Goal of Maturity

1 Cor 3:1-4 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?”

Intro:

There is a video of “Kids answering Adult questions” online and its one of my favorite things ever. Listen to these 3 kids answers to adult questions

At what age does a kid become an adult

22 - bc 16 you get your drivers license, you can drink wine when your 18, when your 19 you still wont have kids or nothing (you’ll probably just have a boyfriend but I won’t have a boyfriend)

45 - why? bc at 45 your an adult

21 - right?

What are you learning right now that will be most useful to you an an adult?

Can I say 2? Sure. Math & Writing & Reading bc you need to count up your money at the grocery store

Learning how to do a job

Reading - bc you have to read checks and text messages

If you could grow up to be famous, what would you want to be famous for?

You mean more famous than I am right now? Oh youtube

A famous teacher. What would you teach? Addition, math, dividing

for being a singer. can you sing? No

Whats the hardest thing about being a kid?

Not being able to do whatever you want and laways worrying about studying, homework, school. You think I like doing those things?

following the rules. What rules are hard to follow? ummm no running

Grown ups always think they’re right because they are older and have been through school

These are GREAT questions though and even more telling answers. But These are some of the questions that you even have to wrestle with in HS.

Transition: What does make someone an adult/ mature? This is a question that YOU are figuring out. Some think they have already figured it out.

Need:

One of the most common goals of a HS student is that they want to be mature or at least seen as mature

You might want to be mature enough to have a job, date a girl, be out past 9pm, be given more freedom, be taken serioulsy and be respected, don’t want to be at the kids table on thanksgiving anymore.

Maybe in the sense of spirtual maturity - you want to be seen as a leader, you want to have good habits now, you want to be able to disciple other people, want to be ready for marriage,

Whatever it is HIGH SCHOOL is the season to GET MATURE, to GROW UP and for our purposes tonight, to take responsibility over your own spiritual life.

So thats why we turn to 1 Cor 3, so that you’ll been encouraged to ...

PROP: Remove the Barrier Between You and Maturity

OUTLINE: Difference, Diet, Demand

Context: Paul had already spoken to and taught the Corinthian church. Likely about 5 years before He wrote this letter. Yet he learned that though they became Christians 5 years ago, the church was plagued with problems. They were sexually immoral, they were fighting within the church, they were suing each other, denying the resurrection, they worship services were chaos. So Paul writes them and hits them with a pretty strong rebuke here in hopes that they would catch up in their spiritual maturity.

1. The Difference of Mature People v. 1

1 Cor 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.”

Explain:

First notice that Paul uses the term “brethren” - which means He believes these people to be GENUINE CHRISTIANS, He recognizes that he has a spiritual, familial relationship with them. So that endearing term slightly softens the blow that comes in the next words

“I could not speak to you as SPIRITUAL MEN”

‘Spiritual Men” - spiritual person has 2 ideas connected to it

FIRST is someone INDWELT by the Holy Spirit. Rom 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

SECOND is someone who LIVES according to the spirit. We just heard this from CCM a few weeks ago. Gal 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Summary; Spiritual people are both DECLARED spiritual because they recieved the spirit at salvation and the LIVE spiritually because they are consistently dependent and obedient to God

“men of flesh” - Paul shocks the Corinthians by saying I had to treat you like you weren’t even Christians. Because the lives of these people in the church were the furthest thing from Christian lives, they were filled with sin, they weren’t growing, they were a mess.

“infants in Christ” - but He softens the blow again by clarifying “I’m not saying you aren’t Christians BUT BABY ones”

This is not a compliment but a rebuke

Illustrate:

Aren’t babies the cutest things ever? When they are newborns, don’t know anything, can’t talk, wear diapers - you just want to hold them and kiss them & SQUEEZE THEM

But as they grow up they learn some things an the baby talk is cute for a little bit but once they become like 5 they need to quit the baby talk. It becomes slightly annoying. They BETTER be potty trained. They definitely SHOULDN’T be breastfed anymore. It stops being cute.

Imagine though a kid in your class, who sits next to you and smells awful because he needs his diaper changed & at lunch he pulls out a bottle, and he talks like a baby and acts like a baby. That would be ridiculous!

But that is exactly what is happening in this church - theres a bunch of people who were saved under the preaching of Paul, were pastored by THE GIFTED PASTOR Apollos, they had a relationship with the Apostle Peter and some even HEARD JESUS HIMSELF TEACH. Yet, they willingly chose to live like they had just been saved yesterday or worse like they were never saved at all.

A baby who acts like a baby is a joy; but an adult who acts like a baby is a tragedy - Jmac

This church is like that of the Hebrews 5:12 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God...

Transition to app: So in order for you to grow in spiritual maturity YOU NEED TO GIVE UP fleshly things

Application

The first question we have to ask here is are you even a Spiritual person? Because in order for INFANTS in Christ to grow, they first must be born again. John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

You must cry out to God for forgiveness of your sins and because of Jesus’s life and death, He is faithful and just to forgive you and when He does you are made into a NEW creation, with a new heart, new affections, new life, same you on the outside but completely different on the inside - you are RE-born. That is the first and necessary step in maturity

But for those here already born again - it’s time for many of you to remove the barrier between you and maturity which is your flesh. Your old ways, your selfishness.

