We are going to look into Luke 2:40
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Growth brings us to the next phase of our lives. It’s better you grow into something. Sometimes we grow into things. So if we want to become something, let me say this. There are things we have desired to have. Many years ago we did not have it or you have not gotten it. It’s because you need to grow into it. When we grow up, we grow into higher capacity.
And the things that used to be prayer points will not be prayer points anymore. There are things we are crying for right now that actually should not be cried for. All we should do is to grow up. And as we grow up in different areas of life. The things that used to be a prayer point and concern because of growth we will become it. And we will be able to do it easily.
So most times God just doesn’t want to do things in our life. He wants to see us grow. When we grow we become. For example, there are things we have prayed for before, we didn’t have that capacity to finance it but we have grown past them. Those things that used to be a concern, we do them easily. That’s growth working.
So the Bible says, “and the child grew and became… he became strong, he grew and became strong in the spirit. He grew and he was filled with wisdom.” We would see that He grew with those things there so that we can see. He grew, He became strong in the spirit. He grew and was filled with wisdom. It therefore means there is a level of wisdom that comes with growth. There is a level of wisdom, operational wisdom that comes with growth.
Jesus grew and He was filled with the Spirit of God. He grew, he was also filled with wisdom.
He grew and the grace of God was upon Him. Now, let us look at verse 52, it says Jesus increased in wisdom, he increased in stature, he increased in favour with God and man. So that’s why we are bringing the concept of all-round growth from. Jesus grew and specifically we saw about four areas of Jesus’ growth. Jesus grew specifically in four areas from the scripture. He grew mentally, he grew physically, he grew spiritually and socially.
Sometimes God is, and most times, not even sometimes, most times, God is not in a hurry.
You are the one that is in a hurry. God is not in a hurry because whatever the Lord doeth, He wants it to abide forever and ever.
He doesn’t want us to come into a level of success or achievement that we can’t sustain or that cannot be sustained. He doesn’t want to bring us to a phase in life that you have and after some time, you say, what happened? Things have changed, no! That’s not God.
What God does, it abides forever. And the way the things God will do in our life, in my life, the way to abide and it will be sustainable is that the person himself has grown. He has grown in capacity so he can handle certain things. So it’s beyond us having things. We are the ones that are actually anxious to have things. God wants to grow you first. God wants to grow you because he can succeed in growing you.
Listen, whatever we bring, when we have capacity to keep, to multiply. As a matter of fact, that’s the type of man that comes to our hands. He cares not to kill us. We get broke again. It’s not money that we need sometimes first. It’s capacity. It’s capacity.
It’s not about having the financial resources when they come to your hand. That’s not what is important. What is important is that the financial resources should multiply and we have capacity to keep growing in wealth because whatever the Lord doeth shall abide forever. This is why the number one thing we need to have at the back of our mind is that when we grow, we become. In fact, that thing we want to become, it is much, much more important and essential that you grow into it. So we saw Jesus, our template, grew to become. Jesus grew to become.
Jesus grew to become. I mean, that’s fundamental. That’s very instructive. Jesus grew and He became. Jesus grew. This is to show to people that Jesus was born. He was born. But the Jesus that was born was not the Jesus that went to the cross. He grew. He grew. There is one question: and Jesus actually grew up, if Jesus had grown, amen, why shouldn’t we grow? Jesus grew, then we must grow up.
It is Jesus-like for me to desire growth in every area of my life. Just as Jesus grew; likewise we’re also expected to grow. Jesus has given us the template and there we can deduce that you do not just grow spiritually but also in wisdom, stature, favour with God men till you fulfil the will of God.
THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF JESUS’S GROWTH PATTERN
1. JESUS HAD A PATTERN OF GROWTH vs 42
In different areas of life we should desire and have a mindset of growth
– Jesus had a desire for growth so He grew and increased likewise we should also desire to grow just as Jesus had the attitude and disposition to growth.
– There is a thin line between gratitude and sentiment.
– Sometimes while the journey is on we can celebrate the milestones but we must make sure to keep our highest capstone.
Avoid false climax. Is there a reason why some people don’t celebrate their birthday? They look around and say, what am I going to celebrate?
It’s a bad thing not to be grateful to God regardless of wherever you are. You need to have a one-on-one meeting with yourself and ask what you are actually celebrating.
The devil can sometimes come and meet a man at that junction and make a man not see anything to be grateful for.
Sometimes can we embrace the slogan “No gree for anybody” and if you don’t want to gree for anybody, first of all, no gree for yourself. Call yourself to a meeting, this year we are growing. I can’t, I won’t remain like this spiritually. They will not be spoon-feeding me spiritually. I will reason well. I will talk well.
It’s growth. I will embrace maturity. Jesus had a growth mindset. I call it growth posture. A correct posture for growth. A very strong disposition for growth.
2. JESUS PRIORITISED.
Jesus prioritized his growth. Jesus had specific areas of his life that he cannot joke with. He grew in Wisdom, he grew in stature.
In the jungle of life, age will not count. Numbers of years will not count and we saw that in Jesus’s life. He was asking questions among the doctors, the scholars, and they asked, what manner of wisdom is this?
That is what was coming out from his mouth, it was stronger and bigger than his age.
He grew in wisdom, Jesus grew mentally, and Jesus grew in stature.
A stature could go beyond just physical stature. There is financial stature. We can grow into dimensions of life. Jesus grew in stature. So you can also grow into stature.
One man was brought before Pharaoh.
