Ron Dunn Podcast - How We Grow - Part 1

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

The one indespensible element in life is Christ Himself.

I'd like you to open your Bibles now to the book of Colossians, the third chapter. Colossians, the third chapter, and I'm going to read the first four verses. The first four verses of Colossians chapter 3. Now there'll be other verses in the context that I'll be referring to, but the heart of this passage of Scripture is the first four verses of chapter 3. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and

your life is hid with him in glory." The one indispensable element in the Christian life is Christ himself. All that God does, all that God will ever do in your life and in my life, He does and will do through the Lord Jesus Christ and through no other. All the blessings and benefits of God, if they are to reach us, become our possession, they must come through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the channel of God's grace, and apart from Christ, there is no grace, no mercy that can reach a man. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 the Apostle Paul says that

all of the spiritual blessings all that that you can ever hope to have all that even exists is treasured in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them are gathered up in Jesus Christ. And He is the channel through which all that God is and all that God has comes to us. Apart from Christ, there can be no relationship with God as Father. For instance, in the Gospel of John chapter 1, we read these words, And of his fullness, speaking of the Lord Jesus, Have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. If I am to know the truth, it can only be known in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If I am to receive grace, the grace of God, it can only come through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one indispensable element in the Christian life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is so easy for us to be attached to the things of Christ rather than Christ Himself. And as I study the Word of God, I find that the Bible is constantly again and again pointing us to Jesus Christ. Even though it deals with the things of Christ and it deals with the blessings of Christ, it deals with the plan of Christ, yet again and again our attention, our affection is focused on Christ Himself. And as I said,

it is so easy for us to degenerate Christianity into a system of things and doing things and the blessings of Christianity and miss Jesus Christ Himself. Now, we've been discussing in the last few services, this matter of Christian growth and Christian progress. And I repeat what I have said before, if a man is saved, there is within him the God-given desire to go on with the Lord, to make progress in the Christian life. And we've seen that all growth originates from God as a result of the grace of God that comes to us.

As the apostle Paul says, By the grace of God I am what I am. It is as God gives us fresh supplies of grace that we are enabled to grow. We are enabled to overcome temptation. We are enabled to live a victorious and pure life as the Lord gives us fresh supplies of grace. And so it is imperative that you and I stay in a position where God can continually bestow His grace, His loving favor upon us, because only as God does that are you and I enabled to live the Christian life as God intended it to be lived.

Now while it is true that all growth comes from God, all of it originates from God, and all of it must be recognized as coming from God, therefore he is to get all the glory and all the credit. Paul says one man plants and other man waters, but they're nothing, absolutely nothing. The man who plants, he's not anything. The man who waters, he's not anything. God is everything because it is God that gives the increase. But while it is God that gives the increase, yet God uses means and instruments. And God has made available to us

certain things whereby if we use them correctly they will be the means of our growing in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I were to ask you this morning, what are some of the things that God has given us? What are some of the tools, the instruments, the agencies that God uses to enable us to grow and mature. You would say, well, the Word of God, Bible study, and you'd be right. And you'd say prayer is another means, and you'd be right. You'd say fellowship with God's people, and you would be right.

You'd say service, obedience, and you'd be right. But there is something that precedes all these things. If I had a blackboard this morning, I would like to draw a diagram. And at the head of this diagram, I would write the Godhead, God the Father, the fountain of all grace, the source of all life, the origin of all growth and victory and progress. I would draw a line from that and down about this far I would put the Lord Jesus Christ. Then I would draw a line from Him and down under that I would put Bible study, prayer, Christian fellowship, service, obedience, all of those things that you and I are to be involved

in as we grow towards maturity. But the importance of that diagram is this. It is only as we are in right relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that Bible study means anything. It is only as we are in right relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that prayer benefits us. It is only as we are in the right relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that Christian fellowship will profit us.

As a matter of fact, if you are not in a right relationship to Jesus this morning, this service will do you absolutely no good whatsoever unless you get right with Him. The Christian fellowship, the preaching of the word of God, the praying, the singing of the gospel, the praising of God, the worship of the Father, will absolutely profit you nothing, unless first of all, you are in a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because it is through him that the word of God means something. It is through him that worship means something. It is through Him that worship means something. It is through Him that Christian fellowship means something. And so if we're going to look at those things that help us to grow and become a mature believer, the first means that God uses for giving us grace to grow is the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing we have to look at is the Lord Jesus. And so what I want to share with you this morning is this, that if there is to be progress made

