Steady Growth

Get started with the word amen, and to do that, we always hold up our Bible and make a confession.

So, selena, you can jump in at any time and help me with that.

But let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I'm excited for Wednesday night.

I'm excited to open your word and glean what you have for us, and we lean on you tonight.

We open up our spiritual ears and our spiritual eyes to see and to hear what you need us to see and hear in order to make changes that we can go forward in you, in Jesus' name, amen, we're grateful for the anointing.

Well, so our pastor, our dad, has been preaching.

He preached four messages on the power of prayer and this last Sunday he was preaching on the praying to know things, and so he had some really good points.

But at the end of the message he quoted the Colossians 1 prayer and I just thought we'll eventually get there tonight.

But I just thought as soon as he said that I had been studying the Colossians 1 prayer and I had been going in my Bible to all the little notes out to the side and just doing that in my personal prayer time, and so that just hit me right between the eyes and I knew that's what we were going to preach about.

And so here we are preaching about it Steady growth.

So if you'll open your Bibles with us to Colossians 1, 1, and we're going to start reading out of the New Living Translation, we're believing God for a new computer, our older computer back there running the scriptures.

It kind of chokes basically whenever Lee has to change all the translations.

So does that mean we don't have any scriptures?

No, we will.

It just might be a little bit of a delay as quick as Lee is he's much faster than the computer back there but we're believing God for greater things, amen, and so believe with us.

Colossians 1, 1, new Living Translation Just.

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from our brother Timothy.

We are writing to God's holy people who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

May God, our Father, give you grace and peace.

There's that opening line that he has in most of the epistles grace and peace.

Grace, that's God's ability, and peace, that's like a warm blanket, and that just means that there's nothing missing and nothing broken.

Amen, amen.

And so verse three, that we always pray for you and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for excuse me for all of God's people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.

So I'm going to keep reading, but what sticks out to me is for we have heard of your faith.

What are people hearing of your faith?

And think about that for a second.

Do you have anybody around you in your sphere of influence that could witness your faith and your love for all of God's people, not just some of God's people.

What is your reputation, your faith reputation?

What is it tonight?

And just think about that.

Are you really leaving an impact on others, right?

Are we really being a good witness everywhere we go?

And so, if we keep reading, you have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the good news.

So that sticks out to me, that they already had an understanding, right and an expectation of what their inheritance was right in God, and so their confident hope of what God had reserved for them in heaven.

Amen.

And so we need to have that same understanding and that same expectation and that kind of pulls in the Ephesians 1 and the Ephesians 3 prayer as well, that the eyes of our understanding are enlightened, that we may know the hope of our calling and the great inheritance that he has within us in the saints right.

And so we always pray for you.

Verse three we always pray for you and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ and your love for all God's people.

Sorry, let's see verse six, the same good news that came to you is going out all over the world.

It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace.

You learned about the good news from Frida, our beloved coworker.

He is Christ's faithful servant and he is helping us on your behalf, and he has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

Again, he's bragging this is now the second time specifically on their love walk.

Who's bragging on your love walk?

I just wanted to ask that question again amen, and what is your reputation?

What are others saying about you, how you treat others?

And then here we are.

We've finally gotten to the Colossians one prayer.

So we have not stopped praying for you, verse nine since we first heard about you.

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

We're gonna break that out maybe in some other translations.

I know Selena's got some for the next verse, but in my margin of the new King James, even though we just read New Living in the margin of the new King James, it led me.

Talking about the knowledge of his will pointed me to Romans 12, two, where it says do not be conformed to this age I'm reading it out of the amplified classic Romans 12, two Do not be conformed to this world or fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs, but instead be transformed or changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude.

I'm telling you, when your mind is renewed, when you are completely transformed, you have a brand new attitude and you have new ideals.

You have a totally new, fresh way of viewing things and looking at things and it changes you completely, 100%, from head to toe.

Amen.

And all of your insides, all of your guts, all of your heart, all of your desires, all of your dreams, they all change right so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the I like the way this is worded in the amplified, that's why I put it in here Even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you, even the thing, that thing that you're believing God for, even the thing, that circumstance that you're facing, even that, maybe, that move, at that promotion that you're looking at at your work, at your workplace, whatever that thing is, it's got a good and acceptable and a perfect.

There's a perfect will for you that God has for you in his sight, for you, right.

And so he has a perfect will that you can walk in in every area of your life and that aligns.

It lines up like a bullet being shot out of a gun and you hit the target, the exact target where God has you aimed.

