Christians Grow

Introduction

Good morning. If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, I ask that you join me in Psalm chapter 1. Psalm chapter 1. We’ll begin our study here in just a moment. But first, let me express my thanks for the invitation to be here. I am selfishly thankful to be here because now that I preach, I don’t often get to come and worship with my family and have this great family reunion right here on the first couple of rows. And I’ve got some in the best there too, I think. But I’m also grateful for the opportunity here to preach the word of God to you. I’m grateful that you have entrusted me with this opportunity to study the word of God together with you. And it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously.

And I’m grateful to be here with you this morning to study the word of God together with you. Psalm chapter 1 is a very familiar psalm to many people. And in this Psalm, the psalmist is comparing the righteous man and the wicked man, and beginning in verse number 1, the psalmist says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He says, The man who is blessed is the man who meditates on the word of God, day and night. Took that away. We’ll come back to that here in just a minute.

But look at verse number three at what he compares the blessed man to. He says, He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. He says, the blessed man is the man who’s growing. The righteous man is the one who’s deeply rooted, firmly established. He said he’s like this tree that’s planted by this stream of water. That tree has its life-giving source right next to it. It doesn’t have to worry about where it’s coming from. It’s deeply rooted. It’s established. He says, the wicked are not so. The wicked are not like this. In verse number four, he says, the wicked are like the chaff that the wind drives away.

He describes a person who has this chaos in their life, who has no certainty. They’re not like this tree that is firmly rooted. They just kind of blow around. We’ve seen people like this, haven’t we? Maybe we’ve been this person where we’re just kind of blown around by our emotions. We’re blown around by situations. Life hits us and it affects us. And he says, the wicked are just like that. They’re like dust blowing in the wind. But the psalmist is trying to paint a picture for us here that God doesn’t want us to be like that. God wants us to be people that flourish, that bear fruit. He wants us to be deeply rooted like a tree by a stream of water. God wants us to grow.

Now I’m not much of a gardener. I’ve tried to grow plants. I’ve tried to grow trees. I’ve tried several times, and I have failed, utterly failed. But the more I read the Bible, the more I keep running across these metaphors that compare the life of a Christian and the life of a follower of God to that of a tree or to that of a plant. The psalmist talks about a tree planted by streams of water. Psalmists also talk about being like a palm tree that’s flourishing by the water. The Bible talks about soil and seeds with a point towards progression in our spiritual development. Even Jesus, you remember he talks about the parable of the sower and how the seed is the word of God. And we’ll talk about that here in just a little bit more.

And the Bible is full of these metaphors, and each of these depictions draws out a different quality that believers should exemplify. But they all have one thing in common. And every single plant metaphor. It’s all about growing. It’s all about growing. And they emphasize the need to grow. Look over with me in Luke chapter 13. Jesus tells a negative type parable. He talks about a tree that isn’t growing. Luke chapter 13. When you get there, go ahead and stick a marker in there. We’ll be spending a lot of time here in Luke chapter 13. And so there’s this man in Luke 13 that Jesus tells about who’s planted this fig tree. And he comes and he’s looking for fruit on the tree. Beginning at the end of verse 6, he came seeking fruit on it, and he found none.

And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, Sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and I put manure on it. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, then you can cut it down. God is represented by the man here in this story, and he comes and he’s looking for fruit on this tree, and he’s saying, there should be fruit on this tree. And because there’s not, he says, This tree is worthless to me. I planted this tree with the intent of getting fruit from it.

And this is a passage primarily about judgment, where Jesus is reminding believers that God has expectations for his people. That God has expectations for those that he plants and waters and takes care of. But there’s a bigger idea here that I need to share with you this morning. It’s two words that make up one idea. Two words that I believe if we can plant them in our hearts will help us to grow closer to God, to have a more intimate relationship with God than we have ever had in our life. That’s the power of this one idea. That is this.