in the Christian life, if there is to be a growth towards spiritual maturity, the first preeminent, the main thing, the essential ingredient is occupation with the Lord Jesus. Our lives occupied with the Lord Jesus. Now the Apostle Paul in this book of Colossians is dealing with a problem. He's writing to fairly new believers. And some of the deepest things that Paul has ever written concerning Christ and the Christian life are found in this little epistle. There is a problem. These new believers wanting to go on with the Lord, wanting to make progress toward

spiritual maturity, have had some teachers come into their midst who have said that if you are to make progress and if you are to grow in the Lord, then you must observe certain legalistic rules and regulations. And the whole second chapter, Paul is dealing with this. And he's saying, listen, if you're going to grow in the Lord Jesus, and if you're going to live an adequate Christian life, it's not going to be by rules and regulations, by saying don't do this and don't do this and do this and do this, observing certain days and observing certain rituals and observing

certain taboos. He says that is not the way you find victory in the Christian life. That's not the way the Christian life is to grow. It is not by being occupied with things. It is not being occupied with ritual. It is not being occupied with rules and regulations. He says it is being occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says all of these rules and regulations, all of these ceremonies of the Christian life, he says they look good. They really do. If you see a fellow denying himself and punishing his body or going through all kinds of rules and regulations and rituals, he says, man, that looks good. It looks as though that person is really worshiping God. But he says that's will worship. In other words, he says that's

a worship he himself has chosen. It's not a worship that God has ordained. He says it looks good, but in the last verse of chapter 2, he says, but it has no effect against the old nature. There is no power whatsoever in it. And then he launches into this third chapter when he says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ is, where he sits on the right hand of the Father. What's the Apostle Paul say?

He's simply stating this, the root principle of the Christian life, the point of departure, the power by which you and I are enabled to be all that God wants us to be, is not being occupied with things and rules and regulations and miracles and rituals and ceremonies. It is being occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is seeking Him and setting our affection on Him. It is occupying our mind, our heart, our affections with the Lord Jesus. It is doing what the Old Testament exhorts us to do again and again. It is seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord above all things. You know, there's something amazing about seeing the Lord Jesus, being in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I was reading just earlier in 1 John chapter 3 seeing the Lord Jesus, being in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I was reading just earlier in 1 John chapter 3 where he is describing our present status.

He's saying that right now we are the sons of God. And he said, I don't have any idea what we're going to be. He said, what we're going to be has been hidden from us and is veiled and it's just too marvelous for us to comprehend. He said, I don't know what we are going to be, but he says, I do know this. We shall be like him, speaking of Jesus. We shall be like him. And then he gives us the reason or the means whereby we are made like Jesus.

He says, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." The Apostle John says, one of these days you and I are going to be just like Jesus. Now that's maturity. That's growth. That's victory. That's the transformed life that the Bible is speaking about. One of these days you and I are going to be exactly like Jesus. He said, now what's going to do that?

He said, all of your life you've been trying to be like Jesus. You've struggled, and you've strived, and you've worked, and some of you have punished yourselves. You denied yourselves trying to be like Jesus. One of these days, you will be exactly like Him. What's going to cause that? We will be like like him. What's going to cause that? We will be like him. Why?

Because we shall see him as he is. First Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul says in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed. What's going to make that change? Just like that. I want to tell you something. Just as quickly as you can see Jesus, just that quickly, you and I will be changed.

The Bible is simply saying that the vision, the sight, of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a transforming sight, a transforming vision. Now, he says, that's not something just relegated to the future. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18, the apostle Paul says that right now, right now, you and I are bit by bit, degree by degree, we are being changed into the very image of Jesus and how?

He says, beholding the Lord. As you and I in this life right now, today, as we behold the Lord, as we observe the Lord Jesus Christ, as we seek Him, as we are occupied with Him, we are being bit by bit, day by day changed into the same, just like Jesus. So, the first means that God has given us to grow towards maturity is Jesus Himself. Are you surprised? The very One from whom comes the life is the One who sustains the life, who energizes the life,

who activates the life, who brings health and growth and development to the life? You start with Jesus and you end up with Jesus. And we've said it before, some people have the idea that the Christian life is starting with Jesus Christ and then graduating to something better, going on to something else, looking beyond the Lord Jesus. One of the most devastating passages of Scripture is found there in John chapter 6, where the author describes the miracles that Jesus performed in producing bread. And you'd follow anybody today that could produce bread or gasoline or lower interest

rates. And here were a people in a country in a time when the majority of the people would have been on welfare if there had been welfare to be on. And the common people, the average people, the poor people heard Jesus gladly and multitudes followed him. And the Bible says they followed him because of what? Of the bread. Well, you'd follow him too, wouldn't

you? A man that could just make bread out of nothing, feed you until you were full and could eat no more and then have 12 baskets full left over, you'd follow him too. But it goes on to say in the sixth chapter of John that all of those who were following Jesus because they were impressed by the miracles, he began to talk to them now not about the bread that he had manufactured out of a miracle. He began to talk to them about himself. And he said, I tell you something, unless you eat my flesh, unless you drink my blood, unless you are occupied with me, you have no life within you. He said, you follow me because of the bread.

