You have to recognize your need to grow. None of us grow until
we recognize our need to grow. In Ephesians 4:11, Jesus "gave some to be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for
the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children."
You see, The Lord Jesus gave certain offices to the church, and certain
ministries to people, and certain gifts to people so they could do those
ministries so the body of Christ could be edified so that we could grow in faith
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We can grow into mature men, we can measure up
to the stature of the fullness of Christ and no longer be little children in the
faith.
Do you recognize your need to grow? Or, are you just happy enough to be a
Christian and get through life? Listen, friends: there is so much more for you
if you simply grow in the Lord. 2 Peter 3:18 says, "but grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Cultivate a desire to grow. You may say, "OK, you're right:
I need to grow spiritually. I just don't have much of a desire to do that."
Well, a lot of people don't!
In Psalm 119:10-11, the psalmist said to God, "With my whole heart I have sought
You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my
heart, That I might not sin against You."
And again in Psalm 25:4-5 he pleaded, "Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your
paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me."
God will teach you. You can grow spiritually--but you've got to want it. You've
really got to want it. You have to cultivate a desire to grow. You have to
thirst after God the way a deer thirsts after water.
Step Three: Believe Its Possible
Believe it is possible for you to grow. It is possible,
isn't it? Well, of course it is! Mark 10:27 says, "With men it is impossible,
but not with God; for with God all things are possible." In fact, in Mark 14:36
we read that Jesus "said, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible for You."
It is possible, my friend, for you to grow in spiritual maturity, to have
answers to your questions, and not to be blown about by every new doctrine that
comes along, every new teaching you hear on the radio, every new wacky book you
pick up. It is possible for you to grow spiritually. But you have to believe
it's possible.
Step Four: Recognize The
Source
Recognize the source of your spiritual growth. I want to
say flat out, right up front that the source of your spiritual growth is not
Back to the Bible, and it's not any of the other fine radio programs you hear
every day.
The source of your spiritual growth is not your church. The source of your
spiritual growth is not your growth group. The source of your spiritual growth
is not some system, or some program you've been through. You have to recognize
the source of your spiritual growth.
In John 5:39, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you
have eternal life." Now, the Scriptures are what you hear me talk about every
day on this program. This is a program dedicated to teaching the Word of God to
the world. As Bible teachers to the world, it is our great joy to teach God's
Word in 25 languages all over the world. I am just 1 of 49 Bible teachers
employed by Back to the Bible to teach God's Word.
But I've got to tell you right away: searching the Scriptures for yourself is
the best way for you to grow. Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart." That is only true, friends, because you
spend time in God's Word.
You want to grow spiritually. OK, one of the essentials for you to grow
spiritually is to have dedicated determination to spend time in God's Word--not
just listening to me because I've spent time in God's Word, and not just
listening to your pastor because he's spent time in God's Word. You're getting
everything second-hand if you do that. Get some for yourself.
Step Five: Ask The Teacher to
Instruct You
Ask the Teacher to instruct you. Now, as I said, it's my
joy that just about everywhere you can hear the English language in the world
you can also hear this program you're listening to right now. Not a translation
of this program: you can hear it in English, in my voice, all over the world.
I never cease to be amazed at that. But I want you to know that I am not your
teacher. Oh, sure, I teach the Word every day using radio and television and the
Internet and the print medium and any medium I can find--but I'm not the
teacher. The Spirit of God is your Teacher.
In John 14:25-26, Jesus gives us the promise, "These things I have spoken to you
while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you."
Now, it's my job to open God's Word every day, to tell you what the Bible says,
to tell you what it means and to help you apply it to your life every day. But I
can't do that--and it's of no value to you--unless the Spirit of God is your
Teacher. The Spirit of God is my Teacher.
I spend hours every day before I come to this microphone preparing myself to
talk to you about God's Word. I would not do that lightly, I would not do it
flippantly and I want the Spirit of God to teach me--because what you get out of
this broadcast is really what pours out of my life, not what fills up every day.
If I give you every day what I have, and empty my cup every day, I will be
drained by the end of the day. I can't do that, and neither can you. Ask the
Teacher to instruct you, and remember that your Teacher is the Spirit of God.
Step Six: Set Some Spiritual
Goals
Set some spiritual goals. You need to set some spiritual
goals for yourself. We see this all the time in the Bible.
In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul said, "For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." Paul had a
spiritual goal. He had believed, and he was persuaded, that God could keep what
he committed to Him--his salvation, his life, his ministry, his service,
everything. Paul's spiritual goal was that he might know Him and the power of
His resurrection.
Peter had a spiritual goal. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But sanctify [set apart] the
Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who
asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." That's a
good spiritual goal.
