Growth

My pastor preaches on growth this morning.

How do we grow?

A right concept of grace
A right relationship with the world
Transparency and honesty with God
A delight in spiritual disciplines and activities

What does scripture say?

Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep your word

Psalm 119.67

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
Psalm 119.71

We grow through pain. Moses had pain. Moses murdered a man, abandoned everything he knew and lived in the desert for forty years before God called him.  David had pain. God anointed David as a teenager then Saul chased him for fifteen years before he died and David could become king. Jacob deceived his father and suffered the consequences of his deception as he worked for his deceptive uncle for fourteen years to earn the right to marry the woman he loved. Even Christ "learned obedience" from suffering. 

We grow because God calls us. We grow because God afflicts us. We grow because we surrender to his will. These things: grace, how we see the world, our relationship with God, our disciplines — these are the mechanics but the core, the why is much deeper, much more difficult to endure or to understand. 

Few among us perform these mechanics by nature. Naturally we depend on ourselves. Naturally we look to the world to meet our needs and to satisfy our desires. We look to the world because we know the world and we see the world. Only after God removes the things we depend on do we depend on him. Only after God removes these natural trappings do we see that the world does not meet our needs or satisfy our desires. Only after God removes love, sanity, strength do we understand that these things only exist through him and apart from him we are nothing. Only then do we seek him through honesty and discipline. Only then do we understand that we breathe and walk and exist only by his grace.

Faith does not easily grow. We enter the world arrogant, deceitful, filthy narcissists. Depending on our parents, we may receive training that increases or decreases this arrogance. Regardless, God will faithfully use the rest of your life to undo the nature that Adam gave us all. 

I know, O Lord, that your judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Psalm 119.75

YouTube script

Atheism is the most empty and pointless of all the world religions. The Catholic says, "you're a loser but even though you're a loser you have to do what only a winner can do: earn eternal salvation." the Muslim says, "murder everyone who isn't a murderous loser like you and turn the world into murderous losers". Christianity says, you're a loser and because you're a loser only God can save you. Every other religion is just a drunk mix of bad philosophy, but atheism says literally nothing. Nothing exists but what I can see. It is the religion of not. God does not exist. You do not have a purpose. The atheist, at least the well intentioned atheist, attempts to make something of his life. He attempts to create his own purpose, and as long as life goes well, he's fine. But when life does not go well and (only for the fortunate few does life go well) when life goes badly what does he have? He has a purpose he has created for himself built on the shallow shifting foundation of his own ego but what is that built on? He has already denied the existence of ultimate reality and face it atheists, you know God exists. You know you will face the Eternal Judge. You put so much effort into denying this fact because you need it to be false because if it's true your world will collapse. Atheism destroys people.
Not only people but entire civilizations. Atheism birthed communism. The question was, now that God is dead, how do we build a functioning society? The answer was exactly what any child would say: we share! This is communism. But a person must be forced to share and that as it turns out, is not true sharing. Atheism denies the biblical truth that men are evil and instead it posits a good man at its core of a functioning society. But this is a lie so men must be forced at gunpoint to share. Men are lazy and evil apart from the grace of God and they will not work for each other and they will not share. If they are forced to share they are not sharing and it is the government who must force the collection and redistribution of resources. But isn't this what atheists wanted to avoid in the first place? Don't they want to avoid the heavy hand of some authoritarian despot? Only they've traded a loving cosmic authority for a violent human authority. The atheist is a fool, as scripture says.

YouTube script

Oy hello atheists.
I'm not going to try to convince anyone of what I believe. Only God can do that. If he wants you to believe you will believe. If not, sorry mate. None of you want a proof. You want to deny any proof. Nothing will convince you. If God came to earth and told you he was God and performed miracles and rose from the dead, you still wouldn't believe. You'd make excuses and claim connivery and charlatanishness and all manner of atheism. So...let's move on.
What I will do is tell you what is. I am going to tell you what God has done and what has happened and what will happen. Ok