Growing in God — Jim Cymbala

Good afternoon everyone. So good to be here and hear you lift your voices and sing all is well. I Said all is well. Are you happy in the Lord? Everybody stand up. Everybody turn around and shake hands with six people.

You do not know you have never met them. You have never seen them. Everyone say hello to someone you may be seated. 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22 says. 1st Peter 1 22. 1 Peter 22 says now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth.

So that you have sincere love for your brothers. Love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God.

Being Born Again Through the Word of God

For All men are like grass all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of the Lord stands forever and this is the word that was preached to you therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk.

So that by it the milk you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is Good. May God bless the reading of his word. Amen. I Want to talk to you about that common phrase. At least in America, I guess it's common here in Korea, too.

I Think it was popularized by the ministry of Billy Graham over the decades that he served as an evangelist. And that is born again. Jesus said you must be born again. To go to heaven to go into the kingdom of God.

It's not going to church. It's not owning a Bible. It's not trying to live a good life. It's not crying when you fail and feeling bad about it. Those all have their place in life, but You must be born again.

There has to be a miracle that happens in your life or you are not a Christian. Christians are not those who go to church. Christians are those who are born again. Have confessed their sin put their faith in Christ and have had that miracle happen.

Where the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of them and renews them and makes them a new person in Christ Jesus. I trust that everybody here has had that experience. Not trying to live a good life. Not going to church.

You can go to church joining the Brooklyn Tabernacle won't make anyone a Christian. You must be born again. Now what I want to talk and teach on this Afternoon is this? How are we born again? Number two into what are we born again?

And then number three? How do we grow. Let's just pass by the first two quickly, but they're important points. Notice that Peter is writing this letter to churches and in the country that we would call Turkey Today and he had heard that these churches were being persecuted.

Persecution had hit these churches. Peter had not founded them and what we call first Peter is a circuit letter. That was read to the church we call it a book of the Bible, but it started out as a letter and Someone probably the leader would read it to the Christians at a certain place.

Then the letter was passed on and was read in another place and then it was read another and that's how the apostolic Teaching was passed among Christians because there were no Bibles. The Old Testament couldn't be easily reproduced and there was no New Testament.

It hadn't been written yet. And there were no printing presses. So the verbal teaching of the Apostles and the letters that they read wrote was treasured among the church. Well, he sends this letter out to encourage them that they got to keep remembering who they are no matter what they go through in life.

You got to always go back to your foundation you know when a I'm not a golfer. I plays paddleball and tennis a little bit but playing but let's take basketball I went was an all-city basketball player in New York and went to college on a basketball scholarship never went to seminary.

Now when you. When you shoot a foul shot, and you're not doing well any coach will come alongside and I've done that coached later on after I graduated and You see a kid missing and you say, okay. Forget that you have $150 sneakers.

They won't help you on your foul shot and you got socks and you got your shorts with the trim on it. That won't help you either. Let's start with how do you hold the ball? And then let's look at what your knees are doing and then let's look that you follow through.

Because if you just do that, you're not gonna suit so the everyone goes back to fundamentals the greatest golfers in the world when they get Lessons from their coaches, you know, the first thing the coach will ask them when they're golfing and these are guys.

They're making millions of dollars millions of dollars. The coach will say all right. You want a lesson now you want to start over something's wrong with your game? Okay. Let me see how you hold the club.

What do you mean how I hold the club? I've been golfing all my life. No, if you're holding it wrong, everything will go wrong. So they start with the foundation the basics that's what Peters reminding them now, what are our foundation?

What are our basics? How are we born again? We're born again. Into a living spiritual organism and everything that living has a seed. Every plant that's real has a seed every tree has a seed. Nothing is alive.

That didn't start with a seed. Babies are born because the male seed impregnates the female egg and now you have a living child. When it's carried to term and is born so everything that's alive starts with a seed now.

Seed rocks don't have seeds. Nothing that's not living has a seed. And now Peter says Every Christian is born again, and it's alive because a seed was planted. No life without a seed. But this is not a natural seed.

