The Bible Speaks onthe need for Christians..

•GROWING

2 Peter 3:14-18

• 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

• 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

• 16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

• 17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

• 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen

Eccl. 3:1-8• To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:2 a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;5 a time to cast away stones,and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;6 a time to get, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away;7 a time to rend, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;8 a time to love, and a time to hate;a time of war, and a time of peace.

Gen. 8:22

• 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Rom. 6:3-7 Planted in Him to Grow in Him!

• 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

How Do We Grow Spiritually?

If you want to  get warm you must stand near the fire:  

if you want to be wet you must get into the water. 

If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or  even into the thing that has them.  ….C.R.Lewis

We are to grow!

•#1 To grow, we must abide in Him.

John 15:4• "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the

branch cannot bear  fruit of  itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you  abide in Me"  

• Must be in Christ (Gal. 3:27) and then

• We must abide in Him the rest of our

• Lives.

• Don’t look back. Lk. 9:62

•

#2 We must conform toHis will!

Rom. 12:1-2

•  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

• 2 And be not conformed to this world: • but be ye transformed by the renewing of

your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Conforming to the image of God

•    “..According to a natural law, we grow like those with whom we associate,  and the strongest character always exercises the controlling influence"  (Hannah Smith).

• Look what was said about the disciples of Christ! Consider this:

Acts 4:12,13

• 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

• 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled;

and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Do you know Him, or just know facts about Him?

•"Now this is eternal life that they may KNOW ... Jesus Christ"  (Jn 17:3).

• John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth

• John 14:1-6 I am the way…

• Matt.11:28-30 Come unto me…

• We tend to think that  change simply involves right choices, but there is more to it than  that. 

• Healthy change must take place at a

deeper level.  It has to do  with our heart, the place of our motives

• I Sam. 16:7• Matt. 22:36-39

# 3 We grow by examining ourselves & making nec. changes! 2 Cor. 13:5

• 5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

What does James say?• James 1:22-2722 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,

deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

• If you don’t look in that mirror, you won’t behold yourself!

• To grow in Christ, we must look at ourselves…

• And keep examining to see if we are growing in Christ!

Don’t be like these Christians!

• Heb. 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

• Heb. 6:1 “…let us go on unto perfection.”

Questions we need to ask ourselves

• 1. Do you love all the brethren! (Heb. 13:1) John 13:34,35.

• 2. Do you pray for others? (I Thess. 5:25)• 3. Do you attend faithfully worship of our• God? (Heb. 10:25; John 4:23,24)• 4. Do you murmur and complain? (I Cor.

10:10)• 5. Do others want to be a Christian

because they know you? (Matt. 5:16)

Do you choose to be happy,and rejoice in the Lord! Phil.4:4

• We can choose to live in the sunshine or under a cloud. 

• We can enjoy the roses or become preoccupied with the thorns. 

As we examine ourselves,we can make the corrections that we need to make!

• Someone has described our abiding in

• God as the following:

Do we demonstrate to othersGod being in us?

• How do I abide in God's love? • Connecting with God's love is like putting

on a  beautiful perfume.  As you apply it,  you smell its fragrance.   However, even when you are preoccupied with other things there is an  awareness of its scent. 

• I John 4:8 He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love!.

 

In conclusion:

• All of us need to stop and seriously consider the picture that God sees of Us!

• We can make changes in our lives,and• Grow in Christ, when we:

• 1.When we know we are abiding in Him.

• 2. When we are diligent to conform to His Will in all things

• 3.When we earnestly examine ourselves and• Make corrections to be in harmony with God’s will.

• • The gardener does not beg, plead or

pressure fruit to grow.  He simply cooperates with the principles that facilitate growing a healthy plant. 

• He plants. He waters, fertilizes and makes sure the tree gets enough light.  Fruit is a byproduct of those efforts. 

•  

• Christopher Ewing shared this story: Meeting with my auto-insurance agent, I confessed that I’d been comparing rates on the Internet and had gotten a quote that was 30 percent less than his.

• "Tell me, Chris," he responded, "when you have an emergency, who do you want to deal with, a man or a mouse?"

JESUS IS REAL!• In I Peter 3;15, Peter urges us to be

ready to give a defense of our faith.

• Today’s defense is that our faith is based upon eye-witness accounts of actual events that happened in real history.