Christians grow. If you don’t hear me say that 20 times this morning, I have not preached this sermon correctly. Christians grow. God’s people ever increase. They’re moving onward and upward. We grow in what we know. We grow in what we do. We grow in our service, our love and our faith. We grow in sacrifice. We grow in all around spirituality. Children of God are called to do whatever it takes, whatever they can to press onward, to press upward, to be the best version of themselves they can be in the grace and the power and the strength of our God. And this is an idea that permeates the New Testament. This isn’t some idea that I have come up with on my own. We need to see very clearly from the Bible the fact that Christians grow, that God’s people will not accept status quo and will not accept being the same.

It’s not good enough for you to be sitting here one year from today in the same exact spot you were today. It’s not good enough to just be holding your own. That’s not the way Christians think because that’s not the way that God thinks. Do you realize that? Do you realize that God wants you to grow as a person? I’m not just talking about physically. That’s going to happen anyways. We’re going to grow up into adults, but as we are recreated in Christ, we must start the growth process all over again. Life in the spirit is not the same as life in the flesh. And so we must cultivate our hearts to provide God’s word a place to grow. Just like the plant, the seed has to germinate, the seed has to develop, the seed has to grow into maturity.

1. Raised to Your Highest Level

This tree that was planted by a stream of water didn’t just pop up overnight. And so what I want to do this morning is I want to show you this idea from the Bible from three different passages that establish this principle that God’s people must never be satisfied and must never stop growing. And then what I want to do is I want to challenge us with some ways that we can cultivate our hearts in order to allow God’s word to grow within us. Because again, I believe if we can capture this idea that God wants us to grow, that we will develop a more intimate relationship with God than we ever have in our lives. Flip over to Matthew chapter 5 with me. I want to begin with something that Jesus said and his Sermon on the Mount.

You know, the Sermon on the Mount is so there’s so much about progress, about growth, about improvement. What Jesus is basically doing in his Sermon on the Mount is He’s taking these Old Testament principles and these laws that had been given to the children of Israel, and he’s taking them and he’s taking them up a notch. He’s saying, you look at these as a checklist of items that you need to do in order to be righteous before God. But Jesus said it’s so much more than just a checklist. He says, don’t just refrain from adultery. Don’t even look at a woman with lust. Jesus said it’s not enough just to love those who love you. Love even your enemies. He challenges his hearers to be better and to grow in every aspect of their life.

But when you get to chapter, the end of chapter 5, verse number 48, you come across a pretty challenging verse. Jesus says, you therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Have you ever been stopped by that verse? You must be perfect. Now Jesus isn’t saying here that we must be sinless, because the reality is no one is sinless. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so I don’t think that’s what Jesus is teaching here that we must be sinless. What Jesus is saying here is that we must be mature. This word for perfect is a word that means mature or raised to your highest level. And so really what Jesus is saying here is therefore you must be raised to your highest level as your Father in heaven is raised to his highest level.

Our God and Father operates at the optimal highest level. And so we also should be looking at our lives and evaluating how can I raise myself to my highest level and function at my highest level. And that’s found in the Word of God. And that’s what Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is all about. When it comes to controlling my anger, I need to be raised to my highest level of control and patience. When it comes to my relationships, I need to be raised to my highest level of faithfulness and fidelity. When it comes to serving and loving others, I need to be raised to my highest level of care and compassion and concern for my fellow man. Just as our Heavenly Father exists at his highest level.

We must strive to exist at our highest level. Are you at your highest level today? I can tell you guys, I think that I am at the highest level I’ve ever been in my life. But every time I open this book and every time I read the Word of God, there’s always something that I read that says you can do better. You can raise yourself up a notch. You can go to another level. And I believe that’s what Jesus’ challenge is all about. We need to be constantly improving, constantly moving upward and onward to better things. We need to be looking at our lives and saying, how can I do better? Because God created me to be better. And I can do better in every aspect of my life.

