God Gives Growth.

Text: 1Corinthians 3:1-7; Like 2:52; Psalm 119:130;
Psalm 5:1-3; Isaiah 40:28-31

I. No Growth Without God

There is a story of a chemist who made a seed in the laboratory so closely like a real seed
that no one could tell them apart.
The two seeds had exactly the same elements, weighed exactly the same,
and were exactly the same in color.
"How can you tell which seed man made and which one God made?" he asked the class.
A bright student replied: "Plant them and see!"

No chemist has ever made a seed that had in it the germ of life.
In the power to grow and to reproduce is wrapped up the mystery of life.
We know something about the process of physical growth.
Two original cells keep multiplying by division, each enlargement carrying with it what was there
at the beginning until the final full-grown form is reached.
From the seed comes the plant with its flower and fruit containing more seeds.
From the egg comes the bird capable of producing more eggs and so more birds.
From animals are born their young who grow up and reproduce "after their kind."
Human beings have children, who in turn marry and have children in the succession from
Adam and Eve to the present.

Where did life originally come from?
There is only one answer: "In the beginning God."
God is the source of life as he is the source of growth.
God made all things, but only man did -be make in his image.
Only man, therefore, can grow in the likeness of God.
Without God there would be no life, no growth, no humanity, no soul, no hereafter.

Paul states this truth in 1 Corinthians 3:1-7.
The Corinthian Christians were quarreling over preachers.
Some preferred Apollos, some Paul. Paul points out how foolish is their division,
since he and Apollos were both but ministers whom they bad believed.
"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."
In spiritual matters, as well as in material, there is no growth without God.

II. Jesus, Our Model of Growth

Have you not often wondered why Jesus Christ came as a baby, born of a woman?
He might have come full grown as the Jews expected.
We see divine wisdom in His human birth, for thus, as the letter to the Hebrews says,
He was "made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest
in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2:17).

To be in every way our Saviour it was necessary for him not only to be our sacrifice for sin but also our example.
We cannot understand the full meaning of it, but we know that "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:52).
He was born as other children are born, at first a helpless infant.
He then grew in perfect proportion: (1) mentally, "in wisdom"; (2) physically, "in stature";
(3) spiritually, "in favour with God"; (4) socially, "in favour with man."

Here is the ideal of growth for every child.
A child in whose growth any one of these elements is left out, or in whom one element gets out of proportion
to the others, is an unfortunate child.

Does not the same principle apply to the child of God?
The ideal of the Christian, as set forth by Paul, is that he may grow "unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
By "perfect" is not meant here sinlessness, but completeness, wholeness, full-roundedness.
The Christian should seek to grow in wisdom, in stature, in favour with God and man.
It is a pity when we neglect our minds, when we abuse our bodies, when we dwarf our spirits,
when we fail to develop our social nature.
In the full-rounded growth of Jesus we find our perfect example.

III. The Bible, Our Source of Growth
Of these four aspects of growth -- mental, physical, spiritual, social -- which is the hardest to maintain?
There usually is no great problem about the growth of our minds and our bodies.
Parents and teachers and many others see to it that our minds develop and our bodies have
the necessities of growth. We are social beings, thrown in contact with others from birth,
and most of us have no great problem in relating ourselves to members of the family, to neighbors,
to people around us, and even to those whom we never see.
Where we have difficulties at any of these points, is it not largely because of some spiritual lack,
some failure to relate ourselves properly to God?
It is in the spiritual realm that we find our deepest need.

The psalmist points the way to assured spiritual growth: "The entrance of thy words giveth light;
it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psalm 119: 130).
By "the words of God" we understand the passage to mean the Bible.
Note it is said that the entrance of God's words into our experience "giveth light."

Do we realize how important light is to life?
Light is the energy from the sun penetrating the atmosphere surrounding the earth
and making possible all life and growth.
Put a plant where it cannot get light and watch it become sickly and then die.
Doctors have discovered the tremendous curative power of light.
Scientists speak of "the universe of light," meaning that light is necessary to all life
and that it is the principle of all natural growth.
Not until after God said, "Let there be light" did life in its various forms appear on the earth.

The psalmist is here revealing a great truth: the Bible is the source of our spiritual growth.
What light is to the physical universe, the "words of God" and "the Word of God" are to our spiritual lives.
We are reminded that our Lord said of himself, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5).
Of this we may be sure -- we shall have stunted spiritual growth unless we live in the light of God's words,
the Bible, and the Word, Jesus Christ.

IV. Prayer, Our Power for Growth

A seed may never grow because it is not planted in the right soil with the right conditions of sunshine and rain.
So our spiritual lives may not grow because they lack the essential conditions.
God speaks to us through the Bible and in his Son.
Just as the seed must respond to the soil if it is to germinate and grow, so our souls must respond to God
if they are to develop in Christlikeness.
This response of the soul to God we call prayer.

James Montgomery wrote:
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed."

It is doubtful if we really pray unless there is some longing after God, some sense of the presence of Christ,
some dependence on the Holy Spirit.
In prayer we link ourselves with divine power, and this power then enters our souls.
We do not have to struggle to grow when this occurs.
We grow as naturally as the seed grows in the warm, moist soil, as naturally as the child grows
at the mother's breast.
Of this we may be sure -- we shall not have the growth which God intends if we do not follow the reading
of the Bible with regular, earnest and intelligent prayer.
The psalmist understood this truth when he sought the ear of God in prayer, when he directed his prayer to God
the first thing in the morning (Psalm 5:1-3).
The growing Christian is a praying Christian.

V. Obedience, Our Guarantee of Growth

How can we tell whether or not we are growing?
We may measure our physical growth by scales and tape measure, but how can we measure our spiritual growth?
Isaiah answers in verses 28 through 31 of chapter 40. (Read these verses.)
We may know the source and the power of growth, we may understand the ideal of growth,
yet feel ourselves faint and weak and weary.
What then? (Reread verse 31.)

What happens when we live thus obediently?
We renew our strength, we rise to new heights, we grow stronger as we run, we slow down to a walk
but we keep steadily on!
This is the picture of the growing Christian, who, as a runner in a race, develops strength
and endurance with practice.

According to this test, how strong are we growing?
It is not enough to spurt ahead for a short distance, nor to run at full speed for a mile;
the test in the Christian race is the ability to keep on keeping on mile after mile after mile.
In the patient but glad service of God we grow to moral and spiritual maturity.

Adapted from an article of Gaines S. Dobbins