Ephesians 4:13-15 "And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature. Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent. Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head."

God wants us to be like Jesus. He created us to live and have hearts like Jesus. Our life is to become an example and picture of Jesus. That is called discipleship. It is a growing process that takes time. The process will continue until we are finally in Heaven with God. We should always be growing. Just as a doctor measures the growth of a baby to make sure it is growing healthy, it is good for us to measure our growth in Jesus. The problem is that most people compare themselves to others. A person can always find someone who is a worse Christian then they are. As long as a person is comparing themselves to someone else, they will not feel the need to keep growing in Jesus. The only One we can and should compare ourselves with is Jesus. By keeping our eyes on Jesus we can keep growing and maturing, "reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature." We will no longer be children in our Christian maturity.

Too often people in all Christian faiths tend to view Christian maturity or discipleship as intellectual Christian growth. The focus is more on head knowledge than on life change. It is good to know scripture. It is good to study the Bible. But all that knowledge is worthless if we don't turn it into a life change. God is more concerned about the way we live then how much information we pack into our heads.

Another reason many do not grow in Jesus is the lack of accountability for the way we live, think, behave, or believe. We each need someone to help us live our faith. We each need someone who will gently and lovingly ask us, "are you sure this is what God wants you to do?" One morning I got upset over a situation and was wanting to express my feelings to some people about it when my husband stopped me and asked, "What would Jesus do in this situation?" I had to admit Jesus would not handle it the way I wanted to. My husband was making sure I lived my faith.

The other reasons we don't grow in Jesus was explained in a story told by Jesus. It is called the Parable of the Sower and the Soils. This parable is found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and in Luke 8:4-15. In this story seed was sown in four different kinds of soil, but only one soil produced a crop. The seed represents the word of God. The soil is our hearts. The Sower would be the different ways the Holy Spirit gets the word of God to us. Sometimes is comes to us through sermons, tapes, videos, music, books, etc. The seed is sown all around us. The problem with the seed producing crops is in the soil. Some of the seed fell by the wayside, which literally means a road. So the soil would be packed. Some of the seed landed in rocky ground, some in thorn bushes or weeds, and some seed landed in good, or fertile soil. We will examine these different soils in the next few lessons and see how hearts like those soils can keep us from growing in Jesus.