Amen.

And so we are God's ammo, amen, and so we are dangerous to the devil.

And so if we'll bounce back to Colossians 1, verse 10, I just wanna read this one thing and then I'm gonna hand it over to Selena here for a little bit and it says in verse 10, then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and so you really have to be transformed.

Colossians 1:10

First.

You don't wanna conform to the world, but you wanna be transformed in how you think.

And then Colossians says that the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and so I know Selena's got a few other translations that she'd like to share with us on that in verse 10.

That's good.

We're talking about steady growth, and when I think of steady growth, I think about just in the daily right, in the daily habits, the things that we do every day, every single day, every single day.

And so growth happens in what we do, in those daily habits, and what we say and what we watch and what we listen to all of those things, and so we can.

So there's no neutral ground.

There's your either and I think Pastor said this before, I definitely have said it you're either advancing in the kingdom of God, you're either growing or you're going backwards.

There's no neutrality in the kingdom of God.

If you did not read your word today, the word of God today, or pray, you didn't grow spiritually.

You did not, and so God is requiring us.

I mean, he loves us, he loves his kids, but he wants to see us grow in the things of God, and so His word is his will it is.

And so that's why we keep saying that so much about reading your Bible every day is because we know that everybody's schedule gets away from that, and so that's the application of that word, not just like Reddit, check, check, you know but, actually doing the word of God, applying the word of God in your

life in every area.

And the amplified Colossians 110 and the amplify says that you may walk, live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him and Desiring to please him.

And all think.

It doesn't say some things, it says in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God, with fuller, deeper and clearer insight, acquaintance and recognition.

And so here he's saying hey, we, there's a way that you, you, you're walking, that you may walk, that you are Conducting yourself a real way and authentic way, not a fake, not.

Not I'm this way on Sunday, but on Monday morning I'm another way.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Here he is saying that you may walk and live and conduct yourselves in a manner that is worthy of the Lord, right.

And so we should be growing steadily, growing with it, with it, with a deeper, with the fuller, a deeper, a clearer insight.

And that only comes when, when we Worship God through our prayer life, through the word of God, when we spend those times with God, when we look in the mirror of the word.

You know that's what the word of God, it's a mirror, just like you know, pastor said that before.

If you have something on your face, you go to the mirror.

You have something on your face so you don't leave it on there, right?

You got a little Swiss cake roll, that's what Jay likes.

A little chocolate on your face like hey, jay, you got some chocolate.

You go to the mirror.

There's something wrong.

You change it right easy, didn't have to be complicated.

It's whether you want to or not, whether you want to please God or not, things you don't have.

You know the word of God is simple.

We complicate things.

It is simple and so God's faithful.

Colossians 1, 10.

So the same verse and the passion translation Says we pray that you would walk in the ways of true righteousness, pleasing God and every good thing you do.

Then you'll become fruit bearing branches yielding to his life and maturing in the rich experience of knowing God in his fullness.

And so you know God has standards, and so we.

We don't operate by somebody else's standards.

We don't operate by the world standards of growth, right?

Yeah.

Oh well, this is success, this is growing.

No, it did.

No, that's the world standards.

You know, there was a saying At winter Bible and I forgot what it was, but he talked about, like you know, the world's success versus.

You know the world's way of what they say is success is not, you know, like we should go to the word of God.

And hey, if, if you're doing the word of God, if you are bearing fruit, if you are steadily growing, yes, you are succeeding.

Yes, you know, you are living an authentic life, a real life, real before God, before you, you know, with yourself and with God and with others being real.

And so God's our creator, he has standards, he wants us to grow.

The word of God is his standard, you know.

And now, when I was studying For this, we actually didn't know the title of the message, like until an hour before, but I, I was like meditating on, you know, when I was thinking of growth, I also thought of freedom.

There is freedom when you grow.

Amen you know, the webster's definition of freedom is to enjoy Personal rights or liberty, no, subject to rules, unconstrained and liberal.

Now, in that Context, you might think like, oh, you know, that's not good, but a lot of people are living that way, where you know they have Decided to be free, including God.

You know, this isn't a new mind.

Oh, I'm gonna do what I want.

There's freedom, I can do what I want.

I can come to church on Sunday morning and act like a fool Monday through Saturday.

You know, I just do what I want.

I can't.

No, no, there, that's actually bondage.

Yeah, what people think as freedom is actually bondage.

And I wanted to show you, to you and scripture.

It's not a new mindset, it's been around.

