Spiritual Growth

Introduction

Good morning. Turn your Bibles to Philippians the third chapter, please. Wonderful to see everyone. What a blessing. And what an awesome God we serve. I really believe the word awesome should be reserved for him and his son. Because we stand in awe of him, of his grace, and of his glory. And what an honor it is that we are his audience today. We are not the audience.

Now, you know what? I’m just going to just go into my lesson. How about that? It all sounded so good up to that point. Well, this beginning of this year. I did not get to join in with the lessons on forward-looking, goal-setting type lessons. Greg was able to preach on those. But January is not quite over yet. And we’re probably still saying happy new year, some of us. We can keep doing that at least till the end of January, in my opinion. So I think that I think that it’s a good time still for us to think about looking forward to this new year and growing. And I want to preach to you about spiritual growth. If you will, in Philippians 3, read with me, beginning in verse 12.

Where Paul says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So we are to be constantly striving to attain new heights spiritually. 2 Peter 3:18 says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. This is what we’re called to do. The Greek word translated perfected that we see there in Philippians 3 and verse 12 is a word that means working through the entire process, the stages, to reach the final phase or the conclusion.

So Paul was a work in progress. And we’re all a work in progress. James McIntosh said, it is right to be contented with what we have, never with what we are. Growth for the Christian is essential. If we’ve chosen to be a faithful Christian, we really don’t have a choice about whether we should be growing or not. Either we’re stagnant or we’re falling behind, or we’re doing what the Lord really wants, and we are growing.

You have to start from where you are and where you are right now. In the next two verses there, Philippians 3, Paul says, Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. So to whatever degree we have attained, the mindset we all need to have is what I’m going to do is I’m going to forget what lies behind, and I’m going to reach forward to what lies ahead, and I’m going to press on, and I’m going to become better and better. I’m going to grow as a Christian. So wherever you are in your spiritual walk, grow from there.

1. Faith, Contentment and Joy

What we’re going to do with really the rest of the lesson is we’re going to look at 15 specific areas that I think we need to be growing in. Now I’ve had to be a bit arbitrary to pick out 15 that I want to emphasize. But I want to start the list very logically with faith. And by the way, this is the same virtue that Peter starts his list off there in 2 Peter 1 and verse 5, when he says, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. What did he start that whole list off with? Faith. Because what good does it do to have the rest of those virtues if we’re not doing it in trust and in service to our God, faithful obedience to him.

So faith is something we need to be growing in. There are degrees of faith. I’m reminded of the man whose son was demon-possessed that said, begged to the Lord for him to heal his son, and Jesus said, if you believe all things are possible, and the man said in Mark 9 and verse 24, I believe, help my unbelief. And so in many people who believe, there is still some element of unbelief, and it’s a growth process. So I would ask you this morning, how’s your faith? Wherever you are in your faith, grow from there. Secondly, contentment. Contentment. In Philippians 4, in verses 11 and 12, Paul said, Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.

I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. We should strive to be more and more content with our present circumstances, the circumstances that we cannot change, to accept them and to be happy in them. Paul learned contentment.

When we have that verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The very context of that passage is I can endure any difficulty in any trial. And I can do it with joy. That’s the context of I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Have you ever thought about growing in terms of contentment? Is that something you’ve prayed about for the Lord to help you to be more content? I want to ask you this morning, how’s your contentment? Wherever you are in terms of contentment, grow from there. Thirdly, joy. I believe that our joy in the Lord as Christians should grow more and more the longer that we are Christians. In 1 Peter 1 8, though you do not see him now, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

Receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Now that’s a lot of joy. Joy inexpressible and full of glory. Now maybe you’re sitting there thinking, well, I’m not there yet. I’m working on that. You know, for some of us, it’s really a growth process. I would say for all of us, it’s a growth process. We need to learn to be more positive, to be more happy, to be more thankful, to be more focused on the reward that lays before us and on the blessings that we have even now in Christ. Never forget years back when my grandfather on my mother’s side passed away, that on the following Sunday, I was sitting in the pew right in front of my granny, Chances Crossroads, Church of Christ in Jones Chapel, Alabama, little bitty country church.

