“How to Grow Spiritually”
June 3, 2007
The new couple in church went down to the second row and found a good seat to enjoy the sermon when old Mrs. Smith, who was a charter member of the church, in a demanding tone, said, “EXCUSE me! You are sitting in MY seat! You’ll just have to move.”
Tension was running high in the church board meeting. It was clear the pastor wanted to buy a new sign for the church. The cost was $5000.00 and Wayne was against it. Big and intimidating, he got red in the face and shouted at the pastor, “That’s a stupid idea. Just because you have a college education you think you are smarter than us and know everything. Well, if you want help on that idiotic idea you can just count me out!”
Suzy, stated in disbelief at old Mrs. Swenson and her daughter, in the ladies restroom. They were shouting at each other! Their voices were raised and they were red faced, and although they were not using the curse words of the world, they certainly weren’t displaying Christlikeness either. Suzy decided that she better find a church where the people were a little more mature.
Just because a person has been to church for 20 or 30 years, or all their lives, it doesn’t mean they are spiritually mature – anymore than just because you are 21 or 22 it means you have a high school and college education. Paul was a little discussed with some of the folks in the church. He says,
“There is much more I would like to say along these lines, but you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you all over again the very first principles in God’s Word. You are like babies who can drink only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk it shows he isn’t very far along in the Christian life, and doesn’t know much about the difference between right and wrong. He is still a baby Christian!” Heb 5:11-12 (Living)
Do you sense his impatience? He says, “You don’t seem to listen! You ought to be teachers by now – but you need someone to teach you! You are immature – like babies!”
Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen any more than education happens just because you go to school. It begins with desire. You need a desire to learn. When I graduated from High school I was carrying about a D average. I didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in learning. School was just something I HAD to go to. But a few years later when I got out of the army and invited Christ into my heart and realized He was calling me to preach, my attitude changed. I knew two things for sure. God was calling me to preach – and I didn’t know anything about it. I had a great desire to learn. So I studied. In my years in college I received two C’s. The rest were A’s and B’s. Why? Was I smarter? No. What changed was my desire to grow.
If you have no desire to grow – you won’t. You will be an immature Christian all your life. It will be displayed in the fruits you produce. You will be up and down spiritually. You will be negative and critical and selfish. If you make it to heaven – you will have little, if any, reward waiting for you. Life will be a difficult place with little hope or love or joy.
Part of my job, as your pastor, and our job as a church, is to help you grow. Part of our purpose is to teach Christlikeness. The Bible says,
“…grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 (KJV)
You need to know that God wants you to grow. The most important thing you will ever do in life is to accept Jesus as your Savior – but that is just the beginning. Salvation is just the door that leads to a wonderful, new, abundant life. After experiencing that, the Holy Spirit will begin to teach you God’s will. Jesus said,
“When the Holy Spirit, who is truth, comes, he shall guide you into all truth…” John 16:13 (Living)
The problem is that you have to ‘want’ to grow. You have a will and you can will to grow or will to not grow. You have the power to be lazy and apathetic and remain immature – like those Hebrew folks. The Bible says,
“You will never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God’s Word until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right. Let us stop going over the same old ground again and again, always teaching those first lessons about Christ. Let us go on instead to other things and become mature in our understanding, as strong Christians ought to be. Surely we don’t need to speak further about the foolishness of trying to be saved by being good, or about the necessity of faith in God; you don’t need further instruction about baptism and spiritual gifts and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. The Lord willing, we will go on now to other things.” Heb 5:14 -6:3(Living)
I want you to understand that it is God’s plan that you become Christlike. The Word says,
“…as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” 2 Cor 3:18 (Living)
“For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to him--and all along he knew who would--should become like his Son…” Romans 8:29 (Living)
From the very beginning, God decided that He wanted you to become Christlike – and He will go to any length, allow whatever is needed in your life to help you become Christlike.
I believe there are four important habits that every Christian needs to develop to become mature and Christlike. The first habit you need to develop to become like Jesus is to spend time daily in God’s word.
When you are immature you spend time questioning God’s Word and the authority of it. Is it real? Is it relevant? Is it really God’s will revealed to man? You need to quickly get beyond that, accept it by faith, and make daily Bible reading a habit. You need to grow up spiritually. King David said,
“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God. But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.”
Psalms 1:1-2 (Living)
“How can a young man stay pure? By reading your Word and following its rules.”
Psalms 119:9 (Living)
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4 (KJV)
Do you want a pure life filled with joy and hope? Then meditate on God’s Word. In other words, read it. Think about it. Ponder the deep things of God.
God has given us His word for many reasons – all of them good. Listen!
“The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. It is God’s way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.”
2 Tim 3:16-17 (Living)
God wants to use the bible to teach us truth. He wants to use it to show us what is wrong in our life. He wants us to have a pattern and an example to follow to straighten us out. He wants to equip us so that we can help others.
Choose to have a daily quiet time with God. I start my day by getting my Bible and reading a chapter in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. It’s kind of like putting the rudder down in a ship. It starts the day off with my mind on Godly things and gets me going in the right direction.