John 8, 31 through 32 and 33, and the message says Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him, and so let's talk about this for a minute.

So so you know, I put this down.

People claim to believe in God, but there's a disconnect between the fruit in their lives and the claim to know God.

I know God, oh, yeah, I'm, I've been with him.

I know Jesus, yeah, but there's no fruit Right.

And then it goes on.

Verse 32 if you, if you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.

Yes and then it go.

It went on to say in 33.

Surprise, they said but we're descendants of Abraham.

We've never seen been Slaves to anyone.

How can you say the truth will free you.

So they were only thinking of it in the natural.

You know, they, they lived on the the law for so long.

They didn't know what was really freedom and what wasn't.

You know, can you keep over?

So you know, the Torah was over 600 commandments, started with 10 command and then it went on to over six.

Can you keep 600 rules?

I made it be difficult, right, and so they were under the law.

But we're free.

You know we don't.

We're not under the law.

And so there, that that's a bondage.

You know there's freedom.

So there there's a mindset of you know, and that'll keep you.

That's a growth inhibitor that will stunt your growth.

If you are bound, if you think a certain way, if you have a wrong mindset, there is no freedom in that and you will not grow, you will go backwards, right, and so this message I mean it's just so deep, but like so.

So there's freedom.

And then John 8, 36.

So if the Sun liberates you, makes you free men, then you are, and this isn't the amplified.

And I like it in the amplify because it says then you are really an Unquestionably free, unquestionably, there's no question you know no questions about.

You're unquestionably free.

And so we have to make sure that you're free and so we have to make sure that that we're growing daily right.

And I put here we have to show up to grow up.

We have to show up in our prayer time, we have to show up in our word time, we have to show up when we come to a crossroad and it's flesh or spirit.

You better show up to the spirit, you better not even entertain the other right or live in it or get get caught up in it.

You have to show up because in those moments when you're, you know, on the daily, when you've been reading the word, when you've been meditating on the word, praying much in the holy ghost, when those moments of temptation come, you know what.

You're gonna make the right choice.

Because then, when you make the right choice, that moment you, your spirit man, just grew Right.

But if you just, oh, whatever, you know, I'm just gonna give into my flesh, well, you did not grow you, you shrunk back, and so we have to make sure that we are.

It's in the daily.

It's in the daily steady growth.

You know this, this, you know teaching might seem simple, but we all need it right, we all need it.

The church as a whole needs it.

This, this, these are the end times and we are dealing with All kinds of things there.

I mean, like just the church as a whole, and we have to make sure that we are prayed up.

We have to make sure that we are full of the word, we have to make sure that that we're walking in love, you know, and so we have to make sure that we're growing amen.

You're preaching like a house of fire.

Yeah, yeah, keep it going.

That's easy to preach about growth, that's right.

I just wanted to go back in what we're talking about in Colossians 1-10 and the Amplified.

Something that stuck out to me that you read just before this about increasing in and by the knowledge of God was the recognition part.

That last one in the Amplified talked about recognition.

So it's good to recognize when you've increased in and by the knowledge of God.

So, and we can recognize that by honoring the word and honoring you know.

So we encourage people to feed right here in this past year.

Right, there's a million different Facebook preachers and YouTube preachers out there, but we encourage people, especially new people to the church or new people to the Lord, to feed right here.

That God provided you food right here in this pasture and so and it's good food, and so, as you're steadily growing in the things of God under our pastor and you're increasing it and you're increasing and you're increasing and you're growing and you're growing that you recognize that by honoring that growth, by going back and retchewing on some of the things you know.

Maybe it's Monday night, maybe it's Tuesday night.

You know I was, we were, selena was preaching this past Sunday night and I was talking about being at Winter Bible Seminar at Rainwood Bible Church all of last week we were in too many services to count, you know.

And so but my, our ability, our hunger for the word grew and grew and grew.

And I found I was like two days in and we had we woke up in the morning and while we were eating breakfast, like we would study our Bible and stuff, but while we were eating breakfast I would turn on their YouTube channel and watch whatever parts of the services that we might have missed from the day before.

And then we, you know, we watched another message from Sunday.

And so so we were, as we were steadily growing last week, our hunger for the word never quenched, even though we were getting the word, the word, the word.

And so you know, we can, we can be the same, but feed right here in this pasture.

There's good green grass right here.

Amen, that's good Whenever you were saying that about this scripture, you know, recognizing what was the word recognition, acquaint recognition, like it made me think of.

You know how, like when your kids are little.