And I turned back and I said to Granny, I’m so sorry that Papa died. And she smiled and she said, This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it. And that moment always stuck with me because she always chose to be happy, and she still does. And even in a moment of great tragedy, her choice was to rejoice in the Lord. And if you have the Lord, then you have cause to rejoice. She also told me that joy is the second fruit of the Spirit. You know, Galatians 5 and verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And right next to love, what’s listed? Joy. It’s even listed right before peace.

2. Zeal, Evangelism and Hospitality

I tell you what, if you are Christian and you’re not experiencing joy, it may not always mean, you know, happiness all the time, but a deep and abiding joy of knowing where you’re going, then you have not planted a garden of the Spirit in your heart. It’s not bearing within you what it should be growing, and you’re not being led by the Spirit. Joy is something we need to grow in. And set your mind to do that. Because that’s what we are called to do. So how’s your joy? Wherever you are in your joy, grow from there. Fourth, zeal. We should grow to become more and more zealous all the time. I love the verse in Romans 12 and verse 11. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

The word fervent there, the real meaning of the Greek word translated fervent, is boiling. So literally, it’s boiling in spirit. Now, what does that mean in practical terms? Well, I believe that it means we need to do things like talk about spiritual things more, reach out to the lost more, to express more excitement about our hope and our blessings, to be less lazy and less negligent, and to be well, to be more proactive in our service of the Lord, to take advantage of more opportunities to serve the Lord and to grow the kingdom, to become more and more obsessed with all things spiritual. How’s your zeal this morning? You might say, well, my zeal’s not exactly boiling. Maybe it’s just simmering. Wherever your zeal is, let’s turn it up and let’s grow from there.

Number five, evangelism. Brother, we need to let the fire in our heart for evangelism, for reaching out to the lost. We need to let it grow to the point that we just can’t we can’t keep it in. In Jeremiah 20 and verse 9, Jeremiah says, His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. So here’s a man who he actually contemplated stopping this whole idea of proclaiming the word of the Lord. And the gospel, brethren, is good news, but it also contains bad news. And sometimes there’s a temptation to want to either water down that gospel message or to just give it up altogether. And we can be Christians in hiding.

But that’s not the answer. What we need to do is we need to realize that we have something to say and we have to say it. That’s how Jeremiah was. And we have the message of truth that is the only message that will save the souls of the lost and dying world that is around us. We need to live for more opportunities to strike up spiritual conversations. We need to invite more people to services. We need to set up more Bible studies. We need to learn how to teach the lost better if we do not know how. Jesus came for the very purpose of seeking and saving the lost. And if we are to imitate Jesus Christ, then I believe we need to be about the business of seeking and saving the lost.

Are you working towards that? How’s your evangelism? How’s that fire in your heart? Maybe it’s just a flicker. Maybe it’s not even a flicker. Wherever you are in your evangelism, grow from there. Number six, hospitality. We should take advantage of more opportunities to feed, keep, and entertain strangers as well as our brethren, and to do so without complaint. Now that might be the hard part.

So maybe we’re hospitable, but we whine about it because it’s a real hassle. I mean, it’s a lot of work. Trust me, I know. It’s a lot of work. But we need to do it without complaining. I think of the example of such men that I’ve known like Dempsey Collins and Horace Huggins. These are two different elders in different congregations that I’ve been affiliated with in the past, and they, both of those men told me that their goal and their wise goals were to have everybody in the congregation of which they were a part to be in their home and to get to know them. And I thought, no, that’s that’s a really good example. You know, how else are we going to get to know each other, brethren?

3. Encouragement, Patience and Humility

Are we really going to get to know each other when there’s 200 plus people here at this hour by visiting before and after services? Is that really going to be enough for us to actually know each other? I don’t believe so. I believe the way that we actually get to know each other is by spending one-on-one time with each other. And one of the best ways to do that is to have brethren into your into your home. This is really what the example of the early church is for us in Acts 2 and verse 46. That they were eating their meals day by day in their homes. So, how’s your hospitality? Wherever you are in your hospitality. Grow from there. Number seven, encouragement. I believe that we should take more and more of an effort, make more of a more of an effort, to proactively encourage one another, day by day, as Hebrews 3 at verse 13 says, as long as it is still called today, lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

It’s something that we don’t need to do just once in a while. It’s something we don’t need to do just when it comes to our mind, but it’s something we need to do on a regular basis. In Hebrews 5, it says, let us consider one another how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And so the idea of stimulating one another is to help to move one another along. Help us to help one another that we will go and do those things we need to be doing for the Lord. And in verse 25, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. This means that we need to do more than just ask one another, how’s the weather?