2. Grow in Grace and Knowledge

We need to be looking for ways to raise our lives and our service to the highest level because Christians grow. Now that’s our broad principle for today’s lesson. Let me narrow that focus just a little bit with the next passage in 2 Peter chapter 3, with some words from the Apostle Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. Behind myself here. In a chapter reminding Christians that judgment is coming, Peter encourages Christians to be diligent and to remain faithful in all things. He says in verse number 9, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

He’s saying there is a day of judgment coming, a day of reckoning when God is going to come back, and this earth is going to be no more. And he says, verse number 11, since all of these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. He says, This day is coming. You can be certain you need to be looking forward to that day. And because that day is coming, what sort of people ought we to be? What sort of people ought we to be?

And he tells us what sort of people we ought to be. Verse number 14. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, be diligent to be found in him, without spot or blemish, and without peace, and count the patience of our Lord of salvation. Skip down to verse number 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. He tells him, He says, You need to be people of knowledge. You need to be people that know the word of God, and you need to be people who are growing in your trust with God. That’s the knowledge and that’s the grace. But did you notice what he said at the very beginning of verse number 18?

He says, grow. Grow in these things. Peter is reinforcing that since this day is coming, we know with certainty the day of judgment is going to come. And nobody knows when that day will be. Since all of these things are going to happen, there needs to be an intensity. There needs to be a focus in the lives of believers as we move towards the goal. And what he’s saying is we need to get in this book and know what God wants from us and what God’s desires are from us. We need to trust God more and more every day as we saturate our thinking with his word. And that’s really the whole point. When Paul wrote and said, Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you, that’s the whole point of that admonition is we need God’s words constantly in front of us, constantly in our heart, so that in every moment and every situation, we are growing in trust of God and not our own thinking.

When we put the word of God in front of us and we say, this is the most important thing that guides my decisions, it forces us to trust God on a deeper level. And we need these things as we strive to live in the Spirit because that’s the lifeblood of the believer’s life. Trusting in God. Christians grow in the grace and knowledge of God because if we’re not connected to the source, if we’re not connected to our God by listening to him on a daily basis, and if we’re not trusting in God’s ability to reform us, we lose our focus. We lose our purpose. We forget that we’re not putting down roots here on this earth. We’re putting down roots in heaven. We’re working towards eternity.

God desires for us to be like trees planted in his house in eternity. He said, You’ve got to uproot anything that’s going to tie you to this earth. And that means we need to grow in grace and in knowledge. And Peter’s encouragement is for a purpose. God wants us to be on the move. When God comes back, when this day of judgment happens, God doesn’t want us to be complacent. He wants us looking upward. He wants us looking heaven. We’re saying, I’m ready to be with you. That’s where I want to be. This world is not what it’s about. I want to be in heaven. And so just like a plant doesn’t produce fruit right out of the dirt, we too must continue to grow and mature to the point where we’re bearing fruit.

3. Christians Grow in Influence and Impact

We’re bearing this fruit of the Spirit that prompts us from the Word of God. We must learn to be mature because Christians grow in grace and in knowledge. And we’ll talk in just a moment about some attitudes we can cultivate to help us mature. But first, one more verse I want us to look at. It’s back in Luke chapter 13. Flip back over there with me. Luke chapter 13. So Jesus has just told this parable of the fig tree, a parable of judgment, reminding people that God has an expectation. The master came looking for fruit, and there was nothing there. And so what Jesus does a little bit later here in verse number 18 is he extends this parable and he shows God’s seed is going to produce something.

And so as he’s extending this parable, he shows what that seed should produce in the life of a believer. Verse number 18. He said, Therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests and its branches. Now, these verses are talking about the kingdom of Christ, the authority, the power, the rule, and the reign of Jesus Christ in the hearts of everyone. And especially in the hearts of believers. And what he’s saying is, my kingdom is going to start really small. It’s going to start like a grain of mustard seed.

Now, if you know anything about mustard seeds, they’re one of the smallest seeds out there. I mean, you put it next to an apple seed and you can barely even see it. Someone said it’s the size of a frog’s eye. It’s so small, it seems like it’s insignificant. Most people would look at that and say, this is worthless. What could this even produce? What am I even supposed to do with this seed? That’s how most people would look at a mustard seed. And Jesus said, just in that same way, my kingdom’s going to start small. People are going to look at this and say, this is insignificant. This is worthless. What could this possibly accomplish? And Jesus said, My kingdom’s going to grow from that into this giant bush that supports not only itself, but everything around it.

