How to Keep Growing! Your first few years.

May 23^rd 2010

John 15:5-8 Page 1677

Last week: Grafting illustration. The first phase of growth is letting go and connecting to God. The second phase of growth is accepting filling from God and allowing Him room to work. This takes discipline but this discipline opens us to growth and change.

What type of growth? All growth that is not toward God is growing to decay. George Macdonald (1824-1905)

When can you stop growing? As long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.

How fast do I need to grow? Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. Chinese Proverb

Is growth always easy? Growth is demanding and may seem dangerous, for there is loss as well as gain in growth. May Sarton (B. 1912)

What is the result? A real Christian is an oddity, anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be full; admits he is wrong so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which is beyond knowledge. A. W. Tozer

The Text: John 15:1-8 Page 1677

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will 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.

Today’s part of the passage is full of conditional statements (if statements). It shows the need to connect to Christ and His word as well as the need to continually bear fruit. A changed lifestyle, priorities, and connection to Christ and His word show whether we are becoming like Christ as we follow after Him or not.

JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

How do you remain in Christ and His word remain in you? Most people find it helpful to grow by developing new habits which are God centered opportunities for removing the old life and putting on the new life. These new habits are often referred to as Spiritual Disciplines.

Dallas Willard defines a discipline as, "any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort." When you first start lifting weights you can not lift very much but if you continue you will be able to lift more with the same amount of effort.

What types of things are we talking about? With new believers we tend to talk about the need for quiet time with God in prayer, and reading for personal strength and time in worship and Bible study to grow along with the group. Other disciplines include solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, secrecy (keeping a secret and not needing acknowledgement), sacrifice, service, submission, personal worship including singing, journaling, celebration, fellowship, confession, stewardship, and evangelism.

Why do we make time and apply effort to these? In our summer series called James 1:22 we looked at material from the Website: http://www.watersedge.tv/disciplines which included the following information:

Richard Foster, in his classic book, Celebration of Discipline, uses two metaphors to illustrate the purpose of disciplines: a field and a path.

A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines--they are a way of sowing to the Spirit.

The spiritual disciplines are, "a means of receiving God's grace. …[They] allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us." He goes on to say, that the spiritual disciplines are like a narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side: there is the abyss of trust in works on one side and the abyss of faith without deeds on the other. On the ridge there is a path, the disciplines of the spiritual life. …We must always remember that the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur.

The task for us then, is to cultivate our daily lives into fertile ground in which God can bring growth and change. This is what the spiritual disciplines are all about.

The struggles of this stage:

• Setting aside the time.
• Choosing disciplines that best help prepare you for growth.
• Taking on too many things.
• Avoiding monotony.

Suggestions:

• Plan what you will remove from your life to make room for disciplines.
• Incorporate God into everything instead of a time slot.
• Try a variety of disciplines – some private and some with others.
• Do a few things well instead of doing everything.
• Prepare for dry times by changing your schedule. The schedule is supposed to work for you not the other way around!
• Find others who are working toward the same goal and encourage one another.

Next Week: Increasing Growth – Running the Marathon!