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What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Day 1 Topic – God is Sowing a Seed Mark 4:3 Behold, the sower went out to sow. Mark 4:26 He said, So is the Kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth. So, ultimately, what is Christian growth? It is the growth of Christ in us. It is the increase of Christ in us. He has been added to our being. He's been joined to our spirit and now he needs to spread in us. This is the reality of what Christian growth is. So, based on this, we have the message title, "Christ's Growth in us". It's a different concept than what we are used to. We are used to the concept the world has about growth, which is developing myself as a person. That's why motivational speakers are so popular. They sell millions of tapes and have all these conferences about how to have a better marriage, how to have better relationships, how to be a more diligent person, how to succeed financially, how to have a good disposition, etc. And of course the world just flocks to it, because everyone wants to be a better person. But what's missing from this picture? Christ! Even as Christians, we can start developing these kinds of things and miss Christ. We can have a concept of Christian growth that misses Christ! But God's focus is Christ! Here Jesus is saying, “what is the kingdom of God like, what is it that God is doing, what does God want?” He reveals that God is like a sower who went out to sow a seed. God sowed a seed into us. That is what the kingdom of God is. This is what God is after. God is sowing a seed. (DB) _________ The Savior (Matt. 13:37), who was the Son of God coming to sow Himself as the seed of life in His word into men's hearts that He might grow and live in them and be expressed from within them. This sowing was the Savior's proclaiming of the gospel of God, which brought in the kingdom of God. It was, as in v. 26, the sowing of the seed of life in the word spoken by the Savior, indicating that His gospel service was to sow the divine life into the people whom He served. The growth of this life depends on the condition of the ones served, and its issue differs according to their various conditions, as portrayed in this parable. This idea of Christ growing in us is unique. Does Christ need to grow? He’s a complete person. He doesn’t lack anything. Why does Christ need to grow? It’s not like he needs to go from point A to point B and develop anything or learn anything. He’s God! But, the picture the Bible portrays is actually one of Christ growing in us. We can see this picture in the parable of the sower. The parable of the sower is one of the most famous parables in Bible. In this portion, Jesus gives us a picture of Christian growth, or the Growth of Christ in us. This parable is found in Mark 4, Luke 8 and Matthew 13. Mark 4:3 says “Behold the sower went out to sow.” And then Jesus says “so is the kingdom of God, as if a man casts seed on the earth.” This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Lord Jesus. He is the one grain of wheat, and from this grain, many grains have been produced. First Peter 1:23 says, "Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God." The Lord Jesus is the Word, and He is also the seed. Day 2 Topic - Christ is the Seed Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God… John 1:14 And the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and reality. We have to praise Him because He is not just the Word but also the seed. Our God sent His Son to the earth and sowed Him as a seed. The Lord Jesus did not come to preach but to be the Word. The Lord was not just the One speaking the word; He was the Word itself. The Lord was not just the sower; He was the very seed. God did not just sow a few words; He sowed a man. The Lord Jesus was truly the seed, the real seed. Christ is the seed. Jesus said, “the parable is this, the seed is the word of God.” In John 1:1,14, we can see that the word of God is just Christ himself. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God…And the word became flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and reality.” Jesus said that the seed is the Word. And we know that the word is Christ. So Christ in fact, is the seed. God wants to sow this Person into us. (DB) _____________ In the Bible, the words that come out of God's mouth are called God's word, but the Son sent by God is also called God's Word. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We know that this refers to the Lord Jesus. The word of God as revealed in the Bible sometimes refers to the words which God has spoken and sometimes to the Word whom God has begotten, that is, the Son of God. He is the Word, the living Word, the Word of life. When you hear Him, you hear the Word. When you see Him, you see the Word. When you touch Him, you touch the Word. This is what 1 John 1:1 tells us. Our Lord Jesus is the Word of God. He is also the seed of God. John 12:24 says, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." This refers to the This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Day 3 Topic – The growth of the Seed Mark 4:26-27 He said, So is the Kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth - And sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and lengthens -- how, he does not know. The earth bears fruit by itself: first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear. Mark 4:20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: those who hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold. Col 1:5-6 Because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, Which has come to you, even as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and growing, as also in you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self control: against such things there is no law. Acts 15:9 And He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith What is a seed? A seed is a container of life. And the purpose of a seed is to be sown into the ground, so that the life within the seed would be released in order to produce an expression of that life. For example, a corn seed contains the corn life. This corn seed is not merely for display. You don’t just put it on a shelf. It would have no purpose there. But if you put it in the ground, eventually the life inside the seed will be released and there will be the expression - which is the corn, the harvest. So here is the parable again. “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man casts seed on the earth, and he sleeps and rises, night and day and the seed sprouts and lengthens. The earth bears fruit by itself, first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear.” The kingdom of God is like a man casting seed on the earth. And when he casts that seed into the earth, his expectation is that the life in that seed eventually will be released. Eventually that life will be expressed. He is looking for something to come out