Over the past few weeks, Pastor Jonny has been working through a series with us about growth. Today, we looked at why we don't always experience Christian growth in our life?
Jonny’s has some summary statements about growth:
If we are connected to God, we are healthy.
Healthy things grow.
Therefore, if we aren’t growing, maybe we’re not as healthy as we should be.
Therefore, if we aren’t as healthy as we should be, maybe we’re not as connected to God as we should be.
24“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
39“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
41“Your approval means nothing to me, 42because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. 43For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. 44No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.e
(John 5:24, 39-44)
So many things can get in the way with our relationship with Jesus. This is because of sin. In church, we are sometimes afraid to talk about sin, but the world doesn’t talk about it, and it’s in the Bible, so it needs to be talked about somewhere, no matter how unpleasant it is. We should never be afraid to call sin for what it is, because talking openly about it helps us root it out of our lives.
In v39-44, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. Who were the Pharisees? They were teachers of the Old Testament law, leaders in the synagogues, and therefore people would look up to them. They were seen as honourable people in society and seen as part of the “people of God” as they were so prominent in Israel. Sadly they completely missed that Jesus was the fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture and they missed the identity Messiah when He came to earth.
So what causes us as Christians to miss Jesus in our day to day lives?
Pride
There are some areas of life that we haven’t submitted to Christ because we want to remain in control. That’s pride. Pride is thinking of yourself above God. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve wanted to retain their control more than obeying God.
The good news is that through Jesus, we can combat pride in our lives. In the Old Testament, Moses was the best leader of the Israelites; he was the most humble man. He handed everything over to God. Instead of pride, we need to have humility like Moses, which is the opposite of pride.
CS Lewis described humility as this:
"Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less"
A great way to develop more humility is to spend more time seeing how we can bless others rather than thinking about how we can bless ourselves.
Agenda
The Pharisees had their own agenda when it came to knowing Jesus. They enjoyed being set apart as special in society. When they saw people were looking to Jesus as being special, they were threatened and wanted to get rid of Him. So when they met Him, they couldn’t see who He really was because they were blinded by their own agenda.
Have you ever come to Jesus with your own agenda? Not letting Him access to all areas? Have you ever wanted God to be a certain way or do certain things? Have you ever been upset and turned away from God when things don’t go your way? That’s having an agenda. God’s ways are higher than our ways, so we need to understand God’s working things out in a way that’s better than we want!
Self-esteem
Some people are so proud of who they are to the point where they rely on themselves and their own works rather than God’s grace. Biblically, we are never good enough to earn God’s grace, hence why we need Jesus and His work on the cross.
But on the other side, many believers still believe that they are not good enough for God, even though they are in Christ.
People get trapped by their past experiences, and rather than living in their identity as a Christian, they cannot help but live in a way where they still identify with their past experiences, almost as though those experiences are still happening in the present.
You might have failed in the past, but it doesn’t mean you’re a failure today. The truth is, Jesus died for you, and you’re created in the Image of God, which gives you incredibly precious value! Replace the lies of Satan with Biblical truth.
We all need God’s warmth and light to flourish. We all need to be connected to the true vine. When we are, we will see growth and fruit that tastes good in our lives.