Grow: Grow Daily or Die Gradually

In this episode, we explore the second of the Five Behaviors of a Disciple—GROW—and why intentional spiritual growth is essential to a thriving life with Christ. You’ll discover how discipleship is a lifelong journey of transformation, shaped through growing spiritually, deepening in biblical knowledge, and living with integrity and influence. This conversation will challenge you to reject spiritual stagnation, embrace daily practices that form Christlike character, and commit to growing in a way that impacts not only your faith, but the people God has placed in your life.

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Welcome to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. I'm Andy George, and again I want to thank you for joining me on this particular episode and in this journey that we are on all things discipleship. And today we are going to continue our discussion and journey through those five behaviors of a disciple. Once again, let's just review real quick the five behaviors of a disciple are connect, grow, serve, pray, and give. These behaviors are so critical because as we look to figure out how do we actually gauge and measure whether or not we are engaging and walking in discipleship, becoming more and more like Jesus by following his teachings and his ways. And as a disciple who are multiplying other disciples, we have put together this tool, this discipleship tool to help us watch and gauge and learn and grow in these behaviors of Connect Grow Serve, Pray, Give. And I am very excited to talk about our second behavior today, which is grow. I heard a quote years ago in ministry, and I want to start with this quote. I probably heard this. I've been in full-time ministry at the time of this recording for, you know, a little over 30 years. And I heard this quote when I was a youth pastor first starting out. And the quote just it shook me then in a good way. It challenged me, and it still did. I use this, this quote I probably use more than any other quote that I've heard outside of scripture, uh, around ministry, especially. And that is, you either grow daily or you die gradually. That is a powerful, true short statement. Grow daily or die gradually. In other words, spiritual growth is not neutral. We're either going forward or we're slowly drifting backwards. There's no standing still in the life of discipleship. There's no just standing still point. You're either moving forward or you're kind of slowly going back. And I would say that that's true in most areas of our life, right? In relationships and our health and our job and our career and our hobbies and our education. It's we're nothing's really ever neutral. We might think it's neutral, but we're either moving forward quickly or slowly or crawling or whatever it is moving forward, or at times we are slipping backwards. And so when we say grow daily or die gradually, that's a very true statement, especially in the context around our spiritual growth. Your spiritual growth, my friend, is not neutral. So let's talk then. What does it actually mean to grow? And what does it mean to grow spiritually? What does it mean to grow in knowledge? And what does it mean to grow in favor and why intentional growth is so essential if we want to become more and more like Jesus? So here is the big idea for this episode. The big idea is that discipleship is a lifelong journey of transformation, and we are continually being shaped by God to become more like Jesus. Luke 2.52 is one of the powerful verses that we get of Jesus pre his uh official ministry. So, roughly around age 30, Jesus begins his roughly three years of ministry before the cross. But before that, we get an insight in Luke 2.52, which simply says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Think about that. Jesus grew. Jesus grew. He just didn't arrive and just all of a sudden be like, okay, I'm I'm just here and I'm just gonna jump right into all the things I'm supposed to do. He actually grew. Uh Jesus grew and he grew in those areas of wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. So Jesus grew not just physically, but spiritually, relationally, intellectually, socially. We we often need to remember Jesus was born as a baby. And so he went through all of those uh adolescent, pre-adolescent, adolescent, teenage, young adult years where he is growing. Uh he's growing socially and intellectually and relationally and spiritually. And yes, at the same time, he is fully God and fully man. But another way of looking at this is that growth wasn't optional, not even for Jesus. Did you ever think about that? It wasn't optional for Jesus not to grow. He he needed to grow. It is intentional. It was observable that he grew. Luke, Luke in 252, it was observable that Jesus was growing and increasing with this wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. And I would say that Jesus' growth was holistic. And that verse becomes a good framework for how disciples can grow today. So one of the questions we should ask is, well, why does growth matter? What is it about growth that really matters? And so here's the first truth that we need to settle. The first truth is that spiritual growth is not automatic. That's uh that's something you gotta get, you gotta settle in your own soul and spirit that your spiritual growth and my spiritual growth, we don't just wake up uh spiritually growing. Hebrews 5, verses 12 to 14 says it this way it says, for through uh for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice. In other words, time alone does not equal maturity. You could be a Christian, you could be a pastor for 20 years and only have one year of experience. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that you could just be doing the same ministry for 20 years, just year after year after year after year. And so because you've been in ministry for a long time, or because you're older or walked with Jesus longer, doesn't necessarily mean that you are maturing in that. Time alone does not equal maturity. You could attend church for years, read the Bible, uh, serve faithfully, and still remain spiritually mature if growth is not intentional. Paul makes a similar, a similar point in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. He says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation doesn't happen accidentally, it happens through renewal. And renewal requires intention. Now, a phrase that I like to say when it comes to some of these things is let's be intentional, not ignorant. So let's just let's not be ignorant about just checking boxes or well, I gotta grow. So okay, check I did my devotions today, check I listened to my worship music today, check I did a good deed today. That's that's good. But if we're not careful, that