Garry spoke this morning from 2 Peter 1:3-8, looking at how God’s plan is for us to be productive. Gal 5:22-24 lists the fruit of the Spirit which God wants to develop in our characters. For this fruit to grow, however, we have to crucify the old nature, which is never a pleasant process! Jesus is the Gardener (John 15:1-8) and leaves have to be lifted out of the shadows into the light for us to be able to grow more. We have to work in partnership with God. All things can be used, but we need to learn the lessons or we keep coming back to the same things! God even uses suffering to help us to grow (and if Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered, as we read in Heb 5:7-8, we will certainly have to learn this way too!)
There is often pain involved with our growth, for the scalpel hurts just as much as the dagger, but we have to remember that there is a different intent behind the hand which wields these implements. God’s intention, even when He cuts us, is to heal us. ‘Sometimes all we have to hold onto is what we know is true of who You are,’ Kutless sing (‘Even If’) and we have to learn to trust God even when everything around us feels like no good can come from it! (Job 13:15, Matt 27:46) We always have to remember ‘there’s an aim behind the pain.’
The church is God’s idea and needs to be involved in worship, in encouraging itself and in reaching out to the world. We need church to be:
1) A safe place, where we care for each other and look out for each other. (1 Cor 12:21-26). God wants us to encourage and build each other up (1 Thess 5:11), giving support and comfort to each other so that we can encourage the disheartened and help the weak. (1 Thess 5:13-18). This means, however, that we need to really know each other and let down our guards enough to allow others to see our weaknesses. Then we can come alongside each other to strengthen and support, rather like the trellis put up to help runner beans grow:
2) A place of demonstration, where we set examples to each other (1 Cor 11:1) so that we demonstrate how to handle life’s difficulties and messiness. Bill Lane, who was a mentor to Michael Card, told him when he was diagnosed with cancer ‘I have shown you how a Christian lives; now I will show you how a Christian dies.’ We need people to be an example to us of how the Christian life works in the everyday, and we need to set that example to others too.
3) A place to learn and grow, where we can be involved in activities together. Jesus modelled how to disciple others, by urging His disciples to come and watch Him, then allowing them to work alongside Him and finally sending them out to do it themselves. We need to have the freedom to fail, for no one gets it right all the time, and we need the ongoing challenge to grow. Church is where we practise what God wants and the world is where we produce. No one is excluded, for we all have a role to play. To be productive, we need to be part of a church, engaged with the family of God.