It’s more than a shake of the hand or a pat on the back. We may need to think of specific things that we can do, like write cards, handwritten cards of encouragement or letters, or make visits, give phone calls to your brethren who are sick or who are down or who’ve been missing. Send them a text, send them an email. These are all very simple, easy ways. Even just going up and saying, you know what, you are such an encouraging person to me. I just want to tell you how much it means that you’re my brother in Christ. How much effort did that take? Not much, but it may have made a huge difference to the person that you said that to. What I have seen is that brethren all over the place are practically starving for encouragement.

All of us, daily. The world is beating up on us. And we come here, and maybe our batteries are drained, and we come here to be built up. It would be terrible to leave with your batteries even more drained than when you came. So we need to be thinking about one another. You don’t know what’s going on in your brethren’s life in this very congregation. You don’t know how down they may be. They have the smile on their face, but maybe they don’t feel that way inside. And so look out for your brethren to uplift them, to encourage them to keep going and to serve the Lord faithfully. So, how’s your how well do you do in your encouraging of others? Wherever you are, and your encouragement of others, grow from there.

Number eight, patience. This is certainly an area that we all need to grow in. Fortunately, not me. I’m just, I’ve reached it. No. We all have to work on it, don’t we? We need to learn to be more patient with everyone. In times of stress, in times of frustration and disagreement, in times of injustice, to be more patient. In 2 Timothy 2, and in verse 24, the Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged. Oh, it’s easy to be patient when people treat you right and they’re nice to you. But what about when we have to deal with, you know, the knuckleheads of life? Those customers that just you can’t make them happy, and they’re demanding the impossible.

Can you be patient with that individual, or does that set you off? We have to grow in those areas to be more and more patient. In 1 Thessalonians 5 14, now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. Everyone. Not just the lovable ones. Not even just the likable ones. All of them. So how’s your patience? Wherever you are in your patience. Grow from there. Number nine, humility. Humility. The humblest men and women that I know are people who are the strongest in the Lord. You know, someone might think, oh, this man who’s been preaching the gospel for decades and who knows the Bible so well, he probably has let it go to his head.

But in my experience, the men that I have met in the Lord’s kingdom that know the Bible the best, who have let the word of God dwell in their hearts, are the humblest men that I know. And it’s a terrific example. We can think of examples, can we not, in this very congregation? In Numbers, in Numbers chapter 12 and verse 3, it says, Now the man Moses was very humble more than any man who’s on the face of the earth. That was in the context of Miriam and Aaron coming and basically wanting the same kind of power that he does. And Moses wasn’t going to retaliate because he was the most humble man on the face of the earth. He’s going to let God deal with it.

It’s almost humorous when you think about the fact that Moses wrote the first five books in the Bible. That means that he wrote that verse, saying that he’s the most humble man on the face of the earth. But I guess if you are really the most humble man on the face of the earth, then you could write that and it wouldn’t be prideful. We should grow in our humility. Have you ever thought about growing in terms of humility? To become more humble to receive instruction. Humility to admit fault. Humility to realize that you’re no important more important than anyone else. Humility to do our good deeds not to be seen of men, but only to be seen by our Father. Humility to repent when we’ve done wrong, and humility to submit yourself unto the Lord.

4. Resistance to Temptation, Guarding Our Heart, Hatred of Sin

So, how’s your humility? Wherever you are in your humility, grow from there. Number 10. Resistance to temptation.

Actually, Greg and I preach a series of lessons based on that passage. But each man is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desires. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is full grown, it brings forth death. And we gave the mathematical formula for really the steps of sin. That sin equals desire plus opportunity plus action. And it was pointed out to me by more than one person that, you know, desire, opportunity, action, dead on arrival. Makes a nice little acronym for what sin is. And so what do we need to be doing in our growth of resistance to sin? If we break that down, we need to be growing to desire sin less and less.