becomes kind of an ignorant approach to something that actually needs to be somewhat intentional. Our faith becomes shallow, our discernment weakens. And so just think about that again for a moment. When we stop growing, our faith becomes shallow, our discernment weakens, our character stagnates, and our influence diminishes. But when we grow, growth produces wisdom, depth, clarity, Christ-like character that others can't see and they can't feel. So there are three dimensions of growth, by the way. And in the discipleship tool, we don't talk about growth in vague terms. We kind of define it and we define it clearly biblically and practically. And so these are the three essential dimensions of growth. Let's start with the first one. The first one is that we've got to grow spiritually. This is growth in your relationship with God. Spiritual growth happens through regular spiritual practices, not out of obligation, but out of desire. Practices like prayer, worship, fasting, solitude, confession, silence before God. These are not just a spiritual checklist. These are relational pathways. Spiritual growth is learning to abide in Jesus, to stay connected to the presence and the power of God in everyday life. Jesus says it in John 15, apart from me, you can't do anything. So the goal isn't to be busy for God. The goal is to be with God, shaped by Him from the inside out. That is the goal. And if you're not intentionally cultivating spiritual rhythms and growth, that will all eventually stall. No matter how gifted you are, no matter how active you are, if we're not intentionally cultivating the spiritual rhythm and growth, it's all going to stall out. So the second, the second essential dimension of growth is to grow in knowledge. Spiritual maturity also requires intentional learning. And we grow in knowledge through a couple different ways, right? We grow by studying scripture deeply. We grow by understanding the storyline of the Bible and the context of the Bible. We learn theology, we learn doctrine, we engage in apologetics, we ask hard questions, we sit under good teaching. These are all great ways for you and I to continue to grow in our knowledge. Knowledge doesn't replace faith, but it strengthens it. And that's very important, right? Because if we're not careful, then we got a lot of degrees, we have a lot of knowledge, we read a lot of books. And that doesn't replace our faith, but it can strengthen your faith. So as you grow spiritually, uh that knowledge that you have, that growth in knowledge will actually help grow your spiritual life as well. We don't just study the Bible to become uh, we don't just study the Bible to know more, in other words, we study it to become more like Jesus. We're not just studying it just for head knowledge, we're studying it for transformational power that we are becoming more and more like Jesus. And so again, in the in the discipleship tool, we want to believe disciples should uh know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live out faith in the real world. And a growing disciple is a learning disciple. That's a great statement, isn't it? A growing disciple is a learning disciple. The disciples followed Jesus around so they could observe him, watch him, learn, listen to him. They were growing in their knowledge. And the third uh essential dimension for growth is grow in favor. This one's often overlooked, but it is biblical. Luke actually tells us that Jesus grew in favor with God and with man. So, in other words, growing in favor means living with integrity, developing strong character, building healthy relationships, representing Christ well in every sphere of influence. And this is where faith becomes visible, by the way. You know, the growth spiritually part and the growing knowledge part, yes, eventually that will be seen, but our faith really becomes visible how we treat people, how you handle conflict, how you work, how you lead, how you respond under pressure. All of these ways are ways that our faith becomes visible, and it a lot of it has to do with how we're growing. Favor isn't a popularity, it's credibility. So favor isn't that people just like you. I hope people like you, and and but we also know that in this world people aren't gonna like us because of our faith. So, so yeah, so like likability, we all probably want to be liked. But favor isn't about popularity. Favor is about credibility. It's your name, it's what you stand for, it's your integrity, it's the God you serve. It's when we say yes, we mean yes. When we say we're gonna show up, we're gonna show up. When we say one thing and we tell somebody how to live our life, live their life, we ourselves live it that way. That is how we grow in favor. A growing disciple reflects Jesus not only in private devotion, but in public witness. So, as we bring this to a close, let me ask you a few questions that you can sit with this week. Don't rush past them. Let it search your heart. Here we go. Here's a few questions. What are you currently learning in God's word? Where have you seen character development in the last season of your life? Are others being influenced by your growing walk with Christ? Those are three really good questions for you to sit in this week. Where are you currently learning in God's word? Or what are you currently learning? Where have you seen character development? And are others being influenced by your growing walk with Christ? Again, growth is not perfection, it's a direction. Right? That's that's pretty key. Growth doesn't mean you're perfect, but it means you're heading in the right direction. And so the question is uh isn't, am I where I should be? The question is kind of, am I growing? Am I heading in the right direction? That is the question that we need to be asking ourselves. So again, as we close up, here's the bottom line. Uh, you will grow daily or you will die gradually. Discipleship is too important to leave the chance. Don't leave it the chance, don't leave it to somebody else to do for you. You've got to do it. So choose one step, one habit, one practice, one area of focus, and grow and continue to grow. Well, hey, thanks again for joining me on this very important episode around our behavior of growth. And in our next episode, we're gonna move to the third behavior, which is serve, because growing disciples don't just mature inwardly, they actually move outwardly and put it into practice. Well, thanks again for listening to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. And I want to encourage you, make sure you join us on the next episode again as we talk about serve. And don't forget, as always, we're in this together. And I hope that something that you hear and you see and you learn inside of this tool will help you in your journey. Until next time, keep growing.