I know, at at Graham and Pop's house, pastor Ms Gladys, that we had their workout room when the kids were little.

Ms Gladys, would you know, put them up against the wall and then see how you know, put like a little pencil mark and write down the date and the next year, and then you would, you know, see how much they've grown throughout the years.

And so that's the way we should be.

There should be growth.

You know, in the kingdom of God we should.

There should be recognition, there should be.

We should be seeing ourselves and growing in the knowledge of God, and that only comes with digging in the word and being accountable to each other and having community and, you know, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, and so that's so important.

There's another scripture before you go on that I wanted to read Psalm 119, 103 and 104 in the new living translation.

Psalm 119, 103 and 104 says how sweet your words taste to me.

They are sweeter than honey.

Your commandments give me understanding.

No wonder I hate every false way of life.

I hate every false way of life.

Right, we hate the fake.

We hate the fake right, we are lovers of the authentic.

We are lovers of truth, of the real yeah Of the real, and so that's a good confession right there.

Lord, your words are sweet to me, sweeter than honey.

I thank you that, your commandments, they give me understanding, and then no wonder I hate every false way of life.

And then the next verse is 105, your word is a lamp to guide my feet and the light from my path, and so God's word guides our feet.

Application of God's word.

Yes absolutely.

Lights are not just the word, not just words on a page, like another book you know, a war book or a document, whatever.

But no, it's a lie.

This word is a lie, it's powerful, it's a rainbow word and so when you apply it, the application of the word, that's what's gonna illuminate the path.

Amen, because there are many Christians living in darkness, right In their filth and their sin and their whatever.

But the application, you know, but the good news is God loves them.

God, you know, snatched them out and they can get back on the pathway, and so that's so good.

I love Psalm 119.

Amen.

So you know, I think it was, I think it was Pastor John Osteen that would say there's no such thing as microwave faith.

You know, there's nothing gonna be that instantaneous about growing in the word, and so he used to always also say that all good growth is slow growth.

And so you know, that kind of related back to a message.

I posted this on my personal Facebook, I believe last night, and it was a message from Winter Bible from last week, from Pastor Tony McKinnon, and on manure he was talking about the fig tree in Luke 13.6.

And so, and all the different analogies of just there, that fig tree, that the and well, we could flip over there, you're here, I guess.

I guess we'll go ahead and jump on it.

So Jesus was speaking a parable and he said a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

So the point of this, you know, is Jesus' ministry, but it's also Israel.

But then you know there's something for each one of us too, getting.

We can get stuff for us out of this parable.

Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none, cut it down.

Why does it use up the ground?

But he answered and said to him sir, let it alone.

Let it alone For this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it with manure, takes manure right, and if it bears fruit, well, but if not, after that you can cut it down.

And so we're quick as a society sometimes to just say cut it down, our marriage is not working, cut it down.

You know, and Pastor Tony just had example after example.

It's an unwanted pregnancy, cut that baby down, and so on and so forth.

There's so many things that we face that we just say cut it down.

There's no growth, cut it down.

And but the vine dresser or the gardener is saying, hey, give me a year to just fertilize it, to just-.

He's saying let the manure do its work.

Let the manure and so I think his points were like patience and see.

Patience, fruitfulness and mercy.

Those were his three points and just from memory there, but just all of those patience things stuck out to me so much.

And Pastor Tony used to be a farmer.

That's what makes him so funny.

He's from Willa Crutche, georgia, and he used to be a farmer down there in Georgia and he's also done some farming in Oklahoma around Reema.

But, and so he was talking about moving manure.

And just you know what happens when you're out on the tractor moving manure around.

What do you do?

You keep your mouth shut, you know, especially if you're going against the wind.

But his whole thing was slower, faster.

He learned that out on the combine.

You know His first boss would tell him you know, Tony, if you just slow that thing down a little bit, we'd have so much better of a harvest.

You know You're tearing up everything and you know all kinds of stuff's getting in the tractor.

He has to stop it and get out and pull it all out and fix it and just slow it down.

And so slower is faster and so let's, just with that thought in mind we'll move on to 11.

So it's Colossians 111 back in the new living.

And it says we also pray that you will be strengthened.

And so that you know I know this sounds kind of funny, but we also pray.

It just stuck out to me when I was studying this we also pray.

So you're not done praying Sometimes you're not done praying, so keep on praying, keep on believing, keep on speaking.

You know, this prayer can be prayed over your.

You can pray this over yourself, you can pray this over your spouse.

You can pray this over your children, you can pray this over your coworkers.

