Spiritual Growth 3

Today’s Reading from God’s Word

Ephesians 1 CSB

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. 11 In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. 13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory. 15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens— 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Introduction

Don’t you just love this passage?

It is the overall context of this year’s vision theme - open the eyes of my heart.

The first part, v. 1-14, cover the spiritual blessings we have in Christ.

Paul covers them from the past to the present, and all the way into eternity.

Verses 4-5:

You were chosen, predestined, and adopted.

Verses 7-8:

You are redeemed and forgiven.

You have received revelation.

Verses 11-14:

You will receive an inheritance that has been guaranteed with your having received the Spirit on the day of your salvation.

And then, beginning in verse 15, notice Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and ultimately all Christians:

Ephesians 1:16 (CSB)

16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

What caused Paul to be thankful?

Ephesians 1:15 (CSB)

15 ...your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

The Ephesians had embraced the gift of salvation and it changed their life.

In verse 17, Paul tells them what he prays for:

Ephesians 1:17 (CSB)

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

This was not a prayer he gave for them on one occasion.

Rather, it is a summary of how he prayed for them regularly.

It is for their encouragement.

But it is also to prompt them to remember they need to keep growing and making progress.

And that is what we’ve been discussing over the last month or so - as we’ve talked about spiritual growth.

You may remember how we defined spiritual growth. It is:

a decreasing frequency of sin in one’s life and the increasing frequency of godliness — which moves us toward Christlikeness.

and last week we talked about what makes us grow — and that is our focusing on the glory of God — all the way down the most basic level — even with our nonspiritual activities.

1 Corinthians 10:31 CSB

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

Does this action bring glory to God?

Do these words bring honor to His name?

Do the patterns of my life bring God joy?

How much would your connection to Christianity grow if you filtered everything in your life through this process?

Today

We’re going to move into part three of our series. And this may be the most critical lesson of all three.

Spiritual growth is uncomfortable.

Growth involves change and being adaptable.

Growth takes you somewhere where you’ve never been before.

There is a natural human inclination to resist change.

This can stifle growth. Leads to atrophy and even death.

So we need to be willing to embrace change — because it is a sign of growth when it is pointed toward Christ.

Remember what we said on December 3 — when we launched this year’s theme:

We’ll be challenging ourselves.

Our intention is to go deeper.

Our direction is “biblical.”

Our aim is Jesus

Our plan today is simple. As we navigate what is uncomfortable we need to remember:

God’s Purpose in your Growth

Appreciating the Tension within Scripture

Committing to Pursue What is Excellent

God’s Purpose in Your Growth

Your Growth is Personal

God wants you to learn His truth & He has given you the Spirit to teach you and help you understand His word.

It’s personal.

The Spirit helps you get to know God better and grow in your relationship with Him.

Ephesians 1:17 (CSB)

17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

God can use the Spirit within you to sharpen your spiritual eyesight … and this is what Paul is praying for.

This is not about the mere receiving of facts (knowledge), but the application of truth to life (wisdom) … a practical understanding of how to live.

And more than that … in Philippians, Paul prays that we grow in our knowledge of God himself.

Philippians 3:10 (CSB)

10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

knowing here

involves knowing about Him.

and knowing him experientially as Father.

You have been given the Spirit as a resource for living the Christian life.

He has not given you the Spirit to fulfill your every self-serving demand.

Instead He grants you a growing and deeper knowledge of God.

Remember, His purpose is to promote and empower a holy life.

Ephesians 1:4 CSB

4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.

The aim is to help you be holy & blameless.

The Goal of the Spirit’s Work

Ephesians 1:18 (CSB)

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened ...

When we put it all together, Paul is praying that our hearts will be enlightened so we will know what God has given them.

The “heart” here is our mind and will and thinking.

It is the “center of our personality.”

Let’s look closer @ v. 18:

Ephesians 1:18 (CSB)

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened ...

Present perfect tense.

They have already been enlightened when they were saved...

But now he is praying that the Spirit will help them understand the Word in more profound ways.

This is why we heed the instruction of Colossians 3.16

Colossians 3:16 CSB

16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Clearly we are participants in the process.

The more we allow the word to dwell within us, the more we will be transformed in to the image of Christ.

The Spirit helps us make it burn in our minds.

Appreciating the Tension Found in Scripture

Scripture calls for maturity.

Philippians 4.1: It calls us to “stand firm.”

Philippians 4:1 (CSB)

1 So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

2 Timothy 1.13-14: It calls for us not to depart from that which we have received.

Psalm 1: To become like a tree planted by the water that will be resistant to drought, stress, difficulty, storms.

Colossians 2.6-7:

Colossians 2:6–7 (CSB)

6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him,

7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

During 2023, we spent the entire year learning about what it means to be rooted. established. being built up.

Stable. Secure. Immovable.

Maturity Understands Growth is Uncomfortable.

Growth involves change and being adaptable. And therein lies the tension.

Growth takes you somewhere where you’ve never been before.

There is a natural human inclination to resist change.

This can stifle growth. Leads to atrophy and even death.

Maturity understands there are multiple ways to get up the mountain.

One of my favorite mountains to climb in the Black Hills has 4 or 5 different ways to get up to the top. I’ve climbed them all.

Each has it’s own features and benefits.