He said, the kingdom grows. And we see this in Jesus’ ministry. It starts off with Jesus teaching a group of guys that smell like fish, right? And from there it grows and it goes into the entire world. And now look at the effect of the rule and reign of Christ in the world today. An increase in dominion, it spread into the entire world. And so consider this with me. If the rule and reign and power and authority of Christ is growing, should not we as citizens of the kingdom be growing also? Christians grow in influence and impact. And a verse we’ll look at here in just a minute in John 15. Jesus admonishes his followers that through their influence and through their impact, he says, In bearing much fruit, you prove to be my disciples.

And so as the kingdom grows, so also Christians grow in influence and impact. The Bible clearly points, I could go to a number of other verses, but the Bible clearly points us to the fact that God wants us to grow. But can I up the ante just a little bit? God doesn’t just want us to grow. There’s an expectation from God that when he plants his word in our hearts, there’s an expectation that we grow. He expects us to grow. You remember what that man said in Luke chapter 13? He said, There should be fruit on this tree. For three years I have come to this tree, and there should be fruit on this tree. And there wasn’t. And he not only gave it the opportunity, but he provided it with the materials.

He surrounds it with things it needs to grow. He had worked hard and he expects it to grow. And there was nothing there, and so he said, This is worthless to me. I think as Christians, as believers, as followers of Christ, we know we ought to grow. Don’t we? We know we ought to grow. But the fact is, sometimes we end up like that fig tree that’s not producing. And I know this because I have been that person that’s not growing. I have been that tree that the Lord keeps coming back to and coming back to and saying, Where is my fruit? And I’ve had nothing to give him. I have been that person. Sometimes we stall out. Sometimes our spiritual growth gets stunned. We end up in this holding pattern.

And we’re just not the kinds of people that God is recreating us to be. And Jesus talked about these kinds of people. In his parable of the sower, you remember Luke chapter 8, the parable of the sower. There’s a man and he’s sowing the seed, and the seed is the word of God. And he’s throwing it all over the place. And it’s falling on all different kinds of ground, and those grounds represent the hearts of men. And in that parable, the good soil is upheld as the one that was able to grow the seed. And we all know as we read the parable of the sower, the Christian ought to be the one whose heart is that good soil where the word of God it lands and it has a place to grow.

That should be Christians, right? But sometimes it’s not. Sometimes we end up like that rocky ground where the word of God comes in and we just haven’t planted it deep enough. And it has nowhere to grow. Sometimes we get distracted and discouraged by life and we end up like that thorny soil. And the word of God gets choked out in our lives and it gets minimized because we’ve got all these other things in our life happening. Sometimes those things happen to us. And so I’m talking about this morning so that we, as believers in God and as followers of Christ, people who wear the name Christian, so that we will look at our lives and we will examine our hearts and so that we will dig deep.

So that whenever God’s word comes to our hearts, it has a place to land and it has a place to grow. Because that’s what God expects from his followers. We need to provide a place for God’s word to grow in our hearts. Paul says, I watered, I planted Apollo’s water, but God gave the increase. God is the one that always gives the increase. And so if Christian, we as Christians are going to grow, we must realize that God is the one that gives us the increase through his word when we plant it in our hearts. Not because of our own goodness, it’s not because of anything that I’ve done, but because the word of God is living. The word of God is active, it’s powerful. And when we plant it in our hearts and cultivate the soil, it will produce what God designed for it to produce.

The word of God’s going to do what the word of God’s going to do. I don’t think we appreciate that enough sometimes. When we plant the word of God in our hearts, it’s going to produce what God desired from it. A godly life that reflects his glory and not my glory. And so, as we wrap up, let me challenge you with three things that will help us as we do this. If we are going to grow, we must cultivate some attitudes in our lives that allows God’s word to grow. Again, the seed is the word of God. It’s going to do what it’s going to do as long as it has a place to grow. And so let me give you three attitudes that we can cultivate so that the word of God has a place to grow.

