It's Time to Grow | Pastor Noah Ray | Sunday Service

Church, are you doing good this morning?

Well, the presence of the Lord is here today.

Amen.

I want to echo what Pastor Caleb was talking about in Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

And uh how many of you have had one of those weeks where you've just had to stand firm on God's word?

Come on, sometimes you're gonna have them weeks where the enemy just feels like he's throwing everything at you.

It's left and it's right and it's up and it's down.

Um before I even get into the word, I just I was standing down there and just felt the Lord just pop this on my heart.

In Ephesians chapter 6, it says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

And your fight, whatever you've been fighting this week, is less physical than you think it is, it's more spiritual.

I want to say that again.

It's less what we can see and more what we can't see that's happening.

But at the end of the day, Jesus is stronger.

I just wanted to clear that over you today that God is good and whatever you have faced today.

The battle is won in the spiritual church.

Do you receive that?

Amen.

Amen.

Um, I want you to open up your Bibles this morning.

Uh you can take notes this morning through our church app.

You can scan that QR code behind me today.

And we're going, we're going to get into God's word.

We are in a series that is really all about the values of our church.

And uh just been an incredible, incredible series called What Do You See?

Everybody say, What do you see?

We're talking about these eight doorways that God has called us to walk through as a church.

And they're not just values, they're really things that God has called us to walk through and ways that God wants to, things that God wants to build in our life.

And the first week we talked about how that God has called us to be a place of his presence.

How many of y'all love God's presence?

The second week we talked about outrageous love.

Last week, Pastor Jeremy preached an incredible message on faith.

How many of y'all enjoyed that message last week?

We talked about five ways that we can live by faith.

If you missed it, I want to encourage you to go to our website or YouTube and watch it.

It was one of the most practical messages I've heard on faith.

And uh we talked about that last week.

And then today we're gonna talk about the value of intentional growth.

Of intentional growth.

And I believe that God's gonna speak to us this morning.

Will you stand with me this morning?

Stand with me for God's word.

We're gonna go to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Paul has a lot to say about intentional growth, and we're gonna kind of use this as a little bit of our key text this morning.

We're gonna start in verse 13.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13.

Ephesians 4:13

And it says this this will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be what?

Mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Verse 14, and then we will no longer be immature like children.

Are you seeing the dots that Paul is beginning to connect here?

We will no longer be immature like children.

We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

Come on, somebody.

This is why we need to be mature in the Lord.

Verse 15.

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way, more and more like who?

Like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church, verse 16, and he makes the whole body fit perfectly together as each part does its own special work, and it helps the other parts to grow so that the whole body is healthy and what?

And full of love.

Come on, today we're gonna talk about spiritual growth, the value of spiritual growth.

I want to speak to us this morning for just a few minutes on the topic, it's time to grow.

It's time to grow.

Just turn to one person around you and say, It's time to grow.

Come on, just tell them like you mean it, it's time to grow.

All right, bow your heads, we're gonna pray.

Father, we thank you for your presence that's in the house today.

Father, I pray as we leave, God, they haven't heard me, they haven't heard the worship team, God, but they've heard your voice.

They've heard your spirit, God, move upon them, God, to not stay where they are, God, but to keep growing as believers.

And I'm praying today, God, that you would move in our hearts, God, that however we came in here today, God, we will leave different, God.

We will leave different.

We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name.

And everybody said, Amen, amen.

You can't be seated.

Uh, one of my favorite pastimes um was when I would go to my grandparents' house.

Did anybody growing up love going to their grandparents' house?

Come on, just wave at me.

Uh, there were two rules primarily, or two things that I loved uh going to my grandparents' house.

Number one, um, is because they had very few rules.

My grandparents had very few rules.

I came from a house that had a lot of rules.

Right?

Uh at my house, you know you you didn't play ball in the living room, you didn't jump on the furniture.

We we had fun, just not a lot of it in the house.

You know, you know what I'm saying?

But when we went to grandparents' house, it was a different story.

Any ball, um, you do anything, eat anything you wanted to.

Come on, where's all the grandparents wave at me?