of that soil. If you sow a rose seed, it’s because you want to see a rose bush. The rose bush is the expression of the life in the rose seed. If you sow an apple seed, it’s because you want to see an apple tree. The apple tree is the expression of that life contained in the apple seed. Now God has sowed Christ because he wants to see Christ! That’s what he is expecting to see. So God’s plan is very simple. He is sowing a seed, with the expectation that the life in that seed will eventually be expressed. The seed is planted. The seed gets into the soil and opens up. The life in it begins to get into the soil. It starts to grow into the soil. Eventually this growth produces something that you can see. Underneath the soil, something is going on that you can’t see. But that seed is growing and eventually there is the visible fruit. “The blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear.” It is a mystery. The sower sows it and then he goes about his business. But that seed is living and operating. That seed is operating to push its life out. This is Christ in us! So what will be the expression of this Life that has been sowed into us? Galatians 5:22 says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, selfcontrol against such things there is no law.” If someone doesn’t understand this principle of the seed, they are going to look at this as a list of things that they need to do as a Christian, or as a list of things they should have. Every good Christian comes to this verse at some time and says, “I need love, I need joy, I need peace, I need longsuffering, I need gentleness.” Our first inclination is to just go down the list and start thinking “well, how am I going to get these things?” And of course there are plenty of people who want to teach you how. But, the important word in this verse is fruit. With fruit, already there is an implication that a seed was sown and life is developing! Imagine a gardener that’s very impatient. He plants the seed, goes to bed and comes back the next day and says, “there’s no rose bush! What’s the deal? Why isn’t there a rose bush?” So he goes out and buys a plastic rose bush and sticks it on that plot of dirt. Well, it may look real, but it’s not living. It doesn’t have the life. In the This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us same way, it’s easy for Christians to fall into a trap of trying to build up something artificial because of their impatience. But it’s not what God wants. Ultimately, it’s something that God will have to tear down. I don’t want to get to the Lord and have Him say, “you worked so hard to develop all these good looking things, but none of them are what I want. None of them are related directly to My life, and I’m going to have to tear them all down.” God wants to see Christ! God has sowed Christ as a seed into us, and His expectation is that this seed will grow. The only thing God wants is for the life from this seed to bear fruit. He only wants to see Christ. (DB) _____________ God does not care for outward legalistic ordinances, which cannot cleanse man's inward being; He cares for the inward cleansing of man's heart. This corresponds with the Lord's emphasis in Mark 7:123. The cleansing of man's heart can be accomplished only by the Holy Spirit with the divine life, not by outward ordinances of dead letters. This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Day 4 Topic – The Condition for Growth – Good Soil Mark 4:1-20 And again He began to teach beside the sea, and a very great crowd was gathered unto Him, so that He stepped into a boat in the sea and sat down, and all the crowd was on the land, facing the sea. And He taught them many things in parables and said to them in His teaching: Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured it. And other seed fell on the rocky place, where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered. And other seed fell into the thorns, and the thorns came up and utterly choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And others fell into the good earth and yielded fruit, coming up and growing; and one bore thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold. And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when He was alone, those around Him, with the twelve, asked Him about the parables. And He said to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those outside, all things are in parables, In order that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they turn and it be forgiven them. And He said to them, Do you not know this parable? And how will you know all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones beside the way, where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown into them. And likewise, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places, who, when they hearª the word, immediately receive it with joy. Yet they have no root in themselves, but last only for a time; then when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they are stumbled. And others are the ones being sown into the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, And the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts for other things enter in and utterly choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And these are the ones sown on the good earth: those who hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold. No heart is automatically ready for the seeds to grow. We should not take this parable in a doctrinal way. We should not think that there are four kinds of hearts, and ask, "Which kind of heart do I have?" All of us have the first three hearts. We have a heart of traffic, a heart of rocks, and a heart of thorns. But we may not have the fourth heart, the good earth. So we must tell the Lord, "I know I have the first three hearts, and Lord, I'm not the good earth. So Lord, have mercy! I give myself to You. By all means, do whatever You want to do in me. I consecrate myself to You. You can plow me. You can purge me. You can do whatever You must do. You can arrange all the environments, arrange all the situations, give me all the leadings, and do all the things within me so that my heart can be a place for You to grow." Then our heart can become the good earth. This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Day 5 Topic – The Condition for Growth – Good Soil Lk 8:15 But that which is in the good soil, these are those who in a noble and good heart hear the word and hold it fast and bear fruit with patience. Eph 4:16 17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love… Gal 4:19 My little children, for whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you Prov 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Eph 5:25-26 Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for Her, that He might sanctify Her, cleansing her by the washing of the water of the word. Heb 10:22 Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. So what do we do? Let’s