It is normal for living things to grow.
• We plant seeds and expect plants to spring up and grow, producing fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs, grains, lawns or flowers.
• We have children and, though sometimes it seems it happens too quickly, they grow and become independent of the old folks.
• Tragically,
• Some individuals never grow past the infant stage, physically, mentally or spiritually.
• Some individuals
• think they can sow wild oats and grow good grain.
• are simply horticulturally disadvantaged. I pass along one lesson I learned by experience. Did you know you can plant birdseed and not grow one single bird? And I was hoping for a crop of canaries! And a pair of parakeets.
If you belong to Jesus it is because someone sowed the right seed. Peter reminds us, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 Peter 1:22-23 (NASB).
It is clear that God wants His children to mature, to develop and to grow. Paul wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.” 1 Corinthians 14:20 (NLT2).
Peter wrote, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,” 1 Peter 2:2 (NASB).
Jesus placed spiritual leaders in the Church as gifts to promote growth. Paul wrote about that, saying, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT2)
While we begin our new life as babes in Christ, we need not, should not, must not remain immature. The aim is to grow up.
I. GROW UP IN CHRISTLIKENESS:
A. Our aim is to “be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children.” And to grow in every way more and more like Christ.
B. You know how kids stand next to a wall to see how much they have grown since the last mark was made.
1. They are measuring their growth against their own former growth.
2. Sometimes they want to see how much they have grown in comparison to a sibling.
C. But God wants us to measure ourselves by Christ's stature even though we will never measure up.
D. To measure our growth in Christlikeness:
1. Measure our grace to others by His grace to us.
2. Measure our love for even enemies by His love for us.
3. Measure our treatment of others by His treatment of us.
4. Measure our forgiveness of others by His forgiveness of us.
5. Measure our godliness by His Godliness.
6. Measure our obedience by His obedience.
E. Often we are fooled about how much we have grown, by using the wrong standard of measurement and we unwittingly boast to ourselves and others about that growth. I am reminded of the time that, in a certain home, the growth chart had slipped from the playroom wall because the tape on its corners had become dry and brittle. Five-year-old Jordan hung it up again, meticulously working to get it straight. Then he stood his sister against the wall to measure her height. "Mommy! Mommy! Annie is forty inches tall!" he shouted as he burst into the kitchen. "I measured her." His mom replied, "That's impossible, sweetheart, she's only two years old. Let's go see." They walked back into the playroom, where the mother's suspicions were confirmed. Despite his efforts to hang the chart straight, Jordan had failed to get it at the proper height. It was several inches low. It gave a deceptive appearance of growth.
We need to grow in Christlikeness and we need to measure doctrine, teaching, opinion, with the right standard, the Bible. If we do we will:
II. GROW UP IN KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH:
A. Immature people are swept up in every new fad; they are caught in doctrinal error perpetrated by door-knocking cults. Infants, they are unstable and ungrounded in truth.
1. But if we are grown up in the truth of Christ, we won’t be “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love.”
2. Listen to Adrian Rogers: “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.”
3. But how do we know truth? Let me say, unequivocally,
a. We must measure all doctrine by the Bible, God’s Word, because it is the litmus test of truth. If a teaching contradicts, falls short of, or goes beyond, the Bible, it is false.
b. We must will to do God’s will because Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.” John 7:17 (NLT2).
c. And, we must remain faithful to His words because “Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” John 8:31-32 (NLT2).
B. It is tragic that the world at large is blinded and victimized by untruth.
1. Thus they reject Jesus Christ because “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NLT2).
2. Jesus said of the Religious leaders who substituted men’s tradition and teaching in place of God’s truth, “they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Matthew 15:14 (NASB). The same holds for any purveyor of falsehood and heresy.
C. Regarding truth, Jesus said,
1. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6 (NASB). He lived, told, taught and was guided by truth. His very nature was to be truthful.
2. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” Hebrews 2:1 (NASB).
D. Enemies of truth include:
1. Outright lies we speak or believe.
2. Half truths we tell.
3. Cults and heresies.
4. Secular humanistic philosophies like situational ethics which denies absolute moral standards and declares that the situation determines the morality.