Come on, just come on.

When you go to grandparents' house, it's different.

And and just let me say this my my my parents, again, I love, I mean, they absolutely incredible parents, great parents growing up.

Um, and then really, you know, strict as I'm growing up, and now they flip to grandparents.

They'll do everything except put an inflatable inside the living room now.

Grandparents, y'all's role is just to make the grandbabies happy.

Come on.

I I read this week a quote.

It said, Grandchildren are God's reward for surviving your kids' teenage years.

So don't kill them, okay?

There's there's there's cute babies on the way.

So I would love going to my grandparents' house.

We just we would have all kinds of fun, no rules, eat anything we wanted.

The second reason that I I loved going to my grandparents' house, and I can vividly remember this, is they had what my grandparents called a growth wall.

A growth wall.

So what we would do is every time we came over, um, is we would go to this certain spot in their house, it was kind of on a door frame, and they would make us take our shoes off, and they would make us stand flat-footed up against this wall, and they would measure where we were, where we had grown since last time.

And inevitably, every time I tried to cheat.

Every time I would try to stand on my tippy toes, and every time I would try to get a little bit taller, and my grandmother would say, You gotta stay flat-footed, okay?

Every time we'd go over, I would I would stand there, and I always wanted it to be more than what I had actually grown.

Sometimes I would go, sometimes it was a little bit, sometimes it was a lot.

But it was it was always there, there was growth there.

I remember being time there were being times where I would go and stand at the growth wall, and maybe I had just been over there a week prior, and there had been no growth because they would mark it and then they would initial it.

And I never forget my grandmother would always tell me, almost every time, she would say, Noah, it it's not what you want, but you are growing.

It's not what you want it to be, but you are growing.

And I think the growth wall at my grandparents' house that I can still see today, I think is a picture of what our spiritual walk with the Lord looks like.

How many of them oftentimes we cannot see ourselves growing spiritually, but you're growing.

You you can't often see yourself working in the faith and taking steps towards the Lord, but you're growing.

It may not be what you want it to be, but thank God you're not where you used to be.

And that's what spiritual growth looks like.

Sometimes it feels like we're growing a lot.

Sometimes you go through the storms of life and you can feel yourself grow.

And then sometimes you just go through ordinary weeks and you don't feel yourself grow until you need to know that you've grown, and then you realize I'm growing in the Lord.

So I want to encourage you today.

You are growing.

Come on, just turn to somebody near you and say, you are growing in the Lord.

Come on, you're growing in the Lord.

I want to define the value intentional growth for us because I think it's gonna kind of set the stage for where we're gonna go this morning.

Here's how we define the value of intentional growth.

We are a people who choose growth on purpose, making everyday decisions to become more like Jesus in our character, in our relationships, and our calling.

Come on, I want to say it again.

We choose growth, making everyday decisions to become more like Jesus in our character, relationships, and our calling.

Come on, I see a church that chooses spiritual growth on purpose.

I choose a I see a church that refuses to coast spiritually.

Oh no, we don't have space, we don't have time to coast spiritually.

I see a church where no one believes they have arrived, but everyone believes God still has more to develop in them.

Come on, I see a church full of people who are moving towards God, continuing allowing Jesus to shape who they are becoming.

You know why?

Because none of us have arrived.

And we all have room to grow spiritually, we all have room to grow spiritually, whether you've been saved a week or you've been saved 30 years, God has more to develop inside of us.

I don't know, there's always more to find out about the Lord.

There's always more to understand and grow and see.

So why do we choose growth on purpose?

I want one word uh to get inside of your heart uh this morning, and I want you to write this word down, it's gonna be on the screen.

It's the word intentionality.

Everybody say intentionality.

Come on, we grow spiritually by way of intentionality.

Can I just remind us this morning that there's no area of your life that you grow without intentionality?

Every part of your life that grows and gets better, you have done with intentionality.

How many of we are not going to wake up in the morning and have rock hard abs.

I I know you came to be encouraged this morning in church.

It's gonna take some intentionality of going to the gym.

