Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Around the new year it seems like everyone talks about resolutions.

Businesses are talking about data projections.

Pastors are talking about vision.

And churches are consumed with growth and ways to attract people in their community.

Church growth is something that is either over-discussed or never discussed, and as is the case with most things these days, the truth lies somewhere in between the two extremes.

Church growth often isn’t discussed because we all know churches that put too much emphasis on numbers.

We aren’t a secular business.

Our success is not hitting a certain numerical benchmark.

It’s like a business where we want to see a 10% increase in our budget and attendance and if we only get 9% then it’s a failure.

Numbers aren’t the end all thing that we should be searching for.

How can we know that?

Because small churches have been a part of God’s plan for thousands of years and many are faithful to the Word of God.

They aren’t a failure just because they don’t see the growth that other churches might see and other churches that see massive amounts of hands raised and millions of dollars of income year after year aren’t automatically healthy and faithful just because they have the numbers.

Numbers aren’t the most important thing… but numbers DO matter to our God.

How do we know that?

Because numbers at the end of the day are people and people matter to our God because each person in Salem, Missouri is made in God’s image!

Over the next 3 weeks we’re going to start off 2023 by looking at our mission for the year and that mission is to “make a dent in the lost population of Dent County for the glory of God and the good of our community.”

How can we do this?

Obviously that will require prayer, Bible study, discipleship, evangelism, and those types of things… but it starts with growth.

Not dollars and cents growth.

Not people in pews growth.

But spiritual growth in our lives here at FBC Salem.

Have you grown from the time you became a Christian to today?

Lindsey and I talk often about how we’re trying to soak up our time with Gabriel while he’s as little as he is because we know that time is a thief and he’s growing bigger and bigger each day!

But I’m going to be honest with you, whenever he’s waking up at 2am sick and crying, I do look forward to the days whenever he’s older and doesn’t get sick seemingly every other week in the winter time.

I know that Gabriel will grow up and those types of things will change as he gets older.

Physically, we all get older.

We all mature mentally and physically over the years… but spiritual growth doesn’t always look the same for each person.

I’ve known people who have come to church their entire lives and they are just as mature today as they were 30 years ago.

Could you imagine a 40 year old who acted like a 10 year old?

We’d tell that person that they just need to grow up!

The same is true for our lives spiritually, friends.

If we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ, we are saved to serve Christ.

This requires us to grow.

There isn’t a single person in our congregation who has “arrived” and no longer needs to grow - this is a call for each one of us today to understand that God has something more in store for us in 2023 and that in order for us to do the work that God is calling us to do, we must grow individually and as a church body.

The first part of our mission this year is for our congregation to experience personal spiritual growth.

Let’s dive into Ephesians 4 and see what the Bible says about the importance of spiritual growth today.

Before We Grow, We Must Have a Solid Foundation (1-6)

Paul begins this wonderful text of Scripture with a call to walk worthy of the calling that they have received.

There are a lot of different ways to get something to grow.

If you’re hoping to get a plant to grow it’s going to require sunlight, soil, and some sort of water supply.

The same is true for teenage boys, give them sunlight, water, and food and they take off!

We know that there are things required for growth to take place… but what is required for us to grow spiritually?

That’s hard to quantify.

It’s easy to know when you’ve grown physically as your pants don’t quite fit or you start looking down at someone instead of up at them… It’s easy to know when you’ve grown mentally as you’re able to start doing more advanced and complex problems that you used to not be able to do.

You can quantify those types of growth!

But what about spiritual growth?

How can we grow?

How can we see that growth take place?

Before we can grow, we have to have a solid foundation to build upon.

Paul, in Ephesians 4 gives us this solid foundation that is necessary for us to build from the ground up.

As a Christian, we are called to be in the world but not of the world.

This means that we live in the world, but we live in the world as citizens of heaven.

This requires us to stand out from those around us who might not belong to Jesus Christ.

The way that we stand out is not by physically looking different, it is through the way that we live our lives.

Paul urges these Christians in Ephesus to live their life with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through peace.

What is Paul saying here?

