Transcript: Randy Bell on How Grace Empowers Christian Growth and Spirituality

Thank you. How do you grow in faith in the knowledge of Christ? By the strengthening power of God's grace. Because as you read the word, the grace is released. So each day you must acknowledge your own weakness. Just like I always have to check my car to see if there's gas in it. I cannot just keep driving in my own weakness. If the tank is empty, the car does not move. No grace, no juice, no gas. it's the same exact way, if you understand it, that the idea is that without the grace of God in you, you're not moving on. You're going to be very much walking. Or you could push your car, I guess, if you need exercise. But it's easier to drive your car when there's gas in it, right? Or go downhill, but in Florida there's no hills, so that doesn't help much, does it? So here's what we're suggesting then. Daily ask God to multiply His grace to you. Daily ask Him to give you more grace. Ask Him about it. Secondly, daily ask God to refill you with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to keep getting the juice flowing. Daily request wisdom and understanding that you'll need for that day only. And remember how this, and I want you to see, remember the way Jesus taught us to pray? He said, pray, not give us enough food to feed us for 42 years. He said instead, I want you to pray every day and say, give me this day my daily bread. See, this is why we understand the concept. God wants you to daily do these things spiritually just like he daily wants you to do it physically. Lord, daily give me food. Lord, daily give me grace. Those are the same things, one for my spirit, one for my body. I need those things. Lord, give me what I need in grace. Now, why would you do that? if you didn't feel like you were out of gas? Who would pray, Lord, give me grace? The person who knows they're hungry or empty. A person who is self-sufficient won't ask. I don't need to ask you for food. I got a good job. And I don't need to ask you for grace. I can pull myself up with my own bootstraps. I'm an American, man. I'm John Wayne. I can do anything. So who needs you, God? And so people live their lives. Don't ask God for grace. Don't thank God for food. Don't stop and bow their head when they have a meal. Go to a restaurant and watch. There's a few. Mostly nobody does. Nobody cares. They don't need to. But if you truly are born again, you need to see a daily need for the grace of God. A daily need. Now, what happens when that grace is shortened down? Well, that's why the third point is you need to daily ask for mercy for your shortcomings and failures. Don't let them drag on and don't be afraid to go to God. Run right to them. My grandson, the other day, we have the baby Jesus thing with the critch and everything, and it's got all these little stuff that looks like hay. He didn't want to just look at it. He kept pulling it off. I said no. Smiles at me, looks at me, and pulls off another one. I said, no. Looks at me, pulls off another one. I said, kid, all right. So I went to him, slapped him on the hand. He looks at me and smiles. Slapped him a second time. Smiles. Four times I slapped him because I could tell he's a tough kid and he thinks it's funny. So finally I slapped him hard enough on the hand that he changed his smile down. And the coolest thing was, I kind of stepped away. He turned and ran right to me, jumped in my arms, and he kissed me. And I said, you're forgiven. It's okay. You just got to listen. And I think of that exactly for what God's after. You run and hide instead of coming for mercy. God is sad. My heart sang when he did that. I couldn't believe it, that he would do that right away. He said, Papa, I'm sorry. even though he couldn't speak English yet. He was sorry. And that was so cool to see. That's what we're talking about here. Daily ask for mercy for your shortcomings and failures. Tell him you're sorry. God gives the power of grace to do his righteousness. He'll repeat you then. As soon as you've humbled yourself and asked forgiveness, he immediately starts to fill up your gas tank again. He starts pouring the grace in. That's perfect. He gives mercy when we fail to do it, but gives you more grace to do it then. So you don't want to short-circuit yourself. Here's a basic little chart to help you remember what I'm saying. Number one, God gives grace for us to have the power to humble ourselves. God brings that what's needed in your life to bring you down. Think of Job. Now, you can say all you want, but the Bible says, even though the devil did it, and everybody, if they don't read it right, but remember, the devil came to God and said, I can't get to this guy, you've protected him. And God said, go ahead and do this. God was in charge of this. And if you go all the way to the end of the book, it says that as Job started kind of raising his voice at God, God stopped him from talking and started pouring out to him questions. And at the end of his questions to Job Job said I shut my mouth A prideful person opens their mouth A humble person says, sorry, backs up and is done with it. No excuses, no whatever. God has to give you grace just like He gave Job grace. Even though you don't understand it, God did everything in Job's life to bring him humility. His flaw, remember, he's a man like everybody else. He wasn't perfect. He was more