4. Christians Grow in Humility

The first one is this humility. In Luke chapter 17, Jesus tells another parable of a mustard seed, and we’re not going to read that parable, but this time he uses the parable of the mustard seed to challenge his disciples to have faith like a mustard seed. In the same way that the kingdom started off seemingly insignificant, Jesus said, so should your faith.

Because it’s so small. Again, we look at that and we say, what could that possibly do in my life? We may cast it away. And I think our natural ways of thinking can easily get in the way of this tiny seed’s potential. And in the same way, I think it’s easy for us to look at the Word of God like this and say, what could that possibly do in my life? How can knowing this book really change my life? Have you ever caught yourself saying that? How is this going to help my broken marriage or my crummy job, my struggles with depression or anxiety or lust? What can the word of God really do in my life? We ask ourselves these questions, maybe unintentionally sometimes, because we don’t believe in the power of God’s word.

And we convince ourselves that belief in God is insignificant, and we may even ignore what God says because it seems trivial. But the word of God is powerful. And for a believer, it’s our lifeblood. We have to believe that the word of God is going to change us when we plant it in our hearts. And so we need to get ourselves out of the way. We need to be humble and let the word of God do what it’s supposed to do in our lives. If we don’t get ourselves out of the way, God is never going to be able to grow us into the people that He desires us to be. And if we’re going to be raised to our highest standard and our highest level as our Heavenly Father is raised to His, we need to realize that spiritual growth begins when I realize it’s not about my strength.

It’s not about my significance. It’s not about what I bring to the table. It doesn’t matter how big of a deal you think you are. We need to make ourselves this big so that our God can make us this big because our God is an awesome creator who does those kinds of things. And only he can do those kinds of things in our lives. He desires to recreate us, but we must get ourselves out of the way. We have to be humble before our God. And Jesus showed us what this attitude looks like with his entire life. I mean, think about the life of Christ. He was up in heaven in the presence of God, in the form of God, Paul tells us. He had all the magnificence of heaven.

He had immortality. Why would Jesus need to leave heaven? But he did. He humbled himself. He came to this earth taking the form of a mortal man. He came to this earth to roll in the mud with a bunch of humans who eventually killed him. Now, why would Christ do that? Why would Jesus leave heaven? Why would he humble himself? He could have just stayed up there. Well, Paul tells us he knew that his humility was going to produce something even greater. Philippians chapter 2 says, Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. If we’re going to grow, we need to take our cues from Jesus Christ, who humbled himself in the form of a man and died.

5. Christians Grow in Selflessness

We need to make ourselves that kind of have that kind of humility in our lives so that God can grow in us. Christians grow in humility. Let me suggest to you this also. Christians grow in selflessness. Also in Philippians chapter 2, Paul encourages believers to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Again, if we’re taking our cues from Jesus, this is how Jesus lived his life. He said, I came not to be served, but to serve, to give my life a ransom for your hope and for your help.

But this is probably the most difficult one for me. Growing in selflessness. Because, let’s face it, I know what’s best for me. I know what’s going to make me happy, right? And there’s a lot of times I’m looking at my life and I’m saying, God, why don’t you just give me what I want? We can see very clearly what’s going to make us happy in that moment, right? And the reality is, selfishness usually produces satisfaction. Doesn’t it? I mean, we’re happy whenever we win that argument. We’re happy when we get our way, but it’s always temporary. It’s always temporary. Have you noticed that? In a contrasting analogy, the writer of the 92nd Psalm says, though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever.

He’s saying that the wicked and the evildoers, they’re going to sprout. They’re going to look like their lives are great. Everything is going to be going well for them. They may be looking at it and saying, this is it, but he says, in eternity, they’re going to be doomed to destruction. It’s worthless. It’s wasted time if we live for ourselves. Selfishness never lasts. Listen to what Jesus said in John chapter 12. Flip over there with me to John chapter 12. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And he knows what’s about to happen. He’s about to have the worst few days of his life. And if that isn’t the biggest understatement in the world, the history of the world, I don’t know what is. He’s on his way to the cross.