He is saying that, as a Christian, you have responsibilities and expectations before you.

If you look around our world at the people who seem to have the most stuff, they might seem to be lacking in these types of character qualities.

One wealthy CEO years ago shared that he had made his fortune through the hard work of his two hands and brain and he deserved to live off that fortune in comfort and relaxation for the rest of his life and if anyone in his company spoke against him then he’d simply fire them because he could.

This mentality isn’t isolated - lots of people have genuine problems with humility and patience and keeping unity through the bond of peace.

Think of the people that our society promotes - are they often humble people?

Some of them are, but the majority aren’t!

The first time that they step up to a microphone the first thing out of their mouth usually is the word “I.” I’m so great.

I did this thing.

Our world has a fundamental problem with humility.

We must heed what CS Lewis shared about humility in Mere Christianity, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”

If you’re going to grow to be more like Jesus, you must think of yourself less and more about Him - this is exactly what the Bible tells us in places like John 3:30

Before you grow, you must have a foundation that tells you that you always need more of Jesus in your life!

Paul also hits on other character qualities in these opening verses that can be a struggle for us at times.

It can be hard to be gentle and patient whenever people are pushing our buttons.

This year on Christmas Eve we celebrated with my mom’s side of the family at my Uncle’s lake house in Branson and Gabriel happened to be napping while we were opening presents and was in for quite the surprise whenever he woke up!

We walked down the stairs and Gabriel saw probably 50 different presents that belonged to different people and was soaking it all in and trying to figure out what each present was.

Eventually he made his way over to my cousin’s son’s presents and that’s when patience was tested.

My cousin has a son named Zack and Zack is 5 weeks older than Gabriel.

They like some of the same types of toys and my grandmother got Zack a race car track that Gabriel has at home… What does Gabriel start doing?

He goes over and takes Zack’s race car because he thinks that it belongs to him!

Zack gets upset so I give the car back to him and then Gabriel gets upset… why?

Because it’s hard to teach a 2 year old how to share whenever there’s a toy that they really really want.

What I’ve discovered in life is that we don’t all get past that 2 year old stage, do we?

It’s hard to be patient with others whenever there’s something that we want.

This is crucial for us in our Christian lives to understand that Jesus Christ has saved us into His family and for now that means that we belong to His bride, the church.

If we’re going to grow to be the Christians that Jesus wants us to be, we have to start individually practicing the things that He calls us to practice.

How do we practically lay this solid foundation?

Here’s an example given by Richard Coekin.

Bearing with one another in love means accepting the failures and flaws of others because we love them and making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace means protecting the unity created by the Holy Spirit in our congregation.

Whenever tension arises, instead of stirring up the pot, practicing godless gossip, bitter aggression, or pretending to know everything, Paul shares that we must first walk worthy of our calling by prayerfully practicing humility, speaking gently, forgiving other patiently, and listening well… not because it’s easy but because this is the foundation of our faith.

Our motivation to live this type of life personally and as a church body is based on the Word of God - before you can grow, you must dive into God’s Word consistently.

Imagine being the quarterback or the first chair trumpet player for the Salem Tigers.

You worked hard for that spot and you finally got it and then you go to your coach or director and you tell them this, “I’ve already paid my dues, I’m not going to practice this either week, but I’ll be ready to start on Friday night.”

What do you think that coach or director is going to say to you? They’re going to laugh because they know that no one is silly enough to dare to say something like that to their face.

If you choose not to practice, you aren’t going to play… simple as that!

Here’s our problem at times… we treat God that way.

God, I really don’t need to read my Bible because I went to church on Sunday.

God, I don’t really need to go to Bible study this Wednesday night because I listened to this podcast on the way to work and I got my spiritual nourishment that I need.

I don’t really need to go to church because I don’t have the time for it… but I can’t wait for the next program or big event!

We tell God that we’re not disciplined and we’re not going to practice and work on the fundamentals of our faith… but we want to play in the big game and shine in the spotlight when it looks like fun! That’s not how it works, though.

What must our foundation be?

No different than an athlete training for their sport.