Each range in difficulty … some are more exciting than others … but they all lead to the same place and all are part of the same goal.

Growth involves changing perspectives.

Like climbing a mountain. As you ascend, what you see and assess constantly change.

You move away from the valley floor with its limited view and as you climb things open up … and you are able to see a wider and wider view …

all the while you are still on the same mountain … you’ve not departed and decided to climb a different mountain … but your view expands … and you comprehend the bigger scene of something much wider and deeper and broad.

An inability to understand this tension and respond to often leads to two extremes:

Resist change at all costs.

Individually

We can refuse to listen to things that are meant to challenge our thinking.

We don’t like to be questioned.

We resist thinking things through.

While we may hear what someone else is saying, we are listening for things to disagree, telling ourselves it is wrong, and formulating a response.

We tend to only hear things through the frequency with which we are most comfortable.

Congregationally

Local churches can get so set in their ways that they lose touch.

Methods change. Approaches change.

As a larger movement …

The restoration movement has not arrived and has not concluded.

Develop more of a loyalty to our subgroup than Jesus Christ.

And listen, this is impacting us more than we may realize.

American culture is more divided than ever — and so is the church at large.

May we all come to believe that our allegiance is only to Jesus — and not our own tribe of preference in the church.

Abandon God’s Teaching

And yet… on the other hand, the other failure to understand the tension between growth and being firmly grounded … is of course to abandon the teaching we have received, the doctrinal truths revealed by the apostles, and go another way.

So there must be balance in our approach.

So what about us?

Do we pride ourselves about being set in our ways?

Make our mind up on something we believe and that’s it?

Never consider there is more than one way to do something and accomplish the same result?

Reject that there are differing viewpoints and perspectives?

In the Message from the Shepherds in the Vision book, they mention “aha” moments.

Moments where our beliefs are shaped and shifted as we move more and more into the light of truth.

Where things we couldn’t see before, now we see clearly.

That should be all of our desire.

Discovering What is Excellent

Philippians 1:10 (NASB 2020)

10 so that you may discover the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ;

This is a prayer for our mind.

Focus on the word “discover.” Some versions use the word “approve” here.

Means to “regard something as genuine or worthy on the basis of testing.” It is where we judge something to be genuine.

The idea is that we grow to see the proper value of things - to be able to determine what is valuable, worthwhile, or excellent.

How do you do that?

You have to determine to focus your mind on what is excellent.

Most people live mainly in reaction mode.

They don’t control the circumstances … and so they simply react to what is around them. And in most of these reactions … we don’t think. We just respond.

Someone has said, “Most people live off their moods. They don’t control themselves, their selves control them. They don’t think at all.”

They can’t, with unhindered and undistracted passion, pursue what is excellent because they have not learned to control their thought patterns to where they can assess what is excellent.

We just live in reaction to everything around us. This is not good.

What if you’re flying and the pilot comes on and warns the crew and passengers that the plane computers have shut down, the instruments aren’t working, and the pilots have no clue where they are?

How would you feel if he said … “it’s all good though, I don’t want you to worry, we have a tail wind and we’re making great time.”

Now, that’s no way to fly! And it is certainly no way to live.

This study is over 30 years old now … but I think you will find its findings relevant … and even more relevant for our time.

People were given new concepts … something they had never considered before. Then they were asked to believe this new concept.

And in believing this new thing, they were expected to lay aside things they had previously thought were true.

Results?

50% believed immediately without thinking.

30% did not believe immediately without thinking.

15% wanted to wait a little while before making up their mind, except that they did not ask for further clarification or information to help them make a decision.

5% analyzed the details and came to a conclusion.

So how do we interpret this?

Only 5% of people think.

15% of people think they think.

80% of people would rather do anything than think.

And because they refuse to think, they are unable approve what is excellent … because they have surrendered control of their mind to their emotions … and they just react.

Again, most people live by mood, then by emotion, … and don’t live by thinking.

We have been called to think.

Mind has to win over mood. Mind has to overpower our emotions. Let’s look at some passages that really make this point come alive:

Romans 12:2 (CSB)

2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

renew your mind. .... get your thinking in order.

Philippians 4.8

Philippians 4:8 (CSB)

8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

Again … it starts with your mind … and your personal decision to not allow your mood or emotions to come into play.

Ephesians 5.8

Ephesians 5:8–10 (CSB)

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—

9 for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth—

10 testing what is pleasing to the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5.21

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (CSB)

21 but test all things. Hold on to what is good.

Are we willing to think things through?

When we’re challenged, how will we respond?

Will we simply react? Will we allow our emotions to drive our response?

Will we just put it off and say … not now I’ll look into this later?

➟ ➟ ➟ We all grew up hearing Acts 17.11: “The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

Will we actually examine what is being said and the Scriptural principles behind it?

This is the 5% I want to be part of. And I know you do too.

Our desire for spiritual growth is a mark of humility and a desire to please God … it is actually the desire to be more biblical … rather than being wedded to tradition because it makes us feel more comfortable.

As We Close

Will you be an active participant in the Spirit’s work of transformation?

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Let your faith be your sight.

Allow it to provide a lens by which you can see your purpose for life and your eternal destiny.

Growth is challenging … but so rewarding.

If you’re stuck, get out of the rut and get moving again.