This is a supernatural seed. He says every Christian you've been born again by a seed being planted in your heart. And what is that seed? It's the Word of God. It's the Word of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the seed when we try to win others when this precious sister goes to Sri Lanka. She wants to make a difference. How will she make a difference by planting the seed. The power is in the seed? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul says for it the gospel is the power of God to salvation. So the Bible tells us that all of us are different. We've all had different experiences. I grew up in New York City. I pastor a church in the inner city.

You live in Korea right now but one thing we all have in common is we were all born by the same seed and That seed is the Word of God. So when you want love someone you want to see their life change. You plant the seed.

Don't argue with them. Don't fight with them that won't change anyone. Plant the seed. The powers in the seed. Now, what were we born into? Well Peter says a very strange things to most of our ears he says now that you've obeyed the truth and Have purified your hearts by believing the gospel.

Have Phileo love. Have brother-sister love for those Who you've been the family you've been born into and then he goes further have intense love for them. And here's the second point we want to just make in passing.

Born Again Into the Family of God

This I was never told when I was growing up in church, and it has hurt me. Until I saw it later on maybe it'll help you all when you're born again, you're born again into a family and Unless you understand you're born into a family you will never grow.

We're gonna get to the main question is how to grow. But you got to understand how you were born again by the seed and you were born again into a family. You you do not in one way we have an individual relationship with Christ.

But we are born into the family of God. God is our father. Jesus is our elder brother and all of you are my brothers and sisters. We're gonna spend eternity together. Maybe some of our family members won't be with us.

Biologically, but spiritually this is the family ball born-again believers are gonna spend eternity in heaven. He that believes in me. Jesus said though that person dies yet that person shall live. So every loved person that we've ever lost who's a Christian or every baby that's gone to be with the Lord.

We're gonna be with them forever and ever and ever we're gonna be in the big meeting that has no end. Amen. Are you allowed to say amen here in this meeting amen? So That's something revolutionary for us because some of you are loners.

You just want to come to the service and go home. You'll never grow. Impossible. Because you've been born again into a family and I need you and you need me and you need the person next to you. Because God put us in a family when Jesus taught the disciples to pray.

Do you remember what how he taught them the first two words? He said pray this way not my father. What's the first two words? Our father our is first person plural our father. Which art in heaven all growth all serving of Christ must be in the context of the family of God.

That's why immediately he says now that you've been born again Love your brothers and sisters and he uses the word phileo where we get the English City Philadelphian. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.

It's really not but it's called that I've been in Philadelphia. There's no brotherly love there. That's funny. I just thought of that. But phileo the word for love there is the love that a brother has for a brother sister as sister.

It's it's family love. The only way we're gonna grow is by loving each other. All of the growth you can read the Bible memorized verses come to church. You'll never grow unless you grow in community. That's why Jesus wrote letters in the book of Revelation to churches.

Why his people are always gathered in churches whenever you see a Christian who doesn't want to be with other believers? Doesn't wants us to forsake the gathering of themselves. No matter what excuse they tell you take it from someone who's been ministering longer than most of you are alive.

They're in trouble spiritually. Because the instinct you have when you're growing and you're right with the Lord and God is working in your life. Is you want to be with your brothers and sisters? I have a brother named Bob.

I have a younger sister named Pat. I Have three children. I have five grandchildren. You want to be and love your family. You want to help your family? You're interested in your family if you're healthy and normal you think you have to tell me to love my grandchildren.

Do you you think you have to tell me now pray in the morning that you'll love your grandchildren? It's in me to love my grandchildren because that's my family and The same is spiritually so we have to root for each other and love one another and help one another.

I have a new member of coming into my family. I want you to pray just like we're praying for a sister from, Sri Lanka my middle daughter named Susan married to Fellow named Brian who's one of my associate pastors?

Susan heads up the BT kids ministry hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of inner-city kids. Jumping and praising and shaking and baking and every other thing. Well, she has a boy 13 and a girl 10, but she's always wanted to adopt a child that nobody wanted and That probably wouldn't hear about Jesus Christ so We thought a door had opened in the Philippines some years ago.

But to no avail. So she's been for 10 months now working through a long process expensive and long. And she was number 24 on the list then she went to number 18 then weeks later. They said you're number nine, then she was stuck at number nine.