godly than everybody who walked the earth. But the problem was, number four, doing great things for God tends to produce pride. He had so much going on for him and so much blessing, he started to have the tendency of being self-sufficient. Remember, pride isn't going around being arrogant, loudmouth. Arrogance is not the same as pride. Otherwise, they wouldn't have two words. Pride is basically the idea of self-sufficiency. Remember, Lucifer, his sin was pride, it says. And what he said was, no longer am I going to be under God, I'm going to be self-sufficient to make up my own mind. He said, I will not be under God. That's pride. Here, then, we understand the idea. Number one, the natural tendency to use our own wisdom, strength, or abilities to do a task is the human failure of pride. it tends to be there in every man. We tend to do that. Over here on the right, the number two note says also, then when we think about it, we ask God to help us. In other words, God, give me a little grace to make me successful. We started seeing that terrible sin in our church a long time ago when we'd get together for meetings to decide what we were going to do for God. I don't know if you remember any of those meetings or if you came to them, if you were with us back then. And we'd sit down and we'd come up. we think we should have a yard sale. We think we should do this. We think we should do that. So we think of all the good ideas we could have for God and what they would do for God and us. And we write them all down. And at the end, we'd say, okay, let's do these things. And then we say, dear Lord, bless our things. Now, notice what's wrong with that. What would he just do? What did we do then? That's called self-sufficiency. That's pride. God says I'm not going to do that I'm not blessing that how does it work if you go to Acts what did they do it says they gathered for prayer and as they kept praying for God the spirit said to them take Paul and Silas and send them over here now did Paul come to the meeting and say I got a good idea Silas and I want to go no they had no idea when they got to the meeting the spirit of God spoke to them and they said yes Lord and God was in charge, they were humble and they followed instructions given to them by the living God. We were so and have been so arrogant in America that we keep telling God what we want blessed and sometimes we don't even care if we get blessed because we have such abilities. We've got such good singers. We've got so much money. We can just make it happen. And we don't even need God to bless us. That's horrid. Do you see what I'm saying? That's sin. God says, and this is I think one of the reasons we're a little Job church. God wants to bless us. He wants to bless our socks off. But we have to know how inadequate, how weak, how helpless we really are. And when you really get to know that you don't have enough good abilities, so we don't have any good singers here. They all went to the other churches. So we can't get anybody to come because we're singing good. They would leave because we're singing bad if it's going to be natural, right? And we can't get it because of me, because if I was Billy Graham, there'd be a million people here. So that's proved that I'm not even near that. So that's not going to be a problem. So what do we have left? God's grace? That's about it. Huh? That's the only thing we've got left, which is a good thing. Because all those other things, God says, that's not me. And if you really get to know and admit who you are as a people, how weak you really are, and how helpless you are, God says, whew, it's been a long road, but finally, I can give you some grace. I can entrust to you grace. My friend from Michigan, remember I told you, I don't know if I told you, a week ago or two weeks ago, he called me and said, I can't tell you, man, he had a church of about 50, 75 people. In the last few months, people are coming from everywhere. He's got 160 people or more now. They're just coming in. People are, he said, I don't know what's going on. It's like the grace of God. The people are just falling. And it's not like they're just coming because it's exciting. People are coming forward in tears because of their sin and asking for forgiveness. He's got, he had a lady come in there who was immoral, I guess, in the past. And she's up there crying her eyes out, sobbing in tears, not because she's sorry she got caught for something. She's a sinner. What a refreshing reality. and sobbed her way through the end of the service and gave her life to Jesus. The next week, she begged to be baptized. They went to try to baptize her, and she started sobbing again because of the grace of God. And what an amazing thing, the outpourings, the overwhelming blessings of grace, they're experiencing right now. They're experiencing. And he knows his weakness. He didn't say, oh, I know, I'm such a good preacher, I knew they were coming. Or my plans were so great. Mostly what we think in our day is our plans are so good. We did so much mailing, so much follow-up. We did so much fancy technical things that now people are going to come because we met their felt needs or whatever they'll say. No. He says, I don't know what they're there for. And I was like, dude, they're here because of the grace of God. You can't tell? And he almost cannot tell He just doesn hardly understand