Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.  Ephesians 4:15-16

You’ve probably heard the old proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It suggests that children benefit from a community – that community helps build maturity.

It’s a theme that seems to pop up in these verses in Ephesians. These verses (and many more like them!) suggest that growing UP and growing TOGETHER…go together. Or to put it another way: community helps build maturity.

Let’s take Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit as an example.

Occasionally, in some of my weaker (read: childish) moments, it will cross my mind that living the fruit of the Spirit – you know, love, joy, peace, patience and all that – would be much easier if I were by myself!

Just let me meditate in solitude on these fruits as the noble virtues they are – piece of cake. But drop me in the middle of a family, a neighborhood, a small group, a church, a community…you get the idea.

So much of the life of discipleship is fleshed out in community.

No surprise that “love God” is immediately followed by “love your neighbor.” The two greatest commandments, Jesus says. (Mark 12:30-31).

And so we get passages like this one in Ephesians. Christ is the head, the center, the focus. Again and again, the call goes out: Look at Jesus. And what’s the evidence of this singular focus? The fruit of this pursuit? We treat each other differently.  We build each other up.

It came up in our GROW Group last night. We don’t just grow from the experience of God’s providential care in our own lives. We also grow from witnessing His care for others. Maybe we’re agents of that care in someone else’s life. Maybe we’re only spectators to what God is doing in and for someone. Fact is, we need each other. To encourage each other. To sharpen each other. To speak the truth in love to each other.

I made new friends last night. We read a little scripture together. Shared a bit of God’s work in our lives…and I grew up.

Over the next few weeks, we’re growing together as a church in small groups. Why? Lots of reasons. But one of them…it helps us grow up.  Community builds maturity.

Let me invite you (it’s not too late!) join a GROW Group. Sign up online (Grow Group) or on the Cross Points app. Make space for Christian community in your life, and watch it build maturity in your walk with Jesus.

Worship: O Come to the Altar Elevation Worship

Yesterday I preached a message entitled, “Grow Up.”  In it I referenced three key components of maturity.  For review the three points are:

1. You can’t grow up unless you “bow down”  – God calls us to a humble lifestyle

2. You can grow up until you “jump in” – We won’t please God without faith

3. You’ll never grow up if you don’t “build up” – It’s all useless without love. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

God wants you to grow up!  He wants me to grow up.  His desire is for us to continue growing throughout our entire life.

In my message I referenced a few quotes from Spurgeon.  Here is the rest of what he had to say about the important maturing quality of faith:

Christian, take good care of your faith; for remember faith is the only way by which we may obtain blessings. If we want blessings from God, nothing can fetch them down but faith.

Prayer cannot draw down answers from God’s throne except it be the earnest prayer of the one who believes. Faith is the angelic messenger between the soul and the Lord Jesus in glory. Let that angel be withdrawn, we can neither send up prayer, nor receive the answers.

Faith is the telegraphic wire which links earth and heaven–on which God’s messages of love fly so fast, that before we call he answers, and while we are yet speaking he hears us. But if that telegraphic wire of faith be snapped, how can we receive the promise? Am I in trouble?–I can obtain help for trouble by faith. Am I beaten about by the enemy?–my soul on her dear Refuge leans by faith.

But take faith away–in vain I call to God.

There is no road between my soul and heaven. In the deepest wintertime faith is a road on which the horses of prayer may travel–yes, and all the better for the biting frost; but blockade the road, and how can we communicate with the Great King? Faith links me with divinity. Faith clothes me with the power of God. Faith engages on my side the omnipotence of Jehovah.

Faith ensures every attribute of God in my defence. It helps me to defy the hosts of hell. It makes me march triumphant over the necks of my enemies.

But without faith how can I receive anything of the Lord?

Let not him that wavers–who is like a wave of the Sea–expect that he will receive anything of God! O, then, Christian, watch well thy faith; for with it you can win all things, however poor you are, but without it you can obtain nothing. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.”

What does it mean to grow better together? What does it mean that, together, we grow better?

Remember your first roommate? Or those first few weeks…months…years…with your spouse? Personality quirks that flew under the radar for years, well, they’re now a bit more…evident.

You know, like that quirky (let’s quit sugar-coating: annoying) habit of leaving empty wrappers, cereal boxes, or chip bags on the counter. Or putting the empty juice carton back in the fridge. Who does that?! I mean, c’mon, the trash can is just a few feet away! Is it really too much to ask?! (All very benign offenses, if you ask me. I mean, really, if this is the worst someone has to deal with, I think they’ve got it pretty good. I’ll leave you to decide who’s the offender in our home – but that’s enough about us!)

Proximity does that, though. It exposes. (And distance conceals.) It requires a certain amount of unselfishness. You have to be willing to let some things go. You have to be willing to change some things yourself. And, sometimes, you even have to change the way you think.

I recently heard the story of a young woman who was at a party in college. While chatting with some friends about animals on the endangered species list, she brought up unicorns. You know, those magical horses with the horn and wings…that are now, apparently, extinct.

Community has a way of doing that. It brings those kinds of things to the surface.

And this, I think, is another way that we grow better together.

Community

We catch a hint of it in Hebrews:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.    Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

In laying aside sin, we look to Christ…but we also draw on the strength and example of others. In this case, the writer of Hebrews reminds his readers that they are not alone. They are growing together with one another (Heb 10) and with others who have gone before them (Heb 11). And now, the writer says, with roots fused together, they can lay aside sin and run their race (Heb 12).

We grow better together because we encourage each other, and because we all benefit from belonging. But also, because we all need to be told that it’s annoying when we leave our trash on the counter!

And community – Christian community – does that.

It exposes sinful habits and misguided thinking (like extinct unicorns!), and focuses us again and again on Christ. It exposes those “roots of bitterness” (Heb 12:15) that can spring up within all of us – those sins and weights that cling so closely. That, when alone, tend to fly under the radar. But that, in the presence of community, are brought to the surface and exposed to the light and word of Christ!

And when that happens, we don’t just grow. We grow better…together!