Sermon Info
Summary
God’s plan for your life is for you to grow in your relationship with Him. This happens as God draws you to Himself and invites you into a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. When you respond Yes! to Christ, your life, both today as well as your eternal destiny, is forever changed. But, salvation is the beginning of the journey. God wants you then to grow into the image of His Son. This is called sanctification, discipleship, and spiritual growth. As you grow spiritually, your relationship with God becomes deeper and richer. God loves you! Are you growing up in your relationship with God?
Content
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. — 1 Peter 2:1-3
Spiritual Growth
Just like a little puppy becoming a full-sized dog or a child becoming a mature adult, as Christ followers it’s natural that we change and grow. While we may savor the years that our puppy is so adorable and our child so sweet, we know that growth is part of God’s plan.
We can enjoy each stage of life for the good it brings, and then we journey bravely into the next. Sometimes this takes more faith than other times (like when our first kiddo is about to get behind the wheel of a car!) but the Lord is in control over it all.
As Christ followers, though, our spiritual growth has its differences from the physical growth of a puppy or child. While we lament that “they grow up so fast,” we won’t necessarily grow spiritually overnight. God gives our bodies potential to grow, and all we need to do is eat when we’re hungry and that potential will be fulfilled.
Likewise, God gives us the potential to grow closer to Him and grow stronger in our faith. But eating your fruits and vegetables isn’t going to help us fulfill that potential! We need to be intentional about our spiritual growth. We need to recognize that we’re called to grow spiritually, and then we need to prepare ourselves for it.
In 1 Peter 2:1-3 above, we read a command of Scripture to follow so that we may grow up in our salvation. Spiritual growth isn’t about being good enough to be saved — Jesus’ sacrifice paid that price. Spiritual growth is the result of knowing and living in the truth of God’s love for us now that we have tasted that the Lord is good.
Preparing to Grow
The passage in 1 Peter which is our focus this week reveals some important keys to spiritual growth. Ultimately, we must subtract some bad things from our lives so that we make room to add some great things to our lives.
God calls us to rid ourselves of some things:
- Malice
- Deceit
- Hypocrisy
- Envy
- Slander
These five sinful actions and attitudes are the result of living in the flesh instead of accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They are the sort of things we’d expect from someone who has not yet accepted the Gospel. But as those who know our God and have access to His Word, they are not the markers of spiritual growth.
In place of this sin which takes up space in our hearts, we are called to have the craving of pure spiritual milk which is God’s Word. In the spiritual sense it may be even more true than in the physical sense that we are what we eat. We need to pay attention to the messages and media we consume and ensure that they are not promoting everything from malice to slander. Imagine the growth we could experience if we replaced those negative influences with the truth of Scripture and the promises of our God!
Why We Grow
Accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is the best thing that can happen in our lives, but it doesn’t come without responsibility! Now that we have a personal relationship with our God, we should continue to grow in our salvation. God didn’t take us up to heaven the moment we were saved; He left us here for now, because there are others who need to hear the Good News.
If we allow ourselves to stay like we were when we were new to the faith, how will we win new followers of Jesus? Yes, the passion and curiosity of someone who has just accepted Jesus is intriguing and contagious. But the Kingdom also benefits from veterans of the faith who have experienced the highs and lows of life as Christians.
We need Christians who know their Bible well and can explain difficult passages. We need those who have grown in their bravery and boldness in the Spirit to speak out against dark powers. We need those who give when it’s hard to give, and those who pray when they don’t know the words to speak. We need people who have the faith to say “send me” when the path ahead is unclear.
Resources:
Next Steps // A Disciple's Guide