that God been pouring out of them by His grace flow Downpour of grace. Does that make sense? And this is what God is wanting to do here in our midst. We can't do anything outside of His direction and His blessing, and we must know it's there. Otherwise, the cycle, and this is a common cycle that happens to every believer, but maybe you don't realize it. Some people stay in the hard part for a long time. Look at number one I mentioned. Number two, humility comes as we respond and make use of God's powerful grace. Finally, as God's humility gets beaten into our hearts and minds, we begin to find God turning up the heat. The blessings of grace start to become flooding into your life. What happens then is step three. because of our humility, God gives us more grace, power, strength to fulfill his desires and do great things for him. And boom, things start to happen around you. I remember when I was youth pastor at Archive View Congregational Church in Muskegon, Michigan. We had 30 some kids or so and one of my kids came to me and said, hey, what's his name? It's down the hallway at the back door and he won't come. I was like, okay. So I went down there. He was looking out the back door and the window and he had his back to us. And I went to him, turned around, and he was sobbing. Man, what's wrong? I'm a sinner. I was like, that's a good thing. He thought it was a bad thing. You're under the conviction of God's power. God's poured out his grace upon you. So we ministered to him and prayed to him. And I was like, wow, what a gift from God for him to be so moved by the grace of God. We knew God was blessing us. We were into this, something that we couldn't define as human. It wasn't anything special I said or did. I wasn't even with him. He was in the hallway by himself. God was at work. We knew it was the grace of God. And see, we knew it was at hand and we knew what to do about it. That's what I'm saying here. As the humility comes, grace starts to bubble up. Number four, doing great things for God will tend to produce self-sufficient, lazy pride. And if you're not careful, and almost nobody can be that careful, it'll start to break you down. So that means that God demands that he has to give you much more grace to overcome the pride. And just like Job, remember, God gives it. He gave the grace to break it down. And a cycle of this in your life happens. It's not God abandoning you. Most people think, oh, God left me and I have no hope. And it's like, you're a dummy. God didn't abandon you. He set in motion the best thing for you. You have now the wonderful privilege of being humbled so that you can get more grace. We never see it as a great gift. We see that as a terrible thing happening. That means I have to go back and apologize. Good. We don't want to go back and apologize. Pride says, I'm right, you're wrong. Well, guess what? Bite the dirt and admit you're wrong and go back and humble yourself. It takes God's more grace to get you down to stop that. Stop thinking you're better than the other person and assume you need to get on your face and ask God's forgiveness. See what I'm saying? It's a cycle of grace in life. So looking back on the side again, let's make sure we go through it again. Natural tendency is to use our own wisdom. then we think we can ask God to bless our pride, which will never work. Number three on the side, pride equals self-sufficiency, remember. That means the way of thinking that we have is against God's will from the outset, even the way we perceive and look at things. And it's going to be ineffective in your life. Now, we know it doesn't work for salvation because God says you can't do any works to get yourself to heaven. We got that part pretty well down, don't we? But the part is, it works the same in the Christian life. You can't get anywhere in the Christian life not by any works plus God blessing you. It has to be always and only the grace of God on the whole area. There is no plus here. It's God's grace or zero. You get cut off because pride is going to be a very conscious concern of God. Remember what God said in James? He resists the proud and only gives grace to one group of people, the humble. That's all. So you automatically put yourself out of getting any refill at the gas station of grace if you have pride there. You pull in, go back out, come back later. You have to come back as a humble guy saying, I'm pushing my car and I have none left. Lord, I'm sorry, please, I need... Oh, good. Okay, come up to the pump. It's free anyway. Start getting that gas refill again. So look at step one again. God gives grace. Number two step, when you're totally aware of your nothingness, you're at the right place for God to operate. Step three, then God empowers you to accomplish great works. Step four, he gives more grace because he will resist you until you get so weak and you cry out to him. He'll give you more grace to start the cycle over again. Believe me, the cycle won't stop, I don't think, all your days. You get wiser as you get older. So maybe less empty spots. But when you start, you have bigger empty spots, you know, kind of thing. Now, spiritual growth means you have the spiritual senses exercising inside you to recognize evil and having the strength to turn away from it. The one key of true spiritual growth is that you can see right from wrong. The Bible term for that is the