But we also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power, so you will have all the endurance and patience you need.

There's that word patience.

May you be filled with joy.

And so it's by this glorious power, right Restricted by his glorious power, and greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

And we have that.

We have his glory on the inside of us, but we have his power, amen.

And it's a glorious power to be strengthened.

You know, it reminds me of Ephesians 6, 6, 10, as simple as that is to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

It's a command, it's not optional.

You know we must not walk around as weak worms of the dust, but we are strong in the Lord, amen.

And so I just wanted to flip to Hebrews 6, 12 in the New King James Version and talk about patience, for a second Says always thanking the Father I'm sorry.

Yeah, for he has enabled you to share in the inheritance.

Wait, I'm sorry, am I reading the right one?

Yes, I believe.

So we can turn it.

I don't know.

We better just turn.

I think I might have messed up my notes right there, and so while you're turning, though, going back to.

That's why we tag team right there.

That's why we tag.

Thank you for tagging me.

So, going back to Luke talking about the fig tree, you know what Jay was saying.

Most people do they cut it down.

That's not working.

Cut it down, that relationship's not working.

Cut it down, move into the next one.

That job is oh so quick to, instead of allowing the word saturating in the word of God, praying much in the Holy Ghost, doing the right thing and just allowing the fertile soil to do its job, and really that's just, hey, allowing the Holy Spirit.

Not doing it your way.

Not doing it your way, because when we do it our way, when we try to do things in the natural, we mess them all up, right and so.

But God doesn't want us to live doing things in our flesh, in our five senses.

No, he wants us to do things his way, because his way is way better.

It produces real growth, it produces a plant.

That is and I like plants Ms Hermes here, and she likes plants too, and I love roses and you have to prune those twice a year, and sometimes it's hard pruning them because there's beautiful blooms that you prune and prune them all down, but that's when.

And you fertilize them.

You have to make sure the soil is good, and so you have all these components to caring for that plant and making sure that the root system is getting enough water and enough nutrients and enough sun.

And so, just in the same way, we have to make sure that we are root, because you can look all cute on the outside and, oh, that plant looks good.

I've had a plant before where it kind of looked good but underneath there was root rot.

The roots were rotten and little did I know, and it was easy to take up that plant because there were no roots.

The roots did not grow deep.

And so you have to make sure by steady growth, by doing the word daily acting upon the word.

Your roots will grow deep, because it's no use having a plant that looks good on the outside.

Eventually that plant will decay.

Eventually that plant will come down and rot, and so we don't want to be like that.

We want to make sure that our root system is growing properly.

Amen.

So Hebrews 612,.

I was in the wrong place in my notes.

I was like what?

Why does that look funny?

That you do not become sluggish but imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises Amen.

And so we have promises to inherit amen.

And so that word patience in the Greek denotes forbearance, fortitude, endurance, long suffering.

But here's a really cool thing here it says that it also means the ability to endure persecution and ill treatment.

How'd you like that?

You know the definition also includes to endure persecution and ill treatment.

It describes a person who has the power to exercise revenge, but instead everybody say instead.

Instead, exercise is restraint.

This quality is a fruit of the spirit.

In Galatians 5.22, it talks about Actually, if self-control, if you just master, if you self-control all the other fruits, you'll have them.

So you have the power to exercise revenge, but instead you exercise restraint.

Amen, that's good Self-control.

I like it.

So you know.

That reminds me of Pastor Tony's quote.

Again, I wrote it down on my notes when faith has a tendency to waver, patience comes to its aid and causes it to stand, and so maybe you feel like giving up, maybe you feel like turning around, maybe you feel like throwing in the towel.

I just encourage you.

That's where patience comes in.

When faith waivers, patience comes in, comes to its aid and causes it to stand, and we stand and we fight the good fight of faith, and we stand by faith and in faith.

And you know, going back to Colossians, we'll just finish it up Always thanking the Father.

So there's Thanksgiving in our heart.

Amen, he has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people who live in the light.

We live in the light, and when we live in the light there is no darkness.

Amen, that's right Amen.

So through faith and patience, we inherit the promises of God.

We've got some promises to inherit and we do that by growing, and we're growing in God in every area in our life, by allowing the word of God to be a mirror and to be a hammer and to chisel out things that don't belong in our hearts.

And to be a mirror so we can look in God's word and compare our lives and make sure that it's lining up with His will for our lives.

Amen, amen.

God's word is the beginning of wisdom, but it's also the beginning of God's will for your life.

That is right here in God's word, amen.