Then she was number four finally she was number one and she just got the phone call a couple weeks ago. You have a baby boy from Ethiopia. Who's gonna be your son aren't you happy? I have a grandson coming to me from Ethiopia.

From Ethiopia his mother died when he was born and His father gave him to an orphanage because he couldn't support the child and then through the providence of God now my Daughter Susan is gonna have along with Luke and Claire Elizabeth.

He's she's gonna his name is Bushara. Everybody say Bushara. It means good news in Ethiopian. It's it's a Muslim word. But he's not gonna be a Muslim. He's gonna be a Christian. How many say amen and He's going to be called Levi.

She's gonna name him Levi Levi Petri. Now you think already this morning when I got up early you think I was already praying for Levi. I haven't seen him yet. Just seen pictures of him got long hands.

Long fingers. I saw his legs they're long even that we have a picture of me one month old. Well, he's almost two months old now. He's gonna be tall. It's gonna play in the NBA. He's gonna be out there shaking and baking somebody.

I Said to Susie you're gonna have a son six six six seven. How about that? Well, you think you have to teach me? When I see that little guy already I'm praying from no because. The sign of a healthy Christian is they love their brothers and sisters if you meet somebody who Has family members they hate and they gossip about them and they fight with them.

You saying that that person's sick. That person's off. That's their sister. That's their brother family stick together. Now this is all important because as I close I want to tell you the secret of growing.

Which Peter gives us he says you're born again by the seed and you're born again into a family. Nobody can serve God by themselves. See I pastor an inner city. There's more than 10 ,000 people every Sunday who come to our church and I'm always careful.

I'm always vulnerable to the fact that there are people who come in the building. Want to hear the word want to hear Carol's choir sing want to feel that? Vibration and all of that and then they're out the door.

They don't know a soul. They don't want to know a soul. They're not gonna open up to anybody. The doors have closed in their life. They've been hurt. They don't trust anybody and they close their doors and while they're closing their doors.

They're closing themselves to growth because you can't grow on your own. You grow in relationship to other Christians you walk with God, but you relate to brothers and sisters. And if you're here today, and you're not relating and close and developing friendships and Loving one another you're never gonna grow.

Something's wrong. You got to go back to now the foundation and say wait a minute I'm born again by the Word of God and I'm born into a family. Am I relating to my family or am I some weirdo? Here just want to live by myself.

I'm gonna be the Lone Ranger. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto, right? But some people they just I see that all the time I can get into that myself just close off people so Peter says. So that you can grow up in your salvation.

While we were leaving the hotel when they picked me up today this afternoon I saw balloons being held by a mom and She had a little boy one year old and that was his birthday they were celebrating in the hotel.

Said little girl about three the three-year-old looked different than the one-year-old you know why? Because she's grown. She's three and the little guy was only one. Everything that's healthy that's been born of a seed it grows trees grow plants grow animals grow humans grow.

I Go to Haiti a little bit we have two missionaries there from our church and when you go to Haiti you see children who look like they're two years old and you find out they're five years old and You think they're two and sometimes their hair has turned a funny color because of bad diet.

They're not growing. They're not eating right they're not being taken care of right and they're not growing. Now Brothers and sisters here at this great English ministry church, I'm so happy to be here.

I want to tell you something. Christians don't automatically grow. Spiritual growth Can be severely hindered if you don't understand the principles of growth. So thus we can have people first of all who come to the church who are not even Christians.

And that's something all leaders have to be aware of. Are the folks born again. And they have or they receive Christ as their Savior. The second problem is are they growing? At the end of my life, I'm gonna stand before Christ not you or some denomination.

No one will judge my peers won't judge me. It won't matter if I'm well-known or lesser-known or unknown. I'm gonna stand before Christ and one of the things he's gonna Judge a lot of what he'll judge in my life at the judgment seat of Christ is the quality of my ministry.

What are Carol and I doing in downtown Brooklyn? Are we having church? Am I trying to make a living? Am I trying to be famous? Am I on an ego trip or am I trying to do the work of the Lord and the work of the Lord is to Evangelize and then those who receive Christ have received the seed.

