Today my message is entitled “How You Can Grow.” We’re in the middle of a series about spiritual growth. Today our picture is of a large tree with roots going down deep into the earth and leafy branches reaching up to the sky. Healthy trees continue to grow in diameter and height during their entire life span. Healthy believers grow spiritually throughout their lives.
God wants you to grow up, He wants you to mature. What is the goal, what is the point of life? We talked about that last Sunday. The point of growth, the point of life is to develop to become like Jesus Christ. NIV Luke 6:40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. So when a believer is fully trained, fully mature, they will be like their teacher, Jesus Christ.
Growth, however, is not automatic, a believer must cooperate with God in order to grow. In the parable of the sower and the seed, the four different kinds of soil represent four kinds of people. The seed represents the Word of God which brings forth God’s life into ours. You are responsible for the condition of the soil of your heart. Are you receptive to God’s Word or is your life like the hard packed road? Are shallow in your commitment to God, do you have rocks underneath the surface that prevent the roots of God’s life from going deep? Have you allowed wrong actions and attitudes thorns to grow up in your life and so choke out God’s life? Or is your heart’s soil good and fertile receptive to God, allowing the roots of God’s life to grow deep?
Remember growth is not automatic, it depends on you and your choices. NLT Hebrews 5:12 You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. God doesn’t want you to remain babies, always needing to be taught the basics over and over. God wants every believer to mature and become a teacher of others.
When you grow up spiritually, every area of your life will be blessed, your relationships, your work, your family, your finances and your health.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 9, 2006 message entitled How You Can Grow