I'm not gonna be able to wake up tomorrow and just run a marathon.

What's that take?

Intentionality.

It takes a work and a little bit of insanity if you're gonna do that.

Come on, if you're gonna be better at money and handling money, it takes intentionality.

It takes good decisions, it takes a healthy outlook, it takes putting God first.

You don't just get good with money on accident, it happens on purpose.

This week I went and and played golf.

It's the first time I played golf all year long.

It was terrible.

It was terrible.

Okay.

And I wanted to play so good because I was playing with Pastor Jeremy and I wanted to beat him because we're both really competitive.

So we get out there and we're playing, and I just I forgot how much I loved playing golf.

I hadn't been able to play in a really long time.

And I mean, it was just, oh, it was, it was bad, slice after slice.

I mean, I played from the woods more than I did the fairway.

Okay.

And um, and so I'm getting in my car and I'm telling myself, I'm gonna get better at golf.

I'm gonna get, you know, when when you're when you finish doing something that you like and you haven't done it in a long time, you're like, I'm gonna get better at this.

And then about a minute later, I had the thought, no, I'm not.

I'm just not.

You know why?

Because I don't have the time to get good at golf right now.

Can anybody attest to that?

I would love to be good at golf.

There's nothing in me more that would love to beat Pastor Jeremy by 10 strokes every time I play him.

Every time.

But it's not gonna happen.

Why?

Because me getting better at golf requires intentionality.

It takes me putting in some work on the golf range, right?

Any area of our life that we want to get better and grow in takes intentionality.

And we know this about other parts of our life, but somehow we forget this when it comes to our walk with the Lord.

Because spiritual growth, it requires a choice.

If we're gonna get stronger spiritually, how many of you?

It requires us to make the decision.

I will get stronger as a believer.

If you want your prayer life to grow, you gotta grow.

If you want to know this word, guess what you gotta do?

You gotta get in the word.

If you want people around you, you've got to be intentional about finding community and doing life with people.

We understand this intentionality really everywhere else, but somehow we forget.

We forget it when it comes to our spiritual walk with the Lord.

Because there's things in life, guys, that happen in a moment.

And then there are things that take our lifetime to develop.

How many of us salvation happens in a moment?

Are you thankful for the grace of God?

Salvation happens.

Jesus comes into our life, he changes us, he makes us new, he is living inside of us.

But then there's another part called sanctification.

And sanctification is the process by which Jesus grows us over a lifetime.

Salvation is just immediate sanctification, it's the ongoing work of growth.

But you need it in your life.

You need the sanctifying work of what Jesus does.

So I want you to go back, go back to Ephesians chapter four for just a moment.

Ephesians chapter four before we get into the heart of the message.

I want you to see this for for for just a second.

In verse 13, Paul tells us there's really two things in all of these chapters.

But really primarily two things.

And the first one is this he tells us, Paul does, that we are to be mature.

Everybody say mature.

We are to mature in the Lord.

Verse 13.

And this will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and the knowledge of God's Son that we will be what?

Mature in the Lord.

But then he tells us number two is that not only are we supposed to be mature, but that Jesus is our example for growth.

Anytime we want to see what spiritual growth looks like, we look at the life of Jesus.

I'm going to show you this because here's what it says in verse 15.

Instead, we speak the truth in love.

We're growing in every way.

I love that.

It's not just one way we're growing, we're growing in every way.

Right?

More and more, not like each other, not like the latest method, not like the latest model.

We're growing more and more like who?

Like Christ.

Like Jesus.

Jesus is the example for how we're supposed to live.

I want you to, real quick, I want you to turn to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

We're going to spend this remaining time looking at the life of Jesus and how Jesus grew.

If Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that Jesus is who we're supposed to model our growth after, then we have to ask ourselves, well, then how did Jesus grow?

How did Jesus develop?

How did he grow into who he was?

And we're going to dive into this.

Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 41.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

I'm going to read for just a minute and I want you to see this, okay?

Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for Passover festival.

When Jesus was 12 years old, they attended the festival as usual.

Often the celebration was over.

They started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Okay, I want you to see this.

Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

His parents didn't miss him at first.

Okay?

I want you to remember some of this.

His parents did not miss him at first.

I'm not sure how, but they didn't.

Because they assumed that he was among the other travelers.

But when he didn't show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.

Okay?

Let's keep reading.

When they couldn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there.

Three days later.

Three days later, they finally discovered him in the temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

Parents, I I want to just help you for a second.

I want to tell you that you're doing better than what you think you're doing.

You didn't lose the son of man for three days and not even know where he was.

I was reading that this week and I just thought there's not enough books written on that right there.

We read that Mary and Joseph lost the son of man, and then we just keep reading, not even for an hour.

Three days, y'all.

He's kind of pivotal to this whole thing, and they lost him for three days.

Anyways, I digress.

All who heard him were amazed.

At his understanding and his answers.

Okay, Jesus is developing.

Now let's pick up verse 49.

But when they but uh he says, But why did you search for me?

He asked, didn't you know that I must be in my father's house?

Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them, and his mother stored all these things in her heart.

And I want you to see verse 52.

And Jesus grew.

I want you to highlight that.

I want you to circle that.

I want you to put that in your notes, whatever that may be.

I want you to put that word down.

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and in favor with people.

I want to spend just a moment looking at how Jesus grew.

To me, this is a fascinating thought because Jesus grew just as me and you did.

Jesus developed.

And what oftentimes happens, and I want you guys to see this timeline of Jesus' life, we get this glimpse of his life throughout the Gospels.

And over here we have the birth of Jesus.

We have age 12, where Jesus is in the temple.

That's where we just read.

And they they lose Jesus, but they find him.

Okay.

We get to age 30 and Jesus begins his ministry.

We get to age 33, we know death on the cross, ascension, all of those amazing things.

But we read the life of Jesus in the Gospels, and what happens is most of the time, and rightfully so, we focus on the three years of his public ministry.

We focus from age 30 to age 33, where Jesus is healing people, and Jesus is casting out devils, and Jesus is raising up disciples, and Jesus is ministering when he knows that the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension is coming.

We focus on those things and they're amazing.

But what happens is we forget the 18 years between age 12 and age 30.

We forget what happens in this gap of 18 hidden years.

Where scripture actually records very, very little about the life of Jesus, except for what I just read.

So what was happening in this yellow bar right here?

What was happening from 12 to 30?

I'll tell you what was happening.

Jesus was growing.

Jesus was developing.

Jesus was maturing.

And what we have to know about Jesus, and this is the this is the the theology side that we have to wrestle through, is that Jesus was both fully God, but he was also fully man.

He was not half God and half man, he was fully God and fully man.

But in his divinity, Jesus had to fully develop just like we do.

He was fully man.

So what happens is in the life of Jesus, I think it's fascinating that at the age of 30, God could have sent a full-grown Jesus to earth.

Have you ever thought about this?

He could have sent a full-grown man fully knowing the word, fully having a developed relationship with the Lord, knowing all that was about to come, and all he had to do was go through three years, suffer and die, and then go back to the Father.

But that's not the way that God designed it.

God designed it from Luke chapter 2, from the birth of a human, so that we would see what it looks like to have an example of somebody who grew and matured and gave us an example of how we're supposed to grow, mature, and develop in the Lord.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

So it's 18 years of growth that we see.

18 years of him going through all of the growth and the maturation process.

And I want you to write this down because Jesus, the life of Jesus, shows us that growth is not something to avoid, but something God uses to mature us.

All of us are called to grow spiritually.

If Jesus had to grow, we have to grow.

I want to say it again.

If Jesus had to go through the process of growth, so do we.

Because again, if Jesus grew in these areas, we need to grow in these areas.

And here's the first one.

Number one is that Jesus grew in wisdom.

Everybody say wisdom.

Four areas that Jesus grew.

The first one is that Jesus grew in wisdom.

I believe this is a crucial piece of growth that God wants us to develop in our life.

Jesus, he grew in his discernment and his understanding.

He grew in his capacity to know how to live faithfully.