You're occupied with a miracle. You're occupied with a miracle. You're occupied with a sensational. You're occupied with a blessing. But he said, I want to tell you something. Unless you are occupied with me, you have no life in you. And the Bible says that most of them at that moment turned back and did not follow him any longer. Why? They wanted to be occupied with something else. They were impressed, awed, amazed by the things that Jesus did, but they were unimpressed by Jesus himself. Isn't that an amazing thing?

Jesus said, you must be occupied with me. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying. Well, that all sounds very good but how do you do that I mean the Lord Jesus is invisible and I can't see him anywhere how in the world am I to be occupied with Jesus Christ how am I to behold him how am I to see him well I'm glad that the apostle Paul

always ended up on a practical note. And if you would like a little key to studying the letters of the Apostle Paul, you'll have it this way. All of his letters can be divided into two. First of all, the doctrinal, then the practical. First of all, he states the truth, and then he relates the truth. All of his epistles can be divided like that. Chapters 1 and 2 of Colossians are the doctrinal.

Now chapter 3 is the practical. He's telling us how to do it. There are three verbs in the first five verses that tell us how we are to be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ. Three verbs tell us how to do it. The first verb is found in the first verse. Paul says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

All right? I want to grow. I want to make progress in the Christian life. I realize that grace comes to me through the Lord Jesus. Out of His fullness, John says, we've all received grace for grace. And by the way, in that John 1.16, the little preposition translated for we have out of His fullness, we've all received grace for grace. That little preposition is instead of.

Grace instead of grace. Grace instead of grace. And what He's indicating there is the progression of grace. God gives us grace for today and tomorrow there's a new grace instead of the old grace. It's the new manna instead of the day old manna. God constantly through the Lord Jesus Christ gives us grace upon grace upon grace, one grace replacing another grace, grace to live today, grace to come in victory today, grace to grow today, and tomorrow there's a new grace that comes to me through the Lord Jesus

Christ, a fresh supply of grace through the Lord Jesus. And so Paul says, the first thing you and I must do is to seek those things which are above. It's a present tense verb which means always be seeking those things which are above. To occupy myself with Christ, to see him, to have that transforming vision of Jesus, how do I do it? By seeking those things which are above.

Have you ever played with a compass? A compass is a marvelous thing. I don't understand it. I've had a man explain to me how a compass works, but I still don't understand how a compass works. You can take that compass and you can turn it in any direction, but when you do, that little needle is going to be doing something what?

It's going to be seeking and searching for the North Pole. It'll always do it every time. You can't trick it, you can't deceive it. You could put a new face on that compass and put an S where the N is supposed to be. You won't deceive that needle. There is something about it. I don't understand it. It's one of the miracles of God's creation, but you can turn that compass in any direction. You can put any face you want to on that compass. You can put any letters you want to, but it will always seek out the North Pole.

Always, always. Now the Apostle Paul is saying this, if your life is in Jesus Christ, if He is your life, if you have died with Him through the old life, if you have been born again, if the Lord Jesus Christ is your life, he says just like the North Pole is the life of the needle on the compass and it always seeks the source of its life, he says Jesus is your life and you will always seek the Lord Jesus Christ in everything. What he's dealing with here is the motivation of our life.

What motivates us? He says in everything that you do, always be seeking those things which are of Christ. Always be motivated by your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. he is your life and he's he's talking now about the direction of our life Are they it's sad some of the things that motivate us Some of the things that give us direction Some of the things that inspire us and yet the Apostle Paul says we have died to the world You see there's not anything in this world that can really motivate a Christian