You've got to see them grow. But how do you grow. Growth is not natural. I have relatives who have been in church and received Christ 40 50 years ago aunts and uncles. They haven't. They're worse off now than they were when they were just Christians a year.

You can go backwards. Or you can be stunted. Come on, we all know folks who are Chris. I've watched this all my life some Christians. They're serving the Lord ten years and there's no growth. There's no overflow.

There's no blessing to others and then some drug addict in our church comes in full of crack cocaine. Messed up big time in their head. When you try to talk to them they get up in your grill and just full of anger and then the next thing.

You know, they receive Jesus Christ and the next thing you see him two months later. They're like on fire for God. They're growing there. They're in the Bible. They're all kinds of good things are happening.

And then others you see they're going nowhere. Everyone has to grow. We can't stop growing. Pastors can't stop growing. That's how pastors lose their effectiveness. They think they know everything and they've studied everything and they stop growing.

When you stop growing some bad things happen. So now how do you grow. Peter gives us just two things and I close. Peter gives us two things how to grow. Well, it's really basic all of us would agree with it and this is a very health conscious nation a very intelligent.

Very high type culture that you have in this nation. When you go to a doctor and The doctor runs a series of tests. Let's say you're not in Korea. Let's take New York. And you go to a doctor doctor says sit down.

I got to talk to you. I've run all the tests. Your cholesterol is whoa. Your blood pressure whoa your. Your stamina when we did that test on you on the Walker there resistance machines. Hey. You better listen to me.

We got to have a talk and what if the person stops and said look doctor I Paid money for this appointment. I just want you to give me a pill so that I'll feel better. But don't give me a talk. I don't want any bad news.

I just want a pill so that I feel better and a doctor will say listen, I'm a doctor. For your problem. I have no pill. You got to take some things away and you got to add some things. That's the way it isn't everything in life.

You take away and you add. When you want to get better in basketball and during the offseason, what do you do? You work on things that you weren't so good at can't dribble that good with my left hand like I should so I'm just gonna Dribble dribble dribble with my left hand.

I got to add new skills. Maybe look, you know work out get in better shape. Run suicide drills do all kinds of things then take away some things. You know can't be hanging out. I got to give myself more rest proper diet workout.

So by addition and subtraction you start moving on and that's the way it is in spiritual growth all people grow spiritually because they add and subtract and Peter tells us now what to subtract and then what to add if you want to grow now with this foundation of we're born by the seed of God and we're born into a family.

Putting Away Malice, Deceit, and Hypocrisy

Peter starts to Say now look. You know that verse and he kind of quotes that verse and that says who taste and see that the Lord is good. So he says now you want to grow up in your salvation. You don't want to be just stuck.

And be a perpetual baby. You know, there are some people go to church 10 20 years. They're still on pablum. They're still on on on they're taking baby food. So he said here's what you got to get rid of.

Again, remember you're born into a family. You got to get rid of all malice and all deceit. You can't grow if There's malice and deceit in your life. Malice Is a word for hateful evil thoughts about other people.

You cannot grow because God is love. If you got it in for other people if you got nasty thoughts toward other people. That's impossible. How in the world if God seed is inside of me and God is love and he put me in a family.

How in the world could I grow. I'm gonna be stunted something's gonna be off in my life. If I have evil thoughts about someone I want to see something bad happen to them. So he says you got to put that away.

Notice it's possible for we Christians or Peter wouldn't say put it away. Some people think once once you become a Christian, you're never tempted to have a bad thought about anybody. That's false. Says you got to put away all evil.

Said now here's the other thing you got to put away, you know, like the doctor says. Listen blood pressure your weight. Everything's wrong. You got to change so no more milkshakes. No more Baskin Robbins.

No more donuts. Dunkin Donuts. You have Dunkin Donuts here, right? Yeah, no more Dunkin Donuts. No, doctor. I just want to feel. I'm telling you how to feel better. What do you want me to do you want me to lie to you or do you want me to you want to go into?

Fantasy denial or do you want to hear the truth? Doctor says I took the Hippocratic oath. I got to tell you the truth. You got to get rid of these things or you'll never feel better. No, I want everything I want but I want to feel better doctor says no, it doesn't work that way.