Actually, to develop a hatred and an abhorrence and a disgust for sin. We also need to be growing to limit the opportunities for sin and temptation more and more, so that we become more wise about where we place ourselves and what we put ourselves in the midst of and who we put ourselves in the midst of. And that when we’ve done everything we can do there, and there may still be some desire, and there may be still, and there will be some opportunities for sin, and those two things combine. Then when the rubber meets the road, we have to have the self-control not to act on those temptations. And we need to be growing in our self-control. How strong is your resistance to temptation? To whatever degree that you have attained.

Let us grow from there. Number 11, guarding our heart. You know, there are degrees of guarding our heart and protecting it from the evil things that could enter it. In Proverbs 4 and verse 23, keep your heart or guard your heart with all diligence. For from it flow the springs of life. So that’s how much we are to protect it with all diligence. If you have a spring, you’re not going to let anybody put trash in that spring. You want to keep it clean. You want to keep it pure. And in fact, you’re going to be disgusted by that when people do that. You’re going to grow. We need to grow to protect our spring of our heart from trash that may enter it. We need to be careful, brethren, more and more careful.

In this increasingly wicked society that does not know how to blush. That we do not watch filthy movies, filthy TV shows, filthy videos. We need to be careful about the things we see or listen to at every hand. The things that our children play on their video games. We need to not only guard our own hearts, but the hearts of our children as well. We need to grow in this way. How well do you guard your heart? Wherever you are in the guarding of your heart, grow from there. Number 12, hatred of sin. We need to grow in our hatred of sin. I was watching the movie War Room the other night with my wife. Late at night. We didn’t even finish it. Fell asleep at one o’clock.

But I want to finish it. But there is a scene where this lady is telling the devil to get out of her house. She’s just talking to the air. And then she goes outside because she’s ran the devil outside and she starts preaching to the devil out there. And she finally says, Go back to hell where you came from, to the devil. And I thought, boy, that’s strong language. And we don’t ever need to say that language to people, but I tell you what, that’s where Satan needs to go. And that’s where ultimately he’s going to go. And the attitude that we need to have towards Satan and towards sin is an attitude of hatred and abhorrence. It’s okay to hate Satan. It’s okay to hate sin, and it’s okay to hate hell.

5. Purity of Thoughts and Purity of Speech

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. We need to grow to be less and less tolerant of sin. We get friendly with it, we get on the fence. We need to get further away from it. That is a growth process that we have to decide that we are going to pursue. Number 13, purity of thoughts. You know, we’d be ashamed to say out loud many of the thoughts that go through our mind. Sinful thoughts are easy to hide from others, but you cannot hide them from God. We should grow to eliminate in our own lives not only sinful actions, but also sinful thoughts. Jesus said in Matthew 15 and in verse 19, from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies.

So evil thoughts, they proceed from our heart. We need to let God’s word train our thoughts to be less and less carnal and more and more pure with every passing day. As Paul said in Philippians 4 and in verse 8, finally, brethren, whatever things are pure, whatever things are noble, whatever things are true, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things, meditate on these things, be thinking on these things. I would ask you, how pure are your thoughts? Wherever you are, and the purity of your thoughts grow from there. Number 14, purity of speech. Purity of speech. We must learn to increasingly control our tongue. You know, the only people that don’t have a problem with this are people who don’t talk.

6. Love for the Lord

Because if you talk, you’ve got a problem with your tongue at one point or another. James 3 and verse 2 says, For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. More and more, we need to learn to eliminate sinful words, angry words, reviling, threatening, slander, gossip, profanity, euphemisms, taking the Lord’s name in vain, lying, dirty jokes, thoughtless comments. How well do you do in controlling your tongue and in the purity of your speech? To whatever degree you have attained, let us grow from there. 15th and finally, love for the Lord. Our love for God should be something that continues to grow more and more with every passing day until the day that we die.

In John chapter 21, if you will turn there, this is a familiar passage, beginning in verse 15. You remember that Peter had told the Lord, though all forsake you, I never will. And when Jesus was arrested, Peter denied the Lord three times. That he even knew him. And so we have in this passage, this is after Jesus had appeared to the apostles when they were fishing, and Peter jumps out of the boat and gets to Jesus. And they ate breakfast. So verse 15, so when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Let me ask you, did Peter love the Lord before? Did he love the Lord before Jesus was arrested? Did he love the Lord when Jesus was arrested? Yes. But he did not love the Lord enough to stand up for him and to confess his name. His love was growing. He was in a gross process. And Peter is a good example of someone who grows to be a strong man in the Lord.