Others prefer to end the day with God. It helps you to sleep if your last thoughts are on godly things. Some people have their devotional time at lunch. It doesn’t matter when or how or what method you use. The important thing is to make bible reading a daily habit.
Another habit the growing Christ must develop is prayer. On one hand, prayer seems difficult and unnatural for the new believer. We haven’t done this before. But if you picture, in your mind, Jesus sitting there with you, and just begin to talk to Him – it really isn’t very hard at all. And you will experience a peace and serenity like you never experienced before.
Jesus set the example of prayer. He prayed at night. He prayed in the morning. He prayed before meals. He prayed before trying times. He prayed every day. Jesus made it a priority to pray. The bible says,
“(Jesus) often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” Luke 5:16 (Living)
“The next morning he was up long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.” Mark 1:35 (Living)
There is power in prayer. Prayer moves the hand of God. John tells us that God always hears our prayers and when we ask according to His will, we will get what we pray for. God wants to help you with your life. He wants to provide for your needs. He invites you to just ask. The bible says, “You don’t have because you don’t ask.” (James 4:2) We need to ask.
If you want to grow in your prayer life; if you want a more effective prayer life use this little acrostic to help you remember how to pray. A.C.T.S.
First, begin your prayer with Adoration. When you come to God – come with praise for all He has done for you. Focus on praising Him.
Secondly, Confess your sins and faults and failings and weaknesses. The Holy Spirit will reveal any rebellion in our hearts. God resists the proud – but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:11) If you want to grow, ask God to reveal areas of growth in your life. Confess you weaknesses, your faults, your laziness, anything that isn’t Christlike. God will hear and help. He will forgive and purify you.
Thirdly, after Adoration and confession, come Thanksgiving. We are such a blessed people. When we are immature – life is all about us and our needs and wants and desires. We need to take a time out and count our blessings. Name them one by one.
Fourth, S stands for Supplication. Supplication is just another word for intercession or interceding or petitioning. That is where we ask God to provide for us or for someone else. In this part of prayer we present all our needs and requests to the Lord. The bible says,
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.” Phil 4:6 (Living)
"Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open. If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead? If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not! And if you hard-hearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them?” Matt 7:7-11 (Living)
God wants to hear from you. He will always answer your prayer. He may not answer it the way you like. He may say “No.” “Wait.” Or “Yes” – but He will answer in His timing. The growing Christian makes daily prayer a priority in His life.
The third thing a growing Christian does is to put God first in His finances. Jesus said,
"For neither you nor anyone else can serve two masters. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way around--you will be enthusiastic about one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Luke 16:13 (Living)
Let’s be real clear here. God doesn’t need your money. He can make money – if He needs it. Jesus had one of His disciples catch a fish that had money in its mouth so He could pay taxes. God doesn’t need your money – but you need to surrender your money to God – so your money doesn’t become your god. All of us – all we have – all we possess - even our money – needs to be given to God. God asks us to only give 10 per cent, as a token of our submission to Him. And we find that so hard to do – don’t we. God says,
"Will a man rob God? Surely not! And yet you have robbed me. " ’What do you mean? When did we ever rob you?’ "You have robbed me of the tithes and offerings due me. And so the awesome curse of God is cursing you, for your whole nation has been robbing me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in! "Try it! Let me prove it to you! Your crops will be large, for I will guard them from insects and plagues. Your grapes won’t shrivel away before they ripen," says the Lord Almighty. "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land sparkling with happiness. These are the promises of the Lord Almighty.” Mal 3:8-12 (Living)
A mature Christian is a tithing Christian. He has enough faith to believe that God will provide for all His needs – as God promised.
The fourth habit a growing Christian develops is belonging to a small group with the specific purpose of growing spiritually. It may be a Sunday school class or a midweek Bible study or a home Bible study – but the growing Christian seeks fellowship with others. The bible says,
“Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.” Heb 10:25 (Living)
“They joined with the other believers in regular attendance at the apostles’ teaching sessions and at the Communion services and prayer meetings. And all the believers met together …. They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness…” Acts 2:42-46 (Living)
If you want to grow spiritually, you must discipline yourself to meet regularly with other believers to study God’s word and fellowship. Not just on Sunday. It’s not enough to go to church every Sunday. There needs to be a time of worshipping God, like we do at church on Sunday morning, but there also needs to be a time of study and fellowship with other believers – seeking knowledge and wisdom.
A growing Christian develops these four habits:
A daily time with God’s Word; a daily time of prayer; tithing 10 percent of income; and fellowshipping in a small group weekly. If you do these things you will grow and mature into Christlikeness. This is our goal as a church and it needs to be each of our personal goals. More like Jesus. That’s each f our needs.
If you would like to get closer to Jesus, would you pray a prayer like this:
Dear Jesus,
I invite You into my heart and life. I accept You as my Lord and Savior. Help me to become more like You. Help me to spend time with You every day by reading Your Word and Praying with You. Help me to give you back 10 per cent of what You have given to me. Help me to hunger for Your Will and seek Your truth in a small group bible Study. I will do my best to make these things happen in my life. Thank you for loving me and preparing me for eternity.
In Jesus Name,