The Bible tells us that he was constantly in the temple.

Well, what was he doing in the temple?

He was learning.

He was understanding the scripture.

He was studying the scripture.

He was asking questions.

Right?

He was growing in the area of wisdom.

Paul tells us, I want you to see this verse out of Colossians.

Because it gives us this progression of what real wisdom is.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 9.

Colossians 1:9

It says this.

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

And I want you to see what Paul prays over them.

Three areas.

That you would have complete knowledge.

Everybody say knowledge of his will, that you would have spiritual wisdom.

Everybody say spiritual wisdom.

And you would have understanding.

So there's three things.

We have knowledge, we have understanding, and then we have wisdom.

What is knowledge?

I want you to see these three.

Knowledge is knowing what is true.

Understanding is knowing what it means.

But wisdom is knowing what to do with it.

I want you to see this.

I want you to get how Jesus grew and how Jesus developed.

He didn't just have an understanding.

He didn't just have a knowledge.

He had wisdom.

Right?

So knowledge is knowing what is true.

Understanding is knowing what it means.

And how many there we should know what things mean, right?

But wisdom is knowing what to do with the both of them.

And can I just tell us all in this room, we need the wisdom of the Lord.

Parents, you need some wisdom.

Come on.

Married, you you you need some wisdom, married couples.

Come on, if you're a student, if you're a teacher, business owner, you don't just need understanding and knowledge.

You need God's wisdom to direct you.

And this is an area that He grew in.

Wisdom is the thing that really helps us to live our faith out on Mondays.

Wisdom is what allows us to apply what this word says.

It's the wisdom of God.

Knowledge, I put this in my notes.

I don't think it'll be on the screen, but knowledge without wisdom can make you informed but still immature.

Knowledge without wisdom can make you informed but still immature.

But knowledge tells you what is true.

Wisdom teaches you what to do with what is true.

We need understanding and we need knowledge, but we really need wisdom.

Because wisdom teaches us what to do with what is true.

And I think it's fascinating that Jesus grew in the area of wisdom.

He grew in the area of wisdom.

Number two.

Number two is that Jesus not only grew in wisdom, but Jesus grew in.

What's that word?

He grew in stature.

Jesus grew in stature.

This speaks of the development that Jesus went through.

It speaks to the normal maturation.

He grew physically.

Jesus probably had at moments an awkward growing up phase.

Jesus had to go through the middle school phase.

Come on.

Jesus' voice changed at some point.

He grew in stature.

He developed, right?

That's what that's what that means.

Jesus learned to work.

Jesus got tired from work.

Again, he's fully God, but he's also fully man.

He's growing in stature.

That word stature, it means to mature.

The word stature there, it means that he went through a maturation process.

And yes, Jesus, he grew.

I want you to see this.

Jesus grew physically, but Jesus matured in every area of his life.

So when that word stature, it doesn't just mean that he grew up physically like his bones and his skin grew up.

That means every part of Jesus developed.

That means he matured, right?

Every part, and it's the same for us.

God wants us to grow spiritually, but God wants us, every part of us, growing.

And I want you to see this in Ephesians chapter 4, going back to verse 13, he tells us, so that we will be mature in the Lord.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

There's that word again.

Jesus grew holistically.

It wasn't just that he grew tall, it wasn't just that his body grew, his spirit grew, his soul grew, his spirit man grew inside of us, and God wants the same for us.

I I I put it um in here is that God doesn't just want one part of our life to grow, he wants all of our lives to be healthy.

Every part of us, I'm reminded of what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

He says, now may the God of peace make you holy in every way.

And may your whole, everybody say whole, spirit, soul, and what?

Body.

Your whole spirit, soul, and body be clept blameless to the coming of Christ again.

This is the maturation process that God has for us.

That it's not just our stature that grows that He wants healthy, he also wants your soul healthy.

He also wants your spirit healthy.

And this is what Jesus went through.

Intentional growth, I want you to write this down, means allowing God to form every part of who you are.

Intentional growth means we're allowing God not just to grow the parts we want Him to grow, but every part.

