Grow

Some years ago, my father was planting a new pasture with a specialized Bermuda grass that was developed to outperform other pasture grasses in the somewhat sandy soil and extremely hot climate of the Southeast US. I was 14 and learning a little bit about some of the farm operations. I knew how to handle a grain drill, which was used for dad’s annual pasture grasses. But this grass was handled a little differently in planting.

This sod grade sprigger is HIGH class compared toone we used in 1997!

It utilized method of transplanting sprigs instead of burying seeds. So, in July in Tifton when it is 103 degrees with about 85% humidity, sitting on the back of a tractor moving slower than the speed of a dead snail is not the way you look to spend your day. Even at the end of two days, covering roughly 5 acres of ground with this sprig mechanism, it is a little discouraging to look back across your work and see what appears to be lots of dead grass on the dirt.

What I didn’t realize at the end of those two hot and grueling days in 1997 is that Bermuda grass grows well in those conditions. It was not overnight, but within 4 weeks those 5 small acres were becoming a lush green pasture. I did not hesitate to tell my dad that when he was ready to plant the remaining 15 acres to count me out!

What made the grass grow? What caused it to move from what appeared to be clippings from the lawn mower to a plush field of grass that would feed a herd of cattle for the next 15 years? It took someone (my dad) who understood the proper application of fertilizer, water, sun, and soil to make it grow. It took the right environment (South GA) for that grass to thrive. It would not last in North Dakota and it would not last on the beaches of the Caribbean or the deserts of Africa. It was designed to grow and thrive under a particular set of environmental circumstances.

Your soul and our church are exactly the same as this grass. We are a church committed to growth, but we are not merely speaking of adding hundreds of people to our roles and rosters. We are committed to the growth and nurture of your soul. Like a pasture depends on the growth of each grass plant to be healthy and lush, so does the church depend on your personal spiritual growth. How does that happen? In 2 Timothy 3, Paul encourages his young disciple, now pastor, Timothy with these words:

“But as for you, continue I what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:14-17, CSB).

I believe we can take away from this passage a few characteristics of growth:

1. Make sure you are in the right soil. Paul spoke to Timothy about the wisdom Timothy had received unto salvation in Jesus Christ. Timothy had been planted in Christ Jesus. Dad’s Bermuda grass would only thrive in the somewhat sandy, often clay filled soil of the Southeast. You and I live in a world that is constantly offering false hope and man centered ways of salvation. It is bent on offering fake gods to us that we can control, with the deceptive idea that this world is all that we truly need. Without the roots of our lives being embedded in Jesus, we will constantly run towards the false narrative that the world around us paints. Friend, you and I need Jesus more than we will ever know!
2. Make sure you are properly conditioning the soil. Please do not think that I am watering down the Gospel or suggesting that Christ Jesus is not sufficient. He IS! However, we live in an utterly deceptive world where the chief deceiver wants to contaminate the soil. He knows that in Christ, he cannot touch us or steal us. Instead, he tries to poison us. That is why Paul strongly encourages Timothy (and us!) to stay tethered to the Bible, God’s wholly infallible Word! He says it is through the Scriptures that we can gain a true understanding of Jesus. It is through the Word of God that we can be trained and equipped. If you were to take a soil sample in your backyard to have it analyzed, a trained scientist would be able to let you know if your soil is too dry, too acidic, too deficient in nitrogen or potash. Knowing this will help you better condition your soil for your lawn to flourish. What about a soil sample in the realm of faith and spiritual growth? I believe it is extremely rare that one would be found to have too much Bible!
   
3. Make sure that the proper treatment of the soil is taken. Yes, these appears to be rewording, but I assure you it is not. You can properly condition soil without proper treatment of the soil. Conditioning takes on the nourishing/fertilizing aspect. Treatment is the maintenance and understanding what to do with the diagnostics. Timothy is told by Paul in verse 16 that Scripture is good for 4 key areas of our growth: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. Teaching instructs us on what we should know about God and Christ Jesus. It is the proper instruction of what we are to believe. Rebuking takes on the aspect of our faith where our wrong beliefs are called out. This would be the application of a weed killer or insecticide. It exposes what is not supposed to be present for the purposes of eliminating it. Third, he says that Scripture is good for correcting. When you kill a trouble spot of weed growth in your yard, you may be left with a hole that needs filling. It is the same spiritually. When the Word of God exposes error in what you believe and you rid yourself of it, you need to fill it in with proper teaching. This is correction. And finally, training in righteousness is mentioned. God sees your growth in Christ as a means to which the full function of your faith is used for His glory in His Kingdom to make disciples of others. There are no limits to the way that God uses your spiritual growth to affect others. 
4. Make sure you have a master gardener. Plain and simple, our goal at FBC Fairburn is to assist you in being so intimately tethered to God Himself that the process of growth and flourishing spiritually becomes natural. That means that as you grow closer to God, He will prune, He will shear, He will mow in order to strengthen your faith. But, He will water, He will fertilize, and He will provide Light to cause upward and outward growth.

If you were to fast forward  from July of 1997 in that hot and dry field to May of 1999 in a green pasture, you would find my dad and me once again. This time, however, dad was demonstrating to me something else.

This is my dad in a field of Bermuda grass. I don't think
those are his cows, however.

No, we weren’t planting Bermuda, we were measuring growth. Dad stood over a grass shoot that was just beginning to emerge from the base plant. He took an orange surveying flag and placed it by the end tip of the shoot that he also marked with orange paint and told me that we would be back the next evening so he could show me the rate growth this particular grass was capable of sustaining. Would you believe that roughly 28 inches from where we placed the original flag we found the orange tip? No, it had not been cut and removed. It was still attached to the mother plant, but had grown over two feet in just barely 1 day.

When you are planted in Christ and submit yourself in His Word, God will grow you. Many of you will see monumental growth overnight. Many of you will see small increments over time. However, as your pastor, I promise that your church will offer you the occasion to grow. But, we need you to grow as we all mature together.

FBC Fairburn is a diverse community of believers seeking

to glorify God, make disciples, build families, and reach our community 

in waysthat stretch beyond age, ethnicity, and status.