His name was Jacob. Joseph brought his father and set him before Pharaoh. Jacob prayed for Pharaoh. When Jacob was done praying, Pharaoh had only one question in his mouth. He said, how old are you?
Now, that’s a very simple question, I mean but the simple question requires a complex answer for Jacob.
The years of your servant are few but full of trouble. He said, my age can’t be compared to the age of my forefathers. And actually Abraham and Isaac were older than Jacob.
So even Jacob was not as old as Abraham and Isaac. He said they were the years of my father, but not as old. But he said, it’s few and full of troubles.
Genesis 47:7-10
Don’t just age, grow. Listen, there are key areas of our life that we can’t joke with, because these four areas cover other aspects of our lives. In fact, if you stay focused in these four areas, you are good to go because it will rub off on each area and every area of our lives.
So, Jesus prioritized, now the word prioritized there is that, there are areas you should not or you should be less concerned about. If I ask you to write your goals for the year 2024, some of you will collect extra sheets and if I sit down to go through that prayer points, prayer requests, prayer goals, we can actually reduce that request to two or three.
There are things you shouldn’t be praying about, like shoes you want to buy, who does that at a level of growth. There are things you don’t think, you don’t plan to buy, you don’t put in budget but because you are growing, you have the capacity, some things will no longer be prayer points.
Anything you do, and you do under pressure, then you are not there yet, wait for you to get there, grow into it and when you grow into it, it comes with ease. God does not want you to jump up, he wants you to grow up because if you jump up, you will come down but If you grow up, you will stay up.
Have a mindset for the growth process, prioritize your growth. There are two areas I want to grow in life, my walk with the lord which is spiritual growth, to see if it happens daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, I can handle so many things.
Secondly, personal growth, I want to invest in myself, I want to grow, my capacity increases. What you call money problems at times are growth problems, growth profits, growth in your career, change jobs. Conveniently, a month or two salary should pay your rent. So it’s growth. Sometimes it’s not about taste. I know you like the house with good features like Plaster of Paris, and marble tiles, but grow into paying for the rent, grow in capacity so that you don’t get pressured when it’s time to pay rent. Jesus prioritized the areas of his growth.
3. JESUS EMBRACED PRACTICES that made his growth come easily to him. So Jesus had what I call growth practices. He had a growth posture. He also had practices that made his growth come easily. And what are the practices? Let’s look at it.
In the scriptures, you will read that Jesus was found in places. And one of the places he will be found is in the temple. When they were looking for him, they knew where to go to look out for Jesus. They knew where to go. So there’s a place. Jesus had a place that he constantly visited, where he constantly went. Jesus had a place. Jesus had people he hung around with. And if you look at Jesus’ life, he didn’t hang around his mates, because if he did, even John the Baptist his cousin would have quickly recognized him before the baptism. And who are these people? They were scholars, scribes, and the aged. So he had a place, he had people, he had a process.
Now, the process here involves him listening and asking questions. So when he’s around the people, Jesus asks relevant, soul-searching, heart-rending, fact-finding questions. It is one of such engagements he had with the Pharisees and the Scribes that they were thrilled and asked, what kind of wisdom is this?
The place, the people, and the process are the things I call THE ATMOSPHERE FOR GROWTH and you must find your atmosphere. You design your atmosphere, the place you go, the people you hang around with, the practice or the process around all of that. And for Jesus, the way Jesus processed his growth was basically about questioning and listening. There’s a place that drains you. There are people that drain you. There are places that do not encourage your growth.
There are people who are not encouraging you, they don’t provoke you to grow. They don’t provoke you to see something much more coming for you. I call them settlers. And you know settlers by their word of mouth. They say words like ‘In fact, if God can just buy me one car like that, for me to cab, and be drinking water inside the car, I am okay.’ I’m not saying you can’t start there. Don’t get it wrong.
One of the things you can do is to change your circle. There are people you have outgrown and there are people who have outgrown you. There are also places you have outgrown. The day you understand this, you will no longer be angry at a friend who no longer calls you. He has moved, he has outgrown you.
There are people you have outgrown. There are people who have outgrown you. There are places you have outgrown. You need to consciously, deliberately and diligently come to places, find places, find people.
Embrace practices, processes deliberately and consciously. Now all of this we are going to apply. We are going to talk about spiritual, physical. So you need to consciously embrace places and people. There are people we call growth agents. There are agents of growth that God has sent to your life. You have to embrace them. You have to look for them. You have to submit to them.
And lastly, JESUS HAD THE PURPOSE TO HIS GROWTH. There was a purpose attached to Jesus’ growth. Jesus knew the purpose of his growth.
You know why? The Bible says that when the parents came back to look for him, after they found him when he was not with them.
After they found Jesus, he was seated among the scholars, the doctors, asking questions and listening to them. So they walked up to him there, and they said “you are not even mindful that we are your parents. We have been worried and looking for you everywhere.” He replied to them saying “Don’t you know that I must be about my father’s business?”
So that means Jesus consistently was mindful of the mandate of God upon his life and he must grow into it. Jesus was deliberate to grow into the purposes and mandate of God for his life.
Jesus knew there is the father’s business hanging somewhere that he must carry out. Jesus knew there was something ahead. He knew for this purpose “I have come to do your will.”
It is a burden that he has given to me and I have come in the volume of books to do that. So he knew there is a will, there is a purpose, an assignment and a mandate to carry out.
And Jesus that was born in the manger is not the Jesus that will carry out the will and purpose of God.
That same Jesus must grow. That Jesus must grow. So the Jesus of the manger is not the Jesus on the cross, He grew!