Today we are exploring what it means to grow in the love of Jesus.
When we look at the dictionary for the meaning of growing words like bigger, more, larger, taller, healthier and living pop up.
Now throughout our lives there will be times when we want to be growing.
But there are also times for some of us because we are at an age where we don’t want to grow in some parts of our lives.
We don’t need or want bigger houses.
We don’t want bigger families.
We don’t want growing bodies.
But there are two areas in our lives where God calls us to be always growing.
He calls us to be growing numerically as church, as a Christian community.
When Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
This is a call to be involved in activities that help more people to be connected to God.
And if more people are being connected to God that means God’s church is growing.
It is good to have a priority of being involved in activities that connect people to God and His love.
We are also called to be growing spiritually in our relationship with Jesus…
2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18 says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen”
Now this is more than just growing in our knowledge of Jesus, by filling our heads with facts about Jesus.
It is also about growing in Jesus’ way of life.
For each of us to grow as a Christian
growing in God’s grace and love is important.
I have once heard it said that, “God’s love is the fertiliser of our life”
And for us to be growing in God’s grace and love the starting point is for us to be spending time regularly with God.
One day Mary who was 75 was asked by her friend and next door neighbour, Josephine, who was 71, “why do you bother making so much effort to go to church, at my age I can’t be bothered.”
Mary’s response was, “I love my church and what I really love is coming together with a wide range of people of all ages and backgrounds as we discover more about God, ourselves and others. Almost every week I am discovering something new.”
Mary saw how important it was for her to be regularly spending time with God and His community.
Take a moment to think about how you are regularly spending time with God and His community.
Do you need to be more intentional about this?
Intentionally spending time with God is a good start,
but to grow in God’s grace and love we also need to be open to God being a God of grace and love.
That may sound a little strange….
but not everyone sees God as primarily a God of grace and love.
It is true that God is not just about grace and love,
but grace and love is behind everything He does.
So for us it is important that we develop and have an attitude of listening carefully to God,
This involves allowing Him and His grace and love to inform and shape us.
As we hear in Isaiah chapter 64 verse 8
Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Francis Chan in His book Crazy Love,
begins with a chapter that I initially didn’t like when I read it because it says stop praying.
But as I read the chapter further I began to see what He was saying in order to pray well, worship well and live as a Christian well
…we need to grasp who we are praying to, worshipping and living for…
He emphasises that this is why an ongoing constant close relationship with God is essential.
The more we are open to God, the greater understanding we will have on what He really is about.
And so the reality is the more we are open to God
….the better our prayer life, our worship life and our lives overall will become.
Now this happens not because we are doing things perfectly,
in fact we probably will never reach that point,
but because we are growing in relationship with God
…and we are allowing this relationship to affect us and our understanding of Him.
Our reading from Ephesians chapter 3 highlights this. Listen again to verses 16 to 19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Growing in Jesus’ love means grasping how much God really does love you.
And when we are talking about God’s love, we are not just talking about the love God has for us which we will experience in heaven, we are also talking about the love God has for us as we live our lives on this earth.
Take a moment to think about all the good things in your life, is that not a sign of God loving you?
For years Elma had been attending church. It was something she always did. She was involved in the various activities of church life, like committees, guilds, being on the roster and attending functions. Like Mary in the story we heard earlier she would make every effort to attend worship. However there was a problem, for most of her life being a Christian for Elma was not enjoyable, in fact sometimes she resented church….There were rules she didn’t really like and some of them meant she shouldn’t do the things she wanted to do with her friends. She didn’t always like the worship services, sometimes they went a little longer than she liked other times the hymns or songs were too hard to sing. Some of the people she didn’t really like, she thought if they weren’t part of the church, she wouldn’t have anything to do with them at all.
However later in life, due to a combination of her needing some help, her openness to reflecting and taking notice of God’s word and a greater understanding that life did not need to centre around her, she began to grasp how much God really loved her.
She now understood that God’s love wasn’t something that she deserved or could demand because she had done a lot of good things.
For much of her life Elma said, she lived as she deserved to be loved by God because she had gone out of her way to help the church by the things she did. Now Elma began to see that God was always loving her. A turning point she says came, when she attended a study on Romans, where in chapter 8, God says to us, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. During this study she said, "if that is the case, that means God is always loving me…whether I am grumpy or happy, doing good or not doing good….and maybe all the help I have been receiving recently is a sign of God revealing more of His love to me."
So what about you?
Do you realise God is always loving you?
And how is God’s love affecting you?
The reality for me and many people, is we know very well that we are loved by God.
We know Jesus died for me…
But Iife happens, disappointments occur, people upset us, at times we are betrayed, things don’t always go well.
To encounter these negative things well, it is important to be regularly engaging with God through His word and through His community.
As we not only receive guidance, but we are frequently reminded of the grace and love God has for us and everyone else.
Grasping how wide God’s love is, is also essential help for us in living out our callings in life. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7, reminds us of this when it says, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Our love for others, will be possible and better reflect God’s love, the more we grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
Rick Warren in a devotional for the 40 days of love, makes this observation. Human love is always limited. Human love often dries up. We can enthusiastically be loving someone but then this love can dry up and it will cease even quicker the less that our love for others is shaped by the love God has for us, because God’s love never ceases.
Take a moment to think about the following…
Are there people in your life that have become more difficult to love?
Are there some people in your life that need love but because of their smells, habits, personality or the way they talk you find it difficult to love?
Do you have a strained relationship with someone, who you once were very friendly with?
When we rely on our own strength, loving such people will be extremely difficult, even impossible.
However when we allow God’s love and approach to love to be the foundation for our love, we are able to live out Jesus’ calling for us to love one another as much as we love ourselves…as St Paul prays for in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
So growing in the love of Jesus is not just about growing in our understanding of Jesus,
it is allowing God’s Spirit and love to affect every part of us including our thoughts, our feelings and our actions, so that God can be experienced and known through you and me.
As Jesus reminded the disciples and us in John chapter 13 verse 35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
This also means that Growing in God’s love is about allowing the circumstances that we encounter to be opportunities where we rely on God’s strength, so we are able to respond in a love that reflects who God is in all situations.
As disciple makers, each of us are called to be reflecting God and His love so others may learn about God through us.
As Jesus says in Mark chapter 1 verse 16 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of people.”
Making disciples of all people is not just about passing on some head knowledge and facts about Jesus, it is about passing on His way of life.
As the disciples walked with Jesus there were many instances where Jesus was teaching them that God is a God of love…and what this meant.
For instance when parents were bringing children to Jesus…the disciples pushed them away, but Jesus responded let the children come to me do not hinder them.
Then there was the time Jesus told the parable with the disciples overhearing about the Good Samaritan, sharing that God’s love is for everyone, not just a select group.
I pray that as each one of us walk with Jesus we too grow in not only knowing that God is a God of love but also what it means for our lives.
So to finish up here are some simple things we can all do to keep growing in Jesus love:
Remember how much God really loves you. Keep remembering what He has promised you and what He has done for you.
Go out of our way to be engaging with God in regularly worship, prayer, bible study and Life Groups.
Be open to be shaped and reshaped by Him regularly.
Everyday have a heart to learn through the people and events you encounter how God is helping you to love Him and others more in these situations.
It is important to keep growing in God’s love as Martin Luther once said, “when we cease wishing to become better, we cease wishing to be good.” In other words when we cease wishing to grow, we cease wishing to bring God’s goodness and love into this world.
Let’s be people who are always growing in the love of God so more people get to know God’s love.
May you continue growing in your relationship with God and how much He loves you and loves everyone else. Amen
