Grow | New Year Sermon

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our Watch Night Service. We have come to the final moments of 2021. An eventful year is going to leave us in a couple of minutes. This year has been a challenging year for most of us. Some of us are dealing with the pain and loss of 2021. We have seen God’s blessings as well as tough times this year. However, we are called to give thanks and grow in all circumstances.

Can we all lift up our hands and thank God for 2021? Thank God for the mountains and the valleys, thank God for the good and bad experiences, and thank God for the loss and gain of 2021.

A new year is awaiting us. As we get ready to receive the New Year 2022, I have been praying as to what theme to preach on. The theme the Lord laid in my heart is the theme – “GROW.”

GROW

God wants his people to progress in the year 2022. Will this year be a year of your Spiritual Growth?

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 4:7-8

⁷Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. ⁸For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

How was your spiritual condition in 2021?

Are you a growing Christian?

What’s the current state of your spirit?

Excellent (you’re doing great)

Good (you’re doing well)

Fair (you’re doing okay)

Poor (you’re in a slump and need some awakening)

HF: We Are Going To Look At The Four Spiritual Disciplines of Christian Growth.

ILLUSTRATION

I think of the mother who was driving her four year old daughter to preschool one morning. She also happened to be a medical doctor and had left her stethoscope on the front seat. Driving along the street, she noticed her four year old was quite interested in the stethoscope and was playing with it. This mother and doctor began to think to herself, “Could it be that my daughter will grow up to follow in my footsteps? It would be wonderful if she would be like me.” Just then her thoughts were interrupted as her daughter spoke into the stethoscope as if on a phone and said, “Welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order please.”

God: The scripture talks about God as unchanging. God remains stable. We can be sure of that. He is a rock, unchanging and unchangeable. God does not grow nor does God decrease in his power or capacity. He in his person never changes.

God does not grow or does not change but when God sent his son, Jesus as a human being, in his capacity as a human Jesus too grew.

Luke 2:52

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was made perfect.

Hebrews 5:8-9

⁸Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

The Lord Jesus took on our humanity and in our humanity, he did change. Like us he changed on earth. He matured. He grew in wisdom and stature. Jesus is not growing in stature and wisdom as God but he is growing in wisdom and stature as a man. Throughout his life he grew. He learned obedience.

Like Jesus, when it comes to our Christian life, God expects continued growth. This is a lifelong pursuit of a child of God, to be Christlike. I am sure that we are all going to make good progress in the Lord in 2022.

Have you thought about growth? I’m not talking about physical growth now, I’m talking about spiritual growth. We hear a lot of talk today about church growth, building bigger and bigger churches with more and more people. But even more important than church growth is individual growth, personal, spiritual growth. This is a good time, at the beginning of a new church year with classes and studies and prayer groups beginning again, it is a good time to focus on spiritual growth.

Most of the people want to grow in the Lord. But mostly as the time goes on, the enthusiasm to grow wanes out. Many people get into a spiritual routine and get lethargic. If you are stuck spiritually God wants you to grow. God is not satisfied with a life of mediocracy. God wants you to grow. Even if you are a Christian for many years, every new year must be a challenge to grow further.

You will not grow without deliberate effort.

What is Growth?

Growth is the process of increasing.

ILLUSTRATION

I am sure you have seen time lapse photography of how a tree grows or how seasons change. We need a time lapse photography of your spiritual growth. Spiritual growth happens through little advances one at a time. God wants you to grow through spiritual disciplines in our life.

What is Spiritual Growth?

Hebrews 6:1

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God….

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Spiritual Growth is more of Christ being Expressed in my life through less of me.

John 3:30

He must become greater; I must become less.

The Alternative to growth is Stagnation.

ILLUSTRATION

Today we have all kinds of fancy gadgets that can measure just about anything. For instance, we can measure our height, our weight, including the amount of body fat we have verses the amount of muscle. We can measure our cholesterol level, our blood pressure, our sugar level and so many of things. We can diagnose everything about us physically.  If I offered you a measuring device designed to measure spiritual growth in a believer’s life, what would you find?, Today, I want to give you a tool that can help you measure how well you’re doing spiritually.

In fact, I want to give you four spiritual tools, called disciplines that can help you measure how you’re doing spiritually.

In John 15, Our Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples that the key to spiritual growth – abiding in Him. V5 says, “Without me you can do nothing.”

John 15:1-8

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. ⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Abide In Christ

Until you come to terms with the reality of your need to abide daily with Christ you will always be a yo-yo Christian, up and down, up and down. Up one minute, down the next, on fire for God one day and burned out the next.

You see we have lost our focus on what it takes to be a growing believer. We are engaged in activity or passivity when what God really wants for us is abiding.

Abiding in Christ means to remain in, to stay in, or even to continue in, a constant, continuing, committed, consecrated, called-out relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord!

So what are the tools or spiritual disciplines we need to measure our Christian growth?

4 SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES TO PROGRESS

1. ABIDING IN THE WORD.

John 15:7

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Jesus says, if we want to be a growing believer, a disciple, we must abide in His word.

