Growing in Christ

Intro:

only 1/3 of churches strongly agree they are spiritually vital and alive. (2020 survey of Lifeway research)

Let’s be honest we all have that desire for our church.... to be growing, spiriutally vital and alive.... to be growing!

I am convinced that a growing and healthy church regularly returns to

- Discipleship

- Evangelism

- Missions

The life of a church is a journey....in this journey we change and we grow.... and in that growth there is always pivital moments of return so the new growth may occur.

Problems, opportunities, challenges, and in the midst of all of those.... Jesus is leading, we are following him in this journey.... and we grow and spiritually thrive… or we choose the road to the death of a church.

As I have wrestled with this value this week… it is obvious and yet super challenging.... because it means I must always return, always reflect, and always trust God in the journey between here and heaven.

I want Paul’s words in Colossians to guide our time this morning.... His words helped the colossae church stay on the healthy and growing trajectory and that is our desire as well.

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

How does the church grow?

A Church is born, it matures, it grows spiritually and numerically, peaks, platueas, ages, etc.....

Thousands are added, new believers are made

Elders and Deacons are established

The church is persecuted and scattered

Church history would be filled with this reality..... You can grow numerically and you can grow spiritually as a church.

Jesus builds his church

Matthew 16:18 ESV

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

God gives the growth

1 Corinthians 3:7 ESV

7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Our church was not started by men in women in a living room in Duncanville and Mount Lebanon..... It was started by Jesus’s leading and prompting.....

Our church exists today because God gives the growth! God uses the people of the church for his mission and purposes.... but God controls the growth!

We aren’t passive in the growth of our church..... Apollos planted and Paul watered.... we are not called to inaction as believers, but to join God in the journey of the church!

The farmer plants the seeds, God gives the growth, and the farmer harvests!

Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you. - J.C. Ryle

Walking

Paul uses this verb to encapsulate the Christian experience of living on Earth between now and heaven....

Walking is a process of changing, growing, and learning to be more like Jesus

Sanctification - process of being made holy - positionally and perfectly declared Holy..... Holy Spirit still at work.... Caution… work in progress.....

Sanctification is like a clumsy, slow walk rather than a light switch that we turn from off to on. - Ed Welch

Walk not a sprint - not a light switch

Young and Old - It’s going to change with age - time in on my side? or not

Starts and Stops -

Uphill and Downhill -

In the elements..... walking across the barren pastures, to the bus stop and then hike both ways in the snow to and from school......

Colossians 1:10 (ESV)

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,

This is Paul’d desire for the church in Colossae and for the churches he helped start.... It is a desire for our church as well..... How will we choose to walk? Will it be a healthy and growing walk? to look more and more like Jesus here in Midlothian?

Sanctification is done in the life of a believer by the power of the Holy Spirit..... but it is also true that ....Sanctification is a community project. - John Piper

What should define a growing and healthy WALK?

1. Rooted and Built up in Him

Colossians 2:7 (ESV)

7 rooted and built up in him

He uses the same language in Ephesians as well.....

Ephesians 3:17 ESV

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

The Church is both a living organism and an organization… You will most likely how God has wired you relate better with one of these.... and if you have been in a few churches in your life you will see where the church can swing on this pendulum.

The Church is organism - Rooted

Perfect Passive - It is a perfectly complete action in the past that happened to you.... not you having to do anything with the process.

Faith of a mustard seed..... and it becomes a large plant...... God has worked salvation in your life, and planted the seed of the gospel so that your roots grow deep and thrive so that you may live a fruitful life!

Fruits of the Spirit on display in the local church

Meeting the needs as the arise in our church family and meeting the needs of our community

Times of prayer that is prompted by the Spirit

Times of rejoicing and weeping as we fulfill the one another passages of the NT

Evangelism happens in the everyday life of believers as habit instead of program

The Church is organization - Built Up

Continue to be built up in him - Greek.... ongoing process

Eph 4 - Offices in the church

1 Tim - Elders and Deacons

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Gathered for scheduled worship and prayer and teaching

Money is collected for Kingdom causes and letters and messengers are sent

Worship services are done decently and in order.... not sporadic

If we are honest, we can see how this may function as a pendulum.... a one side or the other..... we must be balanced...... Organic and Organized...... Spontaneous and Planned........

A thriving, growing, healthy church will be rooted and being built up and also..... established in the faith.

2. Established and strengthened in the faith

We are not only called to belief but to strengthening that belief with knowledge of the truth

2 Peter 3:18 ESV

18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 Peter 3:17 ESV

17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

Colossians 2:8 ESV

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

The Church should keep the main thing the main thing.....

The Gospel Proclaimed and Shared

The Bible Believed, Taught, Studied as the true innerant and perfect word of God

Prayer times

Singing to the Lord

Cooperating for the kingdom purposes - with other churches, starting churches.....

Meeting the needs of the saints physically, spritualy, monetarily

Fellowship

If we are on a walk.... you want to be reminded of where you are going.......

How many of you thank God for the GPS on your phone?....... It is a blessing to know how to stay on the right path.....

Paul is telling the church...... be established and strengthened on the faith.... the right path.... the right truth.....

It is a constant returning to the way of sanctification and holiness.....

as Martin Luther says...... To progress is always to begin always and begin again........ You

3. Thankful in the process

Colossians 2:7 ESV

7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Continually give thanks!

We are thankful for salvation

Ultimate thanks is giving to the moment we recieved Christ as our Lord and Savior

We are thankful for the whole journey

Paul uses thanksgiving more than 50 times in his letters..... as a command and definitive marker of the Christian Faith! Hear these examples

Nah I am good.... I had thanksgiving.....No this is a true sign of a christian.... and a true sign of the church.

Ephesians 5:20 ESV

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Individually - Do I overflow with thanksgiving?

Church - Do we have the regular thanksgiving on our lips?

Critical words

Negative words

Complaining words

Words of encouragement

Word of thanks

Thankfulness in the Christian life is not just a thank you God for saving me...... but a thankfulness at every step and every moment in your life...

As a Church..... what defines our interactions and words together?.......

May we be a church that overflows with thanksgiving to God over everything he is doing in the life of this church family!

33%....... I desire for our church to GROW and thrive spiritually....to be alive and flex the muscle of growth that God works in the life of this church family!

Conclusions -

The best is yet to come..... He is not done with us yet!

Do you desire to Grow? Church to grow?..... pray for the growth that comes from God and let us join him.

Come to faith in Jesus.... the first step.... be thankful!

Join this church family! or be baptized!