It doesn't just mean, God, you can grow this part because this feels good.

No, when we say God, we want you to grow us in wisdom and stature, it means God, you get to develop and mature any area of my life that you want to.

Nothing is off limits.

You can be spiritually passionate, but still be emotionally immature.

You can know the scriptures, but still be undisciplined in your body.

You can be physically healthy, but be very spiritually unhealthy.

God wants to develop every part of us.

It's spirit, soul, and body.

So why does this matter?

Because God doesn't just want a part of you healthy.

He wants every part of you healthy.

Every part of you to be healthy.

So he grew in wisdom and stature, number three, number three.

He grew in favor with God.

He grew in favor with God.

Favor with God means it speaks to how Jesus grew in his relationship with the Father.

How he developed in his relationship.

Yes, he was fully God, but there was a relationship that had to be cultivated.

This means that through his relationship with the Father, Jesus learned obedience.

He didn't learn obedience because he was sinful, because Jesus never sinned.

He was perfect.

He was, at the end, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world because he was sinless.

Amen.

But through his relationship with the Father, he learned things.

He learned to pray.

He learned to spend time with the Father.

He learned obedience.

I love Hebrews chapter 5.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

This speaks to both the divinity side of him and to the fully man part of him.

It says, even though Jesus was God's son, he learned what?

Obedience from the things he suffered.

He learned obedience from the things he suffered.

It came from his relationship that he had with God.

He grew in prayer.

He learned dependence on the Father.

He learned what faithfulness looked like.

He learned how to lean into God in the pressure times of life.

We see that in the garden.

That he leaned into his relationship with the Father.

So a question that I begin to ask myself this week is Am I growing, am I growing in my relationship with the Father?

Because the goal is not to look more spiritual, the goal is to know God more deeply.

Just to know God more deeply.

And then the fourth area, number four, number four, is that not only did he grow in wisdom and stature, but he also grew in favor with God and then favor with man.

There was this both vertical development that Jesus had with the Father, but it wasn't just a vertical development and maturation process that happened.

It was also a horizontal.

That he grew with God, but he also grew with people.

He grew with people that were around him.

Favor with man means that Jesus grew in relational maturity in the way he loved, honored, and interacted with people.

Jesus learned, I love this image, is that Jesus learned to live in community.

Jesus learned to honor his parents.

Jesus learned to be obedient to the people that were around him.

Jesus had to build trust.

He had to learn to speak well to people.

He grew in not just favor with God, but he also grew in favor with man.

And how many of both are important?

And in our growth process, if we're gonna grow intentionally, it takes both needed that we grow with God, but we also grow with the people that God puts around us.

The community of believers that God places in our life.

You need both.

So let me summarize these points, and I'm gonna pray for us.

The four areas that I'm praying over you.

I spent this week praying these over you is that you'd grow in at least one of these four areas, that you'd grow in wisdom, you'd grow in maturity, grow deeper with God, and grow healthier with people.

How many of all of those are needed?

That we grow in wisdom, that we grow in maturity, that we grow deeper with God, but also healthier with people.

So how how does all of this growth happen?

How do we how do we do this?

How do you how do you practically live this out?

I I think the answer is in Psalms 92.

I want you real quick, I want you to start to turn to Psalms 92.

I'm gonna read this up here and we're gonna pray, and we're gonna be done today.

Psalms 92, I found myself reading this scripture over and over again.

Because it's easy to talk about the areas that we need to grow.

We gotta grow in wisdom and deeper with God and healthier with people.

But what does that practically look like?

Psalms 92 tells us it says, the righteous will flourish like a palm tree.

I love the image of this, and they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, but I want you to see the very next word in the very next verse.

Planted in the house of the Lord, planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God, and they will bear fruit in old age, and they will stay fresh and green.

How do we grow?

How do you grow in wisdom?

How do you grow in these areas?

You stay planted in the things of God.

You stay planted, you stay planted when life tries to pull you up.

I wish I had a plant right here.

When life tries to pull you up, you stay planted throughout the life of Jesus.

It could be a whole nother message in itself.

There were three ways that he stayed planted.

