God’s Vision for Your Life in 2021

Part 2 – Grow ~ January 17, 2021

Pastor Rob Culler (These are Pastor Rob's notes, not a transcript of the message,)

 Today, we continue this short series on God’s vision for your life for 2021 and beyond.

Last week, I spoke about the necessity of knowing God— not just knowing about him but having a relationship with him through Christ.

While I want you all to hear me today, if you don’t yet know God, you can’t begin this next part of the journey. I would encourage you to listen to last week’s message, which can be found on our website, YouTube, or Facebook page.

There’s an adage that tells us, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” How many of us have ever said or heard someone else say, “I know just enough to get myself in trouble”? While that can be a funny thing many times, it should never be the case for those who know God.

Knowing him in a relationship is just the beginning of the journey. The next phase— which never ends in this life— is growth.

Just as our most meaningful relationships grow and mature as we spend time with people, talk with them, and experience life with them, the same thing is true of our relationship with God. In fact, growth is an assumed part of the journey. We understand this from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. The author wrote this:

 Hebrews 5:11-14 (NLT)

¹¹ There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. ¹² You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³ For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. ¹⁴ Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

Did you catch what the writer was saying to the audience?

• They should have been teaching others, but still needed someone to teach them the basics.
• They were like babies who couldn’t eat solid food… Solid food is for those who are mature. He was calling them immature.

So, the question is how do we grow spiritually? In other words, how do we intentionally move towards spiritual maturity?

Before we consider how to pursue growth, let’s consider why it’s needed, especially today.

• Christ-followers need depth of character, knowledge, know-how, relationship, and reach.
• We need to learn…
  • How to live deeply in a shallow world
  • How to respond in a reactionary culture
  • How to take our time in a right-now world
  • How to think things through in a heat-of-the-moment world
• We need…
  • A basic understanding of Scripture’s story and then to build on that foundation.
  • A basic understanding of Scripture’s teaching and then to build on that foundation.
  • A basic understanding of Scripture’s application and then to build on that foundation.
  • A basic understanding of living biblically in a post-Christian culture and then to build on that foundation.

In his second letter, the Apostle Peter wrote that spiritual growth makes us more useful to and productive for God, (2 Peter 1:8, NLT).

Now, how do we pursue spiritual growth and maturity? Let’s look at Matthew 5:1-2 (NLT) , “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.”

Let’s look at that passage in The Message , “When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions.”

I love the imagery here! Let me use it to help you understand how we are going to battle biblical illiteracy and pursue depth.

The first thing we see here is that Jesus gave precedence to the inner life over the outer life. What do I mean?

Did you notice that Jesus left the huge crowds to spend time with his closest followers? He didn’t allow the crowds or the expectations they brought with them to distract him from his mission. At that moment, his mission was not to impress the crowds but to invest in his closest followers—those who would ultimately take up the mantle of his mission.

Second, we see that Jesus’ closest followers paid a price to receive his investment. They too left the crowds. They left the crowds so they could spend time with him. I love Eugene Peterson’s words here: Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him.

Have you ever been part of an apprenticeship? The Washington DC government website explains apprenticeships this way:

“Apprenticeships combine on-the-job training with classroom instruction, teaching workers the practical and theoretical aspects of highly skilled occupations.”^[1]

An apprenticeship is step one on a path that leads to journeyman and eventually to master status. The apprentice/journeyman/master model traces its history back to the merchant and craftsmen guilds of the middle ages. I think it’s an excellent picture of what it means to follow Jesus.

Think of it this way: when I am apprenticed to Jesus, I grow through instruction and on-the-job training so that I might fully understand both the theory and practice of what it means to be a Christian. Also, included is the realization that I am no longer the master and I will never be the master.

If you don’t remember anything else from this message, I want you to remember this sentence: An apprentice follows the way of the master.

Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to submit yourself to the master’s instruction and guidance? Are you willing to leave the crowds and pay the price to have Jesus invest in your life? Are you willing to submit to instruction and on-the-job training so that you can understand, both in theory and practice, what it means to live as a fully devoted follower of Christ? Are you willing to follow Jesus to a quiet place where you can talk to him and read and meditate on his word so that you can put it into practice?

What will that take?

1. It will take leaving behind the attention and expectations of others to pursue the expectations of the master.
2. It will take focused determination and cooperation with the master to nurture the inner life and allow the outward life to flow from it.
3. It will take humility to admit you need the master to teach you because you don’t know it all and you’re not always right.
4. It will take obedience to submit yourself to the master’s will when both your sinful nature and culture are fighting against it.
5. It will take discipline to not simply read but also study and memorize God’s word so that you can better know the master, his will, and his ways.
6. It will take commitment as you commit yourself to the master’s family rather than choosing to walk this journey alone.
7. It will take the willingness to pay whatever price the master asked you to pay so that you might know him, serve him, and bring the appropriate attention to him.

 If you are willing, I want you to offer up this prayer: Jesus, I want to be your apprentice and I want you to be my Master.

If you’re not sure if you’re willing, I’d like you to offer up this prayer: Jesus, please reveal yourself to me. 

Imagine what it could mean if each of us committed ourselves to be an apprentice to the master.

• Imagine what we might learn.
• Imagine how we might live.
• Imagine how we might love each other.
• Imagine how we might love our neighbor.
• Imagine the value of a faith that is both biblically literate and deep.
• Imagine what God might do in us and through us if we commit to being apprentices who follow the way of the master.

See today’s notes for resources to help you on the apprentice journey.

[1] “Apprenticeships,” DC.gov, https://does.dc.gov/service/apprenticeships, accessed September 6, 201