John 8:31-32

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The way to have Christ living in us is to have His word in us. The word is food to us.

Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Romans 10:17

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

1 Peter 2:2

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation

We receive the word many ways:

• Listening To The Word Of God Taught Or Preached
• Reading The Word Of God
• Studying The Word Of God
• Memorizing The Word Of God
• Meditating On The Word Of God
• Applying The Word Of God To Our Lives.

Psalm 119:11

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

What happens when you apply God’s word in your life? You are mature, rooted in Christ.

Do you love God’s word? Do you read it or study it? Memorize it? Do you live it? Do you obey God’s word? Abiding in the word of God means we live the word as much as we read the word.

God’s word has the power to transform your life! Its teachings will radically change your thinking, and thus your lifestyle. The word of God enables us to Progress in our Spiritual life. Make a plan to read and study God’s word systematically in 2022.

2. PRAYING IN THE FAITH.

John 15:7

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Another important discipline necessary for Christian growth is “praying in faith.” A growing Christian should have or should be developing and maintaining a lifestyle of prayer. Prayer must become a part of our lifestyle. Prayer is communion with God, communication with God, practice of the presence of God.

Colossians 4:2-4

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Chris, which for I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

How do we pray?

Matthew 6:5-6

⁵“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

• Jesus assumes that as His children we will pray. “when you pray”
• Pray to God the Father, not to be heard of men, v. 5b
• Have a private place or time of prayer, “prayer closet”
• Be consistent.
• Keep a prayer journal.
• Follow a pattern of prayer, i.e.,

ADORATION                       CONFESSION            THANKSGIVING    SUPPLICATION

Notice the upper vertical portion of the cross points upward to heaven or God and indicates the basic way we communicate with God, through prayer and faith.

3. FELLOWSHIPPING WITH BELIEVERS.

“Fellowshipping” refers to that special relationship we share with all other believers. All true Christians have a fellowship, a true partnership, with other believers. Our mutual faith in Christ builds a bond of communion and commitment with one another. We need one another. We are a family.

Abiding in Christ means we will seek to live in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

John 13:34-35

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

God has provided a home for His children; it’s called the church. The church is the place where relationships are nurtured, where love is expressed, compassion shared, encouragement given and acceptance offered. It is the beginning point of all ministry. It is the body of Christ here on earth, a living, growing body. If you are to abide in Christ, you must abide in His church. You will never find a well-balanced Christian who is not involved in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ somewhere.

Ephesians 3:16-18

 ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 

You grow with the people of God, you cannot grow alone. We can only know God’s love with fellowship with the saints.

Benefits/Blessings of Fellowship:

• We Are Encouraged To Remain Faithful.
• Comfort In Tribulation. 2 Cor. 1:4
• We Will Grow In Maturity.
• We Will Grow In Ministry.

Not only are we to have a relationship with other believers through the church, called fellowship, but we are also to have a relationship with unbelievers in this world, and that’s called witnessing.

4. WITNESSING TO THE WORLD.

John 15:8

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jesus said that the way to show that we are his disciples is to bear much fruit. Witnessing is the natural outgrowth of the abiding, or growing Christian live. If we are living in His word, praying in faith, and fellowshipping with believers, it will be natural and normal to share with others what Christ is doing in our lives. In fact, you won’t be able to help but share or witness to those around you.

Bearing fruit is more than witnessing but it always involves witnessing.

Matthew 4:19

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Acts 1:18

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Are you a witness for Christ?

Notice that the first two spiritual disciplines deal with our relationship to God. That relationship is represented by a vertical relationship. When we hear the word, God speaks to us. When we pray, we speak to God. The last two spiritual disciplines deal with our relationship to fellow man. This is a horizontal relationship between a believer, the church and the world. When we faithfully attend church we fellowship with other believers. When we are faithful to share Christ with the lost then we are witnessing to the world.

If you truly desire to develop a close, growing relationship with Christ, then learn and put into practice the spiritual disciplines of:

1. Living in the word – Bible Study
2. Praying in faith – Prayer
3. Fellowshipping with Believers – faithful, consistent, regular attendance in God’s church
4. Witnessing to the World – sharing your faith with others 

BENEFITS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

John 15:7-8 ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

• God Will Answer You Prayers.
• God Will Fulfilling Your Godly Desires.
• You Will Be Fruitful.
• We Will Be Called Jesus’ Disciples.
• Blessings In The Kingdom Of God.
• Grow in Holiness. A mature believer is marked by their grow in resisting sin.

Luke 18:29-30

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them,“ no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Matthew 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

• You Will Receive God’s Glory.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

CONCLUSION

God has plans to prosper you. God has plans to use you for His glory. He will meet your needs in Christ Jesus. But will you commit yourself to growth in the presence of God?

As we come to the very close of 2021, can you take time to thank God for this year? It is the time for us to praise God for his goodness. Seasons change, years change, and circumstances change but God never changes. Can you start praising God for the new year that is awaiting us?