One of the reasons you want to grow spiritually is so you will have answers when
other people ask you questions. You know, I think one of the great subsequent
tragedies of that horrific tragedy of 9-11 was how few Christians had answers to
the questions of other people.
If we grow spiritually and became spiritually mature as the Lord wants us to, we
would be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us about the hope that is in
us. That's a good spiritual goal. Number Six: Set some spiritual goals for
yourself.
Step Seven: Make Plans to
Accomplish The Goals
Make some plans to accomplish those goals. Nothing will
ever get done until you have a plan to get it done, isn't that true? Psalm
77:11-12 says, "I will remember the works of the Lord . . . I will also meditate
on all Your work." There's a key word, my friends: "meditate." One of the plans
you ought to do to accomplish your spiritual goals is to spend time in God's
Word and to meditate on that Word.
Psalm 101:2-3 says, "I will behave wisely in a perfect way . . . . I will walk
within my house with a perfect heart." That's a plan: walking in your house in a
way that pleases God. You know, a lot of us can put on a pretty good front
outside when people are watching us, but what does your husband say about you?
What does your spouse say about you? What do your kids say about you, men? Are
you walking in your house with a perfect heart?
You see, to accomplish the goals God gives you, you need to make some plans. And
making plans means you're going to do what your goals say you're going to do.
We're looking at a ten-step program for spiritual growth. We're up to number
eight.
Step Eight: Ask a Friend to
Join You in Growing Spritually
Ask a friend to join you in growing spiritually. One of the
things Linda and I have discovered as husband and wife is that while we get
great enjoyment from having time with the kids, while we get great enjoyment
from teaching our children (and now our grandchildren) the Word of God, and
while it's particularly enjoyable for me in my private time with the Lord--the
time when I really get ready to come to you each day to teach God's Word to you,
my private devotional time with God--one of the times of the day we enjoy most
is the time we have our family devotions as a couple, because you know what that
does for us?
It helps us to grow together. I mean, not just at the same time but together at
the same time. We not only grow together in the Lord, we also grow together in
each other.
Acts 2:41-42 says, "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and
that day about three thousand souls were added to them." Now listen, "And they
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers." Now, what's important in those verses is this: these
people were growing in the Lord together.
I think one of the greatest ways you can stick to a ten-step program of
spiritual growth is to ask a friend to join it with you. We do that all the
time, don't we? When you're watching your weight or wanting to loose weight or
get into shape, you take a friend with you--kind of an accountability partner.
Do the same thing growing spiritually. Ask a friend to join you in growing God's
way, and then grow God's way together.
Step Nine: Monitor Your Progress
It's important, friend, that you monitor your progress with
frequent check ups. OK, we've all been on diet programs, haven't we? And you
starve yourself, and you get on the treadmill, and you run like crazy, and you
do all kinds of exercise, and you sweat up a storm--and what's the first thing
you do when you get off?
You step on the scales, right? Well, sometimes that's not a good idea because
you can become frustrated, but it's always important for us to monitor our
progress when we're attempting to reach a goal. I want to suggest to you that
you monitor your spiritual progress with frequent checkups.
2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves." That is to say, test yourselves, see if what you know about
God today is any more than what you knew a year ago today. See if your growth in
Christian things, your growth in the Spirit of God, the exercise of your
spiritual gifts--see if those things are more acute today than they were ten
years ago.
You know, over the course of the years, I've gone through many, many Bibles in
my life. It's my stock and trade; I'm a Bible teacher. You would expect that to
be the case. And I go through, probably, a Bible a year. I try to read through
the Bible each year in a different translation, and at home, I mark in my
Bibles: I write in the margins little things that come to me as I am reading and
meditating on God's Word.
But you know what? I've developed a habit: I never give away a Bible. You know
why? Because for me, all those bibles are the history of my spiritual growth. I
go back and find Bibles in the late fifties and early sixties, and I notice the
notes I wrote in the margins, and I say to myself, "Well, of course, Dummy,
everybody knows that!" But, you see, in those days I was learning that. Those
Bibles are a way to monitor my progress in my own Christian growth. If you want
to have dedicated determination to grow God's way, you have to monitor your
progress.
Step Nine: Put Into Practice
What You Learn
Put into practice what you learn. Psalm 86:11 says, "Teach me
Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth." It's important that you not only
learn God's truth, but that you also walk in it after you learn it. Put it into
practice. Any time you want to grow spiritually you have to put into practice
the things you learn in your quiet time with God.
There's an old weathered tombstone in England. A simple, but wonderful, epitaph
is inscribed on that stone. It says, "In the worst of times, he did the best of
things." I have to tell you, folks, this may spiritually be the darkest times
we've seen in a long time because, while technologically we've advanced so much,
morally we've declined so greatly. If you want to grow God's way, put these ten
steps into practice.