Expect Spiritual Growth

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, continuing our series, “What to Expect when You’re Expecting, we can expect spiritual growth. Growth is normal, ordinarily, it occurs naturally. A lot of growth happens without our conscious will. I mean, as children, we may desire to grow taller, but there isn’t anything we can consciously do to become taller.

We observe this in nature also, plants grow, weeds grow, despite our best efforts at preventing them from growing at all. Farmers will tell you that they can’t really explain why their crops are better one year over another. They do the same work each year, but much of their success or failure is outside of their control.

Sometimes growth doesn’t come as expected. Sometimes crops fail. Sometimes pregnancies don’t go to term. Sometimes children are still born. Sometimes people are born with handicaps. Sometimes loved ones don’t live as long as we expect them to live. Sometimes growth doesn’t happen.

God’s promise to us this morning is that spiritual growth does happen. On Tuesday, I tried to go and make my usual visits, but I found myself in such a state of grief, that I couldn’t hardly drive, let alone visit with others. I eventually made my way to the Bradford Library to work on this sermon. I was suddenly reminded of a response C.S. Lewis had given in correspondence with Keith Manship, who asked him about the slow process of being more in Christ, in other words, of spiritual growth. Allow me to read Lewis’ response.

You state the problem very clearly, and the fact that you can do so really shows that you are very much on the right road. Many don’t even get so far.

The whole problem of our life was neatly expressed by John the Baptist when he said ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (). This you have realised. But you are expecting it to happen suddenly: and also expecting that you should be clearly aware when it does. But neither of these is usual. We are doing well enough if the slow process of being more in Christ and less in ourselves has made a decent beginning in a long life (it will be completed only in the next world). Nor can we observe it happening. All our reports on ourselves are unbelievable, even in worldly matters (no one really hears his own voice as others do, or sees his own face). Much more in spiritual matters. God sees us, and we don’t see ourselves. And by trying too hard to do so, we only get the fidgets and become either too complacent or too much the other way.

You remember growing up, if you saw certain relatives infrequently, they would always comment on how much you’ve grown since the last time they saw you. This is because we tend to keep static images of people in our minds. We somehow expect small children to stay small. Negatively, we can insist on keeping static spiritual pictures of others in our minds and fail to see how God has created spiritual growth within them. Within the church, we must expect spiritual growth, not only within ourselves, but within others also. Not only has Springdale CRC grown spiritually, especially in the last few years, individual members have grown as well, and I have seen evidence of that growth in you, even if you can't see it in yourselves or in others.

We must remember what has taken place within. God has moved among His people. We are living in the new covenant made in Christ. Instead of writing the law on tablets of stone, God has written the law upon our hearts. But more than that, more than just placing the impersonal law within us, God himself has moved in.

That the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us should not be a hard concept for us to understand. At least half of the population has or will most likely experience it at one time or another. Some choose to experience it more than once. I am talking about being pregnant.

Pregnant mothers have the blessing of allowing God to create a brand new human being inside them. By the end of the First trimester, many of them become aware of the changes that are taking place within their body. As the baby grows, it forces some of the internal organs out of its way, later it may kick and squirm, moving to make room, in a very cramped space.

Consider what happens when to us when the Holy Spirit moves in. He displaces the sinful desires we have. He forces them out of the way. He makes room in our hearts to grow. states “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.”

How do we demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit? How can we even be certain that we have the Holy Spirit? Apart from the Holy Spirit in us, we cannot love as Jesus loved. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we cannot keep God’s commandments.

And just as surely as a pregnant woman begins to see signs of her pregnancy, Holy Spirit filled Christians can expect to see signs of the Holy Spirit’s residence. We become able to choose to follow the commandments. We find ourselves experiencing victory over our sinful nature, ability to resist temptation. We find ourselves having an attitude of serving others instead of serving ourselves.

Now, some of you might be thinking, “I don’t see much growth.” Growth happens gradually, like the old adage, “A watched pot never boils.” If you sit and watch your crops grow, it will feel like nothing is happening. But go away for a week, and you’ll see tremendous growth.

This is how you know that the Holy Spirit is within you. You choose to do good deeds instead of evil. You choose to worship the Lord on Sunday rather than skiing or playing golf. You choose to show love to your neighbour, at a personal cost to you. As the Apostle Paul states in : you “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the amour of light. Behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy. Instead, we choose to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

That is the result of being born into the Spirit of Christ. We take on Christ. We put Him on in the morning. Paul describes it as clothing ourselves with Christ. Some people, when they get up in the morning, as they put on their clothes, they imagine putting on the armour of Christ. They put on Christ. That way, they believe they are starting the day off properly. They are beginning with the right clothing. If it was minus 40 outside, you wouldn’t want to go out wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals, would you?

If you were about to go into battle, you wouldn’t go without some protective gear, would you? I tell you the truth; it is a war out there! It is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers. That is the reality we life in.

In addition to putting on the armour of God, or clothing ourselves with Christ, we have to get ready. Training in righteousness takes discipline. Training for athletic performance takes practice. In order for us to do what Paul tells us to do in the last part of chapter 13, we have to commit ourselves to practising spiritual disciplines. Here are three simple examples of spiritual disciplines for the individual: fasting, study, prayer. Here are three examples of spiritual disciplines for the church: worship, service and fellowship.

Let’s look at the three disciplines for the individual. How many have ever participated in a fast? A fast can be giving up food, for a specific period. Or it can be giving up something you really enjoy doing, but which might be interfering with your relationship with God, some examples could be TV, computer, talking on the phone. Study includes setting aside a certain amount of time every day for Bible reading. And prayer obviously means praying to God. A well-disciplined Christian individual will make the time to do some of these things repeatedly.

We are tempted to believe that we can be healthy on a steady diet of junk food. We are tempted to believe that we can be spiritually healthy on spiritual junk food, going through the motions, but not really putting much effort into it. It won't work. We have to work hard at it, dedicate time for reading the Bible and prayer.

We are not necessarily familiar with the concept of church spiritual disciplines. In worship, we gather as a community, formed not by accident, or because we happened to grow up in it. No, we are a church because Christ has called us together to form his body. We are an interdependent unit. As a community of believers called by Christ to be his body, we naturally participate in doing acts of service. Helping out in the community, giving to ministry shares, participating in community events, are different ways we can be Christ’s body in service to our community and to each other. Fellowship is a very important discipline for any healthy church. The time visiting after church is not a waste. Getting together for meals and coffee is important. That is how we spur one another on in the faith!

In his response, C.S. Lewis went on to say,

Your question what to do is already answered. Go on (as you apparently are going on) doing all your duties. And, in all lawful ways, go on enjoying all that can be enjoyed—your friends, your music, your books. Remember, we are told to ‘rejoice’ (). Sometimes when you are wondering what God wants you to do, He really wants to give you something.

As to your spiritual state, try my plan. I pray ‘Lord, show me just so much (neither more nor less) about myself as I need for doing thy will now.’

Prayer

So then, let us also pray, “Lord, show us just so much (neither more nor less) about ourselves as we need for doing your will now.” Amen.