You have to let go and move on from the things of the flesh to be spiritually mature - Gal 5:17 “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another...

Immorality, impurity, anger, jealousy - those things must be given up

2. The Diet of Mature People v.2

1 Cor 3:2 “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,”

Paul explains that when he first visited this church he taught the fundamental and elementary principles of the Christian faith and now 5 years later HE STILL has to teach them the fundamental and elementary things.

The immature believer NEEDS to be fed the basics, the milk BECAUSE they are “not able to recieve” the COMPLEX the solid food.

Illus: You would never put a T-bone steak infront of a 2 year old because they wouldn’t even know what to do with it if they did get a piece, theyd choke.

But at some point every christian should graduate from milk to meat

In fact you should WANT to move from milk to meat - Paul was displeased to see that the corinthians still were not ready

Heb 5:13-14 “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Let me address 3 groups of students here:

The milk lovers: Too many here are quite content to live off of milk for the rest of their lives. You don’t study the Bible and maybe inconsistently read it. You don’t exactly enjoy listening to sermons. You don’t care about theology. You really don’t know more about your faith now than you did 2-3 years ago. You are stunting your own growth. You are the problem. And the reason that you are content with milk is likely because your love for God is weak. Because if you love God then you will want to know God and the way to know God is to study what He has REVEALED of Himself to us in His REVELATION - the Bible. SO, Rev 2:4-5 “‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.”

The milk haters: These are the people who think that they are SO READY for the meat that the MILK is boring. Really this is the student who thinks they are done w/ HS min bc it has nothing else to offer them. Did you know that “There is no difference at all between the truths of a spiritual milk diet and a spiritual solid food diet, except in detail and depth”

You don’t grow because you learn NEW things, you grow when you dive deeper into the things that you’ve already know for years.

The milk needers: The reality is there are LOTS of new believers here! And you should GO AFTER it. 1 Pet 2:2 “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,”

You need to drink up as much as you can, this is one of the COOLEST times of your life, you will learn like crazy and grow like crazy AS LONG AS you nourish yourself adequately. Prioritize sundays where you feast on 2 sermons and sit in small groups, get here on wednesdays for your midweek snack, feed every morning on the Word and watch how the Lord will grow you bc His word CANNOT return void.

But if we don’t grow it isn’t because of a low intellegence, a natural disposition, its because we have ignored #3 the DEMAND

3. The Demand of Mature People v.3

1 Cor 3:3 “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”

The main barrier between you and maturity is YOUR FLESH. So in order to achieve your goal - which is to be mature - you must Rom 13:14 “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

The demand is that you’d quit being fleshly. Now before you say “Okay after listening to this, I think I am ready and in fact I think I am already more mature, goal achieved” look at the manifestation IMMATURITY has.

“For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly?”

Immature/ fleshly people are ultimatley SELFSIH people self - centered desires manifest into jealousy and strife

ILLUS: Whats the most immature word in the english language? MINE

Because little kids are selfish little brats - they think the world revolves around there 35 pound bodies. I mean little kids come into MY HOUSE, GRAB MY STUFF and I say “hey give me that” and they say “MINE” and I think this kid must be a physcopath. Theyre 3 and in my house with my stuff saying its theirs. Because why? They are LITTLE IMMATURE KIDS who only really think about themself - so as an adult I handle it fine, my feelings dont get hurt. But I mean have you ever visited a playground? 2 words to describe it… Jealosy and Strife - I mean kids literally are jealous about the swings so they count to 30 and make you get off, they fight over who can run faster or who is out in 4 square, it is chaos.

Well in HS too many friends & relationships are filled with STRIFE because the people in them are immature and fleshly

So before you think you are mature - look at the relationships in your life, any drama your in? Was there some last week? Because that is an indicator of fleshly spiritual immaturity and it’s time to lay aside selfish desires and GROW UP

So that you can not just be seen as mature BUT so that you can do great things for God

Conclusion:

Let me ask you who have been the most impactful people in the world? Children or adults?

Who are the most impactful people in the church? Chldren or adults?

Who are the most impactful students in thsi youth group? Immature or Mature one?

You can do amazing things for God at a young age BUT it requires that you remove the barrier of your own flesh standing between you and maturity.

John Calvin went to a univeristy at age 14 - he was interested deeply in theology. He wrote what was supposed to be an “elementary manuel for those wnating to know more about the faith” in His early 20’s THATS this book (show them) this book a young dude wrote has shaped the study of Christian theology since it was written in the 1500’s

Jonathan Edwards wrote 70 resolutions that he made to himself and to God THAT shaped His life and has been an example to many Christians since he wrote them in 1722. He wrote those when He was 19.

Charles spurgeon “prince of preachers” started His LONG preaching career at the age of 15 years old.

What makes these men special? Nothing… they were gifted by God and decided early on to KILL their flesh and live under the control of the Holy SPirit

I pray that you would repent of a fleshly life and pursue spiritual maturity NOW - so that you can make a HUGE impact for Christ in these early years of your life.

PRAY