Now I want to tell you something if there's anything in this world that is motivating you it is motivating your old lower Unregenerated sinful nature. It's not motivating your higher nature, and you're not growing Another miracle of God's nature is the way a plant always seeks the sun. You can put that plant, it'll always grow. I figured out why trees grow up instead of sideways. Why plants grow up? They're seeking the source of their life. You put a plant in a room, it'll always grow in the direction of the sunlight. You know, the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if a plant

someday didn't grow in the direction of the TV set. That's the way most of us are growing today, you know. Why does a plant grow in the direction of the sun? Because the sun is the source of its life. It seeks it as nourishment, and therefore it must have it. I say to you, there is nothing in this world that can feed you spiritually, enable you to be the Christian God wants you to be, except the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you are to grow in grace,

you must first of all seek as the motivating factor in all that you say or do in your business deals, in your pleasure, in your leadership time. The motivating factor in all that you say or do in your business deals in your pleasure in your leadership time the Motivating factor in your life must always be the Lord Jesus Christ You see you begin to see life in relation to Jesus You make your decisions in relation to Jesus. How will this affect my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ? How will this affect my my fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is this one of those things that are above? Seeking those things that are above. Finding our inspiration,

finding our motivation, finding the goal, the ambition, the aim of our life to always be those things that are pleasing to Christ. Paul says it in another way in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 9. He says, whether I live or die, I labor, I strive that I may be what? Well pleasing to Him. That was the motivating factor in the apostle Paul's life. And you could have interviewed that man and said, Paul, why do you do some of the things that you do? Why have you given up some of the things that you've given up? Why is it that you endure the hardships that you endure? He said I labor I strive that whether I live or die

That's not the important thing living or dying the important thing is that whether I live or die I may be well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ Paul was seeking those things that were above now Making it very practical, the things that you've done this past week, were you motivated? Were you motivated by pleasing Christ or by pleasing yourself? Were you motivated by the things of heaven or the things of earth? Sad to say some businessmen in their business dealings are motivated by the things of heaven are the things of earth. It's sad to say some businessmen in their business dealings are motivated by the things of earth more than by the things of God in the way they deal. Sometimes young people are motivated more by the things of earth than they are by the things of God.

First of all, he says, we are to seek the things that are above. Our ambitions, our goals, the aim of our life, the motivation of our life, is to be that which is pleasing to the Lord Jesus. All right, the second word, the second verb is found in the second verse. Paul says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. First of all, we are to seek those things. And then secondly, he says, we are to set our affection. The word affection is not a good translation of that word.

Really he's saying, set your mind on things above. Think heavenly things. If you want to live a good life on earth, you've got to live in heaven mentally. Now, I want you to see the relationship between seeking the things of Christ and setting your mind on the things of Christ. You go back to that compass, and that compass seeks and searches out the North Pole, and when it finds it, it just settles down on it, and just stays there as though it were glued to it. Paul says, in all of your life, you are to be seeking

the things that please Christ, and he says, when you find it, you are to settle down on it, not be moved away from it. He's talking now about the meditation of your life First of all he's speaking of a motivation what motivates you now. He's talking about what you meditate on all the time What fills your mind this is a very practical thing? By the way, let me just mention one thing here Paul doesn't say a thing in the world about being inspired to do this He's speaking just as an act of your will. As an act of your will, you seek those things that are above. As an act of your will, as a choice of your will, you set your mind on the things of Christ.

I know some of us are waiting around until God inspires us to do this. But you do not live the Christian life by inspiration. You live the Christian life by inspiration. You live the Christian life by volition, by your will. And I tell you this morning, if you're sitting around waiting until God propels you and catapults you into doing this, waiting until somehow you get a big inspiration to do this, you will never do it. Or if you do it, it will only be spasmodic, occasional. That's what gives us this roller coaster effect of the Christian life.

I somehow have the idea that Paul never lived on a roller coaster. I think he was always on an incline. I believe that's the way it's supposed to be. Always on an incline, moving up, always in that direction. Why? Because he wasn't sitting around waiting for some big emotional power, some big emotional charge to inspire him to do it. Now I tell you the truth, I wish I was always inspired to do this because it's easier to do it by inspiration than it is by perspiration.

And you know that's to some people that sounds so unspiritual It just doesn't sound spirit-filled miss Is that a word it is now it just doesn't sound spirit-filled miss you know to? To say you do it by perspiration you just choose to do it and you do it by discipline you do it by by Effort by an act of your will, but that's exactly what he's saying It's your responsibility an act of your will, but that's exactly what he's saying. It's your responsibility. And it'd be so much easier if I always felt like

I was two feet off the ground. But I tell you, half the time I feel like I'm about four feet under the ground. I really don't have a lot of inspiration I wish I had. I think what God is trying to do is to teach us to walk with faith and not beside. Paul says, the meditation of your life, the devotion of your life, the thought of your life is to be on Christ, is to be on Christ.

