How We Grow
How We Grow • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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When someone begins to follow Christ, it is like a new baby being born. When a new baby is born, they are ot mature, they don’t kow what to do. But as a baby gets to be one year, they begi to understand things. At the age of two they know more. Three they know more, four, five, and so on. The same is for the new Christian, when they repent of their sins and decide to follow Christ, the Bible says that they are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come (1 Corinthians 5:17).
So if you think about it, Joshua is like a new born baby…spiritually, he is new born.
But babies are supposed to grow up. Ifeoma came to a place of hope when she was three days old. She was so small. Sadie, Mom, ad Kyla cared for her when she first came. They fed her, changed her diapers, bathed her, held her, put her to sleep. But now, she feeds herself, baths herself, dresses herself… she is maturing. That’s how God designed it. We grow.
And it is God’s will that new believers will grow. His desire is that Joshua, and you and me will continue to grow in maturity in our faith. Never stopping, always moving forward until the time we see Jesus face to face.
Peter, in his last words of 2 Peter wrote… 2 Peter 3:18
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Grow. Don’t stop in you faith. Our faith should be an ever evolving movement. Growth is continual.
So for this series, we are going to look at 4 areas that will help us mature…grow in Him. How We Grow.
These 4 areas are known as spiritual disciplines. What is a spiritual discipline?
A spiritual discipline in something you practice that will help you mature in your faith. Let me give you a example. Here is a discipline that we won’t talk about in this series, but it is a spiritual discipline. Reading your Bible. Reading your Bible, knowing the very heart of God will help you grow in your faith. So reading your Bible is a spiritual Discipline.
So this morning the first spiritual discipline I want us to see is when we GUARD certain things in our life, when we GUARD these things....protect them.
***CORNERSTONE CREED****
The Bible is the Word of God....
How We Grow
This morning we are going to see how we can GUARD OUR TIME, GUARD OUR HEARTS, AND PLACING BOUNDARIES In our lives.
Turn in your Bibles to Mark 6
In Mark Chapter 6 verses 7-13, Jesus is sending out his disciples in groups of two. He has given them the power and authority over any unclean spirits… to cast out demons, to call people to repentance, and to heal people. So he sends them out on this journey with these instructions. So they go. And later in Mark Chapter 6, they return. Look at verse 30...
30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
Now the Bible doesn’t tell us how long they were gone, but it does seem for some time, because in verse 10 he told them when one house does not believe ad does not welcome you or the message, go to the next. So we do’t know how long they were gone, even though it was the same chapter, but here is the very important lesson that Jesus shows… you need to guard your time.
Guard your time.
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
They came back after being busy with the Lord’s work, to a very busy situation. Do you see what was going one. Everyone was crowding around Jesus, the feeding of the 4000 was coming, so Jesus, takes the 12, knowing they needed a break, and pulls them away from the business.
We need to do the same. We need rest. We need to take the time to pull away, for a small time, refresh, relax, then get back to the Lord’s work. We will be more effective for the kingdom of God is we are not burned out. That is why I believe God created a day of rest. At least one of the reasons. If you are always going and going and you don’t take time to step back ad rest, you will not be effective for the kingdom, and when you are ot effective, you will not grow in your faith. How do we grow? Guarding our time. Finding ways to rest. Not be lazy, but rest to recharge, rest to build back up, rest so we ca get back up and continue in our spiritual maturity.
Did you know that the best way to be a good soldier comes from times of rest. We may think that a good soldier in teh battle is always fighting. But good soldiers, if the battle is long, will pull back from the fight, rest, recharge, and prepare to enter back into the battle.
We need to do the same. Make sure you are taking time to rest, refresh, and getting ready to get back on track, a track towards God.
We need to guard our time.
2. Guard your heart.
A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is one of the most famous Psalms for David. Some of your can say this Psalm by memory. David wrote this Psalm probably while worshipping in the Temple, thinking about the generations before him coming out of Egypt. Maybe he was thinking back to the days when he was out in the fields with his sheep. It was only him, watching over the sheep at night. The sheep would lay down on the green grass and rest. They were protected from anything that would come against them because David, the shepherd was there.
David shows two sides of the Lord here in Psalm 23 . The first four verses show the Lord as a protector, as a shepherd. In verses 5 & 6, here is a host, preparing a banquet.
Look at verse 2
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
When we guard our time, and don’t get so busy, that we forget our time with Him, we are able to guard our heart and not lose sight of who we are in Him. Look what it says....he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness FOR HIS NAME SAKE.
Look at that phrase… Paths of righteousness...
What does that mean?
First what is righteousness? Righteousness is being right before God. How can we be right, pure, clean, acceptable before God?
In the Old Testament, it was about keeping teh Law. Which was impossible, but still God used the Law to show his people their sin and how they would fall short of God’s righteousness. But when the Lord sent Jesus, the Messiah, he was the hope for righteousness that man would need.
Turn to Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
If you have made a decision to follow Christ, you have given up your life for his, you are considered right, righteous, before God. He now sees you in right standing. But righteousness is also a daily movement towards God. Daily, dying of the old and puttig on the new. You don’t lose your righteousness, but you continue to walk in it.
As you guard your heart, you continue to walk in the righteousness in which you have been saved.
3. Place Boundaries In Your Life
Turn to Exodus 19:23
23 And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”
Moses was about to go up on the mountain, Mt Sinai to meet with the Lord, and the Lord told Moses to put a boundary around the mountain so no one would come close. A boundary is something that you put up, to keep something out. There is a wall around my place. That wall is a boundary. I put that wall up to keep people out. I lock my gate, another boundary. In the same way, to grow up in Him, we need to place boundaries around certain areas of our lives.
How about a boundary on your mind?
What are you allowing to enter into your mind from your eyes and your ears? I have said this before but there is a saying…garbage in, garbage out. What you allow to be taken into your eyes ad your ears will come out in your thoughts and actions. The devil wants you to take things in that will get your mind off Christ. He is a deceiver. Thats his job… confuse you. But if we put boundaries around us that help us prevent the devil from getting close to us, we can guard ourselves.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Keep your heart....guard it…place a boundary around it. Just like every night I lock my gate, we need to put up boudries that will keep things out so we Can GROW IN HIM.
We are at war. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Our war is with the Devil. But we can read in Revelation that Jesus will win, and the devil will lose. God will be the victor.
But what about you personally… in the end , will you win? Will you win the race that is set before you? Will you continue to grow in Him or will you easily fall away?
You see, that being a Christian is more than that moment of salvation. That moment you begin your new life in Christ is just the beginning.
The Apostle Paul said “I die everyday!” He says what good is it if I kill a great beast, but people are going to hell. In other words, if we are not going to grow daily in him, then why did Jesus even die for us?
As we grow in him, we continue a path to righteousness?
Are you on that path. Are you growing. Or are you just sitting on the side?