Helping Others
Helping Others
How We Help Each Other Grow
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
©2009
We Help Each Other Grow…Jeremiah 17:5-13
1. By Keeping each other’s Focus on God – Alone!
It is interesting that Spiritual Growth for a Christian has a lot to do with their sight…with their Spiritual Sight – that on which our heart focuses. What we see and how we see it, affects the way we think, and how we think, strongly affects how we live.
When we perceive a clear picture of something, whether we take the picture with our camera, or discern a snapshot in our mind, we need at least seven elements to be present:
An Ability to See
oWe must be Transformed in Spirit (John 3:3)
An Object to be Seen
oWe must Believe in God (Heb. 11:6)
Light to See the Object
oThe Light of the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:4)
A Lens through which our Eye can Focus
oGod’s Word (Psalm 119:105)
An Aperture to adjust the Light Appropriately
oRightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)
A Means to Capture the Picture (a camera; a mind)
oBeing Transformed by the Renewing of our Mind (Rom. 12:1)
A Device to Record and Recall the Picture
oMeditating on God’s Word (Joshua 1:8)
A.The Outcome for those who focus on our own strength.
Jeremiah 17
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
B.The Outcome for those whose Hope is in the Lord
Jer. 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
We Help Each Other Grow…
2.By Having a Clear Understanding of the Deceitfulness of our Own Heart!
a.The Two Sides of Fire
b.The Two Natures of a Believer
i.A Transformed Spirit
ii.A Carnal Nature
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick; who can understand it?
c.Our need is for our Transformed Spirit to die to our carnal nature and to yield instead:
i.To the Headship of Christ
ii.To the Authority of God’s Word
iii.To the Leading of God’s Holy Spirit
We Help Each Other Grow…
3.By Realizing to Whom we are Accountable, and the Accomplishment of True Reward
a.That Our True Accountability is to God Alone
Jer. 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
b.That the Reward of a Carnal Life ends in Futility
11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him,
and at his end he will be a fool.
We Help Each Other Grow…
4.By Encouraging One Another to go to the Source of Our Strength: The Fountain of Living Water
a.The One through Whom we Draw our Strength and Sustenance
b.The One in Whom we Rest
c.The One in Whom we Hope
Jer. 17:12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from youÉ shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
d.The One through Whom we are Empowered
John 4
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of
the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 7
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, asÒ the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Colossians 1
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Conclusion
We Help Each Other Grow…
1.By Keeping each other’s Focus on God – Alone!
2.By Having a Clear Understanding of the Deceitfulness of our Own Heart!
3.By Realizing to Whom we are Accountable, and the Accomplishment of True Reward
4.By Encouraging One Another to go to the Source of Our Strength: The Fountain of Living Water!