s very easy to fall into that in the Christian Walk and the Christian journey, just to be dormant or stagnant in our Christian growth. And

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