Set your affection on things above. Set your mind by things above. Take your cue for what you think about all the time from the things above. Now I tell you something. We had a discussion in our home this week about television. I every once in a while become alarmed at how much time all of us, don't be looking so sanctimonious, you're just as guilty as anybody else. All of us, now listen carefully, are setting the clocks of our thoughts by the world, and we're letting the world dictate to us how we think.

I came out this morning, I wasn't certain about my watch being correct. It is just 1130, right? So I asked my secretary, and she didn't even have a watch on. I asked two men, two very prosperous looking men of our church. Neither one of them had a watch. Then I came to Brother Moore back here and I said, let me look at your watch. He had one thirty. I knew I didn't want to use his. Then I finally found someone that was close to mine. Reminds me of the story that there was a man who worked in a factory. His job was to blow the whistle at noon every day. For 20

years he had been blowing the whistle at the factory, signaling it was noon. And every day as he had walked to the factory, he would pass a watch shop. And in this watch shop, in the window, there were a lot of watches, a lot of clocks. And on the way, this man would always stop and set his watch, set his clock by the clocks in the watchmaker's window. Then he would go to work and then he'd look at his watch and when it said 12 noon he'd blow the whistle. He'd been doing that for 20 years. He was blowing the whistle by the watchmaker's clock. So one day as he passed on his way to work one morning he stopped and did what he had been doing every day for 20 years. He stopped and set his watch by the clocks in the watchmaker's window.

The watchmaker saw him. He came out and he said, what are you doing? He said, I'm setting my watch. I do this every day. I've done it for 20 years. I set my watch by your clocks. He said, why? He said, well, you see, I work down at the factory and you hear that whistle blow every day at noon. He said, yes., he said I blow that whistle every day at noon and Every day at noon when I blow that whistle I do it according to my watch which I said according to your clocks The watchmaker shook his head and grinned he said you know for 20 years He said I've been setting all of the clocks in this window by your whistle that you've been blowing. You know what we're doing? We're setting the clocks of our thought life by somebody else, and they may be wrong. You set your watch by Greenwich Mean Time, which is really you set your watch by the

sun. It's always accurate. That sun is never early, never late, right on time. What's the Apostle Paul saying? Well, he's echoing what the Lord Jesus Christ, what Solomon, what all the Old Testament and New Testament has said again and again, as a man thinketh, so he, as a man thinketh so is he, as a man thinketh so is he. What you think about all day long, that's what you are. What occupies your mind, the thought

is the father of the act. He's saying, listen, you set your mind, you set your mind on things above, you fill your mind with the thoughts of Christ, with the thoughts of things that are heavenly. Occupy your thought life with the things that are above. You have a lock on your door. I have a lock on my door, plus another lock on my door. And the way things are going in this world, I think we may put several more locks on my door, plus another lock on my door. And the way things are going, in this world I think we may put several more locks on our door. Why do you put so many locks on your door? I went to visit one of our members not long ago and they had one of these little

peep holes in the door. That's so that when you ring the doorbell they can look out that little peep hole and see who you are and if they don't want to let you in they'll just ignore you and pretend they're not at home. So when I go to see them I always put my finger over that little peephole. Now why do you suppose they have that? Because they're very careful about who they admit into their house. And a house is important. But I'll tell you what's so much more important. It's your mind, your thought life. We need some locks on the door. We need some peepholes on the mind so we can look. And before we admit any thought

into our mind, we need to make certain that it is a thought well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Set your mind on things above. Occupy your mind. That is the reason you want to fill your heart and your mind with the word of God. That's the reason you want to fellowship with God's people. That's the reason you want to read the kind of literature that will enable you to think heavenly thoughts. I hear once in a while somebody say, well, these Christians, they're so heavenly minded, they have no earthly use. Now, I want to tell you something. I

have never yet met anybody that was so filled with Christ, they were of no value. That's not our problem, folks. I want to tell you something right now. There's not any one of us here this morning. Our problem is not that we're going to be so heavenly-minded. Our problem is we're so earthly-minded we're of no heavenly use. And he says you're to set your mind on things above. You're to make certain, discipline yourself, watch yourself, make certain that your thought life is filled with the things of Christ Not with the junk of this world Now there's a third verb and we'll get to that tonight

The primary means of growth is when a man is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ when a man is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ. When the motivation of his life, he's motivated by pleasing the Lord Jesus. What he meditates, what fills his thoughts are the things of God. That's where his heart is. That's where his affection is. That's where his mind is. And so the Bible says that we are transformed by what? The renewing of our mind. By the renewing of our mind. And how do you renew your mind? By getting the old junk out and putting in the new things of the Spirit of God.