Becoming More

Replacing Old With New

If you didn’t know this, most church-goers don’t have a growth strategy. In fact, when you think about church-goers and church people, growth is one of the last things on their mind. Sometimes we get so spiritual that we forget that we have an obligation to ourselves and to others to become better, to become more. Honestly, we owe it to God to grow. What if God asked how are you growing? Are you improving? Are you going from a one-talent service to a two-talent servant? What excuse could you possibly make? Don’t allow not having a plan to grow be your excuse.

If anyone should be interested in growing, getting better, going to the next level, a believer should be at the top of the list. I’m afraid that most of us don’t have such a desire. That is why this message is so important. I wish to encourage you towards growing, getting better at who you were made to be, and to go to the next level in your life. To give you an idea of what that would look like and how to put it into motion, I will share a key ingredient to our growth plan.

In order to grow, in order to get better, in order to prove, in order to go to the next level, one must have a desire to grow or desire for growth. [1] In other words, if you don’t want to grow, then there’s a problem. To begin the process ask yourself how can I grow? Don’t leave this question unanswered, but take the time to give at least one answer. Is there some area that I should get better in? Find an area in your life no matter what.

Here’s a question I often wonder along these lines. How does a person become that new person that’s promised by accepting Jesus into one’s life? In other words, the Scripture says that any person who is in Christ becomes a new creation. [2] So how does that happen? I have figured it out. It occurs in two different ways.

  1. The old life (ways) has to go.
    The old life or way has to go away. Therefore, when you find an answer to focus on or an area of growth, you have to figure out what is it about me that needs to go away. This year, Pamela and I have selected a growth statement (a word in this case), “becoming.” How can we become better? In order to become something we’ve not become, we have to get rid of something that we are. Let me say that in a different way. In order to go to the next level, we have got to replace something that is current level and we have got to rid ourselves of old thinking.
  2. The old void gets replaced by a new life (new ways).
    The old thing has to be replaced with the new thing. The old life has to become new. You have got to be able to define the new life or the new ways. To do that our thinking must be changed and transformed to better thinking. This means we may have to get around better people, but something has to change. We have to do something that we’ve never done. We have to read something that we have never read. We have to get some information that we’ve never had in order to go to a place that we’ve never been.

The phrase “becoming” means moving from one state to another. Our goal for 2023 is to move from our current state to a better state, from a lower level to a higher level. We have got to go from one type of existence to the next type of existence. Our church has a motto which states we’re going to higher heights. This would mean we have to be able to get on a path and be willing to make a few tradeoffs to the summit. When we do, we’re going to go to a level that most have not reached. We’re going to live a life of becoming. Go from the old state to becoming something new. This year, we are going to become something we have never been.

Question: What is your growth strategy for this year?

[1] ‭‭‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 29, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.2.2.NLT
[2] ‭‭‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 29, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.17.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.

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