say I’ve gone a week, something has come in and my heart is cold. The Lord seems so distant. What does that mean? Am I trapped? Do I need to be under condemnation? Am I ruined? No! I just need to come back and have my heart treated. This is a common thing that happens with soil. This is why people stand out in the yard with a hose, watering a patch of earth for that grass to grow. In the same way, we have something to treat our soil with. What the Lord has for us is living water. In Ephesians 5:26 “Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify, cleansing her by the washing of the water of the word.” The Lord loves us. He wants to take care of our heart for us. He has a prescription for the heart. He has a prescription to soften that heart back up, to moisten it, and make it an atmosphere conducive for making His home there. It is the living word! When we come to the word, we just need to open our heart to the Lord and say “Lord I love you, I miss you, I feel distant from you. But I need to come to you and touch you. I need you to water me. I need you to soften my heart again.” The Lord is faithful to do this part. If we come to Him in this way, and open ourselves to Him, and feed on His word, He will supply us with all the water and nutrients to condition our heart again so that it is suitable for Him. The only part for us is the daily diligence of taking care of our heart, tending it, making sure there are enough nutrients and water going in it. If we do that, that life spontaneously will grow! There eventually will be the fruit of Christ. His personality, His life, His nature will be exhibited in us! (DB) ___________________________ The good earth is a heart that is rich and moist. It is a heart that has the readiness to bear fruit. What does this mean practically? This means that the heart is ready to be plowed. If we want the fruit to come out of us, our heart must be ready to be plowed. There is a verse in the Psalms, "the plowers plowed upon my back" (Psa. 129:3). This means that when God works with us, and deals with our person, He is actually plowing us. To plow is to take away all the frustrations which can hinder the growth of the seed. To be plowed is to be purged of stones and thorns. God has a way to purge us out. When we have a lot of stones in our heart, then God will come in to plow. He will allow some environment to come. He will arrange some situations. He will work out some experiences just to purge the rocks within us. If we want to be the good earth, and out heart is truly ready, it means that we are telling the Lord, "I am ready for you to plow." It is easy for God to come in and plow when our heart is ready. He will take away whatever the obstacles are which frustrate the growth of the seed. When we have too much traffic and our heart has become hard, then God will soften it. When we have rocks within us which make our heart too shallow, then God will purge them out. When we have thorns outside of us which are choking our growth, then God will clear the ground. He will plow us and purge us. He will take care of our heart, and make it the good earth. This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org What God Wants The Growth of Christ in Us Day 6 Topic – God Causes the Growth Mark 4:26-27 He said, So is the Kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth - And sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and lengthens -- how, he does not know. The earth bears fruit by itself: first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear. James 5:7 Therefore be long-suffering, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer eagerly awaits the precious fruit of the earth, exercising long-suffering over it until it receives the early and late rain. 1 Cor 3:6-7 I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth. Although the saints may water others, growth comes only from God Himself…..Because growth comes from God alone, those who water others must help them to contact God. Thus, the best way to be watered is to contact God. …..Paul knew that the Corinthian believers needed feeding, watering, and the additional supply of life. They needed to be fed with solid food, they need to be watered continually, so that they could grow in life. These are the very things we need in the church life today. We need not only be fed with solid food. We also need to water others and to be watered ourselves.,,But in watering others we should not solve their problems or presume to do God’s work by trying to help others grow. Instead, we should simply take time to contact God together. Then others will be watered, and God will give them growth through the additional life supply. May we all see that what is urgently needed is the growth in life. May we live in a way which produces the growth in life, and may we function by planting, feeding, watering, and also by leaving the actual growth to God. (1 ___________________________ cause the growth. We do plant, we do water, but it’s because we have the expectation. We have the faith and vision – “God planted a seed in me and this seed is a living operative Person. He’s operating in me to produce something that He’ll be satisfied with. I don’t need to worry about it so much. I don’t know what the fruit will ultimately look like, but I know when my heart isn’t close to the Lord and that’s the only part that he wants me to take care of.” To me, this vision is liberating. All of us can testify that we fall into the trap again and again - trying to make God happy and trying to produce that “plastic tree” that looks like the fruit of the Spirit but that has no life. All He wants us to do is to bring our heart to Him. All he wants us to do is to keep a heart that’s soft and open to Him. He is operating to produce what he wants. Most of the frustration comes because we’ve entered into our own efforts to try to produce what God wants to produce. I think that 99% of the frustration in my life as a Christian is that I’m frustrated that I didn’t see that rose bush grow out and I tried to put a “plastic bush” there and no one liked it. But the Lord doesn’t care about that. He’ll just take it out of the way. He says “just bring your heart to me, enjoy me, love me.” He is love! He loves to be in our heart, He loves to grow in us and the Father loves to see this seed growing! The Father loves to see this fruit! So He’s going to make it to come to pass! As Christians the only thing we have to be aware of is the condition of our own heart. What’s the condition of my love for the Lord right now? And the only thing we need to do about it is to come to the Lord and let Him treat us. This is very simple. If we live this way, God will get want He wants. That Life will grow, and He will have an expression of Christ that satisfies Him. God is the one who causes the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.” Ultimately, it’s just God. God’s going to This page is a printout from www.thechurchinstlouis.org