And so our faith needs to get to the point that our love for God is so intense that there is nothing that could cause us to back down from standing up for our Christ and from dedicating our lives to him. And I really do believe that the reason that Jesus asked that question three times is because Peter denied the Lord three times. I can’t prove that, but that is my personal belief. How’s your love for God? Wherever you are in your love for God, grow from there. You know, I’m reminded of when Satan asked the Lord, asked God the question about Job. Does Job fear God for nothing?

Conclusion

You’ve bought his service. I mean, the only reason he’s serving you is because you’ve spoiled him and given him everything. You take all that stuff away, let me take all that stuff away, and he’ll he’ll curse you to your face. Well, once everything was taken away from Job, he remained faithful to God. And he loved God, and his motive for loving God and for serving God was because God deserves it. When everything is stripped away from you, you take away all of the other motives for serving God. I think the deepest and most abiding motive for serving the Lord is because he deserves it. Simply because he is who he is, and we love him. Let your love for God grow. You know, there are basically four possible ways to answer all of these questions that I’ve asked when I asked, how’s your blank?

How’s your contentment? How’s your faith? How’s your love for God? Four possible answers. Number one, the same. Number two, worse. Number three, improved. And number four, I don’t know. Now, if the answer is number one, the same. Then you need to get busy and make some changes so that you can grow in those areas. If the answer is worse, then you need to repent because you are shrinking back to destruction. If the answer is improved, then good job. Keep it up. Keep growing. And if the answer is I don’t know, then you just need to pay attention. You know, 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 says, examine yourselves to see if the Lord to see whether you are in the faith. We need to spend some time in self-reflection.

Sometimes our life is just so busy that we just don’t take the time to stop and to really think about our strength. Think about our weaknesses. And how can we improve upon those weaknesses? That takes some meditation. It takes some careful thought and consideration, but it’s something we all need to do. I believe that the first requirement for spiritual growth is to recognize our need for spiritual growth. What holds us back is the false confidence that we’re further down the road than we really are. If we see the need for growth at all, we don’t see it as something really truly urgent. And so we don’t really work on it. Are we really poor in spirit? Jesus began his greatest sermon saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

It’s been said that that is a recognition of spiritual bankruptcy. That we realize we come before the Lord with really nothing to offer except for, Lord, here I am. All I want to do is serve you, but I’m a sinner. And I just need you. I need your strength. Are you poor in spirit? Because I believe it is only with that contrite awareness that you will even want to grow. If you do want to grow, you will do the things that are necessary for growth. Whether it’s Bible study, whether it’s prayer and meditation, regular attendance. You will do those things. If you’re not willing to do the things, to take the time to do the things that will cause growth, then we need not think that it’s going to happen.

You know, we always say, someday, I’m going to do this or that. Well, that someday eventually comes. And we need to get to a point in our minds where we say, you know what? Today’s that day. I’ve been putting it off long enough. And I haven’t been making the progress that I should. I need to quit standing around and I need to get busy for the Lord. So to whatever degree you have attained, let us grow from there. And as Paul said, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father, our God, we trust you. And we are so thankful that you have been patient with us as we have been selfish, as we have let the world infect our hearts, and we have become used to sin, hardened. We pray, Father, that you would teach us, that you would teach us to hate anything that would pull us away from you. That you would teach us, Father, that we would pursue excellence spiritually, and that we would pursue becoming like your Son, who just happened to be perfect. Help us to strive more and more for that with passion every passing day. Through your Son we pray. Amen. Thank you for your kind attention. If you’re not a Christian, then we have a baptism already.

And it’s heated. So don’t worry about it being cold. And I say that in all seriousness, because I know that holds some people back sometimes. If you want to become a Christian, don’t let anything hold you back. Come today, repenting of your sin, confessing the name of Christ, and being buried in the waters of baptism and rising to walk in newness of life. If you are a Christian and you have not been growing as you should, you’ve grown complacent, or you’ve been shrinking in your faith and in your service to God, then we can pray for you. We’d be more than happy to do that. If you’d come now as we stand and sing the song of invitation.