So put away all evil and then put away all deceit and that word in the Greek for deceit is the word I don't you don't have that expression here. Maybe you do we have it in New York is when you try to play someone.

Everyone know what playing someone is. In other words, you're using them you're talking them a certain way not sincerely but you want something from them. So you're being deceitful and another person that you can't get anything from you just like get out of my you know, get out.

He says you can't do that and grow because Christ never acts that way toward anyone. How many are happy that Jesus loves everyone just put your hand up. Would you please aren't we happy that Christ loves everyone?

So you can't have you can't be. You can't be playing people and getting an advantage. They can do that in the business world. Everyone's acting nice. They hate each other possibly show business the media all of that stuff that's in the world all phony junkie stuff, New York's full of it.

America's full of it and It's he says you can't have that and be growing because the last thing Jesus ever was was insincere. Jesus never played anyone never said anything to anyone that he didn't mean.

So if you're conning people. You're never gonna grow you can con but you'll never grow. So the next thing to do is put away all hypocrisy. Now that word in the Greek is the word for actor. Because back in that day in the Greek theater, which influenced the Roman civilization.

The Greeks preceded it they didn't have makeup and full dress costumes people basically in the theater. Dressed all kind of the same and what they did was with holes for the eyes and a breathing hole for the nose is they would do the whole play with a mask on and they would say their lines and The face that would be painted on there would somehow associate with the character that they were playing and that's what the word is for Hypocrisy, it's an actor on a stage and Peter is saying do you want to grow?

Do you want to grow as a Christian? Are you serious about this? Are you just fooling around with it? You come in the church just go to church or you really love Jesus with all your heart. He died on the cross for you.

Now, what are you gonna do? You're gonna really live for him or you're gonna do some half-baked Nonsense thing. I'll go to church when you can fit it in your schedule. Are you gonna serve him with all your heart?

So if you're gonna serve him with all your heart and you want to grow then you've got to take down the mask. You can't be somebody you're not. Because that will kill all growth in you spiritually. That's why so many Christians don't grow.

Is because they're actors. God never blesses an actor or an actress. Leave that for Broadway. We got to be real. Can I get an amen we got to be real. You can't be high-fiving people. Hi. How are you sister?

So good to see you've been praying about you lately. Then the minute she leaves I go who she thinks she is. Who does she think she is? Don't we have that commonplace in church? Two-faced actors. Who talk one way to people's face then talk another way behind someone?

I I don't know the Korean culture that well, and I don't know how where you all are from. I know some of you are not from Korea. You live here now in Korea and you're coming to this English minister. I don't know what your background is.

I can only speak to my life experience and that is America is full including the churches of actors and actresses. People who high-five you and do the bump and the whole thing and Then the moment you're out of earshot.

They're gonna start talking and then they wonder Lord help me. I want to grow it's impossible to grow. It's impossible to grow. You're taking and stuff into your spiritual diet, which is anti growth anti growth.

So he says put away all deceit put away all evil and put away all acting. Because you can't have a family the last thing I would ever do with my brother or my sister. My mother's alive. She's 95 years old.

You think I would ever like see my mother and and act with her. Or she would act with me. That's my mom. Say what you mean mean what you say or don't talk. Otherwise you're not gonna grow and you're gonna grieve God's Spirit because why would Jesus Christ want to produce a generation of actors and Actresses he wants to produce men and women of character right here in this church.

So we say what we mean and we mean what we say. That's the way to grow and not only putting that away but he says Put away. Envy and slander of every kind now envy envy. Oh my goodness envy. You know, there's a proverb that says wrath is terrible and anger is like a tour of a torrent.

But no a thing can compare with envy. There's some base instinct in all of us. Even as Christians we have to guard against that. We can't rejoice when other people are blessed. We envy them. We're jealous of them.

Ministers are jealous of other ministers. Pastors are jealous of other pastors with other churches, you know, a woman buys a new dress. She comes to church and she sees someone's with a nicer dress and it ruins the whole service.