Growing in the Lord will show you are wise? Are you wise?

• 1 Kings 12:10 And the young men that were grown up with him(Rehoboam) spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.

Take advice, instruction and live!

• 2 Pet. 1:3

• I Pet. 2:2

• Heb. 5:8,9

• 2 Tim. 3:16,17

• 2 Tim. 2:15

Ezra speaks loudly aboutman’s sin!

Are you ashamed to lift up your face to God?

• Ezra 9:6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass

is grown up unto the heavens.

• Isa. 59:1,2• Rom. 3:23

What it takes to grow things!

• Job 8:11 Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

A MUSTARD SEED

• Mark 4:32But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it

Isa. 55:10

• For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and watereth the

• Earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,

• That it may give seed to the sower and

• Bread to the eater…..

• so shall my word be that goeth

• Forth out of my mouth….

When we neglect to view ourselves as we are…

• Job 31:40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley

• Leaving the weeds that need to be pulled up to grow…and soon, the young plant

• Is choked…and can not grow…Lucille Craig

• Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?

• Don’t be that way…you need to examine yourself…I need to examine myself…let

• Us truly see ourselves as God seeth us!..

James 1:25-ff

• 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

• 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

• 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

• 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

•

A Growing Christian

• 2 Pet. 3: 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (Something we are to do.)

• I Pet. 2:2  as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (This is how we can do it.)

Examine yourself

• 5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

• Who needs to do this?

Value of time: How fasttime flies! No one is exempt!

• Psalm 90:6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

• I Pet. 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

• 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

• 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

• 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

To be righteous…one must grow!

• Psalm 92:12The righteous shall flourish

like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

What God hath done…

• Psalm 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

We want our children to grow up..

• Psalm 144:12

• That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth;

• that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

The failure to grow…

• Proverbs 24:31 And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

He was lifted up with pride!

• Daniel 4:22

• It is thou, O king

• ,that art grown and become strong:

• for thy greatness is grown, and

• reacheth unto heaven,

• and thy dominion to the end of the earth.

What does it take to get us to see ourselves as we are???

• Look what it took for Nebuchadnezzar

• Daniel 4:33The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. This finally humbled this man!

Remember God!• Ecclesiastes 11:5 As thou knowest not

what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Do you fear God?Do you fear the name of God?

• Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Consider what God can do for you

• Luke 12:27Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Speak the truth in love, thatyou may grow up in him in all things

• Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Look what was happening to the Thessalonians…

• 2 Thessalonians 1:3We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;

Look what happened to Saul!

• Saul. He was diametrically opposed to• Jesus. He hated the church. He detested• The way. He Was doing everything he• Could to destroy the people who followed Jesus.• Look what he did to Steven! (Acts 7)• Look what he did to early Christians! (Acts

26:9-11)• Look what he did to the Lord Jesus! (Acts

9:5ff)

Saul had some shockingexperiences!

• On his way to Damascus..• On his way to destroy Christians• On his way to eliminate disciples• On his way to wreck havoc to those• Humble followers of Jesus…• On his way… he came face to face• With Jesus!.• He either could do something about his life,

and change by examining the proof or reject it.

On his way….• Where will the way that we are following

• This morning lead us?

• Matt. 7:13,14

• Matt. 7:21-23

The Galatians

• Gal. 5:7 7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

• On your way …’who did hinder you’

• .

Growing—requires inspectingourselves! 2 Cor. 13:5

• a) Are you attending faithfully the services of the church? Acts 20:7; Heb. 10:25)

• b) Are you getting better about your temper• Eph. 4:26• c) Are you praying? I Thess. 5:17;• d) Are you reading and studying God’s Word?• John 5:39• e) Are you a judgmental person…Matt. 7:1

Do you blame others for your faults?

• Are you blaming others for your own faults?

• “the people did it” I Sam. 15: 9 Saul’s excuse…

• What excuse do we give for our faults??• I’m late because others make me late!• I can’t come because I have a

problem with other members of the church??

Stop Murmuring and complaining

• Are you the murmuring or complaining person?

• you need to listen to God..

• I Cor. 10 :10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer

•

Grow--

What can we do ?

Teach lost people

Rom. 1:16 “power of God unto salvation”

1 Cor. 3:6 “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

You Never Mentioned Him to Me