He stayed planted in God's house, he stayed planted with God's people, and he stayed planted in God's presence.

And you need all of those to grow and mature and develop the way that God wants you to.

Jesus was all always in God's house, asking questions and learning, but he was around God's people.

But it wasn't just God's house and God's people.

He was always in the presence of the Father.

I go back to value number one.

We need God's presence.

But we've got to stay planted in God's presence if we're gonna grow.

And I think you need all three.

God's will for you is to grow.

Grow and mature and develop.

But I'm asking you, stay planted.

The enemy is doing everything he possibly can right now to uproot you.

He's doing everything he can to pull your kids out of church.

He's doing everything he can to get your marriage out of a small group, out of a prayer night, out of his presence.

And I'm telling you, I just felt this week as I was praying in my quiet time, I just felt the Lord rise up in my heart to tell and remind you, stay planted.

It's the only way we grow.

Stay planted in the house of God, stay planted around God's people, and stay planted in the presence of God.

And if we do that, we will grow and we'll develop.

Will you stand with me?

Stand with me.

Team, will you put those four things back up for me?

Just closing question.

I'm gonna pray for us, and we're gonna be dismissed this morning.

Which one?

Which one of these four areas this morning do you need to grow in?

You may say, no, it's all four.

I've been there.

But I would ask you this morning, what's one area?

What's one of the areas that you need to grow in?

Maybe it's wisdom.

Maybe you are in a season of your life where you need the wisdom of God.

Maybe it's maturity.

Maybe you need God to grow, not just stature.

You need God to grow your soul, your spirit, man.

Maybe it's a deeper relationship with the Lord.

Maybe it's healthy relationships with people.

I want you just to close your eyes just right where you are.

And I want you to take a moment to worship.

Just keys play it behind us.

And I want, in your own words, for a moment, and even if you want to, I want you just to just kind of stretch out your hands for just a second, just unto the Lord.

And I want right now, in this moment, I want you just to commit a fresh and anew to grow in the things of God today.

Come on with no height, no music.

Just right where you are.

Some of you were so consistent in Bible reading and then it faded off.

Some of you, prayer was at the center of your world, and just through life and chaos, it just slipped.

Just with your eyes closed, just right there.

I want you just to make a fresh commitment to God.

Just say, God, I'm growing.

I'm gonna grow again.

I'm gonna develop, I'm gonna mature.

And now I want you just with your eyes closed, just right where you are, I want you with one of those four areas wisdom, stature, and maturity, a deeper relationship with God, or healthier with people.

I want you right now, I want you just to commit to growing in that area.

Just over the next week, just say, God, in this area, come on, I want you to take just another 30 seconds.

And I want you to commit to the Lord.

God, I'm gonna grow.

I'm gonna be intentional in this area.

Father, I thank you.

I'm gonna pray for us this morning.

God, I pray for every person in the room and those that are worshiping online with us today.

I bind the attack of the enemy that has tried its hardest to uproot people.

I pray right now, God, that you would plant people in the house of God.

I thank you that their families are rooted in the house of God.

I thank you that their kids are rooted in the house of God.

I thank you that their teenagers are rooted in the house of God.

But I pray right now also, I pray, God, a rooting God, not just in your house, but around God's people.

Father, we need each other to grow.

We need each other to develop.

And I'm asking right now, God, those that have come in that are lonely and that are looking and need people in their life, I pray supernaturally, God, put the right people in their path.

God, but I'm asking, God, that you would not just put us in God's house and plant us in God's people.

God, but I pray a rooting right now in your presence.

I thank you, God, that your presence is the thing that we need.

Come on, just right now, just right where you are, I want you just to say, God, I need more of your presence.

Say, God, plant me in your presence.

God, put me in your presence.

God, when we're driving to work in the morning, God, let your presence be there.

When we're getting kids ready in the morning, when we're about to go into the business meeting, when we're about to go into the classroom.

God, I pray, plant us in your presence, God.

So that we can grow and develop, Jesus, just as you did.

Father, we thank you for this.

We call it done in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And amen to God.