LifePoint Church

From childhood, most of us have learned to love games. The excitement, the cheering, even the competition create a rush of adrenalin that’s hard to find anywhere else. And on the playing field of life—even life with God—we can find excitement too. But living your life for God and with God is not a game. The stakes are high. The consequences are enormous. And the outcome is anything but trivial. No wonder God invites us to pay the price of giving up our lives so we can find real life.

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Growing in Christian community is sometimes reduced to our gathering together in worship services and attending other congregational activities and events. While community growth can certainly occur in these venues, it is much more than that. Meaningful, life-changing community is also found in small groups that complement/enhance the work of the larger church body while also growing and equipping us individually to become Christ-like influencers.

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We’re commanded, over and over again in the Bible, to meditate on God’s word. So it makes sense that when the “Reveal” study surveyed thousands of Christians the behavior found to be most important for growing in Christ was “reflection on scripture” or meditation. Yet for many of us, meditation on scripture is a foreign concept. Today we’ll talk about how and why meditation can help us grow, and how we can begin to do this ourselves.

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Our muscles grow stronger when we repeatedly push against a weight or force. Similarly, as followers of Jesus, we can grow spiritually stronger when we encounter resistance. Today, we’ll identify the three primary forces that push against us on our path towards spiritual growth and, more importantly, how we push back.

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While salvation is instantaneous, spiritual maturity involves a process. It’s one filled with twists and turns and failures and successes. And each stage of our growth requires an awareness of whether we’re a spiritual baby, a young person in the faith or a mature believer. God desires believers to grow. That requires diligent cooperation on our part to grow through all the stages of spiritual development. No matter where you are now, the goal is to grow up.

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Change is part of life. And we can change for good or change for the not-so-good. In the language of the Bible, changing for good is called growth. It’s normal for living things to grow—under one condition—if they’re nourished. In other words, growth doesn’t happen when we do nothing. Growth is the result of cooperating with God as He works in our lives. Ultimately, He makes things grow. God repeats this urgent message throughout the Bible: It’s time for us to grow up!

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We might define success by using external qualities like the amount of money someone accumulates or the amount of fame they achieve. However, in the Bible, we find a successful life is defined by our character – our disposition towards qualities like love and generosity. With that definition of success in mind, the book of Proverbs provides timeless wisdom on our quest to become people of character.

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We’ve just come through a time of gift-giving and joy. Of course, the most significant gift of all was God’s gift of Jesus to the world. We find this profound truth simply stated in what might be the most famous of all Bible verses: John 3:16. Maybe this verse is so popular because it so simply explains God’s loving plan. God loved and gave!

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Hope. It’s so easy to lose but so generously available. We need hope. In a world where uncertainty and disillusionment are mixed into the air we breathe, we need a fresh perspective. For centuries people hoped for the coming Messiah—Jesus, the Savior of the world. He came. Hope fulfilled. But even today, hopelessness abounds. Maybe this Christmas, what you need more than anything is renewed hope about who Jesus is and what He can do in your life.

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God’s plan for humanity is grand in scope and scale! It also seems at least mildly absurd. The all-powerful God of all creation enters the world as a helpless baby. And his final days on earth are spent in humiliation and suffering—becoming sin for a sinful human race. It’s a story that goes from cradle to cross. A story that includes both Christmas and Easter. And a story that includes you.

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