word discerning, discernment. Now remember, discernment is not the same as judgment. Remember the difference The best way I can give you a good picture is going to a court of law The jury are the discerners The judge is the judge In other words the discerner looks at all this thing and says this is evil this is wrong this guy deserves judgment They don't give the judgment. They give the report back to the judge who says, 50 years in prison for that. This is my judgment for such an evil act. Discernment sees right from wrong. God, the judge, tells you what happens if you don't turn from evil and brings judgment to you. So when everybody keeps saying, you can't say that, you can't think that, you're judging me. You say, listen, God is the judge. I'm just telling you this is what the Bible says about sin. This is discernment. I'm discerning to tell you, like a jury, you're wrong, man. All the evidence points that you are a liar and you can say what you want, but God will bring judgment for that. In other words, or me. I'm a liar and I can discern it, so I'm going to stop lying. And guess what? in grace strength, you can. You don't keep saying, oh, everybody's a sinner. I just keep lying, but that's okay. God always forgives me every day. Baloney. In grace, it says He gives you the strength to cut it off and stop lying. Make sense? You understand? It gives you the strength to stop. That's the evidence. Paul explained to Titus, grace turns men around and empowers them to deny lust and ungodliness. Look at the verse. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and unworldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world, in the present time. Notice all those words are very clearly cut saying, yes, you are to turn, grace gives you the teaching and the strength and empowerment to see that lust and ungodliness, what it is, it's wrong. It also strengthens us to live righteously and turn away from those and do what's right. Thirdly, it removes the desires of sin and replaces us with the desires for more godliness is what grace does. And fourthly, this is an experience of this life, not the future heaven hopeful later thing. It says now in the present, you got it. Does that make sense? No more excuses. No more excuses. The grace is sufficient. Take a drink of it. And if you're not getting it, humble yourself. Pride is the only thing that's going to cut you off. Or if you won't read the word where you get any strength, you won't have it. That's the only two things. The only third possibility is you're not born again. You're a false convert, right? Because a false convert has dreams in their head but no spirit in their heart. So, of course, they can't live righteously. Does that make sense? The only thing that keeps you from victory is either your ignorance of the word because you're not feeding on the grace or you have pride that stopped God's grace from pouring into you. That's it. Otherwise, start surfing under the waves of the grace of God because it's pouring at you. Don't make excuses. So how does the baby grow? I already mentioned this. Spiritual growth comes by feeding on the Word. Remember, just reading that Word supernaturally gives grace. Acts 32 again. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. Also, Colossians 1, when he's speaking to the church at Colossia, he's talking to them about their growth and faith and love and hope that everybody sees it. He says, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it is also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit in your life as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. Notice the connection. The reflection of their life was so real that people knew about the changes in their life. Their faith was so powerful. Their love was realistic. Their hope was authentic. And the world around them saw it because the grace of God was real in their lives. That's reality. And that's what's got to be in your life. Make sure you see what I'm saying. God's grace is not something that was only for Jesus. God's grace isn't something we just talk about as a theory. God's grace is reality. It is God floods your soul with His power, His desires, His influence. And the best thing I think of is like a flood. God floods your soul. God so flooded my soul when I was 19 that He wouldn't let me go with anything. My mind was flooded with different ideas. My thoughts were changing. My music was changing. He was blowing me away. I felt like I was getting drowned and in a flood coming through my life as God just came in like a mighty, mighty power. And it changed me. Do you have that same testimony as God flooding your life that you can't express or explain God's grace in your life. But you know it's there. You know you're different. You can't even necessarily know all the doctrines. It doesn't matter. But there's a righteousness that's changing you. There's a different way you look at life. There's a way that you're living that God has put into you that you can't say, I didn't used to do that 20 years ago. Now I do it. God has made me different. I know He's made me different because I see it. And so does my wife or my family or my neighbors. The people around me notice that God has flooded my life. That's the key of grace. And I want you to make sure you have that in reality today. Let's pray. My Jesus. Stand up and shout it if you love my Lord.