Someone does well in school until they find out someone did better. Oh in this nation. I don't know how it is, but you're very academically Competitive here. I imagine the temptation to jealousy must be amazing here.

Who got what job? Who went to what school? And if you give in if you and I give into that envy say goodbye to all Christian growth because God Wants us to rejoice with our brothers and sisters successes.

My wife has won six Grammy Awards with her choir. Do you think that bothers me or do you think that that I'm more happy by her awards than anything? That any accolade I've ever gotten. Some years ago I was awarded the best book Christian book of the year in America for this book.

I wrote fresh wind fresh fire. What am I gonna do when Christ comes, you know, hold up my book award. He wrote the Bible. What am I gonna do? Hold up my book and Here's my fresh wind fresh fire. Ah. But I don't think about that.

I'll talk about. I didn't go to the award ceremony where they they awarded it. But my wife winning a Grammy. That's my wife. That's my Carol. Why do I feel that way you think you have to teach me. No because love.

Always rejoices in the good of the other person. It's the opposite of envy and Peter says you want to grow you got to put away. Evil thinking you got to put away. I know this is you know, not a message to make everybody get up and jump around the building.

But I have to tell you the truth from the Word of God because I want to see you grow and The leadership of this church will all be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. Not if you thought they were popular.

Or how good the praise and worship music is the whole deal is. Are you growing? Because if you're not everything's for nothing, it's all a waste of time. So put away that put away deceit don't play anyone don't con.

Put away all hypocrisy take the mass down and be who you are. But pastor, that's all I've ever seen. I grew up in a house where my mother and father were actors acted one way in church. And when they came home, they talked another way.

Well, then break that whole thing and start a new way be a Christian about the whole thing. Or this thing is going to go from generation to generation and put away all envy and slander of every kind. Oh.

Rejoicing With Others Instead of Envy and Slander

This conclusion that a lot of churches in America on the treadmill they're going nowhere, but they're running hard and The reason is the guys preaching the gospel. There's some maybe some prayer in the church.

They've good praise and worship and all of that, but this is killing them. Churches are not held back by the pastor for the most part meeting somebody in a motel in the hotel. Drugs and alcohol slay their hundreds of thousands, but ten thousands.

Hundreds of thousands are slain by just this talking praising God rejoicing in the Lord and when the meetings over. Did you see her who she thinks she is anyway, why does he get the solo who put her on the worship team?

Was that good? Well, I just said I hear you laughing. No, everyone has a remark. Everyone has a remark, but don't we have enough trouble just taking care of our own lives. I know for myself I will be occupied 24 hours a day just looking at my own mistakes and my own weaknesses.

Who in the world would give give me the time to be judging you or somebody else? And then after Christ has been so lenient with me, you know. The only reason I'm here talking to you is not because there's something special about me.

I am a sinner saved by grace and God has been very patient and merciful with me. And I know he's been the same with you. So after all the mercy he's shown us who are we to judge anybody else? Who in the world I mean, are we nuts?

Are we where the angels must scratch? They don't have. Do they have heads? They scratch their wings or something and They must be saying what is up with that? After God has shown mercy because he knows the secret things that some of us have done that nobody knows and He's had mercy and covered it with the blood of his son and now you and I are gonna judge someone and talk behind their Back about him.

That must be like a sign spiritual insanity. The angels must be looking to go. They're nuts down there. God's been so merciful, but they're talking you say well brother, you know pastor Jim. I only tell things that are the truth.

What if God should tell the truth about you to everyone? Sometimes we even pass our gossip and our slander along in the spiritual way. Look, I wouldn't. I don't want to tell you this really but I'm gonna just so you could pray.

Because if I tell you this I know you'll pray and then Not edifying. Not your business anybody else's business. Are our lives so empty that we have to talk about other people? Is it really such a vacuum in your life and mine that I have to occupy precious time talking about people who are not present.

So Peter says if you put all that away and You're gonna be in position to grow. You're not gonna grow unless you get rid of those bad calories. Carbos carbs got to go the carbs got to go. Evil thoughts evil Deeds Deception Hypocrisy Envy slander of every kind he said put it away from you and then crave the pure spiritual milk.