Spiritual Growth

Many individuals want a fresh start at the beginning of the year. This series details the gospel’s power to bring us hope, renewed strength, and contentment, even in difficult times.

We will be look at what is spiritual growth. and how do we achieve this growth. If you have your bible go head and turn to Luke 2:41-52. If you don’t have your bible you can follow along on the screen in a few moments.

Also I would like to encourage to notes this morning. Write down things that God has told you to do or that he spoke to you.

Before we dive into today topic on spiritual growth. I have a question for you.

Have you keep your New Year’s resolution so far?

Go head and post in the comment if you like.

There are a couple of possible answer to this question that you might have. You could say yes you have keep them. You could say nope not for me. Or kind of did it for the most part.

When we look at New Year’s Day, we often see it as a fresh start, a new beginning. As life happens of the next couple of week it’s not uncommon to go from determined to deflated. One of the reasons 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions regarding health fall by the wayside within the first six weeks of the year. That 80% is just for health related. Think about all the other resolution that we aren’t think about.

We tend to run head first into a challenge that we have not prepared for or equipped ourselves for mentally and/or physically. Leading us down a dangerous road to quick burn out.

This applies to our spiritual life as well as our physical life. We can have the best of intentions when it comes to serving the Lord, but if we’re not properly prepared in advance and if we’re not continually working toward our improvement through developing our relationship with Christ, then we risk facing discouragement, disillusionment, and spiritual burnout. If we are to follow in Christ’s footsteps, we must begin like him

The big question for day is this.

How do we grow spiritual without cause us burn out?

When we think of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s life, we tend to focus on his birth, death, and resurrection. What we don’t look at is the process and preparation he went through on his journey to the cross. God did not send his Son to earth to save the world in a single day. Instead, Jesus spent thirty-three years growing and preparing to complete the Father’s work by being mindful of what was most important to God and being fully present in each of his interactions with others. As we look at the record of Jesus’s life, we can take hope and encouragement as we allow God to work in and through both the good and the difficult seasons of life to complete the good work he has begun in each of us.

Luke 2:41–52 CSB

41 Every year his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. 43 After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming he was in the traveling party, they went a day’s journey. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all those who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked them. “Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.

Young Jesus

This is the only account of Jesus child hood that we have written in the bible. These verse tell us a lot about how Jesus learned and grow spiritual.

At the early age of 12 Jesus already knew and understood enough Scriptures to be equal to the teachers at the temple.

He didn’t push is wisdom over them but he sought to understand further by asking question and listening to their answers.

At the same time, those who were conversing with him also had a desire to learn by listening and discussing God’s Word. The point here is not that Jesus was an expert among experts, but that young and old were in community together, learning from one another. And in spending time with these men who were in different stages of life and levels of understanding,

Luke writes that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (v. 52). In other words, Jesus developed mentally and spiritually, as well as physically, between the time he was born and the time he went to the cross.

Jesus life

As we read about Christ’s life, we don’t see a man bound by obligation or duty. We see a man driven by divine love, mercy, and compassion for those who have been blinded by their own misunderstanding of the Word of God (John 3:1–9), those who were held captive to their own and others’ sin (8:1–10), and who were suffering the effects of living in a fallen world (9:1–7).

We also see that he didn’t set out to do his work alone. Not only did he take time each day to listen to his Heavenly Father, but he also brought others alongside him who in turn were trained so that they could go out and aid him in his mission.

Just as Jesus did not develop his wisdom and knowledge in isolation. We should either. We should be doing at least this

You should seek wisdom for other believers

Life group. Studying God word for other that have been through it before.

You should talk with other believer

These are the people that you are doing life with. The friend that you are on the same page with.

You should allow other believer to help you

each one of us is on a different journey a different path but most of us will exerance some of the same thing. you we all need to look to other to help us though our journeys

The gospel shows us that in order to grow spiritually

You must first learn to listen and seek God’s wisdom

As we read through the Gospels, we can be encouraged that God doesn’t expect us to be prepared to teach from a pulpit, serve in a ministry or mission field, or even become a martyr for his name the very moment we confess Christ as Lord.

Instead, Jesus’s life encourages us to take the time to grow “in wisdom and in stature.” This is as true for the child who confesses Christ at a young age as it is for the adult who comes to Christ in the latter years of their life.

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