He can see what’s about to happen. He knows what’s about to happen. The agony of the cross is in front of him. And in verse number 24, Jesus says, Truly I say to you. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Now, what is Jesus saying here? Well, he’s talking about the life cycle of this plant. And the life cycle of the wheat plant, it has to sacrifice. It has to let off part of itself if there’s going to be fruit, if it’s going to continue. And so what does Jesus mean by this? Well, in verse number 25, he goes on and he tells us how this parallels the life of a believer.

Whoever loses his life or loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. What Jesus is saying is that growth happens when we lose our life for the purposes of God. When we sacrifice ourselves for something greater than ourselves. Again, is this not how Christ lived his life? He gave himself for the world for a greater purpose. The selflessness of Christ was punctuated by him giving himself for the sins of the world. He wasn’t looking out for what he wanted when he was hanging there on the cross after being brutally tortured and beaten, and people had spit in his face, and he’s hanging there on the cross. He’s not looking out for himself.

He was looking out for us. And Paul encourages us to have this same mind that Christ had.

And I don’t think he’s necessarily calling us to die physically, although that may be required of us at some point in our lives. But what he’s calling us to do is to die to ourselves. It’s not about me. It’s not about me. God created me for a purpose. And we need to see very clearly that God created us to reflect him and to reflect his glory. And so part of growing is being willing to realize that and sacrifice our lives for something greater. Because Jesus says fruit doesn’t grow unless the wheat gives off part of itself. I think one of the greatest obstacles to our growth is our inability to look outward. We do a really good job of cultivating ourselves and helping ourselves, and we get to these points in our life, I think, where we get kind of stale.

Because there’s only really so much you can do for yourselves, and we don’t look out, and we don’t look at how we can serve others, and we can use what God has given to us for his glory and to help others to come to know the mercy and grace of God that he has shown to us. Again, we know what makes us happy. And it’s really difficult to get beyond our own noses sometimes, isn’t it? But we need to see very clearly that if the word of God is going to grow in our hearts, we must cultivate a selfless attitude and look at it, look outward. And I realize, again, this is the most difficult one for me because I know what I want. But we must learn that growing in selflessness produces eternal rewards.

6. Christians Grow in Reliance

Again, Jesus said, whoever hates his life in this world, whoever regards his life as nothing will keep it for eternal life. Christians grow in selflessness. One more thing I want to add to this list, and that is that Christians grow in reliance. Flip over to John chapter 15. We can’t talk about growing without going to John chapter 15. This is one of the most profound verses about growing, where Jesus compares himself to a vine. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. Read with me, beginning in verse number one of chapter 15. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You hear what Jesus is saying here? He’s telling us we need him if we are going to survive in this spiritual world that we are that God has called us to live in. Verse number six if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you. That’s the word of God he’s talking about. If my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. We could spend another hour talking about those verses, and we don’t have time to exhaust it, but notice this one big idea. Reliance to Jesus Christ. Growth is not possible without a connection to Jesus Christ. He’s the seed.

He said, I came here looking for fruit. And Jesus said, You can only bear fruit if you are in me, if you are abiding in me, if my words are abiding in you. Jesus is the source of all Christian growth and accomplishment. Again, in verse number 5, he says, Apart from me, you can do nothing. And so if we are going to fulfill God’s will for us to grow, we need to cultivate this attitude of reliance by getting ourselves out of the way and realizing the source of our true life that’s in Christ Jesus. Christians grow through their connection to Jesus Christ. And it’s just not possible to accomplish any of these days apart from Jesus Christ. You know, I think we can see glimpses of humility.

We can see glimpses of selflessness in our life. We can produce those things on a very small level, but they will never last if we’re doing it ourselves, if we’re not focusing on living through Christ and through his word. The human inclination is to be selfish and to be me focused. But when we are recreated through Christ, when the word of God is planted in our hearts, it begins to bear something new. It grows and bears the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, all those things that Paul lists in Galatians. Things that are only truly found in Christ. And so growing is really all about understanding the source of our growth. In Luke chapter 13, the man planted the fig tree with an expectation that it would grow.