E. Truth is objective; it is what it is regardless of human thoughts about it. Truth is not subject to our feeling or opinion or rejection or acceptance. But two men were eating breakfast at a conferences and were discussing the Bible and truth. One of them said; "Chuck, you were in the last session and seem quite sensible. You understand the concept of 'Subjective truths' in scripture don't you?"
Chuck replied, “Well, I guess if you mean the parables that Jesus told for instance. They could be considered subjective in that we do not know for sure that they are historical events or fictional stories Jesus made up to teach a particular point."
The first man seemed shocked at the answer and said, scornfully, "Come on, please don't tell me that your one of those people that believe God created this universe and all that is in it in seven literal days; are you?"
Chuck took a bite of food, another swig of coffee and thought about his answer carefully. "No, you're right; I do not believe God created everything in seven days." At which his breakfast companion seemed relieved, but continuing on Chuck said, "It only took six days. On the seventh He rested." Truth is truth regardless of our subjective opinion. And we are to grow in knowledge of truth.
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If we grow in knowledge of truth, we stand on the same ground, side by side, with Jesus Who is the judge and source and embodiment of truth, and we:
III. GROW UP IN UNITY:
A. We need to keep growing, maturing and developing “until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
B. As we grow in unity, “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
1. “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Romans 12:4-5 (NLT2).
2. “Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, ‘I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,’ would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’” 1 Corinthians 12:14-21 (NLT2).
3. Imagine this: if the body was a giant nose, it could lie there and smell a Snickers bar 100 miles away. But it couldn’t eat it.
4. Imagine if the body was only a giant ear, it could lie on the highway and hear an 18 wheeler coming 100 miles away, but it couldn’t get out of the traffic.
C. Disharmony, schisms and division in the home, schools, the church and the world can be attributed to
1. Lack of maturity! We sulk and pout and whine and throw a tantrum.
2. Selfishness. Wanting the lion’s share.
3. Pride, with it’s Big I, little you or the “Stand apart. I’m too holy for you,” viewpoint.
4. Lack of love with a “Who needs you?” and “Who cares?” attitude.
D. When we speak of unity,
1. We are not talking about Union created by a signed treaty, or by a contract which supposedly guarantees peace, Yeah, right! Look at this image. Confusing Union for Unity is like tying two cats tail to tail and draping them over a clothesline. What you don’t have is unity; what you do have is a pile of cat hair and two tails tied together. That’s union, not unity.
2. Nor are we referring to Uniformity, where we all think exactly alike, dress alike, speak alike as though we are just a recording or were cut out with a cookie cutter. Look at this image showing dozens off men wearing identical hats and suits and carrying identical briefcases and standing in the same rigid stances. That’s uniformity, not unity.
3. Paul gave insight on unity when he said, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” Philippians 2:1-2 (NASB)
a. Being like minded but still allowing for different preferences, opinions and personalities.
b. Working together toward a commonly agreed on task.
c. Mutual acceptance in spite of flaws, or failures, or faults.
E. When we are acting in unity, as His Body must, we are invincible. In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn't. "What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers." says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I curl them together like this into an unified fist, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get unified like that?"
Being faithful to Christ puts us together with Him and other believers. Living in His presence produces maturity, which creates love for truth, which, in turn produces unity.
If we have been lying to God or others or even self about our spiritual maturity,
• Let’s be honest, let us get real with God and Self.
• Let’s ask Him to search our hearts and to reveal those areas of life where we need to be growing.
• Let’s not be content to be pre-schoolers in faith and knowledge.
• Let’s press on to growth in Christlikeness, Truth and Unity.
Though there is a need to press on to greater effort and perseverance, and obedience, growing is not MATTER OF SHEER WILL POWER OR EFFORT. If it were, I’d b e 6 foot 3 and down to 180 pounds. The Holy Spirit produces growth and does so in lives surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
With Paul let us say: “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;” Philippians 3:13-15 (NASB). Higher Ground.
PRAY / INVITE
Just say, “YES!” to Jesus to whatever He calls you.
