October 23, 2005am     G. R. O. W.       II Peter 3:18

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

Phillips Brooks wrote, "Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely content with the life he is living, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever meeting at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still the child of God."   -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).

   What really matters is what happens in us, not to us.   -- James W. Kennedy,  Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 2.

   The Christian walk is much like riding a bicycle; we are either moving forward or falling off.  -- Robert Tuttle, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 3.

What is grow?  What is growth?  How do you grow?  Do you want to grow?  Do you want the church to grow?  Growth takes place supernaturally when we follow the Lord. 

2Pet 3:18 (NIV) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 

G. ive yourself to God.  Receive God and His grace. 

This is heart yielded humility.  We must get connected to the source of our life and strength.  He is our all in all.  Grow in Grace.  Grace is giving to others what they don’t deserve.  You can’t give what you don’t have.  You have been given grace from the Lord have you received it?  Will you receive it?  Will you give it away?  John 3:3  Jesus said, you must be born again.  Trust in the Lord to carry you along.  Jesus told the disciples to follow me.  If we will follow the Lord He will make us fishers of men. 

R. each out in God’s love .  Stretch up and out.  Give God and His grace to others. 

As a child reaches up to his parent, we reach up to God.  Take God’s hand and let him lead you to grow into who He wants you to be.  As we continue to go with God, we will be stretched to become the people of the Lord.  He will challenge us to grow into His followers, his disciples, and his fishers of men.  God leads us to grow in his knowledge.   We learn more and more of who He is to us.  Take new steps in your spiritual life. 

   A sentence in one of the books [I was reading on osteoporosis prevention] struck me most: "Like all living tissue, bone is constantly being broken down and reformed."  The words seemed to apply not only to our bodies but to the perpetual Christian emphasis on brokenness.  Repent!  Confess!  Acknowledge your sinfulness!  I grow tired of this continual retracing of steps, impatient for the beckoning road ahead.  But it was the word living that leaped out at me.  It's living tissue that is continually torn down and rebuilt.  As long as my relationship to God is alive, this biological fact seems to suggest the tearing-down process will be part of it.  The confession of sin, the admission of guilt, will go hand in hand with renewal. ... There can be no growth without pruning, no rebirth without death. - Elizabeth Sherrill in Journey into Rest.  Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no 7

O. pen up to new vision and take it in.  Take in what God gives.  He gives his love and knowledge.  He gives us what we need to take the next step. 

We must be willing to accept changes in our life, church, and community.  Grow in knowledge of God and his will for your life and for your world.  What would you like to become in your life?  What would God like you to become in your life?  Would we look at our life through God’s light?  What are the possibilities? 

   One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs. "I'm sorry," the waitress said. "I can't bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken." 

   At first I was dumbfounded. We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen--orange slices garnished our plates. What was the problem? No juice? Hardly. We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice. The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it.

   Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls. The problem is not a lack of spiritual food--but that many Christians haven't grown enough to know how to get it for themselves.  -- Adapted from Leroy Eims in The Lost Art of Disciple Making. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 3.

W. ork for the night is coming. 

 Work for the Lord.  Exercise your spiritual muscles.  Let your spiritual growth happen as you work for the Lord.  Work your Mind, heart, feet, and hands.  Get busy with the Lord and his work.  The need is there.  Harvest Sunday is coming will you be there with your friends?  Will you get involved?  You may have fallen but will you get back up again and again. 

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey, Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 1.

   If you wish to enrich days, plant flowers; If you wish to enrich years, plant trees, If you wish to enrich Eternity, plant ideals in the lives of others.   -- S. Truett Cathy, Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 2.