Conclusion

And as we round out our lesson this morning, I want us to be challenged by this parable, to realize that God not only wants us to grow, but he expects us to grow. He’s given us all the tools that we need to grow. He is the source of our life in the Spirit to begin with. He’s given us the tools and the knowledge and the blessings to grow. He sent his only son into the world to save us. And he expects us to grow and bear fruit in the same way that Christ did. And if we don’t, there’s going to be a day when all those things get taken away from us. You know, in our culture, we tend to shy away from a God of judgment.

And I’m not going to end all fire and brimstone here at the end, but I want us to consider the day of judgment because we tend to shy away from a God of judgment in our culture. But really, what a God of judgment is a God of accountability. And we all need accountability. Accountability is what drives us to our highest level. Accountability is what keeps us sharp and focused. It’s what keeps us in line when we don’t want to be in line. We need someone looking over our shoulder and challenging us to be better. And our God has done that through the example of Jesus Christ. We need accountability in our lives, in our relationships, in our culture. Imagine what our world would look like without a judicial system, without the prison system, without law and order, without accountability.

No one wants to live in that kind of a world. And a God of justice reminds us that we cannot do as we please and be accountable to no one. God has created us on purpose for a purpose. And he has also given us all things pertaining to life and godliness. And he expects us to grow in grace and knowledge. So my question is, are you growing? Am I growing? Are we growing? In the word of God, the master is coming to see if you are bearing fruit. And Jesus teaches that there’s a day of reckoning that’s coming. When God is going to come and He’s going to ask us, what did you do with the things that I gave you? What did you do with the abilities and the talents that I gave you?

Did you use them to serve others or did you serve yourself? Did you help those who were helpless? Did you serve those who had nothing else to give you? Did you live like Christ? Because I sent my son for you when you were still a sinner and you had nothing to offer me. I sent him to you. What are you doing in return? And Jesus says that on that day of judgment, when God comes and reckons for those things that He has given to us, if we are not bearing fruit, we will be taken away, we will be cut down, we will be thrown into the fire. It’s going to be a sad day. It’s going to be a sad day for people who aren’t growing and aren’t producing and aren’t maturing into what God has designed them to be.

But that day is not come yet. And thank God it has not come yet. The Bible teaches that God is patient, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is listening to the vine dresser, and the vine dresser is saying, Let me work on them just a little bit more. Give me just a little bit more time. That’s God through Christ pleading to us. Do what you were created to do. Live for the God who created you. He doesn’t want us to be separated from him. And Jesus Christ is interceding and pleading for you because he doesn’t want us to be separated from God. He knows what eternity away from God looks like. And he does not want that for us.

Are you listening to him through his word and letting him work on you? Are you growing in Christ? Maybe you’re that tree that hasn’t produced anything in three years. That’s not a good place to be. You’re dying spiritually. You’re away from God, you’re separated from your God. But maybe Jesus and His Word has refreshed you, revitalized you today, and challenged you to grow. And while you still have today, I want to encourage you to get reconnected to the source of true life and grow. Don’t waste your time. Because Christians grow. And if you’re not a Christian this morning, the Bible shows us that only those who are connected to Jesus will grow with God and will flourish in eternity. You know, you may find temporary pleasure in life and your job and your relationships, but life is so fleeting.

Life is so fleeting. You will not find eternal satisfaction with the things of this life. Don’t waste your time chasing things that won’t matter in eternity. Jesus said, What will it profit? What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he loses his own soul? What would it profit you if you’re standing there on that last day and it’s just you and God? And he says, What did you do with the things that I gave you? What will it matter if you have gained the entire world? And you weren’t right with God. And he says, I don’t know you. What will it profit a man? If he gains the whole world and loses his soul. If you’re not a Christian and you want to connect with Jesus this morning, he offers you that invitation.

Don’t lose your soul. Cultivate your heart for growth. Let’s be people who grow. I can help you to do that this morning. I’m going to be down here at the front while we stand and while we sing this song.