Spiritual Growth that Unifies
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· 4 viewsIn order to grow spiritually, we must place our focus and trust on Christ alone.
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Introduction:
Last week we witnessed the power of Holy Spirit.
This week I would like to talk to you about “Spiritual Growth that Unifies.”
ILLUSTRATION
Wendy, who's fallen in love with Peter Pan, confronts him about his feelings:
"Peter, what are your real feelings?"
"Feelings?" he asks.
"What do you feel? Happiness? Sadness? Jealousy? Anger? Love?"
"Love? I have never heard of it."
"I think you have, Peter. I daresay you've felt it yourself…for something, or someone."
"Never. Even the sound of it offends me."
Wendy reaches for Peter in a loving gesture, and suddenly he runs away, shouting, "Why do you spoil everything? We have fun, don't we? I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?"
"There is so much more," she answers.
"What? What else is there?"
"I don't know. I think it becomes clearer when you grow up."
"Well, I will not grow up! You cannot make me! Go home and grow up. And take your feelings with you."
APPLICATION
There are a couple of interesting parallels between Peter Pan and the first-century believers in Corinth. First, like Peter Pan, the Corinthians refused to grow up. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Paul wrote, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able."
Despite the fact that most of them had been believers for many years at this point, they failed to mature.
What was the cause of their arrested development? Just like Peter Pan, they resisted acting in love. The Apostle Paul, in an effort to jump-start their spiritual lives, points the Corinthians to the "most excellent way," an introductory reference to the famous "Love Chapter," 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.
Love is central to the process of maturity because it causes us to shift our focus from ourselves to others.
What about you? Are you a Peter Pan Christian?
1) Spiritual growth ensues in those who pursue the Lord. (1-4)
1) Spiritual growth ensues in those who pursue the Lord. (1-4)
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
- They are still people of the flesh (1)
- They have not experienced any spiritual growth since Paul was with them (2)
Just a couple of you, what is your favorite food?
No one said milk, yet for an infant milk is all they can drink in order to nourish their bodies. Paul is calling back to this practical understanding of how we grow physically in order to communicate the need to grow spiritually.
(v 2) “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.”
Being fed with spiritual milk is good for the new believer.
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
(v 2) “even now you are not ready”
they had failed to grow spiritually which is not good.
Can you imagine seeing a grow man only drink formula or milk for every meal of the day? It would be unsustainable and the man would not be healthy. The same is true of the believer. Listen to the words of the writer of Hebrews.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Don’t answer this question out loud: But are you eating spiritual meat and potatoes, pizza, salads or are you still drinking milk?
Keep in mind, everyone in this room have been believers for different periods of time. So, while one person is on milk, another might be on baby food, and others are eating the steak and potatoes of scripture.
What do you think prevents us from growing spiritually?
Let’s quickly see what Paul says is preventing the church in Corinth from growing spiritually.
a. We fail to receive spiritual growth when we think like the world. (3)
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
“you are still of the flesh”
Not thinking spiritually
“jealousy and strife among you”
They are allowing sin to fill their thoughts and hearts.
“behaving only in a human way”
They are not focused on living for the glory of God.
b. We fail to receive spiritual growth when we live like the world. (4)
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
“I follow Paul”
“I follow Apollos”
“being merely human”
People follow other people naturally. All of us, at various times, have people we look up to as someone we aspire to be like one day.
Who is someone you respect or desire to be like one day?
Children often imitate their parents, athletes, artists, and musicians pick the greats of the trade to emulate. None of those things are bad, in fact in many ways they make us better people and better at our trades. Yet, there is only one worthy of our pure devotion Jesus Christ. When we take our eyes of pursuing Christ, we stumble and fail to grow spiritually because we begin to follow after the worlds treasures instead of the Lord.
Transition: Not only do we see that Spiritual growth ensues in those who pursue the Lord.
2) Spiritual growth is established through the work of God. (5-17)
2) Spiritual growth is established through the work of God. (5-17)
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
a. God produces spiritual growth while believers work the field. (5-9)
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Apollos & Paul are nothing more than servants of the Lord. (v 5)
Servants tend the field while the Lord gives growth. (v 6)
We need to remember even the greatest of men and women of faith are nothing compared to Christ (v 7)
The work of God’s saints are to be unified in their goal to build up the saints (v 8)
God alone builds up his church. (v 9)
Transition:
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
b. Jesus Christ is the foundation for all Spiritual Growth in a church. (10-15)
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
“According to the grace of God” (v 10)
No church, student ministry, mission project can produce lasting growth unless it is firmly built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and grace.
“Let each…take care how he builds upon it” (v 10)
We must take great care to diligently care for those around us.
We must remember that it all belongs to the Lord (it is not our own).
We must be faithful to protect the church.
“no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid… Jesus Christ.” (v 11)
If our student ministry ever loses sight of Jesus as the foundation of everything we do, we fail to continue to grow spiritual and build up God’s church. We must not lose sight of Jesus.
“the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” (vv 12-15)
What will remain of your works? Are you actively growing closer to the Lord and helping build the church through proclaiming the gospel message? Or, are you more interested in tearing down the work the Lord is doing amongst the church through living in sin?
ILLUSTRATION
“When one is simply obeying God, a little effort goes a long way. When one is in fact resisting him ... no amount of effort can produce a good result.”
APPLICATION
Some people work hard at life and may even gain what the world calls "success" as a result. But there is no real success outside of obedience to God's will. Even the Christian, who fails to live by God's will, is warned that his efforts will be "burned up" on the "Day" when the fire of God's assessment tests it (1Corinthians 3:13-15). Make sure you produce a better result by obeying God from the heart.
c. God will avenge his worshippers who are wronged. (16-17)
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
We as a collective body of believers are the temple of the Lord and God’s judgement is strong against those who would come against his church.
Also, this applies to us as individuals:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Thus, do not tear down one another or cause one another to be led astray lest we suffer punishment from the Lord.
3) Spiritual growth is experienced in those who are united in Christ. (18-23)
3) Spiritual growth is experienced in those who are united in Christ. (18-23)
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
a. Those who are wise in their own eyes fail to spiritually grow. (18-20)
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
ILLUSTRATION
During the space race NASA spent vast amounts of time and money developing a pen that would work effectively in a zero-gravity environment. What did the Russians do to solve the problem? They used pencils.
APPLICATION
Man spends countless hours gathering statistics and conducting research to determine the right way to live when all he really needs to do is listen to God! When we seek God's wisdom we find truths that enhance our relationships and protect us morally and spiritually.
"Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18).
Barnett Gushin
b. Those who recognize their need for Christ receive spiritual growth. (21-23)
21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.